Peru Excursions

Dear Jarek,

Actually, I was about to write to you myself, but I was overloaded at work after my long vacation.

We'd like to thank you and Peter for the very pleasant stay that we had!!! Peter was very helpful and saved us a couple of times when we had misunderstandings with the local operators.

The hotels were very good for the money we paid. They were located close to city centers and were comfortable.

In addition, we were happy about the choice of transportation. It appears that we used one of the best (or even the best) bus company in Peru, and they are really great. For our night trip Peter booked for us something like a business class on planes, with huge seats where we slept very comfortably.

We will recommend you to all our friends who decide to go to Peru or Galapagos Islands.

Of course, we will gladly send you several photos!  Do you prefer landscapes or do you want some photos with us as well?

Best regards,

Evgeniya

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Jarek:

About Galapagos - the room we had (#6) on the Sulidae didn't have air conditioning, but it did have three windows that opened and a fan, which turned out to be perfect.  We were so thrilled with the windows and definitely would have chosen this room if given the chance instead of any of the others.  However I do believe all the others did in fact have working air conditioning.  Also, I would reiterate that the staff was great, especially our tour guide David.

Also, since I never gave you my other comments, I was very happy with the tour overall, especially for the price.  We wouldn't have been able to do the Galapagos if we hadn't found your company, as most of the other companies were charging significantly higher.  Everything went very smoothly, with the exception of the morning the guy who picked us up didn't know where our bus tickets were (they turned out to be at the station and it was sorted out in about 15 minutes).  That was in Puno.  I was very happy with the hotels.  My favorite was the one in Puno in terms of decor (Colon Inn).  This had actually been changed from what you told us, but we could hardly complain since it was so nice. Also our hotel in Cusco was super friendly (Terra Andina, I believe). I was very pleased with the Cusco/Sacred Valley/Machu Picchu portion of the trip.  I was especially surprised and happy that we had a private tour at Machu Picchu - and our guide was excellent!  We also had a great guide for our Cusco city tour.  We were also pleased to (finally!) have a female tour guide in Quito - it was nice to get a different perspective and it was nice that she and the driver were with us for two days.  I also appreciated that, when our return flight to Quito from the Galapagos arrived early (we got a direct flight instead of having to stop in Guayaquil), we contacted the travel agency and they picked us up immediately, which was very accommodating.

Overall, a very good trip.

Thanks!

Mary Anne

HI Jarek! 

I apologize for the delayed reply.  Mary Anne and I both got sick with flu when we got back here in Houston.  We are both just starting to recover at this point.  

Anyway, I have no complains about the quality of service and the quality of hotels where we stayed at.  It was well-organized.  There were a couple of moments when people didn't know where our tickets were, but those were all minor and were all resolved in the end. 

Let me know if there is anything specific you want me to comment on, and I'd be happy to give a more specific comment about it, if any.  Thank you for arranging our tour for us!  I am very pleased.

Dear Jarek,

Our Christmas trip was fabulous. My boys truly enjoyed seeing the long awaited Peru and her people. Their heritage is so much more real to them now. They will be doing a class presentation on their vacation in Peru very soon. We felt your services, as a whole, were very personable and informative. Thanks for being so reasonably priced. We enjoyed most everything and everything on our schedule happened as planned.  I guess I would think that the Amazon, although a truly amazing place, was a bit long since it was so very hot and humid there. If I were to go again I would spend a day or so less there and more time in Arequipa, or motoring to Lake Titicaca. Machu Picchu, of course, was even more majestic than we could have ever imagined. We, of course, found many “treasures” to bring home, show our friends and proudly display.  We are telling our friends that are interested in seeing Peru to check out your internet home page. 

With Warm Wishes for 2007

Hi Jarek,

Here are my comments regarding our trip to Peru.... 

-  It was great having a private guide to personally take care of us - Kris was very attentive and in tune to each of us and our needs.  She took the time to get to know each one of us as an individual.  We LOVED having her!  She is a very intelligent young lady and so mature for her age.  She is very responsible and such a natural for this type of work.  We all believe she will go far with her career and tourism comes so natural to her.

-  Peru is a beautiful country, we loved the country side and the mountains are so amazing; the most beautiful I've ever seen!  We loved Arequipa and Cuzco.

- Such city charm, great museums, beautiful cities, good restaurants and the plazas were so beautiful at night.  Carlos was a great guide in Cuzco.  We enjoyed all the sights we saw - Machu Picchu was my favorite - I still can't believe I was there - it was breathtaking! 

