Day 1 –  Departure

Today you leave for Lima from your departure airport of choice.

Day 2 –  Arrival in Lima

Today you will arrive at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport where you will be met by our representative and transferred to your hotel in the Miraflores district, the most attractive in Lima. Miraflores is Lima’s foodie neighborhood. Lima has some of the finest restaurants in the world, with 3 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 list. We strongly recommend that you dine out this evening and the next. The fine dining in Lima is unforgettable, with chefs drawing on ingredients from Peru’s myriad biomes and micro-climates. We can recommend a list and reserve a table for you if you are interested. You will have a full day to recover from your flight.

Accommodation suggestions:

Mid-Range:

• Villa Barranco by Ananay Hotels: A charming boutique hotel in the bohemian Barranco district. It offers a cosy atmosphere with beautifully restored colonial architecture.
  • Website: Villa Barranco
• Luxury:

Hotel B – Relais & Châteaux: A stunning boutique art hotel in Barranco, featuring exquisite design, an art collection, and personalised service.

• Website: Hotel B

Deluxe

Peru

Hotel B – Relais & Châteaux

Hotel B, a member of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux collection, is a luxurious boutique hotel...

Superior

Peru

Villa Barranco by Ananay Hotels

Villa Barranco is a charming boutique hotel located in the heart of Barranco, Lima’s vibrant and...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 3 – Lima Full Day Excursion to Paracas & Icas

It’s an early start this morning from your hotel in Lima, for a drive to Paracas, through the dunes and rocky escarpments of the Peruvian desert. The desert drops here over a series of rugged cliffs to a cold, pounding cobalt Pacific. En route, we will stop for breakfast (at your own expense). On arriving in Paracas, you will board a boat to the Ballestas Islands – craggy beach fringed islands which are a critical sanctuary for sea-lions, fur seals. Along the way you will see the towering ‘Chandelier’, a pre-Columbian geoglyph similar to the Nazca Lines which may have been used as a way post for ancient mariners.

After lunch in Ica (at your own expense) you visit the oasis at Huacachina – nestled in a bowl of hundred metre-high shifting sand dunes and take a dune buggy ride through the desert. You’ll also have the opportunity to try dune sand boarding. Your visit to the desert ends with an evening arrival in Lima.

Superior

Peru

Villa Barranco by Ananay Hotels

Villa Barranco is a charming boutique hotel located in the heart of Barranco, Lima’s vibrant and...

Deluxe

Peru

Hotel B – Relais & Châteaux

Hotel B, a member of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux collection, is a luxurious boutique hotel...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Dinner

Day 4 – Cusco; acclimatisation

After breakfast, our representative will collect you for your transfer to the airport in Lima and your flight through to Cusco in the Andes. You will be met at the airport and transferred to your Cusco hotel. You will have the rest of the day at leisure in Cusco. The city seats at 3,400 metres high, and it is important to take time to acclimatise to the altitude.

You might take some time for a leisurely walk around the city. Laid out in the form of a giant Puma and set in a high Andean Valley, Cusco was the capital of the Inca empire. The city is an architectural hybrid. After the invasion, the Spanish dismantled the magnificent Inca buildings and built an Extremadura town on top of it. Fortunately, Extremadura towns are some of the most beautiful in Spain, and what you see today is a mixture of some of the best Spanish colonial architecture in the Americas with some of the best pre-Columbian. Elegant carved Moorish balconies stand over cyclopean Inca masonry slotted together like a three-piece dimensional jigsaw puzzle and orientated to the passage of the rising or setting sun. The city is laid out in ancient winding Inca alleys and leafy Spanish plazas, colonnaded cloisters shelter little boutiques selling everything from chunky Quechua jumpers and Alpaca scarves to gorgeous jewellery, there are al fresco cafes everywhere, and indigenous peoples offer the wares in myriad markets and makeshift street stalls.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 5 – Cusco Highlights → Ollantaytambo

Today you will take a full guided visit of Cusco City, You begin in the morning after an early breakfast, heading first to the imposing Inca fortress of of Sacsayhuamán, perched on a hill above Cusco. Here, you will see some of the finest examples of Inca masonry and construction, including enormous boulders weighing tens of tons, meticulously cut in extraordinary geometric shapes, and perfectly fitted without putty or cement to form earthquake proof, vast walls.

You take a short hike up the hill to Qenqo, one of the most intriguing archaeological sites of the Inca civilization. This enigmatic sanctuary, whose name in Quechua means “labyrinth” or “zigzag”, mixes history, spirituality and architecture and from the site you will enjoy the best panoramic views of Cusco.

