Qantas is having a sale to South America, and their flights to Peru are pretty fantastic.
It's the capital city Lima, and you can fly/bus to Cusco to see Machu Picchu, or down to the Nazca Lines, or the mighty Colca Canyon!
Various dates from Feb-August, have to play around with dates to avoid Easter etc.
Part operated by LATAM depending on the city you're flying from.
Alliance: OneWorld
Sale on Qantas ends Friday Nov 9th.
Agreed if you're healthy, but at altitude it can be difficult. There's also the Salkantay and Laures(?) trail. I took the train and it was fantastic, still required a lot of hiking around on the day (went up Wayna Picchu too).
Could you recommend any tour companies?
GAdventures was awesome
I went with Alpaca https://www.alpacaexpeditions.com They are Peruvian and put a lot of money back into the community, which was important to me. Great equipment and food. I went with the 5 day trek which is more expensive but means walking shorter days, never in the dark, and staying at less crowded campsites. We encountered almost no-one else on the trail until the last 1.5 days - way less crowded than I had heard. Llamapath seem very similar - the two teams of porters had a friendly rivalry, lots of banter along the trek, played soccer with each other in the afternoons. I chose Alpaca only because their dates worked better for me.
Overall enjoyed it much more than I was expecting to, and hope to go back and hike Choquequirao.
Llama Path we're great, they were a local operator so we're a bit cheaper than going through a company. They also seem to treat their Porter's very well
I disagree about the train. I’m not saying don’t do the walk, but staying in Ollantaytambo for a few days in an ancient stone village by running creeks, visiting ruins in the town and then training it along the rushing river to Aguas Callalentes and then hiking up to Machu Picchu and back is still very tough trekking and great if you are strapped for time.
Most Inca trail trekkers will miss Ollantaytambo and their ruins and the town is amazing.
My trek went Ollantaytambo. We went there in the second day while we were acclimatizing. Yes, it is amazing!
I don't do camping and I don't really like the fact there are lots of people (locals, yes I know they're paid) to do the trek with you and make sure you have all your 1st world comforts. A friend told me the cook on their trek baked them a cake - like seriously? And you know "the help" don't get fed the same food as you…
Also, overtourism means that there's rubbish and the toilet situation is disgusting.
I know you can't do the Inca Trail by yourself but like I said, I don't do camping so yeah I took the bus and train.
I too spent some time in Ollantaytambo, it was really cool.
This is great deal for east coasters, If I had my time again I'd fly to and from Lima (which has a surprisingly modern airport) rather than Santiago, Chile and it's US$117 reciprocity fee. I'd suggest that the best way to get to Cusco would be catching the Cruz del Sur via Arequipa which itself is beautiful - Colca Canyon is a decent warm-up for hiking the Inca Trail and/or Salkantay. Still be wary of altitude sickness, it won't be as acute as stepping off a plane at 3600m that you boarded at sea level, but the bus will still ascend to ~4400m fairly rapidly. You can never bring too much water or warm clothing with you. Like Santiago, Lima is mostly overcast during Winter but Miraflores is very comfortable and there's some great sights to see as well as lovely cheap seafood to eat around Barranco. Conversely, the sun always seems to shine in Arequipa.
And you can always bring some cheap headphones from Peru… Or it was from Colombia?
FML the prices jumped up by double -_- Should have booked doh…
If it helps, Air NZ was having a sale yesterday to Buenos Aires, might be worth checking the dates.
I also checked Air NZ but I ultimately want to go to Peru not Argentina :( So this was perfect haha. Damn! Too slow!
Keep an eye out, they do reappear from time to time!
Machu Picchu is an incredible place to visit, but do yourself a favour and don’t take the train there with the overweight tourists. Walk there on the Inca Trail instead, you’ll need to book it 6 months in advance with a (reputable) tour group.
Amazing experience!