-  Peru is very affordable - we had a vacation full of activity and wonderful sights with decent accommodations for such a reasonable cost.  We also found lots of beautiful merchandise at low cost. 

- The weather was perfect - great time of year to travel. 

- We were pleasantly surprised with the stops and tours on the bus excursions.  We didn't know we were going to have additional sights/tours to ruins, etc. including nice buffet luncheons on those trips. 

-  The people were very friendly and we love seeing and learning about the culture there. The country's history is very interesting.... also, seeing the beautiful traditional colorful dress of the Peruvian people, the llamas and other animals/birds in the country side. 

- I would also like to make a few comments regarding some areas you might want to consider for improvement. 

-  Warn travelers about the airport people that offer to help carry your baggage at the Lima airport.  We had someone follow us to the car and lift one bag into the car - that is all he did.  He then insisted we tip him.  We didn't ask him to do anything, he didn't carry anything and grabbed one bag and put it in the car and then he came up to my brother and kept insisting that he tip him.   

-  We had a couple of problems with our hotel rooms not having two beds in each room even though it had been arranged by Peter/Kris that way.  Maybe a double check with the hotel shortly before the scheduled hotel stay would correct that problem.  Sleeping in the small bed for two would be very uncomfortable for people that aren't on the small side.  We did get it corrected but it didn't always happen the same night. 

-  The private car transportation was somewhat uncomfortable on long journeys.  Six people plus a guide and sometimes two guides, a driver (sometimes 9 people) and all the luggage made it very crowded and sometimes very uncomfortable.  Leg room was very limited and the seats sometimes very hard for long rides.  Either a larger car/van or minibus should be used for the long drives. The excursion bus was comfortable and worked out well for the one very long trip to Arequipa that we took.

-  The return trip to Cuzco on the train was very uncomfortable.  It was a long trip with seats facing each other, hardly any leg room.  I stood up for a couple hours because I felt so cramped.  I'm sure people would pay for an upgrade - we were on the backpack train which I believe is too cramped and uncomfortable for long trips. 

-  The hotel in Pisco, "Regidor" was not satisfactory.  It was located on the corner of a very busy street (very loud noise/traffic all night long).  The hotel's smoke alarm was going off, Kris informed the front desk but they did nothing about it.  They said it always sounded like that - well, we told her to tell them they needed to replace the batteries - which they didn't do.  That is dangerous and they should replace those batteries. Maybe there is better hotel in a town nearby if not in that town. 

-  Information on the availability of bathrooms at each sight we visit should be given before we travel to that sight.  If there aren't going to be any, people need to know that beforehand. 

-  Travelers should make sure they get plenty of small currency bills.  The ATMs give you the larger currency and you need lots of the smaller denominations of money when purchasing things. 

Hope this information is helpful and thanks again for assisting us with our trip to Peru. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, my wife and I had a wonderful trip.  Of course the sights we visited were most important, but the care you took to have us escorted everywhere, and the hotels you chose (especially the Terra Andina) were a large part of the success. Peter was terrific.  Although he often kept us guessing as to what will happen when we get to the next destination, he always came through.

I would like to give special mention to the last 2 tour guides he provided, to Francisco for the tour of Seqsahuaman etc, and to Rudy for the tour of Lima. These two gentlemen were intelligent, knowledgeable, and their English was so good that we were actually able to carry on a dialogue and get a real insight into the attitudes and feelings of the people living in Peru. Please feel free to use me as an endorsement or to recommend you (and Peter) to others.

Thanks again,

Jarek,

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you.  I am happy to provide some feedback on the trip.  The biggest concern we had of our trip was we did not know when our flight was or on what airline from Cusco to Lima.  We tried to get in touch with Peter, but he was difficult to reach.  Having this information would have been helpful.

As for the hotels, I have a couple of general comments.  Everywhere we went they wanted to give us two twin beds.  It was not a big deal to change, but would have been nice to have a single bed each time.  One specific comment I had was for La Casa de Abuelos in Arequipa.  The grounds and the hotel were great, but the room was rather cold at night and there was no heat.  As for other general comments.  It would have been really cool to stay on one of the floating islands at Lake Titicaca.  I heard about people doing this and really wish I had.  Also, the bus ride from Lake Titicaca to Cusco was quite bad.  We just wanted to get to Cusco, and did not care for the 5 or 6 tour stops along the way.  Hopefully my comments are helpful.  We thought our trip was great and it was so nice to have everything in Peru taken care of.  Really appreciate your help.

