Cusco, Machu Picchu, and Sacred Valley 5-Day Tour

Although the tour is promoted as a 5-day Tour, the core tour is really just three and a half days. Still, what you get in that time is packed with history and scenic grandeur. The Cusco part of the tour is a combination of the Spanish heritage of the city, as well as the Inca heritage of the surrounding areas. The Sacred Valley tour is an all-day affair, with a buffet lunch in Ollantaytambo, and a return to the city center not your hotel. The Machu-Picchu part of the tour is in two parts - the first part is the scenic train ride to Aguas Calientes, a charming town in a wooded valley, with the afternoon free. The second part is the next day, with a bus ride to the entrance to Machu Picchu, some time to explore the site on your own, and a 2-hour guided tour of the site. At the end of the tour you return to Aguas Calientes and take the train back to Cusco. You need to be reasonably fit to enjoy some of the sites particularly Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, as they involve climbing hills that are occasionally steep. Our tour operator was very prompt and efficient, with airport pickup/drop off, hotel pickups for guided tours, and transfers. Our guides were knowledgeable and spoke English reasonably well. The people we met were warm and welcoming. All-in-all, Peru is a wonderful place to visit, and we were lucky to have a good travel outfit to take us around.

This is not a tour as one would define it. Mysterious Peru, which handled the tour, managed by Lenin Roman acts simply as a broker that then contracts several existing tours in the area and passes us around to whichever tour is available. The problems we encountered: 1 Booking dates were wrong but discovered at the last minute by my husband who thoroughly checked our travel itinerarythe Cusco tour was only part of multiple stops across South America! We expected it to be handled easily by this company-- given it appears on VIATOR, we were so wrong! 2.We were not picked up at the airport, had to call Lenin to pick us up, we were dropped at a hotel that did not have a booking for us!! Eventually we got into another hotel. 3 2nd day, again we were NOT picked up for our tour. We had to be driven by a taxi contracted by Lenin after we called to catch up with a tour, we had no reservation! 3.3rd day trip to Cusco, we were supposed to be picked up at 4:30AM -- NOT!! Called again, picked up by a van at 4:50 only to be transferred to taxi so we can be driven to Ollantaytambo 1 hr away and not miss our train to Aguas Callientes. At arrival in AC, again not picked up! Again, had to call. Tour at Macchu Picchu, we were transferred from one guide to another. Trip back from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo, we were so surprised that our names actually appeared on a list to go on a bus back to Cusco!! Last day, transfer to airport-- this time we proactively called so as not to be late for our plane. I cannot believe VIATOR would even have this tour on their list without vetting the company before listing it. We've been in numerous tours: Turkey, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and others and never had this horrid experience. We would have been so much better off had we booked all our tours upon arriving at Cusco, and booked the hotels ourselves!! I went via VIATOR, expecting a good experience --- NEVER again! I would rate less than 1 star if I could.

Tour for this 5 days were excellent for what we wanted to see and do. Guides were friendly and helpful. There were a couple of times when the tour contacts did not show on time to meet us - at Cusco Airport and at Aguas Calientes train station. Both times we had to get help calling our contacts. Overall, good value for the tour price.