PERU was on my Bucket List and we decided to make this our first international trip since the pandemic. With high school vacations, my oldest son home from college and a wanderlust Joe and I have 24/7, we decided to go in July, 2023
My husband and I chose a date range for our trip and looked for a tour provider who could arrange everything for us. We had a pretty short window of time to plan and get everything arranged. I found Inca Expert Travel during an on-line search, along with several other tour providers. I sent requests for information to 3 of the companies I found and only Inca Expert Travel www.incaexpert.com responded.
Normally, I would have waited for proposals from several tour operators, but the responsiveness and friendliness of Inca Expert sold me very quickly.
I was fortunate to get @Melissa Schenk as my travel planner liaison. Melissa was incredibly helpful and friendly in getting our tours organized. My husband, Joe, had lived in Peru 30 years ago (blog entry Down Home with Pachamama) and had some ideas of where we should go, but our priorities were:
Amazon Rainforest
Arequipa
Colca Canyon
Cusco
Machu Picchu
Melissa went to work and within a day or so, sent a proposal to us. After conferring with Joe, we made tweaks to the order of the itinerary, and Melissa suggested the Sacred Valley, which I had never heard about but ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip. We confirmed the locations, locked in on some hotels and loaded with a deposit to start the booking.
Inca Expert then sent me a travel portal - which was simple to use and one place to store all of our uploaded travel documents. I entered each of our passport numbers with scanned copies, answered a few questions and Melissa was off again to book our hotels and domestic Peru flights. We booked our international flights to and from Peru separately with @United Airlines. Joe and I love United Polaris!
Within days, Melissa came back the list of hotels that looked beautiful. We ended up with a double and a triple room (not easy to find triple rooms, but Melissa was able to do it!) Our boys are way beyond staying in a room adjacent to ours, and they were quite happy with the accommodations.
In full disclosure, I'm a bit of a control freak about travel, largely due to the millions of miles I've flown globally during my 35 year career. I'm always aware that our family is different (two dads, 3 boys,) so I'm vigilant, especially when going to a new place. Let's say I plan for the worst and hope for the best (and my family just loves this trait of mine!), but I felt confident that Melissa had everything under control. And she did.
When we landed in Peru, it was late at night and we had an early morning flight to catch to Puerto Maldonado. Once we cleared customs (the fastest I've ever made it through in South America) we were greeted by our Inca Expert representative. The hotel in which we were staying was on airport property (thank you, Melissa!) so we had a brief meeting with our representative, who gave us thorough instructions on the next leg of our trip as well as some Inca Expert water bottles and cloth bags. Within an hour of landing in Peru, we were in our rooms, ready for bed.
And this was an indicator for what the next two weeks would bring in terms of service and adventure. Inca Expert masterfully crafted an amazing experience for our family for two weeks. This did not feel like a "one size fits all" tour for one second. We felt this was planed just for us (and it was!)
Each of the hotels far exceeded my expectations. The Tambo del Inca Valle Sagrado, a Luxury Collection Resort that is part of the Marriott family, has become one of my favorite hotels ever. Besides impeccable service and friendliness, it had an amazing restaurant and just a cool Peruvian vibe that's hard to explain. We loved it.
Our domestic flights were with LATAM airlines, which was very nice, with new Airbus aircraft and extremely attentive crew. I kept singing Latam Latam to the tune of Kylie Minogue's Padam Padam just to drive my sons crazy.
We were active every day, soaked up the diverse natural beauty and encountered some of the most friendly and welcoming people that Peru offers and enjoyed our care-free two week visit to this amazing country. Everything was organized and perfectly executed. More people should see this proud and prosperous country, and Inca Expert is the way to go! Thanks again to Melissa Schenk for helping us!
Watch for more blogs coming on our Peru trip, but in each place, we consistently experienced the Inca Expert service:
Greeted at the airport by a friendly, English speaking representative who explained the details of where we were and what to expect.
Each hotel was magnificent and included an absolutely delicious breakfast as a minimum. In the Amazon, our hotel included three meals a day plus happy hour!
Each location had an excellent tour guide who spoke excellent English, and a driver. This way, the guide could answer questions on the spot, while the driver drove us around in a comfortable Mercedes Sprinter van. For all but one trip, we had a private guide for all five of us. The guides were flexible, attentive (at one place I fell and did a number on my arm and shoulder. Our guide drove us around until we found a pharmacy where I was able to get an arm sling that helped me immensely.) They were great with kids, including my special needs son, and went above and beyond everywhere we visited.
Everything was organized and on time. When the driver said we would meet at a given time, he was there at that time. Even in the Amazon, where we had to take a 45 minute boat ride up river to Puerto Maldonado, transfer to a driver who got us to the airport and helped us with our luggage. They had even checked us in ahead of time and provided our printed boarding passes while en route to the airport.
The FOOD everywhere was amazing. I had no idea Peru had such great cuisine, and our guides made sure we were well taken care of in finding delicious meals everywhere we went..
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