Recently, we took our four children ages 10, 8, 5 and 2 on a trip to Peru. The main reason for choosing this location was to visit one of the seven wonders of world: Machu Picchu. There are many other historic and cultural things to see and do there as well that made it a wonderful and memorable trip for our family. The purpose of this particular post is to walk you through the logistics of planning a trip to Machu Picchu. Our trip lasted eight days and took place at the end of September/beginning of October (Fall Break from school for our kids). This is the end of winter for Peru.
First off, know that in order to purchase many of the items listed below, you will need your passport. You should also be aware that you must show your passport at your hotel to avoid a VAT (tax) and you need to show it at other places including Machu Picchu in order to get in. It is also a good idea to make copies of your passports and keep them in a separate place while traveling in case the originals get lost. You will also need to get immunizations. Check with a travel clinic to see what they recommend for you. We went to Passport Health which has clinics all over the country.
Before we left, we organized and purchased many of the tickets for travel beforehand. We did not, however, purchase tours as we were told that we could arrange them there and at a less expensive rate.
For the flight to Lima, we used google.com/flights to find the best deals. If you are not familiar with this tool, go the the website and enter your airport locations. Then click on the calendar and dollar amounts will appear on each day. Once you choose your days, it will show you which airline is associated with the price listed. You can then choose the flights you want and it eventually leads you to that particular airline's website. You then make the purchase from the airline directly. If you choose an airline like Spirit--which is the airline we used--just know that you must pay for anything extra: baggage, snacks, drinks, etc. This is part of the reason you can fly for less. If you know this in advance, you can be prepared and avoid any frustration.
Next, we chose our flights from Lima to Cusco and back. We used google.com/flights again which led us to LATAM airlines https://www.latam.com/en_us/, but it was a bit deceiving because the prices quoted were for Peruvians (which are at a cheaper price). One thing we really liked about flying in Peru with kids is that your family is a priority for everything: checking-in, security, getting on the plane. It was great and really helped move things along quickly.
When we arrived in Cusco, we took a taxi to Ollyantaytambo which was about a two hour drive. There are many people there waiting to offer you rides to where you need to go. We paid about $50. It is advisable not to stay in Cusco since it is at 11,000 feet and you need time to adjust to the altitude. As it is, Ollyantaytambo is 9,000 feet and Machu Picchu is 8,000. If I were to do it again, I would not stay in Ollyantaytambo for the first night in the Sacred Valley. Instead, I would take the train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (6,700 feet) which is the valley below Machu Picchu and take it easy the rest of the day, visit Machu Picchu the next day, and then head back to Ollyantaytambo that evening.
The reason I would stay in Ollyantaytamo after visiting Machu Picchu is that it is lower in altitude than other places in the Sacred Valley, and you can purchase tours that take you around the Sacred Valley. I also really liked it there. You can buy a ticket to the ruins in four places: Ollyantaytambo, Moray (11,000 feet) Chincheros (12,000 feet) and Cusco. Our guide took us to the place to buy these tickets. You have the option of buying a two, four or ten day pass. These are all cities within the Sacred Valley. Here is a link to a map so that you can visualize the geography:
http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/destinations/cusco/sacredvalley.html.
We did the ruins at Moray and Ollyantaytambo and also the salt mines in Maras (not included in the ticket), but we were too tired to do Cusco and Chinceros that same day and we didn't have time the next. It's okay, though, because our kids didn't want to see more ruins anyway. We opted instead to do the Choco Museo in Ollyantaytambo where we made chocolate molds and learned about the process of making chocolate. This was an enjoyable experience and I would definitely recommend it for kids.
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| Inca Ruin at Moray |
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| Inca Ruin at Ollyantaytambo |
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| Salt ponds in Maras in use since Inca times. |
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| Making chocolate molds at the Choco Museo in Ollyantaytambo. |
What I didn't know is that Moray and Maras (salt mines) were as high in altitude as Cusco or I would not have done those the first day. Even though we enjoyed seeing the sights, our hearts were racing and it was difficult to breathe. Later that day, two of us succumbed to altitude sickness and lost our lunch. Getting a long night's rest and a lot of water helped us to recover. (It was VERY dry there as it was their dry season--especially compared to Atlanta where we live.)
