tour operators in Peru
 

As the FTer in the office, one of my bosses turned to me for help with his Peru family vacation. I've searched and found some info but I could use some advice to forward along about tour operators. Does anyone have a recommendation for one that really stands out? I've been here http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/, but I just don't know which company(ies) to look at.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks
Cheers

Southern Crossing and Andean Life are two companies that had been recommended to me. In the end, I thought they were both too expensive and just did arrangements on my own, which was easier than I expected.

You also might want to check:

http://www.condortravel.com/
http://www.limatours.com.pe/english/index.asp

Established firms which won´t leave you stranded.

Thank you both. I will look at the recommendations

Cheers -

Inka Natura, Rainforest Expeditions (Tambopata), and Amazonia Expeditions (Iquitos) stand out as tour operators in Peru. Inka Natura for cultural tours and Amazon and the others for Amazon.

Also depends on what you are specifically looking for. Package vs custom trips, Inca Trail vs other areas ...

Here are 2 that I have used that are pretty reliable.
http://www.sastravelperu.com/home.php
http://www.enigmaperu.com/

Hiked the Inca Trail with SAS Travel in April 2012. Excellent service, excellent food! Cake and pizza on the hike is unbelievable. Llama cheese is amazing.

We used Pachamama Explorers based in Cusco for our 2-day Machu Picchu hike in November and they were great. They were recommended to us by friends and we were really impressed with how efficient, easy, and responsive they were. Our guide on the hike was also excellent.

I have travelled to 120 different countries from Australia – many several times, and this is my visit 5 or 6 to Peru.

So am pretty savvy and critical re choosing and rating good ground operators. :D

Rule #1 in my experience is to find someone reliable *IN* the destination country, and not pay silly, high, “middle man” commissions to travel agents in USA or Europe etc.

www.GotoPeru.org are based in Cuzco, and came up with an attractive quote, tailored to exactly what time we had there.

Taking us exactly where we wanted to go, which included very off beat places like a long day trip from Arequipa to the Toro Muerto petroglyphs etc.

As always we booked last minute, and hotels and flights over Xmas/New Year’s Eve were very tough to secure.

Guides were professional and had good English, and Hotels absolute top notch. The Hotel Plaza in Cuzco, and Sonesta in Arequipa, were right on the central Plazas etc.

Manager Prisa has superb English, and sorted out any queries or issues fast and smoothly. She seems to work 8 days a week - even literally on Christmas and New Year Days!

If you are visiting anywhere in Peru, you cannot find a better choice than www.gotoperu.org – they live there, and work there, and can sort urgent issues readily, with a quick phone call.

No-one in London or Sydney or Los Angeles can do that – time zones kill that option.

I've been on FT for 13 years and have 30,000+ posts, and trust me these folks would be hard to beat. :)

Glen

? Is this the one arranged that terrible flight for Nazca and milk run bus to Lima that you complain about on the other thread? :confused:

No, it was the ground operator in Paracas that screwed up.

gotoperu had someone meet us at Lima Bus Depot, and drive us to airport in time to catch the late evening UA flight to USA.

Another staffer of theirs was at Lima airport to ensure we had no issues and a director of the company phoned me at airport too from Cuzco. Late evening.

Find me another tour company in Peru that takes that kind of personal interest to ensure things work out.

That is exactly the kind of stuff you want to see when things go pear shape somewhere.

^