We had a really great trip that we definitely...

Peru | Aug 31 - Sep 15, 2024

This hotel is right across from the airport, so extremely convenient. It's nothing special in terms of rooms or amenities, but it suited our needs perfectly (arrived to Lima late and had an early flight the next morning).

Great location if you're interested in exploring the Amazon rainforest, since it's relatively close to Puerto Maldonado (10 minute drive followed by a 45 minute boat ride). It also has more creature comforts than I suspect is typical for a jungle hotel, the food was better than I expected, and the excursions and the guides were excellent. One thing to be aware of is that there's no cell service there and they don't have wi-fi.

This was a gorgeous hotel and a convenient base for the Sacred Valley. We generally like to explore in the evenings and there really isn't much within walking distance, but we had long days and early mornings, so we were pretty tired by the time we got back anyway.

I absolutely loved this hotel. The location was perfect - extremely close to the train station and just a tiny bit off the main tourist strip so you could easily walk around but it was quiet at night. The giant jacuzzi in the room was perfect for after our Inca Trail hike.

This was easily my least favorite of the hotels we stayed at. The room was small and dark and had little annoyances - no outlets near the bed, which is frustrating since most people use Cusco as a base for early excursions, and just about everyone uses their phone as an alarm. There also wasn't a full-length mirror anywhere in the room and the bathroom only had one towel hook - these are such obvious oversights and easy fixes that it shows a lack of care on the hotel's part. The location was decent - it was on the main avenue, but the opposite end as a lot of stuff; we had a 15-20 minute walk to get to most bars, restaurants, and shops. On the positive side, the bed was comfortable and the staff were friendly.

Great location, right by the lake, with a private dock for excursions to the floating islands. I wish the overall ambiance in the common areas were better since there's nothing within walking distance. The restaurant and bar very much felt like you were sitting in a hotel lobby, but the quality of food and drink was pretty good. There also wasn't anywhere to refill water bottles. They sold large bottles for really cheap so it wasn't a huge deal, but it seemed unnecessary to waste all that plastic. The room was quite comfortable.

I loved this hotel. The location was perfect, right in the heart of Miraflores. It had all the amenities you might want, including a gym and heated rooftop pool, and a fun rooftop bar. The room was small but comfortable and well laid out, and soundproofing was excellent. We were right below the rooftop bar on Friday and Saturday night, and didn't hear any noise from it. The breakfast was also really good, and staff friendly.

I'm only going to do one review for the three days we were here, because the excursions were in a different order from this itinerary. We really enjoyed all of the activities though. There was a decent amount of physical activity but nothing too strenuous, and we saw some great wildlife over the course of the three days. We had the same guide each day, and he was was excellent.

I had no idea what to expect going into this activity, but I really enjoyed it. You really need to do it with a guide so that you actually know what you're looking at, and Julio was outstanding for that. The salt mines at Maras were really impressive, as was the Inca site at Moray, even more so when we were getting an explanation of their purpose while walking through them.

I think this was our first meal not at a hotel, and it was excellent. It was really fun to learn about and watch the underground cooking process (they essentially made a natural underground pressure cooker), and all the food was delicious. The farm also has a distillery and coffee roaster onsite - we were able to do a tasting at the distillery which was also fun.

The Inca site walk was really interesting and fun to explore. We didn't spend much time going through the village, I think because of our stop at a brewery on the way back. The timing worked out well for us since we had a very early start for the Inca trail the next day, but I wouldn't have minded a bit more time in the village.

Such a cool experience. I'm really glad we did this, rather than just taking the bus directly to Machu Picchu. The hike was hard but definitely manageable, and our guide was patient. Climbing up to the Sun Temple and getting the first birds eye view of Machu Picchu was incredible and made the whole experience worth it.

Great overview of Machu Picchu, really cool to walk through the ruins, and Julio's background information was really interesting and useful.

The food was really good, lots of options to choose from.

It was cool to interact directly with the bartender and watch him make unique cocktails. For each one, he gave us three straws for us to share the drink, and I would have strongly preferred that he divided them into three glasses, even though it would have impacted the presentation. Also, no cooking was involved; it was just drinks. That's fine, since we had a large lunch immediately after, but the title is misleading.

Great overview of the city, lots of interesting information.

Seledonia is such a fun personality, and the class was great. It was very hands on, and we had a great time.

This was about 10 hours including the stops. We had to get to Puno somehow, and a long bus ride is never going to be fun, and this one was relatively comfortable. The stops were nice in theory, but all of them were about twice as long as necessary - they ranged from 40-60 minutes, and 20-30 would have been sufficient to stretch our legs and see the sites. The bus was supposed to have wifi which they never turned on, and the guide was extremely talkative without really providing much useful information. Overall, a relatively comfortable way to get from Cusco to Puno though.

We had a private tour with pickup from our hotel's dock, which was really nice. It was great to meet with one of the local communities and see their way of life.

Worth a stop on the way to the airport, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. Fun to walk around the tombs though.

We did the evening tour due to a flight delay, and had a great time. There was a lot of back and forth between Barranco and Miraflores, which meant a lot of time in the car. I loved the guided walk around Barranco and there were plenty of restaurants there, so I think I would have preferred staying in that neighborhood and doing a walking food tour, especially since we were staying in Miraflores and it's very tourist friendly, so we could have done those spots on our own. We had a fun time though.