My daughter and I got back recently from a fantastic, whirlwind trip through the Sacred Valley (Machu Picchu etc). We could not have done so much, in so little time, and felt unhurried about things, if not for having hired a private guide & driver, Oscar Guevara. We'd seen a couple of referrals on TripAdvisor, made contact with him via email, and the rest is history.

His knowledge of the area is excellent, as is his English. I'm sure you can hire a cab to take you through the area at a reasonable price, but if Spanish isn't easy for you, you're going to lose a lot.

The price was very reasonable; less than $300 for the two of us for three days, including pick-up and drop-off at the Cusco airport. Payment was in Peruvian Soles, by the way. His car is fairly new and in very good shape; we never felt unsafe.

He picked us up on a Monday afternoon, and on the way from Cusco to Ollantaytambo we stopped at several sites along the way. There was no wasted time, but as mentioned, it never felt rushed either.

His email is [email protected]. If he's unavailable his brother also does tours and also has favorable reviews.

I'd never done the private local guide thing before, so it seemed just a bit risky, but everything worked out great. No money up front; Peru is not the USA.

It was just 6 days from leaving San Francisco to returning; took a red-eye Saturday night, arrived Lima (after two transfers) 7:30pm Sunday. Spent the night in Lima, flew on to Cusco 11am Monday morning. Left Cusco for Lima 2pm Thursday, left Lima 10:30am Friday morning, arrived back at SFO 10:30pm Friday night.