SO! I'm trying to plan a month long trip to mainly Peru, with a couple days in Bolivia. There is going to be two of us, and we're flying in and out of Lima. We're both students so our budget is limited, and we have very limited to no spanish.

The things we're interested in doing and seeing are: Huacachina/Ica(sand dunes), Arequipa, Puno, Inca trail, Cusco, Amazon rainforest(i think we need to go to Iquitos for this?), maybe Paracas, Nazca lines, the salt flats in Bolivia, Lake Titicaca and the floating Islands.

Now for the questions:
1. What is the best form of transport from Lima to Cusco? I've heard some people grumbling about the buses, is it worth it to fly?
2. Which trekking company for the inca trail would everyone reccommend? are there any that cater to younger travellers(we're students).
3. Any hostel reccommendations in any of the cities i mentioned?
4. What would be the best way to get a good overview of Bolivia including the salt flats? 4 day tours? which companies?
5. Should we bring sleeping bags?
6. Has anyone done a Peruvian rainforest tour? if so, where, how, with which company? would you reccommend it? What form of transportation did you use to get there?
7. Thoughts on the Nazca lines? i'd like to fly over, but i've been hearing some things about dangerous planes.
8. is Paracas worth it? which travel company did you go with?
9. what is the best way to do the floating islands?
10.what about sights in the north of peru, any that would be worth it based on our timeline and the things we'd like to see?
11. any other must-sees that I seem to be missing??
12. and FINALLY: what itinerary would you reccommend?

I don't know if that was too many questions for one post, but i just have so many!!!

Thanks for your input in advance!
Andrea.

1. I took a bus and thankfully I was in the back and it was night. I guess the people at the front saw the driver take some....let's call it risks. If you can afford it fly.
2. Sunrise expeditions is amazing!!!! Take smart wool socks! No blisters for me.
3. Sorry but I can't remember the names of the places I stayed.
4. There is no way to get a good overview of Bolivia in just a few days. The 4 day Altiplano tour is a must. Salt flats, coloured lagunas, valley of rocks, volcanos, strange cactus islands, the Dali Desert. Amazing! Again I can't remember who I went with but you won't have a problem booking right in Uyuni.
5. You can hire sleeping bags for the tours but a sleeping bag liner is a good idea.
6. Skip the Peruvian Amazon. It was a nice place to relax after the trail, but if you don't fly it is not worth the 24 hour bus ride. Other than a couple cool spiders and snakes I didn't see a whole lot of wildlife.
7. Flying scares the hell out of me but I flew over the lines and it was definately worth it!
8. They call Paracas the poor mans Galapagos. I had just come from there so I didn't bother.
9. Get a tour from Puno for the islands. If possible book for a homestay on the the lake. One of the strangest days of my life was on those islands. Plus Puno is crap. I would spend as little time as possible there. (Lima too).
10. I got nothing for this one.
11. Try to spend some time in La Paz. It is a really cool city. Also try to do the World's Most Dangerous Road mountain biking tour. That was a highlight of my trip.
12. Start in Lima and just start heading south.
I wish I had spent more time at Huacachina.
Ollyantytambo and Colca Canyon should not be missed.
Hope that helps.

1. I bussed down the coast and then across to Cusco and it was OK though it is a big country.
2-6. No comment.
7. I really enjoyed Nazca and the planes are fine (they do an incredible numbers of 40 min flights everyday). Also the old graves are interesting nearby.
8. Paracas/Ballestas Islands is worth it if you are nearby to it but not if you have to travel a fair way. It is really a fairly quick trip out to see seals and lots of birds.
9. There are lots of companies seeing the reed islands and the home stays. The home stay is a strange day with a walk up to see a sunset and a strange evening dance. Worth the experience.
10. I didn't travel north of Lima.
11. Colca Canyon was excellent to see condors in their real terrain but it is a long journey to get there and back. Cusco needs time to see many of the nearby Inca sights including Sacsayhuamen, Ollantaytambo and more. Machu Picchu is unsurpassed. As the writer above said, La Paz is a great experience for a couple of days (witches market, the general town, Valley of the Moon all worth a visit) and the bike ride on the world's most dangerous road is most memorable and fun. Tiwanaku is between the lake and La Paz and is another of the numerous ruins but worth a visit. (See my blog for a few photos and description of this - click on Bolivia). The four day salt lakes trip is well worth the effort - virtually all people enjoy this and the landscape is like no other.

