anyone been on the Machu Picchu cruise tour?

[Duane T]

We had nice weather. Regarding clothing at Machu Picchu, what they recommended was correct. Hat, water, sunscreen. It was warm enough for shorts but the temperature can change depending on clouds. Bring bug repelent...vendors will sell to you at the front gate or train station but I just got one of those repellent wipes from a local store back home. That was the only time I used it.

 

The Peruvian immigration form is given to you when you arrive at the airport. They keep half and give you the other half. Lima Tours asked the hotel to make a copy of it and then they give copies to all the Peru hotels at checkin. I also took a picture of it just in cast I misplaced it but it was nice to know the Lima Tours people have a copy as well.

[Duane T]

We're on day 5 of cruise AFTER the Machu Picchu cruisetour. Several great fellow passengers on our cruisetour have scheduled two get-togethers and a group photo. One story that seemed to have surfaced by 8 or 9 members of our cruisetour group revolved around gastro-intestinal aches and pains starting on the day we boarded and the next day. The seas were rough leaving Santiago Chile so that may have complicated the reported illnesses, but I thought I'd restate one key guideline from the cruisetour:

 

Eat cooked food and don't drink tap water or iced drinks.

 

Other than the rough seas for the first 2 days or so, the cruise itself seems less of a challenge after doing the Machu Picchu cruisetour.

[SydneyOysters]

If you decide to go it yourself before or after the cruise I thoroughly recommend patagoniashorex dot com with whom we did a 5 day side trip during our SA cruise last March Jamie will give you the best time ever and take care of everything. To confirm this try tripadvisor for his company

 

Many thanks Yvonne for the advise to use Jaime wwww.patagoniashorex.com.

We have just returned from our trip and wanted to share my review.

 

 

I was given Jaime details jaimeliebrecht@gmail.com http://www.patagoniashorex.com from a lady who had traveled to Machu Picchu with him.

How lucky was I,when ever I contacted Jaime all of his responses we very very prompt.I once asked him if he ever slept & his response was only with one eye.

He also has a great sense of humour.

 

We chose to come home from our traveling on the Dawn Princess which was sailing from Southampton to Sydney in July 2014 so we could do Machu Picchu.

I chose to take a group of eleven, some we had sailed with before & some who contacted me from our roll call on Cruise Critic a great site for cruisers.

 

We left the ship in Mantra on the 3/8/14 and took taxies ( US$15 )per taxi to the airport for a quick flight to Quito.Jaime had checked us all in on line & emailed me the boarding passes.He did this for all flights except Quito to Lima which was an international flight.

All flights were with Avianca Airlines except the short fight Manta to Quito which was with Tame. All our flights were on time unlike the some of the flights (Tame) that were used by the ships tours & some private tours delayed by 5 hours to Lima.

 

Jaime was in Lima to meet us 9.20pm on the 3/8 a few hours sleep at the SM Hotel & Business this hotel was a fifteen minute drive to the airport.We arrived in Cusco at 7.30am to be meet by our wonderful guide Luis Ccori who is an archaeologist.

We stayed at Palacio del Inka http://www.hoteleslibertador.com.pe

Everyone had time to rest & a few of us did get some altitude sickness (bad headache) but there was oxygen at hand when you needed it & lots of cocoa tea.

One couple did start medication for altitude sickness a couple of days before leaving the ship they had no issues with the altitude & If I was to go to Cusco again I would defiantly take altitude medication.(it does contain Aspirin so no good for those who are allergic to Aspirin)

 

We all loved the Palacio Del Inka Hotel amazing.

After a lovely lunch in the hotel we left for our tour around Cusco.

It's was an amazing day & we did get to see so much,Luis is so knowledgeable & passionate we felt very privileged to have him with us.

Jaime took us for drinks to his friends family house great view over Cusco,and then dinner at the hotel.

 

Next morning after a lovely breakfast we left to explore the Sacred Valley on route we stopped see Llamas,and how there wool is spun & dyed.There were products you could buy & people in local costume very colourful. We spent some time at the town of Pisaq with a lovely market.

