Unexpected Peru Tour for Seniors

We just returned from a trip to Peru and the Galapagos Islands. We visited Lima, the Amazon, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and Cusco, with an overnight stay in Quito.

The Zicasso-recommended travel agency created the perfect itinerary for us. All of the transitioning from place to place was seamless, the hotels were beautiful, the recommendations for restaurants were great, and the guides we had were amazing. They were so enthusiastic and willing to share their knowledge about past and current history. We were so impressed with our travel agency that we are already considering our next journey with them.

The trip was great! All the arrangements in Peru were seamless, the quality of guides excellent, the hotels an experience in themselves. We had some of the most fabulous meals of our lives. Lima 27, In Lima, and Limon in Cusco were notable. Peruvians seemed proud of their country and anxious to give you such a good time you would go home and tell all your friends to come. However, our tour guides in Ecuador provided more of a 3 star experience.

We had an absolutely wonderful time in Peru this February. We are so thankful for our travel agent for making a perfect itinerary for our family of four. She was great to work with. Having read variety of things about Peru on the internet, we were extremely anxious especially for a February trip. We called our agent many times prior to the trip and she reassured us. She was always there to answer all of our questions.  Her itinerary was perfect as we were gradually acclimatized to the high elevations of Cusco.

In Peru, we were very well taken care of, right from the moment we stepped out at Lima airport. At both Lima and Cusco airports, we were greeted by happy and welcoming people. In Lima, our guide was accommodating, friendly and funny. In Cusco, our guide and our driver made us feel very comfortable. They accommodated all of our requests. At  no point of time were we rushed to do things. The Cusco guide is well informed and sincere in her tasks. She is clearly passionate about her country and its rich culture and heritage. She gave us detailed accounts of Incan history, artifacts and ruins. She got very friendly with our two kids. We had wonderful time hiking to Sungate and Inca bridge. We felt like we had travelled in the past. The ruins are spectacular and the travel team made a life time experience. The hotels chosen were excellent. Our agent also booked our lunches in wonderful restaurants with ethnic Peruvian ambiance. Our family had special time interacting with weaver family  in Chincheros. Overall Cusco, Ollantaytambo, Urubamba are wonderful places to visit. It does take you to different time period. We were told by many to avoid the month of February due to rainy season but ended up having a lovely weather the entire week. The highlight of our Machu Picchu trip was seeing a rainbow over the ruins. This has been an unforgettable experience for us!

Lima Hotel:

Very far from the airport if you're only stopping in Lima for 1 night. In traffic, the drive is close to1 hour. If you are going to explore Miraflores or Lima, then not a bad location for the hotel.

Small room, but comfortable beds. Did not try breakfast as our flight was early in the morning and thebreakfast didn't start until 6:30AM if I'm remembering correctly.

Overall a decent hotel. Not luxurious. A good clean place to sleep if you're exploring Miraflores or otherparts of Lima. Not good if you only have a 1 night stopover in Lima on your way to other parts of Peru.

Cusco Hotel

Room was tiny. No room even for a medium sized suitcase to be opened anywhere between the two twinbeds. The bathroom is even smaller. The flush of the toilet was broken so every use required you to insert your arm in the flush's water to replace the rubber and chain stopper inside there, so it could fill up with water again (for the next person's flushing pleasures). We informed the maid, and she said she knows it's broken. We informed the front desk upon checkout, and it seemed that the woman there was also aware of this issue. Strange that they'd give usa room with a broken flush if they already know about it... but let's give them the benefit of doubt. We stayed in this hotel again upon our return from Machu Picchu for 1 more night. This time, room was bigger and had a working toilet with flush! Wow! It was a good room, good breakfast. We left our suitcases with the hotel on the day of check out (august 1st), and when we got back at 2pm to get the luggage, the hard-cased suitcase was cracked and broken bothin the front and back. The smaller suitcase's handle was also cracked down the middle and came apart into two pieces. It seems that the porter may have dropped the suitcases down some stairs and failed to inform us, or perhaps they got “crushed” somehow while in their storage. The bigger suitcase is hard-cased on the outside, so it really has tolerated all my travels around the world without any issues. It did not survive this hotel. Will they pay us back for two ruined suitcases? I doubt it. But our travel agency has supposedly filed some claim with the hotel, but that was in July, and now it is September and I haven't heard a word from them about the ruined suitcase reimbursements or even an apology.

Machu Pichhu Pueblo/Aguas Calientes Hotel:

If your tour company books this hotel for you as part of your tour package, get a different tour company.

Our entire Peru excursion was booked by this agency. I have let them know how terrible this hotel is. Here is my review of the room and food. HORRIBLE hotel. Cannot be an international 3 star designation as they claim.

Clean, but very noisy. Could hear your neighbor cough or fart as you tried to sleep through the polluted air that smelled like diesel fuel. Noise from the trains which are right outside your window will also help you avoid those much needed zzzzs, which is exactly what you want if you've been hiking all day: a noisy room where sleep is hard to come by. Yes, friends, you sense a lot of sarcasm there.

Breakfast was the bare minimum: the bread slices were HARD, as in old. When I pointed this out to the nice man present at breakfast, he informed me that he just checked and all the bread is “slightly hard” because they don't have a bakery up here in machu picchu pueblo/aguas calientes. Well then. Don't serve old hard bread! Serve good fresh fruit, good eggs (not soggy and old ones), good meat or cheese etc. The cereal was a little stale as well compared to what we ate in Cusco's hotel.