Have a great trip.

I don't have any specific info about any of the places you mentioned, but since you mention the budget issue, if you are American, look carefully at the Bolivian visa requirement. It's $100 out of country (but with some paperwork requirements), or $135 at the border with some allegations of on-the-spot yellow fever vaccination, which is VERY pricey in the states and cheap or free in most Lat. Am countries, though the international certificate may cost some (in Ecuador it costs $10).

I detail the paperwork req's here:

http://bearshapedsphere.blogspot.com/2008/12/going-mobile.html

have fun!

Canadian don't have to pay for a visa. and i don't think yellow fever vaccines are too expensive here.

thanks for your replies! they're been helpful...i think we're going to end up spending more time in Bolivia than originally planned. Also, i think we'll fly to Iquitos, turns out i have some contacts there!!

Other things to do in La Paz:
-go to visit Sorata, little town close to Andes mountains
-Copacabana, to see the Titicaca lake

Other things to do in BOlivia:

Tropical places:

Rurrenabaque (anacondas + alligators). You fly from La Paz with Amazonas airlines
National parks: Madidi (you fly from La Paz), Noel Kempff Mercado, Amboró (from Santa Cruz)
Altiplano side parks: Sajama (Oruro)
Cities:
Potosí, Sucre, Tarija (colonial buildings)

U can come to my city: Cochabamba. There are great things to do in the surroundings: Chapare (tropical place), Tarata, Totora (nice towns), Corani (lake)

Folklore:

the carnival in Oruro! a MUST!!!! if u are interested I can help u

[quote="nurseandrea"]
1. What is the best form of transport from Lima to Cusco? I've heard some people grumbling about the buses, is it worth it to fly?

1. If you're crunched for time, and it sounds like you may be if you have 4 weeks and you're wanting to do everything you mentioned.....flight may be in your best interest. I don't remember what I paid, but in November it was approx 100-150 from Cusco to Lima.

2. don't know

3. Cusco - Amaru Hostel, within the San Blas area of town

4. don't know

5. Unless you're planning on camping - and I don't remember seeing many/any camping opportunities in Peru - then I don't know that it would be worth it. However, maybe you'd want to bring a silk sleeping bag liner, just to use on some of the beds.

6. Haven't done Peru rainforest tour, but did an Ecuador one and it's amazing. But as for Peru - Manu Preserve in Peru is probably what you'd want to target. If you're wanting a GOOD tour, it's not going to be the most economical thing, however. Depending on # of days - 5 - 10 - prices could range from $800-over 1K. Would include all meals, facilities, buses to/from whatever starting city in Peru, and planes if applicable

7. I didn't personally do it, but had 2 friends who did and they enjoyed it. They did comment however that the sketchy plane ride itself was probably more exciting/worth it than the lines themselves.

8. Don't know

9. don't know

10. Well, I enjoyed Trujillo, and there are some interesting Chimu and other pre-incan ruins around that area, some of which are in the process of trying to become World Heritage sites. Trujillo is quite a different feel from some of the other cities in peru. But it's pretty out of the way, if you're not planning on heading north. Long bus ride from Lima.


11. Lots to see in and around Cusco - Ollaytotambo (I know I'm spelling that totally wrong, oh well), Pisaq...just do the Sacred Valley daytrip tour. Personally I really liked Tipon, which is an incan site about 45 minutes out of Cusco - but it's not as well known and might be a little harder to get to.

I didn't make it there, but my friends loved Arequipa, and raved about Colca Canyon.

