unclepants

Great review, seat38a. Thank you for sharing that with us. We are staying for five nights and I will ensure that we spend one of the days just having fun at the hotel.

seat38a

Also, do pay attention to the explanation regarding where everything is and how to operate the controls which the bellman explained to us. If it wasn't for the quick orientation, we would have been scratching our heads on how to turn the lights on and off.

LM225

Does anyone have a working email for the GM or guest relations manager? Thanks!

Starwood Lurker IV

Hi LM225,

Is there something that we can help you share with the hotel team?

Drop us a PM or email with your concerns and contact details, we can have the hotel team to reach out to you.

Chua Chie Ling | Social Media Specialist
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd
[email protected]

chuck1

Does anyone know if the sofas in the living room of the junior suites fold out into sofa beds?
If not, is there space for 2 rollaways in the living room?

regoarrarr

Staying at the TdI next week and got a note from the hotel saying that the local government of Urubamba has approved a 2 day strike (huelga) May 30-31. Anyone ever run into that?

I'm trying to figure out where this falls on the scale of "minor annoyance / stuff will be closed" to "OMG we're all gonna die"

CPRich

Looking back to last fall, it looks fairly impactful

Strikes in Sacred Valley affect tourism

The Strike in Urubamba, Second Day

etc.

I can't find anything yet discussing the current/upcoming strike.

I'm in Cusco, at the Tambo del Inka, in 2 weeks - I hope this is cleared up. It looks like it disrupts/stops the train to AC and Machu Picchu.

I think I'd put "stuff will be closed" somewhere in the middle of "minor annoyance" and "OMG, we're all gonna die" if it means missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

regoarrarr

Thanks CPRich - that would be frustrating for sure. Not sure why I couldn't find those articles - I tried. Apparently your Google-fu is much stronger than mine....

According to the TdI they are in negotiations this week so it may get resolved before then.

teddy25

Just got back from a four night stay at Tambo Del Inka in Urubamba. just have the say the hotel and the town goes very well together. you have the upscale hotel with all the things you need, and a pretty Peruvian town that we spent days walking and exploring.

The hotel has a train station to MP, but only with on train. the closest nearby town with frequent service is 20-25min away(hotel car $32).

Full breakfast buffet is $15 for Golds and free for plats.

Rooms are large. the entire hotel grounds are fenced in, you can walk to the river or the garden where they get their fresh vegs from. nice in door/out door pool and hot tubs. there is a game room, nice bar and restaurant.

the highlight for us has to be the town. Urubamba is awesome. A lot small shops and places to eat. The Main Street must have 30 something chicken places.

The markets on Wednesday is big comparing to the local one by plaza armas. With only a few words Spanish we survived.

We ate at number of places.
paca paca - target towards Americans English menu American prices, good food 30-40/plate
chifa - only saw one Chinese place, it wasn't bad cheap 15 sole/plate

Any bakery - multiple breads, empanadas! They will heat them up. 1 or 2 soles.

Mama's house (no real name) just some mama's Front rooms with a few tables. Her daughter helps her, with grandkids playing around. It's on Av. Mariscal Castillo 2nd house south of Jiron Comercio on the east side.

they service a set meal, soup starter (corn based very light) main is chicken with rice and sides usually a salad and/or potato. 5 soles
thrvplace has no real signs, just couple of black chalkboards.

we used http://cuscotransport.com/.
They are amazing. From pick up from cusco airport and tour of the valley request Malka if you can. We had some issues with alt sickness, she handle the situation perfectly.

Car transfer from airport is $60 and day tour with van 250 ish.

Fizzer

I'm sorry but I would baulk at those prices. We were there last year and booked transfers by Taxidatum who met us at the airport in Cusco. The transfer from Cusco Airport to Urubamba was $30 last year. with a driver meeting you at the airport. Returning from Urubamba to Cusco with a full tour to Maras, Moray and Chincheros for the weaving is $65 at present. Taxidatum.com also did our transfers from Lima Airport to the Westin Lima for very reasonable rates ( $20 if I recall, although cheaper is possible ) and were generally very reliable.
I would agree that Urubamba and Ollantaytambo are underrated. The local taxi rate to Ollantaytambo for a day trip was very reasonable and a lot ( a lot ) less than the rate for the hotel car. The pottery at Urubamba ( Sagrario) is definitely worth the time for a visit and along with Ollantaytambo was the unexpected treat of our trip. It is easily walkable from the hotel.