Take care,

Overall, it was a very interesting trip.  The hotels were adequate, i.e. clean and had beds that were reasonably comfortable.  The first night was a very unfortunate mess that could have been avoided.  The number of sites seen was excellent.  For another trip though I would have liked some options so we might have included a few things that we did not see.  We learned too late that the Snow Maiden could have been seen in 'Arequipa ...Some excellent museums could have been toured in Lima /or car service provided for our own visits...  Coming from sea level we would also have benefited from knowing that we would be climbing up as much as we were.  We acknowledge we probably would not have seen half what we did without your arrangements and the price was very reasonable. We were very grateful for Chris and her constant attention to our needs.  Her attention to details and quick response to issues wins her much praise from all of us.  Again, I appreciate the effort made on our behalf.  

Good day Jarek,

I'm traveling again so I haven't had a chance to put together the detailed critique that I want to give you regarding our trip. The short summary is that with only two problems, both hotel related, we had an outstanding trip. Everything else was excellent, and when the price paid is considered, was outstanding. Peter should do everything in his power to keep Kris working with him as she is one of the best guides I've had the pleasure of working with, and is also a wonderful person.

Best regards,

Jarek,

It was a very enjoyable trip. Peter is a free spirit and selects excellent guides and drivers. The itinerary was excellent, a lot was packed into our 2 weeks. The hotels were OK, with the exception of the one in Cusco, only because it was a bit distant from the city center. Our room was excellent there but some people were unhappy with theirs. Our guide for the trip, Kris, was wonderful. The only recommendation I would make is some guidelines before leaving as to what electric current to expect, whether you can drink the water, who we need to tip and how much (some tour groups include baggage handling in the price, this one did not), some info as to altitude and weather. A one page sheet with this information would have been helpful.

Hi Jarek,

I appreciate that you are soliciting feedback regarding our trip to Peru.  It shows that you are striving for high standards with your organization.  Let me begin by saying that I really enjoyed our trip to Peru.  What I liked most about the trip is the one-on-one attention that Rosa and I received from our guides.  Rosa and I prefer to travel on our own for the most part, outside of a large tour group, but at the same time we liked having someone explain the historical/archeological sites to us.  All of our guides were wonderful.

In terms of constructive criticism, I would make the following points:

• It would be more re-assuring to travelers if you provided the hotels in advance.  Rosa emailed you and asked for a list of the hotels, but they should be provided regardless.  It provides a more secure feeling if you know where you are staying in case you get lost or cannot locate your guide.
• When we meet the guides, it would be better if they let us know sooner about our tickets for the next day or when someone will be picking us up.  Sometimes we didn't find out until 10 pm the night before when we would be picked up the next day.  This had us a little worried about! Getting our bus/train tickets.
• In Puerto Maldonado, we had an excursion to see the parrots and the macaws.  I would forewarn travelers that this involves sitting for a period of 3 - 4 hours to watch the birds.  Rosa and I would have opted not to do this part of the excursion had we been better informed.  We enjoyed seeing the birds, but we would have preferred not to sit for hours watching them. 

On the whole, I very much enjoyed our accommodations.  The hotels were very satisfactory and much better than I thought they would be.  I feel very good about the price we paid for our trip and what we received in return.  I would absolutely recommend this tour to my friends and family.  If you conduct any other tours to South America, please let me know. Many thanks for arranging the trip. I am interested in obtaining more information on your packages to Ecuador and cruises to the Galapagos Islands.  It will be nice to have some information to consider.

All the best,  

Hi Jarek and Peter,

Happy New Year! Thanks a ton for the wonderful arrangements made during our trip to Peru. We had a wonderful trip to Peru, and everything worked out very well. The hotels and the people were very friendly and made us feel at home. We would like to thank you both once again for putting together a very good itinerary for our trip toPeru.

Jarek,

We had fantastic time in Peru. Please keep me on your mailing list; some of my friends are also interested in visiting Peru.

Jarek, Thanks for the very cool adventure, Peter was a great tour organizer. Let me know about other trips.

Jarek,

Our trip to Peru was all that we anticipated - and more!  Peter calmly and efficiently expedited all of our transfers from one location to the next. 

The weather was perfect for traveling - chilly in the mornings and evenings and warm and sunny during the day. 

The itinerary you provided us was skeletal and certainly didn't encompass all that we did each day.  In fact I counted ten different types of transportation on which we were conveyed during our fifteen day sojourn.  We all adored our exhilarating dune buggy experience in the huge dunes at the Huacachina oasis (Ica).  The guides that were hired in different sites were informative.  We especially enjoyed our two days with Carlos, an anthropologist, in Cusco. 