Our Travel Agency:

Guide (born in Lima, lives inCusco, went to university for tourism):

On the Sacred Valley tour, we were supposed to see Chinchero, then Maras, then have lunch, and check outMoroy in the afternoon after lunch according to the provided schedule for the day. However, our guide wanted to get back to his son as it was his turn to watch him it seems. So he said that the tour will be done before lunch. He rushed us through Chinchero instead of letting us walk around the gorgeous scenery. After I insisted that we go check out some stores (which is what chinchero is famous for, it's textile), he took us to a wonderful shop where I bought a poncho. I would've kept shopping in other stores had he given us the time to explore. Instead he said that since we are doing all 3 sites BEFORE lunch, and lunch finishes at 2:30pm, we need to HURRY. So we were hustled to the salt ponds andthe terraces quite quickly, and then got to lunch at 2:45pm when the buffet was already being picked up. No more vegetarian options left for my growling stomach. No more chicken left for my family. We spoke with the waiters and they got some more food out for us, but it was LEFTOVER food, not good as it was at the restaurant the day before.Had we gotten to lunch ON TIME, we would've had a good buffet to choose from. But again, our guide wanted to be finished BEFORE lunch he told us, even though our itinerary said otherwise, and we even told him we didn't want only a HALF day tour when we paid for a full day tour.

By the time we got to our hotel, I was so exhausted from being rushed around on an empty stomach in the sun,that I crashed hard with a headache. Not a good way to explore a place with a guide, especially when I compare this with my guide last week in Argentina. That was a relaxing exploration where we weren't rushed, the guide knew that we'd stop for photos and even took us to hidden parts of little Argentinian towns. I fell in love with the small towns of Argentina because of this visit there and the wonderful tour company and guide. Not the case with this tour withthis guide. We felt rushed, and we felt as if we were an obligation for our hired guide.

THE INCA TRAIL WITH guide bookedby our travel agency:

This guide's heart is not in the hike. He treated it like a job he did not want to do. Dragging his feet, forcing himself to show up to work, so to speak. Instead of smiling and loving the natural beauty all around us, he was grumpy, silent,and walking many feet ahead of us the entire time. We didn't even see him on the hike most of the time, he was that far ahead. When we climbed to the top of the stairs or climbs, we'd find him sitting there waiting for us. But always on his phone, on Facebook or calling people. We got the least amount of information from him about the site of machu picchu or the inca trail while we hiked with him. The few times we spoke, he talked about how his Cusco friend is fat, his wife and him are no longer a couple but live together, his son didn't let him sleep last night, and he is “not a morning person.”Well, sir, get a different job that'd make you happier if traveling to the gorgeous mountains of the inca trail is not something that gives you pleasure. The agency should not hire him or put other well-paying guests through the pain of having a disgruntled or grumpy guide who doesn't give any information unless you ask him pointed questions, who never smiles unless he's mocking a friend's weight or accent. He seemed to think himself better than the other guidesbecause “he went to university.” But the other guides we met on the trek were smiling, laughing, and talking to their guests animatedly while our university man was silent and moping and always ahead of us on the trail instead of being close as the other guides were. He definitely was a negative shadow in our once-in-a-lifetime inca trail trek.

Our travel agency was very well organized. Someone picked us up in Lima airport, took us to hotel,from hotel back to airport. Another person met us at cusco airport, took us to hotel, and met us there at the beginning of all our tours. Our agent is very good. He answers all questions well, provides additional information about the town and is a great person to have work for your company. He seems hard working and honest.

Overall: I would not book with this company again. 

Our trip was arranged and booked by this agent at this travel company. We were in Peru from May 10 thru May 22. We visited The Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cusco, Lake Titicaca, and Lima. Our agent also made dinner reservations for us at the Cicciolina restaurant in Cusco and Astrid & Gaston restaurant in Lima.  We even got a chance to meet him in Cusco as he was nice enough to stop by with his two children and see us at our hotel in Cusco. He is a gentleman and the best travel agent we have ever worked with. The whole trip was flawless. People picked us on time.  Tour guides were friendly and knowledgeable.  The hotels were clean and staff were extremely helpful.  There is nothing else we could have asked for.  We were very fortunate to have been referred to this agent.  Working with a travel agent who lives in the country and has visited the places he recommends certainly paid off.  If anyone is thinking of taking a trip to Peru this agent is the person who you want to plan your trip.  We can't thank him enough for the trip he planned for us.  Also, both before and after we booked our trip with him I have many questions about the trip and the final Travel Document.  He was highly responsive in answering my questions and providing us with the information we needed.  I don't know what else I can say.  If this agent ever comes to visit Tennessee (we live in Franklin just South of Nashville), we told him he and his family are welcome to visit!

Your overall comments on Zicasso

My wife found you on the internet. We talked with many travel agents before she found you but we were never comfortable with them. They just farmed out what we wanted to another travel agent who booked Peru. As we learned from our agent they were grossly inferior. Only when we found this agent did we feel like we were talking to someone who knew what they were talking about. He was also sensitive to the cost of the trip.

Our family of four had a great trip to Peru! Zicasso’s travel agency put together a pretty elaborate 12-day tour that included Lima, Paracas, Nasca, Ica, Sacred Valley, and Cusco from Los Angeles.

The hotels were nice, the optional activity and restaurant recommendations were perfect, and the guides and drivers were fantastic. They really attended to all the details and made it a great vacation.