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Peru Highlights Tour, An Overview of the Best Peru has to Offer Travelers
Duration: 11 days
Cost: $2,795/Person
Upgrade: +$120 - Flight to Lake Titicaca (Cusco - Juliaca)
Upgrade: +$195 First Class train to Lake Titicaca (Cusco - Puno)
(Trains depart Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday only)
The Peru Highlights tour is an excellent overview of the best that Peru has to offer. On this exciting tour, your Peru travels take you to the Amazon basin rainforest in a dug-out canoe. Stay in an impressive lodge, complete with an ethno-botanical center and experienced guides to teach you the ways of the rainforest. This ideal Peru tour continues with a trip to the hidden citadel of Machu Picchu, through the magnificent Sacred Valley in the Andes. Finally, the trip ends with a visit to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.
If a private departure would best suit your needs, please contact us to discuss details and costs.
Peru Highlights Tour Itinerary
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Day 1 (Fri) LIMA
View Lima accommodations picture gallery
Transfer to your hotel and settle in. If you arrive early, we can arrange optional museum visits or tours of the city and surrounding sites.
View Optional Pre-Itinerary Tour Extensions
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Day 2 (Sat) LIMA - PTO MALDONADO - AMAZON JUNGLE LODGE
Accommodations at Posada Amazonas OR Sandoval Lake Lodge depending on availability.
Take a morning transfer to the airport for a flight to Puerto Maldonado. A one-hour motorized canoe kicks off your Peru ecotour. Ride up Peru's Tambopata River to arrive at the lodge. After you've had an opportunity to unpack and unwind, you'll have a short welcome orientation and a complete briefing about the lodge and the Ecotourism Project before the afternoon's activity, climbing the Canopy Tower. The Canopy Tower is a 115 ft-high scaffolding offering spectacular views of the river and the surrounding forest. (B,L,D)
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Day 3 (Sun) PUERTO MALDONADO
Accommodations at Posada Amazonas OR Sandoval Lake Lodge depending on availability.
Rise at dawn for a visit to the Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake. After an early breakfast, depart from Posada Amazonas by boat and take a brief walk to the lake shore. From here, you'll embark on a long, easy canoe ride around the lake, scouting out giant river otters, turtles, the beautifully odd hoatzin bird and wading birds. Return to the trails in time for an incredible photo opportunity at a small parakeet clay lick where dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of parakeets congregate. In the afternoon, your Peru tour continues with a visit to the community's ethno-botanical center where you'll hike with one of the residents and learn about the everyday uses of Peru's forest resources in medicine, construction, food and fiber. Return to the lodge for the evening. (B,L,D)
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Day 4 (Mon) PTO MALDONADO - CUSCO
View Cusco accommodations picture gallery
Today’s Peru travel consists of an early departure downriver to Pto. Maldonado and then a transfer to the airport for a short flight to Cusco, center of the Inca Empire. Southern Explorations' guides pick you up at the airport, taking you on a quick tour of the beautiful Plaza de Armas. From there, go to your hotel to relax and acclimatize to the altitude (10,856 ft). (B)
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Day 5 (Tue) CUSCO
View Cusco accommodations picture gallery
A guided walking tour through the colorful markets of Cusco, the colonial cathedral, and Koricancha, the impressive Temple of the Sun, starts the day. After a lunch of excellent local cuisine, take an afternoon tour of temples and other important Inca sights in the vicinity of Cusco. These Peru tour highlights include: the fortress of Sacsayhuamán, with its megalithic stone terraces; Kenko, with its carved stone surfaces and subterranean altars; the small fortress of Puka Pukara that protected the royal capital from attacks; and the water temple, Tambo Machay. You'll return to the comfort of your hotel in the late afternoon with time to relax or explore Cusco on your own. (B)
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Day 6 (Wed) CUSCO - SACRED VALLEY
View Sacred Valley accommodations picture gallery
Learn about the history of the Sacred Valley on a day-long guided tour, visiting the picturesque Pisac textiles market and the nearby Inca ruins. After lunch head for Ollantaytambo (9,185 ft.), a small town with an impressive Inca fortress, where you'll spend the night at a local hotel. (B,L)
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Day 7 (Thu) SACRED VALLEY - OLLANTAYTAMBO - MACHU PICCHU
View Machu Picchu accommodations picture gallery
Begin the day with a filling breakfast at the hotel and a guided walking tour of the Ollantaytambo ruins and town. Head to the Ollantaytambo train station mid-morning for your picturesque train to Aguas Calientes. The scenery during the two-hour ride through the Urubamba gorge is a collage of mountain vegetation and cloud forest. After a delicious lunch in town, a bus ride will bring you to the mountain citadel of Machu Picchu (7,875 ft.), for a full-day guided tour. You will then return to nearby Aguas Calientes in the late afternoon to spend the night. (B)
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Day 8 (Fri) MACHU PICCHU - CHINCHEROS ARTISAN MARKET - CUSCO
View Cusco accommodations picture gallery
Today you have the option of rising early rise to get some early morning photographs of Machu Picchu before the crowds arrive or sleep in and explore the village. Up at the ruins you can also hike to the Temple of the Moon, the Sun Gate, or Huayna Picchu. Return to town for lunch and your early afternoon train that will take you back to Ollantaytambo. Here, meet your driver and travel to the cooperative Chincheros Textile Market known for some of the best textiles in Peru. The local artisans will explain the process and traditions of their beautiful craft and you will have time for last minute shopping. Transfer back to your Cusco hotel. (B)
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Day 9 (Sat) CUSCO - LAKE TITICACA
View Puno accommodations picture gallery
Today's all-day adventure takes you over the altiplano (high plains) by bus to reach Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca where you'll be spending the night. This majestic body of water is definitely a must-photograph portion of your Peru tour. (B)
Travel Cusco - Puno, via bus at no extra charge.
