Machu Picchu & S America Planning + India?

[Jacques Vert]

G'day Team,

+1 & I are in the early stages of planning our next 280k RTW trip, this time to M Picchu in May 2018.

Thanks to all the great advice on this forum, we have managed to tick the box on a number of destinations on the bucket list with 3 x RTWs since 2010, and Machu Picchu has now reached the top of the list, with India in second place.

We have read some great TRs including Drron's recent visit to MP and JohnM & Rooflyer's trip around Chile and Argentina, plus many others.

So the basic plan is to fly SYD-SCL-LIM-CUZ-LIM-SCL-AKL with stopovers in SCL and LIM/CUZ (most likely as a land sector in one direction).

From AKL we would take a paid return flight to SYD/CFS and then pick up our RTW by flying to Sri Lanka/India.

I've done some draft itineraries on GC Map and it's doable although it will be tight on miles and stopovers, and getting the correct flight sectors may prove critical.

I've been watching the flights to SCL for a number of weeks and while the LAN flight has reasonable availability, it goes via AKL and adds ~350 miles to the itinerary and as noted above, available miles are tight.

So today I saw 2 award seats in J on QF27 on 24 April, a week or two earlier than initially planned, but as award seats on the QF flight are like rocking horse dung, I grabbed them.

Let the games begin.

 

[Jacques Vert]

We are thinking of ~2 weeks in Chile and another 2 in Lima/M Picchu/Cuzco but are VERY flexible. We could stopover in SCL after arriving on 24 April or go straight to Lima or Cuzco and have our stop in SCL on the way back. Award availability will have to be taken into consideration.

Award flights for the SCL-AKL sector at the end of May should become available soon and as these can also be difficult to get we need to firm up our itinerary over the next week or two.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RooFlyer]

You would have seen the cautions about getting out of Cuzco quick, going down the sacred valley and then returning to Cuzco to look around. How long are you planning at MP? If a quick-ish visit, my advice is to plan at least 2 trips, on different days. For instance, arrive noon-ish, go up, and then return up there next day. This spreads the risk of being if not 'rained out' then poor visibility. Here's the start of the Sacred Valley part of my 2015 TR on Sth America.

A week in Cuzco/Sacred Valley would be my recommendation. Six days if time is tight.

LATAM is a challenging airline to choose seats on ...

 

[amaroo]

We really enjoyed our MP trip.. 2 weeks exploring SV, MP, Cusco and Lake Titicaca. My tip - make sure you allow sufficient time to explore Sacred Valley - we did 3 nights and that would be the minimum IMO.

Have you thought about Lake Titicaca? One of those unique places, and you are so close!

 

[Jacques Vert]

You would have seen the cautions about getting out of Cuzco quick, going down the sacred valley and then returning to Cuzco to look around. How long are you planning at MP? If a quick-ish visit, my advice is to plan at least 2 trips, on different days. For instance, arrive noon-ish, go up, and then return up there next day. This spreads the risk of being if not 'rained out' then poor visibility. Here's the start of the Sacred Valley part of my 2015 TR on Sth America.

A week in Cuzco/Sacred Valley would be my recommendation. Six days if time is tight.

LATAM is a challenging airline to choose seats on ...

Thanks Rooflyer,

Yes we intend to head down into the Sacred Valley as soon as we arrive in CUZ; we picked up this excellent tip from reading your and drron's excellent TRs (and others).

Would you include a stop in LIMA and, if so, how long would you allow?

 

[Jacques Vert]

Have you thought about Lake Titicaca? One of those unique places, and you are so close!

Yes we have given Lake Titicaca some thought but the train appears to be VERY expensive. Now that we have the first of our flights we will have to give some serious thought to LT and other "detours".

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[amaroo]

Yes we have given Lake Titicaca some thought but the train appears to be VERY expensive. Now that we have the first of our flights we will have to give some serious thought to LT and other "detours".

Thanks for the suggestions.

Argh, the train. We were booked, however rolling strikes had us shifting to a flight between Cusco > Juliaca. Amazing place and one well worth the hassle when in the area. If we had the time, we would have pushed onto La Paz...

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks Rooflyer,

Yes we intend to head down into the Sacred Valley as soon as we arrive in CUZ; we picked up this excellent tip from reading your and drron's excellent TRs (and others).

Would you include a stop in LIMA and, if so, how long would you allow?

Definitely worth stopping at. Is been a long time since I was there, but friends who recently did the exact same itinerary of you I think had 2 nights in Lima and were happy with that. The Gold Museum is definitely worth a visit. Miraflores I think is still the place to stay (on the coast), but as I said, its been a while ...

 

[LadyC]

Where are you thinking in India? Some beautiful coastline south of Mumbai.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Argh, the train. We were booked, however rolling strikes had us shifting to a flight between Cusco > Juliaca. Amazing place and one well worth the hassle when in the area. If we had the time, we would have pushed onto La Paz...

What airline did you take & was it direct or via LIM?

