Peru is still a deal, but not if you are stretching every dollar, or pound, or euro…
I’m back in the US after close to three weeks in Peru, vacationing, updating the next edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations , and working on a bunch of articles. I narrowed my scope to the places most travelers are likely to see: Lima, Arequipa, Cusco, and the area around Machu Picchu. No trip to the Amazon jungle unfortunately–next time around I guess.
I saw zillions of tourists: visitor volume is growing by 15-20 percent per year. Here are the two key points that made me sit up and take notice over and over.
1) This is not a good destination for long-term shoestring backpackers
2) However, for those on a vacation of one month or less, Peru is a great value.
In Peru, it is not all that hard to find comfortable and cheap lodging ($8-$20 a day for two at the bottom end, $20 to $50 for two mid-range). If you steer clear of the tourist areas and go where the locals eat, you can get a decent 3-course meal for under two dollars. But then what? If you come to partake in all the things people come to Peru to see and do, you’ll need to get used to opening up your wallet quite a bit.
First of all, very very few people come to Peru without going to Machu Picchu. So, if you take the quick and easy route, you’ll pay $50 to $80 for the train there and back from Cusco, $12 for the bus up and down to the ruins, $24 entrance fee, and all the jacked-up prices you’d expect for food and water in one of the world’s most popular tourist sites.
If you decide to hike the Inca Trail for four days instead, which is truly fabulous, expect to pay $280 to $325 from a reputable agency you book directly in Cusco–more if you hire a personal porter, which is recommended. (Factor in at least 50 percent commission if you book it from home.) Thankfully, this fee includes many of the charges mentioned in the paragraph before and you will eat amazingly well. Of course there are dozens of great Inca ruins to see around Cusco as well, some of them several hours away. For many of them, you’ll need to have the boleto touristico in your pocket, a sheet of paper than requires coughing up over $20, whether you are going to 2 sites or 12.
If you go to Nazca, you’ll probably want to soar over the drawings sketched in the desert—not cheap. If you go to the jungle, you can’t see much of anything if you don’t go hiking with a guide. If you go to Arequipa, you’ll want to visit the impressive monastary and a few museums. If you have longer, you’ll probably want to spend some time on a tour of Colca Canyon. If you go to Puno, it would be a bit odd not to spend some time on the islands in the middle of Lake Titicaca.
Peru is not an expensive country by any means, unless you are going first class all the way. Nevertheless, your budget for Peru needs to be a big notch above places such as Southeast Asia and Central America. I feel every sole I spent there was well justified, so in terms of value, Peru scored quite highly. Had I come here when I was on a round-the-world trip for a year, however, I probably would have been shocked at how much I was spending.
The point is, this is a great country, with lots to see and do. It’s not a place where you just kick back on a beautiful beach and watch the coconuts fall. Your budget needs to reflect this. A bus from Cusco to Lima takes 30 hours and costs $40. A plane takes an hour and a half and costs $80. You don’t need a MBA degree to figure out the cost/benefit analysis on that one…