Upgrade: +$120 - Flight to Lake Titicaca (Cusco - Juliaca)
Upgrade: +$195 First Class train to Lake Titicaca (Cusco - Puno)
(Trains depart Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday only)
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Day 10 (Sun) LAKE TITICACA
View Puno accommodations picture gallery
In the morning, take a short drive to Puno harbor for an 8 AM departure across the intensely blue lake by boat, stopping briefly at the famous floating Uros Islands before continuing on to peaceful Taquile Island. Here you'll visit a community of male weavers and spinners who live in a Mediterranean-like setting. In the late afternoon, return to explore the shops and markets of Puno, reputedly Peru's best place to buy alpaca clothing, a great source of souvenirs of your Peru travel. (B, L)
Lake Titicaca, the legendary birthplace of the first Incan emperor, is South America's largest freshwater lake, extending across the border with Bolivia. It is the remnant of an ancient inland sea, one of just seventeen such lakes remaining in the world.
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Day 11 (Mon) LAKE TITICACA - LIMA - RETURN HOME
Enjoy breakfast at the hotel on this relaxing free morning before going to the outskirts of Puno to see the mysterious pre-Inca ruins called chullpas including those on a peninsula in Lake Umayo at Sillustani, set against the stark altiplano landscape. These giant cylindrical funerary towers are where the Colla people (a warrior tribe that spoke Aymara) buried their elite. Some as tall as forty feet with exquisite stonemasonry, these structures are considered by many archaeologists and historians to be more complex and superior even to Inca engineering. Later in the afternoon you'll fly to Lima to catch your connecting international flight home, marking the end of Southern Explorations services on your Peru tour. (B)
View Optional Post-Itinerary Tour Extensions
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Key:
(B)reakfast (L)unch (D)inner
Itinerary Map
CONTACT US
CALL
1.877.784.5400
TOLL FREE
OUTSIDE
THE U.S.A. CALL
1.206.784.8111
2010 SCHEDULED TRIP DATES
Saturday Departures
2 person minimum / 8 maximum
Mar
02/26-03/08 SOLD OUT!
Apr
02-12 6 spaces left
May
04/30-05/10
Jun
04-14
Jul
06/25-07/05
Aug
07/31-08/10
Sep
08/27-09/06
Oct
01-11
Nov
10/29-11/08
Dec
17-27
Private Departures can be arranged. Please contact us regarding private departure costs.
2011 SCHEDULED TRIP DATES
Friday Departures
2 person minimum / 8 maximum
Jan
07-17
Feb
01/28-02/07
Mar
02/25-03/07
Apr
01-11
May
04/29-05/09
Jun
03-13
Jul
06/24-07/04
Aug
07/30-08/09
Sep
08/26-09/05
Oct
09/30-10/10
Nov
10/28-11/07
Dec
16-26
Private Departures can be arranged. Please contact us regarding private departure costs.
INCLUSIONS / EXCLUSIONS
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Included in tour cost
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- Meals as indicated
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- All hotel accommodations (twin shared basis)
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- All transfers in private
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- Public bus ride to Lake Posada Amazonas (private departure available)
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- Entrance fees for all scheduled tours and archaeological sites
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- English speaking certified guides
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- Southern Explorations pre departure services
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Excluded in tour cost
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- International round - trip airfare to and from Peru
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- Airfare $495 (Lima / Puerto Maldonada / Cusco / Juliaca / Lima) Subject to change
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- Airport taxes international (around $30) and local (around $5)
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- Tips and gratuities
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- Travel insurance
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- Continental breakfasts are included at all hotels. All other meals are not included unless specified in the itinerary.
PHYSICAL RATING
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Moderate
PERU ACCOMMODATION
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Peru Highlights Accommodation:
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8 nights hotels
2 nights Amazon Lodge
SINGLE SUPPLEMENT
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Additional $615
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- Single Supplement is the additional cost of a single traveler not sharing a room in double occupancy. We will match you with another same gender traveler unless you request single accommodations.
Prices based on 3% cash discount
Duration: 11 days
A guided walking tour through the colorful markets of Cusco, the colonial cathedral, and Koricancha, the impressive Temple of the Sun, starts the day. After a lunch of excellent local cuisine, take an afternoon tour of temples and other important Inca sights in the vicinity of Cusco. These Peru tour highlights include: the fortress of Sacsayhuamán, with its megalithic stone terraces; Kenko, with its carved stone surfaces and subterranean altars; the small fortress of Puka Pukara that protected the royal capital from attacks; and the water temple, Tambo Machay. You'll return to the comfort of your hotel in the late afternoon with time to relax or explore Cusco on your own. (B)
In the morning, take a short drive to Puno harbor for an 8 AM departure across the intensely blue lake by boat, stopping briefly at the famous floating Uros Islands before continuing on to peaceful Taquile Island. Here you'll visit a community of male weavers and spinners who live in a Mediterranean-like setting. In the late afternoon, return to explore the shops and markets of Puno, reputedly Peru's best place to buy alpaca clothing, a great source of souvenirs of your Peru travel. (B, L)
