Colorful Bus in LimaI became curious about Peru during our trip to Ecuador last year with Adventure Life. The Andes intrigued me during our travels in and out of Quito. The tipping point came after I read an interesting book entitled “Last Days of the Incas” by Kim MacQuarte. This book basically covers the history of the Inca Empire starting with the invasion of Peru by Pizzaro and ending with the Spanish conquest of Peru and killing of the last Inca emperor hiding in exile in the Amazon. How could a people develop one of the largest empires the world has ever known in just 100 years? Furthermore, how could such a large relatively advanced civilization be conquered in such a short period of time by so few Spaniards? Adventure Life’s “Panoramic Peru” trip helps put some of the answers to these questions in perspective. I suspect many if not most tourists visiting Peru fly into Cusco and go to Machu Picchu. While this is certainly a wonderful experience, if one wants to gain a deeper understanding of Peruvian culture, the “Panoramic Peru” tour is a great trip. As always with Adventure Life, the local guides are wonderful and they accompany you during the entire trip. I can’t believe we did as much as we did during our two weeks!
We arrived in Lima in the afternoon via TACA Airlines. Most flights apparently get in later and people stay at the Ramada Inn right across the street from the airport. Since we were to arrive earlier, our tour coordinator changed us to a nice hotel in Miraflores, a prosperous commercial section of Lima with nice shops, restaurants and art galleries. We had a chance to go out to a nice restaurant the night of our arrival and then returned to our hotel.
We've used Adventure Life for several trips in the past and have always been very pleased with them. The staff is personable and professional at the same time. Erin put this trip together for us in just a few days, and it has everything we were looking for! I recommend them without hesitation.
benn
3 weeks ago
I served as the person responsible for planning a trip to Galapagos and Machu Picchu for a group of 14 people. Jane with Adventure Life was very helpful throughout the process. Making suggestions, offering insight, and in the end helped me overhaul an initial plan into something even better. Also, Jane makes all the plans including the flights within and between Peru and Ecuador. Thanks to her this is going to be a stress-free adventure. After making the final decision about the trip, Jane gathered the contact information for all the travelers and sent out the details to each traveler individually with links to pay deposits, upload passport info, and personal preferences. She also ensured a group email was sent out to the entire group welcoming us to the trip preparation process. Our trip is a year from now and we are excited to make this once in a life time trek. I am happy to have organized things through Adventure Life. However, two small issues came up that were a little off putting. First, Adventure Life adds $50 per person to the cost for each traveler as a donation to a Galapagos conservation fund. I think this should he offered as something that can be added at each traveler’s discretion. Instead, it is automatically added, and each person must ask to have it removed if they do not want it included. Second, although the trip deposit may be paid with a credit card without incurring an additional fee, the balance must be paid in another way to avoid a 3% credit card fee. Maybe this is standard with all travel agencies. In the end I would definitely go through Adventure Life for the next big trip.
Brenda Nielsen
1 month ago
I think it was very helpful that Franny and I spoke on the phone. I think she had a better idea of what we were looking for, and she planned a great itinerary for us!
Elizabeth
2 months ago
My representative Kevin was very responsive generally and in crafting our itinerary to our specific priorities.
Rocco Labella
3 months ago
Easy.
Great work on the follow up and details by Waru.