Luxury Peru

Lima

You are met on arrival at Lima airport off your chosen international flight and are transferred to the nearby airport hotel.

To the Sacred Valley

After breakfast you are collected from your hotel and escorted back to the airport for your flight to Cusco, where you are met on arrival and driven to the Sacred Valley for a 3 night stay. You will be touring en route to your hotel. First you pause at a village cooperative where llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos are kept for their wool. There are demonstrations of shearing, spinning, dyeing and weaving the wool into traditional textiles. Entering the Sacred Valley, you visit the Incan site of Pisac, a complex of ruins high on a hilltop overlooking the small traditional town. Descending to the town you visit the daily market, with stalls of local produce and crafts, and travel along the Sacred Valley through fields and meadows beside the Urubamba river. You visit the small Inkariy Museum of Peru’s ancient civilisations, and arrive at your hotel further down the Sacred Valley.

A free day to relax and enjoy your hotel in the Sacred Valley.

Your local guide comes to your hotel to accompany you on visits to three of the Sacred Valley’s most important sites. You first visit the intriguing circular Inca ruins on the altiplano at Moray, believed to have been a purpose-built agricultural research centre for high altitude crops. It is said that the stepped, circular terraces create 20 different micro-climates. Below Moray, on the steep sides of the Sacred Valley itself, you visit the spectacular salt-pans at Maras which date back to colonial times. Tiers of evaporation pools are fed by a natural salt spring, and carefully tended by local families to produce salt for the table. The array of glistening white arcs makes a spectacular sight. After lunch at a local restaurant, you arrive at the important Incan town of Ollantaytambo. You visit the Temple of the Sun, on a commanding site above the above the town, with walls of the finest Incan stonework and wonderful views across to mountain peaks of the Vilcabamba. You return to your hotel after a busy day.

Machu Picchu

This morning you board a ‘Vistadome’ scenic train for the wonderful ride on the single track that follows the Urubamba river as it tumbles deeper into the mountains, arriving at the busy village of Machu Picchu Pueblo, below the ruins. You check in at your hotel and take lunch there or in the village, then travel by bus up to Machu Picchu itself, the Lost City of the Incas, perched on a mountain top at 2400m and lost for 400 years until its rediscovery by Hiram Bingham in 1911. By ascending to the ruins shortly after lunch the main morning crush of day trippers should have begun to disperse. With luck you will experience Machu Picchu in relative peace, just as it should be. We could arrange for you to walk the ‘Royal Incan Trail’ to the citadel, if permits are available; please ask us well in advance.

You might like to return to Machu Picchu to see it in the early morning, and before the site gets too busy. We provide tickets for this just in case. In the late afternoon, after a day in this unforgettable place, you take the train through to Cusco, the imperial capital of the Inca Empire. (It is possible to upgrade to the legendary Hiram Bingham train, with dinner on board, for this memorable journey). In Cusco you stay 3 nights at a central hotel.

Cusco

After breakfast, you visit the ruins of the massive Incan Saqsawaman complex overlooking the city, with guide. In the afternoon you explore the city of Cusco itself on a guided tour. Starting in the San Cristobal Plaza, with its panoramic view over the city, you visit St Peter’s Market, packed with stalls selling all kinds of local produce, including more varieties of potato and maize than you imagined possible. You visit the astonishing Qoricancha Temple, whose walls were once lined with gold, the Hatun Rumiyoc, pass through the craft quarters of the city, and visit the Inca Roca Palace (today the Archbishop’s Palace). You pass dramatic Inca walls and stop at the famous stone with twelve sides, before continuing to the main square and Cusco’s Cathedral, which houses priceless colonial paintings including a Peruvian interpretation of the Last Supper where guinea pig is served.

A free day to explore Cusco by yourself.

Lake Titicaca

You are collected from your hotel for your flight to Juliaca where you are met and driven to Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca for an overnight stay. We can arrange for you to reach Puno by luxury scenic train if you prefer.

Suasi Island

At 7am Suasi Island Lodge's own boat departs from its pier in Puno ferrying you and other guests across Lake Titicaca to their private island close to the distant shore. On the way you call at the floating reed islands of the Uros community. You walk, squidgily, on the reeds and learn about the Uros people’s extraordinary way of life. To keep afloat the islands are topped up with fresh reeds every 2-3 weeks. The Uros see themselves as the oldest and most distinguished community on the earth, and are very hospitable to the upstarts who come to visit. Your boat then reaches the rocky island of Taquile, home to masters of textile crafts. The women spin yarn and weave using backstrap looms to create intricately designed belts while the men fish, cultivate potatoes and are experts at knitting. There will be an opportunity to hear about their traditions and buy their high quality handicrafts. Crossing Lake Titicaca you arrive on the other side at Suasi Island and dock at the small pier below your lodge. You arrive around midday, in time to settle into your room before lunch. On sunny days lunch may be served on the garden terrace overlooking the lake, or even at the waters edge. In the late afternoon you might join others for a walk on the island with the resident guide, perhaps to a hill top lookout for a superb view across Lake Titicaca at sunset. After dark on a clear night the skies are ideal for star-gazing the southern constellations.

A morning free to relax or explore Suasi island on foot or perhaps by kayak. The boat departs shortly after midday, returning directly to Puno for 1 night, a crossing of a little less than 3 hours. A picnic lunch is provided on board, but bear in mind that the lake can get choppy: you may prefer to wait until you reach dry land. To avoid the crossing you could at extra cost stay on the island and leave next morning. A short zodiac ride takes you to the shore, and the rough road direct to Puno’s Juliaca airport.

Lima

From Puno, you visit the pre-Incan cemetery of the Hatun Colla chiefs in Sillustani, on the shores of Lake Umayo. This is famous for its funerary towers or ‘chullpas’ up to 6 metres tall. Continuing to the airport at Juliaca you catch your flight to Lima, where you are met on arrival and driven to your hotel in the Miraflores district, with some free time to relax.

Most of today is free for you to enjoy Lima in your own way. You might make a special thing of lunch, sampling Lima’s very fashionable, and excellent, gastronomy. We could arrange a guide for you today at modest additional cost. At the appropriate time you are taken to the airport by private vehicle for your chosen flight home. You could extend this trip in several ways, eg to include an Amazon cruise, or a trip to the Galapagos Islands.