Villavic

Let's see...

- Are we trying to do too many sites?Yeah, a bit. But you have chosen the best. I understand you can't stay more days, or changing the award flights is not an option.

- Do I need more time in the Cusco area? I've been in Cusco 5 times, one time it was 12 days (including inca trail), so you know... never enough.
But seriously.. Pisac Market is within the sacred valley, so that whole tour could be on day 3 and I would avoid Inti Raymi.

Another must is the ruines near Cusco city: Sacsayhuaman (don't miss it), Tambomachay, Qenko y Puka Pukara. You can do it on day 2 afternoon (enough time) but JUST if you acclimate and feel fine. (is closer than sacred valley so it makes sense).

- Is it worth 3 days at Lake Titicaca just to stay at Isla Suasi? You board their boat at 730am in Puno, which means arriving in Puno the night before. Are the floating islands all that great? Isla Suasi is far from Puno city . It's worth it, but if you want to save time, you can stay at Puno city (not the nicest city but it's more practical to do it), at a Casa Andina Classic or similar hotel, and take a day trip to the floating islands and Taquile island (closer than Suasi), I did it and it's wonderful. And YES floating islans is worth it! (IMHO). The day trip pick you from hotel at 6am aprox, so you must arrange everything anticipated.

Then you can cut one day fro Puno and stay one more in Cusco, that would be my decision. Again, just my opinion.


- Is Colca Canyon worth 2 of our 13 days? I did 2 entire days (2 nights actually) but staying one night is enough. Not sure what you like most, actuall. But if you are looking for landscape, nature, valleys, flora & fauna, Colca is a must.

- Are we shortchanging the rain forest/jungle areas?
I've not been in Puerto M., but in Iquitos. Not sure if 2 days is enough, I would say yes, but I guess you must do more research.

If it's your first time in Peru, I guess the main stops are Cusco and Puno. But again, it depends on what you want to see, what you like most. Cusco is more history, ruines (plus landscape valleys). Puno and Arequipa are more nature, landscapes, valleys, mountains, the lake.

Jungle is.. obviously nature, adventure!, animals!, rivers, HEAT!!!

neuromancer

Just for info, there are 1 day tours for Colca canyon. Of course it's not the full experience, but OK if you have just one day. We did see condors while there. If you have a private driver, you could see even more.

CO FF

Day 1 - arrive LIM from JFK; LIM-CUZ. Stay at Tambo del Inka (SPG award)
Day 2 - nothing major planned, to acclimate to altitude. If doing ok, see Sacred Valley sites.
Day 3 (Sunday) - Pisac Market; [possibly Inti Raymi (sun festival);] other local (non-MP) sites
Day 4 - Macchu Pichu
Day 5 - Other Cusco-area sites
Day 6 - Other sites in the Sacred Valley-Cusco area; to Arequipa [3:15pm nonstop flight]
Day 7 - Colca Canyon tour
Day 8 - Colca Canyon tour; evening return to Arequipa
Day 9 - Arequipa (and maybe a massage!)
Day 10 - 8:30am n/s flight to Juliaca/Lake Titicaca; overnight Puno
Day 11 - 7:45am JUL-CUS-PEM; to Sandoval Lake Lodge OR Tambopata Eco Lodge
Day 12 - Lodge
Day 13 - return to PEM; PEM-CUZ-LIM-JFK-LAX (unless the LIM-LAX n/s opens up for J awards). Dinner in Lima, with tour if possible.

So, now, we're looking for (a) hotel recommendations in Arequipa and Puno, (b) feedback on which Lodge (Sandoval or Tampobata Eco) and (c) info on how to best use our limited time at Lake Titicaca [assume 10am arrival at JUL; sunset is at 5:15pm - by which I assume we want to be off the lake].

vesuv1us

Long time lurker to FT, first time poster.

Your day 13 may be extremely busy, and finding a decent spot to eat near the airport for a metropolitan Lima dinner is going to be difficult. Not to mention trip exhaustion, etc. How much time do you have before departure? The LA LIM->LAX usually leaves just after midnight (like its SFO counterpart).

As another poster mentioned here, you can almost never spend too much time in Cusco. In fact, I can't wait to go back - there's just so much to do, eat, drink, party, explore... Once you get up into the mountains, things run at a much different pace (the taxi drivers are still psychotic, but to a lesser extent than in Lima).

randomtask123

Urubamba is a dump (relatively speaking); Cusco has a lot more to do and you just might need more time to acclimatize than you thought.

We did a family stay at Amantani, which although sparse by US standards, was quite nice and an authentic experience. Because our arrival didn't mesh with the normal folks who'd arrive in the morning for the group tour of titicaca, we ended up hiring a boat all to ourselves. It was a bit extravagant but nice and quiet. We booked through http://www.titicacaperu.com/

We spent a night at los tambos, which was quite nice despite the day we arrived it started to pour. It's a 3.5 star hotel and if I remember correctly, definitely within walking distance to all the good sites.

Hope this helps!

CO FF

Thanks, Vesuv1us -- and a belated welcome to FT.

We know that the last day is crazy; if all goes per schedule, we get in to LIM at 3:30pm or so, which should allow us enough time to drive in to Lima (ETA 5pm), see things from the outside (for an hour or so), eat dinner (6:30-8:30pm) & go back to LIM (arriving 9:30 for the 12:20am flight).

Obviously, if we are dead on our feet, or if our flights in to LIM don't go as scheduled, we just stay at the airport and rough it in the lounge.

dshaz

I'm not meaning to threadjack, but I'm doing a similar trip. The info in this thread is very useful so thanks.