teddy25

I understand the cusco transports prices are a little on the high side, that is your guide and driver, plus considered what happened on our trip(medical) a "normal" tour guide might not handled it well as our guide. She was amazing and considered our every need.

i believe TDI charges $60 ish for airport transfer.

as for hotel car, a guaranteed car @ 4 am is hard to come by. We are willing to pay.

as for Lima we spent 1 1/2 hour in a car on the way to the airport in heavy traffic, cost 30 soles. Uber is usually 35 soles each way, 40 for black.

aways tip for your rides in Lima on top of the agreed upon price, because there is an over supply of taxi and rates are not sustainable for living.

i wouldn't call Ollantaytambo underrated, it's much similar to Aguas calientes very much tour group driven.

at seminario you can meet the artist and ask him questions. The street the shop is on is the only one in town that are tree lines with grass.

regoarrarr

I am at the TdI now and I also find it irritating how high the prices are for the Ventura / Tikariy tours from the hotel itself

As @Fizzer said, I took taxidatum.com from CUZ to the hotel, stopping by Pisac Ruins / Pisac Market and an animal sanctuary for $65

For getting a local taxi to Olly - did you just go out front to the main street and barter / find one?

regoarrarr

Answering my own question in the hopes that it helps someone else - if you walk out to the main road from the hotel, turn left and walk about 5-6 blocks, you'll get to what the locals call "Terminar" (where the speed bump is). This is where all the taxis and collectivos wait for people to go to Ollantaytambo

It is S/1.50 if you take a collectivo (van), but then you have to wait until it's full before it leaves. A taxi should be S/15-20. I was told by my taxi driver that taxis start appearing there at about 3:30 a.m.

Fizzer

We just picked up a regular taxi at the hotel lobby entrance. I don't recall the rate but I don't feel it was outrageous. Nor do I remember a huge difference from the fare with the return fare in a taxi just picked up on the square in Ollantaytambo The hotel car would have been more expensive I'm sure but it's really down to whatever makes you comfortable. The return tour with taxidatum from TdI to the Palacio del Inka, via Moray, Salinas and Chincheros was well worth it.

porkie

Sharing a story from my current stay at Tambo del Inka, Luxury Collection hotel in Peru.

Having my outbound flight very early in the morning on the day after checkout I have submitted a late checkout request through Your24 for the latest possible hour (04:00 am on the following day). This request was approved shortly after.

Staying at the property right now I have asked the staff to confirm the checkout time and they claimed the checkout time I requested was 04:00 am on the actual checkout date (as in an early checkout). They have showed me how it looked in their reservation system and it said 22.06 04:00 AM (day+1). After they noticed the day+1 they have contacted Isaac, the reservation manager at the hotel who just decided to ignore the day+1 and said they won't honor the request they have previously approved as the way he sees it the checkout is on 04:00 AM on checkout day, not the day after. Showing to him that it's not even possible to request early checkout at 04:00 am (the earliest possible checkout time to select in Your24 is 5 am) but he refused to acknowledge.

I have then called SPG in the presence of the reservation manager, the agent confirmed that the requested checkout date is 23rd but she said they are unable to communicate that to the hotel due to language barrier and if the hotel wouldn't want to honor the late checkout Starwood would reimburse me.

The reservation manager just said that they won't honor it and said they will charge me the extra night at current lowest rate (which was over 50% higher than the prepaid rate I booked on, they didn't even offer any discounted rate knowing they caused the problem). Basically I have wasted two hours arguing with them, I'm sure they knew I was right as they could see it in the reservation (22nd +1 day), the SPG agent confirmed it through the phone and that's also what I have in my confirmations - plus it's physically not possible to request early checkout at 4am through Y24. Nevertheless they just ignored it all and refused to honor the request they have approved earlier.

I have now emailed SPG to file a claim and hopefully they will be able to resolve it.

This experience really did ruin my day here as I wasted a lot of time arguing with them and even though I knew it was right I wasn't able to achieve anything.

Other than this it's a great property, going to visit MP tomorrow with hopes of it compensating for the poor management at the property