12. Lima to the islands to Nazca Lines to Arequipa/Colca to Puno to Cusco/Machu Picchu back to Lima.

This might help you with planning your trip.
I had about the same timeframe for Peru & Bolivia and did similar itinerary: Lima - Pisco/Islas Ballestas - Ica - Cuzco/Sacred Valley/MP - Puno - Uros (the floating islands)/Amantani/Taquile - LaPaz - Salar de Uyuni - San Pedro De Atacama - Arica - Tacna - Arequipa - Lima.

You won't have time for northern Peru or the jungle tour, not for mid/eastern Bolivia either.
On my trip I left Bolivia after Salar de Uyuni tour and went over to Chile. I didn't want to duplicate my itinerary, backtracking through Bolivia - that's why I included a bit of Chile.
For Inca trail - especially if you're on low budget, I'd recommend alternative trails (Salkantay, Lares or Ausganate) which are by most considered better than the classic Inca trail. They are much cheaper if bought on the spot, after your arrival to Cuzco.
Salar de Uyuni tour is best as three days. That will include the salt flats, and Altiplano with the lagunas.
You don't need a sleeping bag. Too much to carry and hostels in both countries are really inexpensive. On tours (to MP, Colca Canyon, Salar de Uyuni) tents and accommodation at hostels are provided by tour operators.

I dissagree about the plane be more exciting than the lines. I have a horrible fear of flying but once I got up there I forgot all about it because I was mesmerized by the lines. Just remember to look away from your camera and focus on the horizon every now and then to avoid getting sick.
Manu is where I was and didn't find it too thrilling.

Forget the bus. I was on one that broke down. If you are afraid of flying at all, then a nice bus ride will rid you of that.
The flats in Bolivia are unforgetable, the flamingos, everything has color.
Puno sucks, spend that time getting to Lake Titicaka. Copacabana has a great little place to stay, I think it is called La Chapula or something like. I have been there twice, as my daughter is adopted from Bolivia. Get ready to chew some leaf, cuz if your bus breaks down, you will, no doubt be in a high elevation.

A comment to the last post....

Planes are fine as long as you travel from the capital and back. There are rarely suitable flight connections between the provincial cities, so in many cases that means backtracking to Lima or LaPaz to get a flight to another city.
On the other hand, there is an extensive bus network and a lot of bus companies to choose from.
Yes, they can break down, but that happens very rarely. The rainy season and wet muddy roads are more of a problem.

Thought I'd be cheeky and leap in here with a few Qs of my own rather than starting a new thread.

A friend of mine is coming over to join me mid-way through my RTW trip for three weeks in Peru, which means I'm needing to plan a little bit more than I usually would.

So far I'm thinking we want to do at least the following:

- 5 days in the Arequipa & Colca canyon area
- 3 days in Cuzco & the Sacred Valley acclimatising
- 5 days doing the Inca Trail.

That leaves us about another week to play with, and am having trouble deciding between the following:

1. After meeting in Lima, head slowly down the coast by bus, stopping at various places on the way to break up the journey to Arequipa, and therefore avoiding any really long bus journeys. Then fly back from Cuzco to Lima at the end after the Inca Trail. (If we did this option - what are good places to stop on the coast?)
2. Fly from Lima to Arequipa, and then use the extra week at the end after the Inca Trail to head into the Peruvian amazon, before flying back to Lima at the end. How easy is it to get to / from the Amazon?
3. Fly Lima-Arequipa at the beginning and Cuzco-Lima at the end, and just spend more time in the Arequipa / Canyon & Sacred Valley, as there's more than enough to keep us busy for three weeks that's more interesting than the alternatives above.

Oh - and one other question re. the Inca Trail - it seems (from what I've seen so far) that most, if not all, alternatives to the Inca Trail end up in Aguas Calientes, and then go up the hill by bus or walk in the morning, whereas only the Inca Trail has you arriving through the sun gate. Is that correct? And anyone who's done the inca trail - do you think arriving that way is special enough to make it worthwhile paying more?

Thanks!

do you think arriving that way is special enough to make it worthwhile paying more?

Definitely no.

Along the coast you can visit Pisco, Paracas & Islas Ballestas, Ica, and then proceed to Cuzco.