My trip is a little different in that I have 17 days and that this is going to be my honeymoon in late October. At this point I have decided to cut out Puno and replace it with Paracas (maybe a mistake, but we'll see).

* I'm using AA miles for the flight.
* I'm using SPG points in Paracas, Urubamba, and possibly Cuzco as I've read here there is another hotel in Cuzco being remodeled as a starwood hotel that might open in June/July.

Here is my plan so far:

1. (flight) Home->Lima (arrive at 4:30am) --> 7:00am (3hr bus) Paracas/Pisco
2. Paracas (Huacachina/Ica daytrip for dunebuggying and winery tours)
3. Paracas (Nazca daytrip)
4. (3hr bus) Lima (2hr flight) Arequipa
5. Arequipa
6. (bus) Chivay / Colca Canyon
7. Chivay / Colca Canyon
8. (bus) Arequipa (flight) Cuzco
9. Cuzco
10. Cuzco
11,12,13,14. (trek Inca Trail) Machu Picchu
15. Urubamba (sacred valley tours)
16. Urubamba
17. (flight) Cuzco->Lima->Home

Things I'm still trying to figure out:
1. How can I squeeze in a dinner at that nice restaurant in Lima? Maybe make my Cuzco->Lima flight happen on day 16? A dinner like that might be the perfect way to end our honeymoon.
2. Which hotel to stay at in Colca Valley
3. I'm really iffy on going to Nazca for the flight over the nazca lines. I've read in forums that some people felt it wasn't worth it. But my fiancee currently thinks that looks awesome and really wants to do it. So its on the itinerary for now.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Again sorry to threadjack.

Siempre Viajando

FWIW, a couple of comments on Lima restaurants. First, if you're into fish, you should aim to dine at lunch, not dinner. Traditionally, seafood in Lima is eaten when still fresh, which means off the boat at dawn and consumed before the sun goes down. Which is not to say you can't get seafood in the evening, but most of the good "cevicherías" are only open for lunch, which means from noon until around 5pm (it's a relaxed affair). There are a lot of excellent lunch-only seafood restaurants in Lima, with new ones opening all the time. You can try El Mercado, La Mar and Pescados Capitales to start, all three are located in Miraflores on or near Av. La Mar.

Second comment, IMHO Astrid y Gastón is past its prime. Gastón Acurio no longer owns or directly manages the place, and I think frankly they have gotten a little stale, and they're kind of stuck in the 90s, so to speak. Two places that I would recommend more for dinner in Lima are Los Cavenecia, in Barranco (a district well worth a visit anyway) and Capital, in Miraflores. There are many others too, Lima being a gastronomic paradise.

dhammer53

Is there enough to do vacation-wise if we were to spend 2 - 3 days in the Arequipa area?

dh

Villavic

2 days is fine if you want to do just Arequipa city, or just Colca valley.

3 days, if you mean entire days, it would be good for 2 days at Colca and one entire day in Arequipa city.

MarLim

If you want to see all the Nazca lines, a flight is your only option, otherwise there is an observation tower along the Panamericana highway from where you can see 2-3 figures. It is for sure something unique, not as impressive as you might think, but still worthwile to do. Flights are done with small aircrafts and the pilots will fly many sharp curves (have a good stomach). You have to reserve your flight at least the day before, but be aware that flight schedules are depending on what time the fog clears. Try to be on an early flight, as the last ones are subject to cancellation, if they cannot start early.

Just on a sidenote, why would you go back to Lima from Nazca to go on to Arequipa then, being already almost halfway south, I'd consider spending a night in Nazca rather than 2 nights in Paracas and taking a bus from there south directly towards Arequipa.

neuromancer

I'd say Nazca is at about the half way from Lima to Areqipa, so no need to go back to Lima by bus and then fly to Arequipa. There are several daily buses along the Panamericana, so it would be faster and cheaper to continue by bus

andreadbc

I think it's like 6 hours Lima - Nazca and 9 hours Nazca Arequipa (by bus).

Villavic

A bit hard to answer. If you ask me if I enjoyed Nazca lines, or if it's a must.. I would say Yes! If you ask me if i want to go again... I'd say.. No. The site is nice, very very interesting. But IMHO it's not amazing as the Inca ruins around Cusco (and of course I'm not mentioning Machu Picchu). You must like or be very interesting in history, misterious places, archeological sites, etc. to enjoy it. Besides there isn't much more to do in Nazca, a very small town. My point here is the effort to go so far may be not enough worthwhile for some people, but I do think it is. Though not to go again.. not like Cusco for example that I have been lot of times (or Huaraz or the Amazonas).

Agree 100%. I drove by myself from Lima to Nazca, it was anout 6 hours. Nazca-Arequipa is like 7 or 8 more hours.
The early flight is recommendable not only because of the cancellations issue, but also because you MUST fly with empty stomach, BEFORE breakfast. The sharp curves flight are true, because the pilot wants to show all lines to all passengers, those seated at the left windows, and those at the right ones. So the airplane is always doing curves and leaning to one side and then to the other. So getting sick is easy (I didn't follow the recommendation and took the plane after breakfast. Believe me, don't do it! Fortunately it didn't happen what you are thinking, but I felt a bit sick anyway). Anyway the flight is worthwhile and far better than the tower view.

A good and faster option is to take the flight from Ica, that save you like 3 hours by bus, you don't have to sleep in Nazca and the alternative of going back to Lima makes more sense. Besides as you already must know there are more places to see in Ica (sand dunes, sandboard, Huacachina oasis, Paracas bay with seals islands, etc.).But if the Lima - Arequipa trip is by bus, then stopping at Nazca is better. And the Ica-Nazca lines flight is more expensive, that's true.