Since we are all on quarantine, here is a trip from April 2019, that my friend Tereza and I took. Between points and her cash contributions, I managed to do the whole trip to Peru for FREE!
The Flights
International Flights
Getting to South America from South Florida is usually relatively cheap. Still, I hate spending cash and wanted to go to Peru for free. Jet Blue offers a direct flight from Fort Lauderdale to Lima daily. At booking, it was $479.78 or 27,500 Trueblue points plus $67.76 in taxes and fees round trip.
Domestic Flights
Peru’s infrastructure leaves something to be desired. So we had to take both international flights and domestic flights. Cusco is the jumping off point for many of the major ruins in Peru, including Machu Picchu. You can technically catch a bus to Cusco, but it is a long circuitous route, which takes at least 22 hours. Bad weather causes frequent mudslides washing out portions of the road unexpectedly. The flight from Lima to Cusco is only about 1.5 hours compared to that 22 hour bus ride.
Several carriers fly this route. Many of them only have one or two unreliable flights a day. Latam Airlines has flights almost every hour and an early morning flight seemed safest. If they cancelled our flight, we could hop on the next one.
If you book early, flights to Cusco are pretty cheap. Unfortunately, I waited too long and the round trip flights were around $280 USD. Another carrier had one for $160 USD, but it was the last flight of the day. Tereza had already shelled out almost $500 getting to Peru. I suggested using some of my Citi Thank You Rewards points to get our flights. She agreed pay me $160 in return for my points. I used 45,756 points for two round trip tickets from Lima to Cusco for free.
The Hotels
I try to stay in no more than 3 hotels over the course of an 8 or 9 night trip. This trip, however, involved a lot of moving around. To see everything took six different hotels this time.
As I’ve previously mentioned, it is hard to value points when traveling with people who don’t play the game. In this case, we agreed upfront that Tereza would pay me half the cash price of each hotel room, or $362.32. I later used this as spending money.
Travel Tip: ALWAYS discuss how you plan to split costs prior to travel. It will save you a ton of grief later on and might save a friendship.
Machu Picchu
The whole point of traveling to Peru was seeing Machu Picchu. Peru has many wonderful things to see, but Machu Picchu topped my list. Physically, I was pretty sure I couldn’t handle hiking the Inka Trail. Even the short 2-day hike, seemed too much. You can skip the long hike by taking the train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu. There are several classes of train and prices vary widely. We opted for the Inca Rail Voyager, which takes just under two hours and cost us $104.00 USD round trip.
Travel Tip: Book your tickets early and save money. Prices can skyrocket as your date gets closer.
In order to preserve Machu Picchu citadel, the Peruvian government has limited the number of daily visitors. There are plenty of third party websites selling tickets, but this is the official Machu Picchu ticketing website.
There are also two possible treks you can do: 1) Huayna Picchu and 2) Machu Picchu Mountain. Trek tickets sell out quickly. If you have your heart set on either trek, book as early as possible. The Huayna Picchu trek is the easier and more popular of the hikes, but is scarier for people afraid of heights. Huayna Picchu sold out so the Machu Picchu Mountain trek was our only option. Entrance tickets for Machu Picchu Mountain and the citadel cost $62.09 USD each.
Sightseeing
Taxitadum
The main taxi company in Peru is Taxidatum. They offer Taxi Tours, for a fixed price, which gets you a private driver to take you to various sites. “Taxi tour” is a bit of a misnomer here. The majority of the drivers speak minimal English. They drive you to each location, but unless you speak Spanish, do not expect a traditional tour. Regardless of the language barrier, this service is immensely useful and we took advantage multiple times on our trip.
Pisac Ruins and Market Tour $65.00 USD
Chincheros, Maras Salt Mines, and Moray Ruins $65.00 USD
Cusco Four Ruins Tour $37.00 USD
In addition, to allowing us to see some amazing sites, the Pisac tour and the Chincheros tour also served to get us back and forth from Cusco to Ollantaytambo at no additional cost. Costs are per vehicle, not per person, and they pick up/drop off at the airport or hotel. Best of all, you pay at the end of the tour. These tours are an incredible value, even without an English speaking guide.
Boleto Turistico
The final item needed for sightseeing in Cusco and the Sacred Valley is the Boleto Turistico. This ticket includes 16 sites for 130 Peruvian Sol (about $40 USD). You can purchase this ticket at any of the 16 sites. It is good for 10 days from date of purchase.
Rainbow Mountain
Our final sightseeing tour was a last minute decision. Rainbow Mountain looks amazing in photos but has mixed reviews. It also has a very high elevation and we were concerned about altitude sickness. We ended up booking it in Cusco, the night before for about $50 USD.
Final Cost
There was additional spending in country for food, souvenirs, tips, etc. but here is the cost of the trip itself:
The money Tereza reimbursed me for the domestic flight and hotels covered my cash expenses and most of my spending money too. So that’s how I got to Peru for free!
Stay tuned for a day by day recap of the trip and pictures on our Travel Labyrinth Facebook page. Want to read about the history of Peru? Check out the two books I read about Peru on my reading page.