 

[Mattg]

Yes we have given Lake Titicaca some thought but the train appears to be VERY expensive. Now that we have the first of our flights we will have to give some serious thought to LT and other "detours".

Thanks for the suggestions.

Lima is worth a visit, but 24-48 hours is probably sufficient.

I would definitely recommend Lake Titicaca, but I wouldn't bother taking the train from Cusco to Juliaca. Instead you can take a tour bus that has several stops along the way. It costs about a quarter of what the train costs, is very comfortable and is also a couple of hours quicker (even with the stops).

Perhaps look at (within South America) booking SCL-xLIM-CUZ, then doing a surface sector and flying JUL-xLIM-SCL. You can also spend a night in Lima in one or both directions and it will only count as a transit if under 24 hours.

Good luck finding LA availability from SCL to AKL. You're probably already aware of this but for the onward leg to India you'll need to find a flight that doesn't stop in Australia (e.g. CX to HKG).

 

[Jacques Vert]

Where are you thinking in India? Some beautiful coastline south of Mumbai.

India is such a big place and we have only just begun to get our heads around it as we have been concentrating on the South American section.

Our draft itineraries on GC map allow us to arrive in DEL, BOM or CMB (OK, not in India) and also leave from one of those. Varanasi, Amritsar, Mumbai, Goa, Jaipur and Colombo are under consideration. Once we bed down Sth America we will have more time to research the India section; plus the flights to India won't open up until the end of the year (we are looking at Oct/Nov for the India sections).

But please feel free to make suggestions.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Lima is worth a visit, but 24-48 hours is probably sufficient.

I would definitely recommend Lake Titicaca, but I wouldn't bother taking the train from Cusco to Juliaca. Instead you can take a tour bus that has several stops along the way. It costs about a quarter of what the train costs, is very comfortable and is also a couple of hours quicker (even with the stops).

Perhaps look at (within South America) booking SCL-xLIM-CUZ, then doing a surface sector and flying JUL-xLIM-SCL. You can also spend a night in Lima in one or both directions and it will only count as a transit if under 24 hours.

Thanks Mattg, we will have a look at the bus to L Titi. And we will see what flights are available that will allow a couple of transits in LIMA (+1 and I have plenty of practice in squeezing a week's sight-seeing into a <24 hours transit).

Returning to SCL via Lima from JUL or direct from LPB is also certainly worth considering.

BTW; LATAM from CUZ to LIM or vice versa (as a paid addition) is also expensive, especially compared to the LCCs. Does anyone have experience within Star Peru or Peruvian?

 

[LadyC]

I have been to Sri Lanka and didn't get to explore much as we ended up with a bout of food poisoning. But everyone else I know speaks very highly of it, travelling south down to Galle, in to Lake Kandy and Sigiriya.

The gentleman and I travelled to Delhi, then across to Jaisalmer and all the way down the western side of India to Cochin. The Konkan Coast and Kerala are definitely worth visiting. More tropical and beaches. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to get to Agra. One thing I always say is that it is so important to get out of the big cities in India. The big cities are SO overwhelming and our experience was that we felt very much we were always being played. Less of that outside the cities - you still get it mind you but it just feels a lot less aggressive. When we were engaging with locals, it felt a lot more genuine.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Good luck finding LA availability from SCL to AKL. You're probably already aware of this but for the onward leg to India you'll need to find a flight that doesn't stop in Australia (e.g. CX to HKG).

Yes availability SCL-AKL won't be easy but neither is SYD-SCL on QF. Our advantage is we have total flexibility with dates. Fingers crossed. We do have a Plan B if we can't get SCL-AKL: we will go LIM-MAD and visit a European country that we haven't been to previously...but we will worry about that later.

And thanks for the comment on not touching down in Australia on the onward leg. We are aware of this and CX via HKG or QR via DOH are probably the likely options at this stage (hence the need to conserve our mileage allowance).

 

[Mattg]

LATAM from CUZ to LIM or vice versa (as a paid addition) is also expensive, especially compared to the LCCs. Does anyone have experience within Star Peru or Peruvian?

I flew Star Peru CUZ-LIM last year. The plane was very old but they were otherwise fine. I would use them again.

 

[Caversham04]

I'd suggest having a look at Arequipa and the Colca Canyon while you're in Peru. You can get a bus tour to the Colca Canyon from Arequipa, usually involving an overnight stay somewhere near the canyon. It's also worth looking into a prescription for Acetazolamide as this helps minimise the effects of altitude sickness

 

[amaroo]

What airline did you take & was it direct or via LIM?

Trip reports do come in handy ... http://www.australianfrequentflyer....eruvian-celebrations-75597-5.html#post1447511

 

[Jacques Vert]

Trip reports do come in handy ... http://www.australianfrequentflyer....eruvian-celebrations-75597-5.html#post1447511

Yes indeed they do; we will be re-reading your entire report over the next day or two.

Thanks for the link.

 

[Denali]

Im just going to add that while youre at SCL, what about a visit to Easter Island? Waiting for dawn, while sitting in front of a row of Moai is one of the spectacular memories of my life.