Well, I am finally taking the plunge and doing the remaining flights to bring me up from the 500K bonus to the 1M bonus. I still need to do Aces, Aeropostal, Taca-Peru and Aces for Saeta, so I will be flying in and out of Lima to Quito, Guayaquil and Cuzco, no doubt arousing the suspicion of Ecuadorian immigration officers like Satori. Punishing schedule, as it involves two nights in a row at LIM airport, but that was the cheapest way to do it that I could find. A few questions:
1) If I fly into Quito in the morning, go into town and back to Lima in the evening, is there anyway I can avoid the USD25 airport tax? (same question for Guayaquil)
2) Online booking engines list the "Gran Hotel Savoy" in downtown Lima with cheap rates of USD30 and complimentary airport transportation. Has anybody used this hotel and, if so, what did you think of it? I understand it is in Central Lima, rather than Miraflores or San Isidro, but as I will be arriving at 7pm after a long transatlantic flight and take a flight the next morning at 6am, location is not a prime consideration. An alternative I am also considering is the Gran Hotel Bolivar, more expensive (USD80) and apparently in the middle of nowhere but also with complimentary airport transportation.
3) Am I right in assuming that if you are in transit from a domestic flight in Peru onto an international flight, you still have to pay the USD25 international departure tax?
4) Conversely, if you are in transit from international to domestic, do you have to pay the domestic departure tax?
5) Any suggestions as to what to do with a day in Guayaquil (arrive at 5.30 am and departs same day at 10pm)?
6) Does anybody know of a 'day hotel' in Guayaquil (and possibly Quito)? I don't mean anything sleazy by that but rather a place where you can hire a room to rest and have a shower during the day rather than the night. With two nights in a row at Lima airport, I could certainly do with a place to rest during the day.