mjmqm

Stayed for 5 days at Tambo two months ago, we made box lunches each day from the buffet with no issues. Hotel was happy to help.

hotelfanatic

I read up thread (or maybe TA)that it is not recommended to use the taxi in front of the Cuz airport for the trip to TDI but to cross to a lot where there are taxis that go between cities. Anyone know where this lot is located? Any recent experience with transfer from Cuz to TDI for 4 with luggage will be appreciated.

zerolife

I used Taxidatum.com to reserve a car from airport to TDI. They have very high Tripadvisor review and also comes recommended in the forum. Very reasonably priced and you can also pay a bit extra for stops along the way.
This is what I did for Cusco Airport -> TDI: Chincheros,maras,moray sacred valley taxi tour
And for TDI -> Cusco: Pisac ruins and Pisac market taxi tour
Combined it will cover all the highlights in the Sacred Valley. Saves a ton of time as well as money this way since all of these places are conveniently located between Cusco and TDI.

zerolife

Thanks yeah hopefully as a Platinum guest and breakfast included in the rate, they will be cool with it

hotelfanatic

This is great. We will definitely use this for our trips.

rny321

Thank you for the suggestion. I know that Taxidatum drivers generally do not speak much English and aren't guides. I speak some Spanish and rarely feel a guide is necessary. I have sometimes hired government registered guides at individual locations in Asia and have been generally pleased Since my wife speaks even less Spanish than I do and almost always wants a guide, I was curious if you felt that having a local guide would have helped.

brownie20

Having just returned last week from Peru I hope I'm able to help answer some of the recent questions posted on this thread.

We arranged transportation to/from Cusco with Taxidatum and I woud highly recommend using their services. Prices were reasonable, Cusco Airport -> Awana Kancha -> Pisac ruins -> Pisac market -> TDI in a minivan was US$90 or 290 PEN and Ollantaytambo train station to Cusco hotel was US$60. They even offer a 10% senior discount for rides to/from the airport or train station. Our driver from Cusco to TDI spoke basic English (much better than my Spanish!) and we hired a tour guide (?60-65 PEN) at the entrance to Pisac. Would definitely recommend stopping at Awana Kancha - feeding the animals was one of the highlights of our trip and the store sells very high quality items (albeit at high quality prices ).

We booked PeruRail tickets departing from the Urubamba train station. The hotel asked guests to meet 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time and then walked us to the train station. The Vistadome train was comfortable and the staff members were very nice. We took the Vistadome both ways so I'm not sure if it was worth the premium over Expedition class. If you have some time before your trip I would suggest closely monitoring the PeruRail website as the price for the trains do fluctuate from time to time. And do try to buy roundtrip tickets rather than oneway to avoid the $10 oneway premium. I had a lot of trouble booking the specific train I wanted from Aguas Caliente (1723 departure - didn't work for any of the dozen random dates I picked) and after trying over several days on multiple devices to get help through the chat option and by email (unsuccessful for the first 10+ attempts since chat simply pulled up an email request form which no one responded to), I finally reached a live person through the chat option who helped me book the exact train tickets I wanted by email. For those interested in the Hiram Bingham train I received an offer to upgrade our tickets for USD180 apiece a few days before our trip. T&C state the promo only applies to Vistadome 32 and 604, and ends 4/30/18.

hotelfanatic

Thank you Brownie for spilling the secret sauce!!! I will surely look for the stamp - will post a picture after returning from our trip next month.

And for the Plats on this board, is breakfast included for relinquishing the 500 point checkin amenity?

Fizzer

Yes. It was. And a great breakfast it was too.

hotelfanatic

Last week, Peru Rail had a 50% cybersale but I found out on the last day and the system would not allow me to book because I have an existing reservation. I was going to book and then cancel my original and take the 10% hit. The sale was 50% for certain trains only but included the one from TDI. $95 to $50.

Back to TDI, anyone booked Sacred Valley tour from TDI? Or know of a dependable local travel company they've used. Thanks in advance.

RafKa

For Sacred Valley we just negotiated a day rate with one of the taxis at the gas station stop. We just picked where we wanted to go (Ollantaytambo, Maras, Chinchero, etc). If you want an actual English-speaking guide, there is a tour operator with offices inside the TdI called Tikariy.

Fizzer

Taxidatum also offer tours. The prices and descriptions are on their website. Our driver spoke some English but even if they had none at all a decent guide book will help you and the prices they charge are per vehicle and not per passenger, so pretty competitive IMO.

Dzigavertov

I'm very interested in this option for our day trips. So this was part of the breakfast, and they provided lunch bags/boxes to take out? Who did you work with, the wait staff? I'm interested to know, so that I don't offend anyone!

Dzigavertov

One other note, I read somewhere that tap water in Peru was not safe to drink. Has anyone had issues with the water provided by Tambo del Inka, in the restaurants and anywhere else on the property?

brownie20

i think there's only one entrance stamp but supposedly the color of the stamp changes depending on the entrance time