When we finally made our way to Chincheros, we visited a weaving cooperative which was another enjoyable cultural experience. The demonstration was free and at the end, they show your their wares and give you an opportunity to purchase which we absolutely interested in doing. They also had alpacas there for the children to feed. I cannot emphasize enough how much our kids loved this!
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| Weaving Cooperative |
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| Plants and insects used to dye the wool. |
Next, we purchased the train tickets from Peru Rail http://www.perurail.com/ from Ollyantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (which is basically the valley below Machu Picchu). There are four different options (with another one coming in 2017): the Expedition-this is the least expensive train. They give you a drink and Inca Corn. Be advised that the ride on this train is very rocky. We took this train from Aguas Caliente back to Ollyantaytambo. I wouldn't recommend it unless you really want to save money. The next level is the Visadome: We took this train to Aguas Caliente. It has nice large windows for the view, you are served a drink and a snack. It's a smooth ride. The other two are the the Andean Explorer and the Blemond Hiram Bingham. Each level is nicer and provides more services than the last.
We also bought entrance tickets to Machu Picchu. http://ticketmachupicchu.com/. They only allow a certain number of people per day, so you'll definitely want to buy these before hand. You can ride a bus to the entrance if you don't plan on hiking up the Inca Trail, which we of course didn't want to do with our young children. The night before visiting Machu Picchu, we bought the bus tickets for the ride up there. It was open until 9:30 PM.
Most of us wore long sleeves for our day in Machu Picchu. You'll want to take insect repellent, of course, but the long sleeves to help. I would also recommend layering. When we got there in the morning, it was quite cool, but later it warmed up. Even in the warmth, the locals still wear long sleeves--most likely to keep the insects off their skin.
You can hire a guide at the entrance to Machu Picchu. I recommend getting a guide. I read online to make sure you are satisfied with how well they speak English and don't try to bargain for the price as they are all about the same. Our tour was about two hours long. Our tour guide also informed us that we were allowed to enter the gates three times. There is only one thing I wish I would have known: the artifacts from Machu Picchu are in a museum in Cusco. Our guide told us that the artifacts were at Yale University and, well, they used to be. I looked it up on the Internet after we had flown back to Lima and that is when I found our that they are in Cusco. I wish I would have know that so that we could have visited that museum when we were there!
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| Machu Picchu |
After our stay in in Ollyantaytambo, we went to Cusco and spent some time touring the city and stayed the night before flying back to Lima.
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| Cristo Blanco |
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| Cusco Cathedral |
Lima was wonderful and I would not skip spending some time there. The Plaza de Armas is beautiful and you can definitely see the Spanish influence in the city. Since this post is mainly about logistics there is one of which I must warn you: taxi drivers will not necessarily know how to get you from a place in the city to your hotel and they may or may not have GPS or a cell phone. We quickly learned this in the first couple of days. So made sure to get maps and even asked our hotel to print off directions from a specific location back to our hotel. This helped so much!
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| At the Magic Water Circuit |
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| Cathedral of Lima |
For lodging, we used booking.com to book places to stay. We chose B&Bs and even an apartment in Cusco because there were six of us. My best tips are to read the reviews, and look at the pictures (make sure there are a lot of them). Don't be surprised if it looks nice on the inside and (when you get there) not so nice on the outside (I'm mostly referring to the neighborhood). All of the places had kind hosts and wonderful breakfasts.
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| All the breakfasts included fruit. |
Last of all, if you do not speak Spanish, I would recommend getting the iTranslate app. We found it very useful as not everyone speaks English and we speak very little Spanish. You can even use it offline.
I hope this give you a good starting point for planning your trip to Machu Picchu. Happy travels!
