BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm looking at $780 r/t in March. That seems like a lot to me, and I was wondering if anyone can help me understand whether or not this flight is good. Flying to Lima costs a little over $600 by itself, so doing that and THEN purchasing a flight to Cuzco isn't any kid of savings. Thoughts? Thanks.

You could take a bus FROM Lima. Its got to be cheaper.
Also, I don't know if this helps, but flights from Miami are often much cheaper, IF you can get to Miami, stay overnight, for a lesser price.

I would take the bus, but i have limited time. i'm actually cool with shelling out 8-hundy for the ticket, but, of course, i'd prefer to do it for less. i'll look into the miami thing. thanks.

the flight seems about right to me. i paid $1000 from Austin to Quito and $1200 from Austin to Buenos Aires (and those were 'cheap' flights!)...damn expensive to get to South America...

have a good trip!

I've been watching prices daily for a few weeks now (I'll be there mid-April), and they're running high. Over $800 r/t from Detroit to CUZ. It was about $680 to Lima, but the bus to Cuzco is like a 10 hour ride. Thanks to Marisa's advice, she said she got a flight for about $60 each way in Lima to Cuzco. The Lan Peru site will quote about $188 round trip, but if you say you're from Peru at the entrance page, it'll quote $130 as the cheapest. But that still hasn't been cheaper than booking all the way through.

All the flights seem to leave internationally out of either Houston or Newark, so if you have a cheap way to get to either of those, you might get a cheaper direct flight.

That's so slimy! &@! Lan Peru!

Amazingly, it's alos cheaper to get there from NYC, but Miami is often a linking hub - good idea to look at flights from there...

The bus from Lima to Cuzco's not bad, but it's a long haul...

i flew to quito from atlanta in 2004 for $620. Are things more expensive now because of gas prices, or has south america just sort of gone up in price? i guess i'll just have to bite the bullet and get an 800 return to cuzco.

ah, but there IS a silver lining. out of all my trips, looking back I have never thought about the money i spent. ever. though i DID think of the money I chose NOT to spend... i shouldn't have skipped the galapagos).

as jimmy buffett says---spend it while yuou can, money is contraband, you can't take it with you when you go

quote:

damn expensive to get to South America...

No kidding (and welcome back, Marisa). I'm already getting bummed because suddenly Argentina is in the works for later this year and....and....it's already been said. Why is east/west so much cheaper than north/south? Must be frequency of flights, supply/demand.

perhaps americans are starting to realize how nice it is to have south america right below them and demand has gone up. maybe europe has just gotten too expensive for the dollar, and that is another reason for the demand. whatever it is... its sucks. how is it that my two week inca trail trip is going to end up costing me more (flight and all) than my three weeker to thailand? that was the other side of the freakin globe!!!!!

Quito is traditionally cheaper. I think you're probably being quoted a pretty decent price since it's to Cuzco. A Miami flight might shave a little off though.

My understanding has always been that the reason tickets down there are so expensive is because there's relatively little business travel. The more business travel there is, the more flights there are and the more seats they have to fill on a regular basis, thus lower prices.

^^^

or that.

quote:

Originally posted by Marisa:
damn expensive to get to South America...

I disagree. Compared to Europeans, Australians, etc., North Americans have it quite cheaply. (Which makes sense.) What you really want to try to do is route through Miami, as tortuga_traveller suggested. For example, from Dallas (not too terribly far from Austin) I paid around $210 RT to get to Miami. From Miami to Guayaquil (not too terribly far from Quito) I paid around $375 RT. Althogether, sounds about a little more than half of what you paid. Not that this is always the rule of thumb, but generally, from what I've seen and heard, it cuts a huge amount off the overall price if you go through Miami first. So, puravidamon, if you have the time and energy for a layover in Miami, go for it. (BTW the fares I quoted were purchased through Travelocity around 8 months ago, and I just checked now and they're about the same.)

The cheapest places to fly into South America from Miami are Guayaquil & Quito, in Ecuador; Colombia, and sometimes Venezuela. Lima is also not very expensive. It IS expensive to fly into La Paz, and the further south you go, the higher the price will get. Brazil is pricey; so are Argentina and Chile.

Really the way to do it is try to get your RT flight from Atlanta to Miami, if that's less than $300, then RT from Miami to either Lima or Cuzco. Yes, the bus would be cheaper, but if you're strained for time that's not the way to go. Check TACA's website; sometimes they have spcials RT from Lima to Cuzco for under $100, but it's been awhile since I've really checked.