Our small group of seven bonded together and looked out for each other.  Don was the only male, but enjoyed the company of Peter. 

My primary suggestion for improving the trip might be to upgrade the hotel in Puno. The Maria Angola was a disappointment.  Because an exterior wall was missing on the first floor the lobby, where we ate breakfast, was very chilly.  We particularly like the Terra Andina (Niler) in Cusco.  The hotel was lovely, the breakfast more varied, and the service was hospitable.  I would also like to recommend that no one be placed on the first floor adjacent to the lobby of El Balcon in Arequipa.  There is an air vent that allows every word uttered to be heard in the room to which we were assigned.  I mentioned this to the hotel clerk and she acknowledged that she had heard the comment from other guests. 

At times we would have preferred to spend more time at places than the tour allowed, which was frustrating (i.e. Pisac Market - 40 minutes to shop).  But, I understand that a schedule must be adhered to.  I think I would have preferred to spend less time in Nasca.  

Don and I want to thank you and Peter for making our Peruvian experience so enriching!  We were fascinated by the impact of the Inca culture, the varied Amerindian lifestyles, and the geographical extremes. We were delighted by the varied experiences and sights each day presented!  We were awed by the Andes and Machu Picchu! 

Hi, Jarek,

Our Peru and Ecuador vacation was fabulous!  We took your advice (well, except for one night in Cusco we did drink a free glass of wine and did pay for it with a bad headache because of the altitude and you had warned us).  We experienced very little trouble with the altitude and with the seasickness onboard the boat.  Cusco was great...we liked all the tours and had only two problems...on Sunday we were picked up late and then two other days we told to be ready by 9:00 am and they picked us up at 8:20 which was a problem and then the day we were to be picked up to go to the airport to Guayaquil, we were told to be ready by 6:00am and they came for us at 5:30, just as we were sitting down for breakfast. If times could be coordinated a bit better, we wouldn't have felt like we were creating a problem when we hadn't meant to. We lost our camera in Cusco and so I do not have any Machu Picchu pictures which greatly sadden me but I have so many vivid memories of all the Incan ruins from all three days that I don't suppose I will ever forget this trip.  It truly was a marvelous trip and you made it so easy.  You also took very good care of health questions and we had no problems whatsoever. That added a great deal to the trip as well.

Galapagos was beautiful.  Angelique was a great boat and Fatima a very knowledgeable guide.  She could answer all our questions and Lou had a lot.  The crew was helpful and very patient with me as they had no great confidence in me on a boat but graciously handled me very well. We got to swim with sea lions and the only problem was the boat did not have enough snorkeling equipment for us to have our own. Lou is not a great swimmer but he hates to miss out on anything.  The other passengers shared with us and we did get to see fish and I swam with the sea lions and got to see them play with sticks and sea urchins like they were playing ball.

Fatima went out of her way to make sure we got to see everything possible including the last of the dancing of the blue fotted boobies, the frigate birds and the albatrosses.  We saw sea lions everywhere and could get very close to them to take close-up pictures. We were thrilled with the entire trip and you, Marcos, and Peter did a great job getting us there and to everything.  We appreciate your hard work and all you did. 

Thank you.

Hi Jarek,

I would like to say that i enjoyed my trip very much. Everything went well, from leaving home to retuning here it all went very smoothly. All the hotels that I had were very nice and the people working in them were very efficient, helpful and very friendly. And I was very pleased with Lan Peru airlines as the carrier for the flights. Aroquipa was one of the nicest places I visited and would recommend it to any one. Peter my guide there was very knowledgeable and was very friendly, I enjoyed his company very much. The Holly valley tour was very interesting and the guide "Dreill" was very knowledgeable and obviously very passionate about his beautiful country. My trip to Machu Picchu was also very good and again my guide was excellent. And as with all the people who met me off flights and delivered me to hotels they were all very friendly and helpful as were all of the Peruvian people that I had any contact with. As for suggestion or comments on to how to improve the experience, about the only thing I could think of would be to ask the person who is booking a trip with you if they want there hotels close to the shopping areas or if they want them in a quieter area away from the main square. All in all i had a very good experience and a very enjoyable time, I would not hesitate to recommend this company to my friends.

Thank you for a great time.

To: Jarek Filak From: Jose Munoz I just returned from Peru with the Robert Towers group that was scheduled from 12/28/05 to 01/12/06. The trip was exciting and I had a wonderful time. Thanks!

Jose Munoz