We stopped for lunch Tunupa Vally,then headed for Ollantaytambo.

This was another amazing town again we were so lucky to have Luis explaining so much of what was surrounding us.

This is where we boarded the train around 7 pm to Aguas Calientes

 

We arrived in to the town of Aguas Calientes in the dark, the train goes through the centra of town with the river running along quite lovely. We were staying at El Mapi Hotel http://www.elmapi.com

There were porters from the hotel to take our luggage to the hotel for us,this was really great.We all kept our luggage to one small case each.

Once we arrived at the hotel in the middle of town,we were given our rooms with a voucher for a free Pisco Sours drink with dinner.

Dinner was included in the price & was very good.

Next morning up early and after a good breakfast we checked out.

The hotel kept our luggage while we went up to Machu Picchu ,and would delivered the cases back to us at the station for our return trip to Cusco.

 

After a very short walk we joined the very long queue for the bus.

There had been a land slide on the road going up to Machu Picchu over night.

But it was all good fun & we spoke to different people along the way & took photos.

The bus ride is about 20 minuets up to Machu Picchu great views along the way.

We arrived just after eight o'clock and after a quick toilet stop (there are no toilet on the site)then join the small queue to enter the site.

There are two ways to go left or right,we took the left turn which is a steeper climb.

This works out so much better as you arrive at the top & can then work your way around the site in decline. The climb is not hard we had varying ages 50 to 80 we all made it with encouragement from Jaime & Luis.

We had clouds early on then bright sun shine,this made for some amazing photos.

 

This is truly a once in a life time experience we had an amazing guide with Luis who explained the different areas of the site.

We spent about four hours on the site and everyone loved every minute of it.

Once down Jaime made sure we had our passports stamped with Machu Picchu .

We had a great lunch at The Sanctuary with a local group who played music,very colourful. It felt so very good to relax knowing we had explored this amazing site.

It was then on to the bus back down the Mountain to the train station.

 

Our luggage was waiting for us at the railway station, and this is were we had to say good bye to our amazing guide Luis who we will be forever grateful for his wonderful knowledge of this amazing part of the world.

At 3.30am we caught the Vistadome train back to Poroy.

This was a lovely trip, with great views & we were all seated in the same area of the train.

We were served food & a drink and once that was over the staff then changed to model all the wonderful clothes made from lama wool,which you can purchase.

When we arrived at Poroy station we boarded our coach for Cusco.

We stayed again at the wonderful Palacio del Inka hotel,

After our last dinner together we retired for a great nights sleep.

 

Jamie traveled with us to the airport for our flight at 7.30 am to Lima.

After a half day tour of Lima we had to say good bye to Jaime as he delivered us to the ship. Every one on this tour were so very happy with every thing & that we had a tour operator that stay with us on this amazing trip.

 

We had an amazing four months holiday but the the highlight of this trip was our five days with Jaime.

This man is all about customer service and he delivered so much,he joined us in Lima & stayed with us for throughout this amazing journey.

We will all be for ever grateful to him for all his work to make this dream come true.

When we plan our trip to South America it will be with Jaime.

 

Regards

Marie

[landnsea]

We are tentatively planning on the the South American cruise in 2015 that starts in Santiago and ends in Los Angeles. Princess also offers a 6 nights land tour to Machu Picchu. It is expensive, but this has been on our "bucket list"for quite a few years and figured we should take advantage of it before we get too old (I'm in my 60th's and DH is in his 70"s). I wondered if anyone has taken this in the past and could give me some feedback. Any and all comments are appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

Hello, what we did is copied the same itinerary as Princess and booked our own custom tour ourselves ,do your homework lots of tour companies to choose from

We went with Peru Four Less, kinda funny we kept running in to the Princess group , we saved a Bucket full of money doing it ourselfs.

Good Luck.

 

John,Laura and Gaby

Seattle,Wa.

Go Hawks