Yeah, for most of us North Americans who are accustomed to fly from Texas to New York for under $300, a trip to South America seems expensive. But really, when you consider it, it's not nearly as expensive as going to Europe, Africa, Asia, or the South Pacific, and so is a bargain for North Americans really wanting to get that foreign travel experience.

To be honest I'm not sure why North Americans don't take advantage of flying to Mexico or Central America. It's far cheaper to fly to Costa Rica or Mexico than to Hawai'i, or even (at times) to New York.

--Jessicah

Are you guys really finding direct flights out of Miami? Everything I look at has about 2 or 3 connections before even getting to Peru, and with every connection more airport taxes... Usually out of Houston, San Juan, or Costa Rica... Maybe I need to look a little more...

Well, I kinda answered my own question... I could fly MIA-MEM-IAH-LIM for $542, but going on the SAME FLIGHT for the IAH-LIM leg is over $800. Looks like flying through Quito or Bogota is a bit cheaper, but I can't find any decent prices to get from there to LIM or CUZ. Back to the search....

thanks jessica. i think i may just go with the 780 r/t atlanta to cuzco. i don't mind flying all over the planet to get somewhere for cheap, but it looks like the savings will be minimal. 780 aint so bad. btw, here is what i plan to do with my time there (in case anyone cares)... really, i'm staring at the computer trying to muster the strength to press PURCHASE TICKET. i will. but i like to agonize over it for a while.

March
13 Fly Atlanta to LIMA (several hours layover overnight in airport)
14 Fly AM to CUZCO
15 CUZCO
16 INCA TRAIL
17 INCA TRAIL
18 INCA TRAIL
19 Inca Trail (MP) --> CUZCO
20 Train to PUNO
21 AM Reed Island, afternoon bus to COPACABANA
22 COPACABANA
23 COPACABANA (Isle de Sol)
24 COPACABANA
25 Copacabana --> CUZCO (via Puno)
26 AM Fly to LIMA (leave bags at airport all day and see the city)
27 Midnight flight to ATLANTA

quote:

13 Fly Atlanta to LIMA (several hours layover overnight in airport)
14 Fly AM to CUZCO

Lemme guess, you get into LIM pretty late, and fly out to CUZ really frickin early? My friend read that something about the direction of the wind current over the mountains necessitates making LIM-CUZ flights occur in the early morning. All the flights I'm looking at have the same scenario with several hours in the Lima airport. Anyone know if it's feasible to leave and be able to check out the town for a couple of those hours?

i'm sure you could take off... but i've also read that lima's airport (post construction) isn't such a bad place to chill for the night hours. in fact, i guess it turns into sort of a gringo fest. no worries. find me by the papa johns... we'll play some uno.

btw, i think i may fly back from juliaca to cuzco to lima to usa... that way i don't have to go all the way back to cuzco from copacabana. but is getting to juliaca from puno reasonable for a 9am flight if i spend the night in puno?

After all was said and done, I settled on a rather more expensive ticket. However, I think it will work well. Let's just say it's a little more than $850. Ouch. Anyway, here's the new plan based on my new ticket.

March
13 LIMA : Fly in from Atlanta, Crash in Airport
14 CUZCO : Early AM flight
15 CUZCO : Drink Coca Tea All Day
16 INCA TRAIL : Hike
17 INCA TRAIL : Hike, Complain
18 INCA TRAIL : Hike
19 CUZCO : See MP first
20 PUNO or COPACABANA : Train and/or Bus
21 [B]COPACABANA : Relax
22 COPACABANA : Isle de Sol
23 COPACABANA or AREQUIPA : See how I Feel
24 AREQUIPA : Relax
25 AREQUIPA : Relax and/or Hike
26 LIMA : Early AM Flight, Spend day in City
27 ATLANTA : Leave around midnight to get in arond 10:30am

Last minute tickets within Peru are relatively inexpensive and it might be worth just buying the Atlanta-Lima ticket and winging the rest. The ticket to Cuzco should be pretty cheap and if you're looking to tour around, it might be advantageous to find a local agent. You can't really depend on busses, though most likely everything will be fine.

And if you're planing on doing the Inca trail it might be in your best interest to do it toward the end of your trip after you've aclimatized to the altitude. I get serious altitute sickness and one day of coca tea, as much as I love it, is not even remotely enough...even the burliest of trekkers will be far happier after a week up at those altitudes. Go do Lake Titicaca and Arequipa before you subject yourself to a high altitude trek. I promise you'll be happier.

Oh, and the travel agent I bought tickets from in Puno got me very competative rates. I can probably track down the info if you want. They may even speak English.