You then visit Tambomachay Archaeological Complex.The exact purpose of this site is unknown, but it may have functioned, at least in part, as an Inca spa. Incan hydraulic engineering is evident here, with a series of aqueducts, canals, and waterfalls running through the terraced rocks. You then continue to the wonderful Koricancha, adjacent to the Church of Santo Domingo. According to chroniclers writing during the period immediately following the Spanish conquest, the Koricancha was the most sacred and important temple in the Incan Empire. Its walls were covered in gold, and life-size statues of plants and animals, all made of pure gold and silver, decorated its rooms and hallways. Sadly, this wealth was stripped away by the Spanish conquistadors. However, it remains a magnificent temple, and your Cusco private tour guide will show you details that you would almost certainly miss if you visited without a guide.

After visiting the Koricancha, you will head to the Cusco Cathedral, located in the Plaza de Armas. Built between 1560 and 1654 on the foundations of an existing Inca temple, this spectacular cathedral houses many works of art from the Cusco School of painters, and its main altar and pulpit are covered in gold and silver reliefs. Look closely, and you will also see elements of indigenous religious symbolism incorporated into the church by the natives who worked on its construction, such as the carved head of a jaguar on the doors. Finally, you will continue to the Sacred Valley where you will have time for lunch (not included) before continuing to our next tour.

After lunch, you will drive for around 20 minutes, and you will arrive at the wonderful Inca town and the archaeological site of Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti, who conquered the region and built the town and a ceremonial centre. You will spend about an hour exploring these magnificent ruins, visiting the incredible Temple of the Sun, and seeing huge blocks of rock that were perfectly carved and polished by Inca master stonemasons. Ollantaytambo is also a fine example of Inca agricultural construction and hydraulic engineering, with a complex series of stone water sources, canals, and agricultural terraces, the latter organized by elevation to create different micro-climates for crop experimentation.

You will see the extent of the water system when we return to the town, where the fast-flowing water channels built by the Incas are still in use today. Walking towards the town square, you will have great views of the ruins above us, as well as the Inca granaries and warehouses built into the surrounding mountain slopes. Here we can also observe the daily life of Ollantaytambo where many of the locals still wear traditional clothing.

Finally, after getting to know this beautiful Inca town, we will drop you off at our hotel in the Sacred Valley, cut from the steep mountains by the rushing Urubamba River.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Dinner

Day 6 – Sacred Valley Hike to Pisac

Your day begins with an early morning pick-up from your hotel and a short drive to the trailhead near Pisac – one of the most spectacularly situated of the Sacred Valley’s Inca sites. From here you set off on a beautiful hike up a steep mountain ridge to the ruins themselves. The hike takes about 90 minutes, winding through stunning Andean scenery, with terraces and ancient Inca pathways along the way. It’s the perfect mix of nature, history, and adventure. At the top, you’ll explore one of the Sacred Valley’s most imposing Inca sites with your guide unlocks the story of the temples, terraces, tunnels and ceremonial stones.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Day 7 – Full Day Trip to Machu Picchu

It may be well visited, but Machu Picchu is nonetheless unmissable on a trip to Peru. Your full-day bespoke guided trip begins early in the morning when we pick you up from your hotel, it will take just some minutes to walk to the railway station in Ollantaytambo, where you’ll board the train to Aguas Calientes, the town that sits below Machu Picchu. It’s a wonderful train journey, following the sacred Vilcanota River and passing by ancient villages, lush landscapes and snow-capped mountains.

When you arrive at Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo) your local guide will meet you at the train station and take you to shuttle for the scenic ride along the switchback road that leads up the mountain to Machu Picchu. On your three-hour guided tour, you’ll see the best of the extensive archaeological complex, including the House of the Guardian, the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, the Sacred Plaza and other key locations. Your guide will explain their history and significance. And as you walk around, we’ll have spectacular views of the agricultural terraces of Machu Picchu and across the surrounding mountains and plunging gorges.

You will take lunch in Aguas Calientes village where there is a big choice of dining spots (at your expense). Then you will board the train back to Ollantaytambo. When you arrive at the train station, we’ll be there to pick you up and take you back to your hotel.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 8 – Sacred Valley → Peruvian Amazon

This morning you will transfer to Cusco airport for your flight to Puerto Maldonado in the Peruvian Amazon, and the Tambopata River and Bahuaja-Sonene National Park one of the most biodiverse locations on Earth. You will spend three nights in a lovely lodge in the heart of the forest.

Upon arrival at Padre Aldamiz Airport in Puerto Maldonado, you will be greeted by an Inotawa guide and will be taken to our headquarters in the city. At our office we will register guests and you can buy provisions you might need for the forest – like torch batteries, rain ponchos and water bottles. We travel by land for an hour to the Port of the Native Community of Infierno; during the journey you will pass through the hinterland of tiny Puerto Maldonado, where the traditional papaya and pomelo plantations of the riverine people give way to tropical wetlands, cecropia filled forests (look out for sloths in the high branches) and dense rainforest. We board a launch and take a 90-minute ride along the Tambopata River, entering the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve within the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. Look out for orioles and their impressive hanging nests, herons, or macaws and toucans that fly through the sky, among others. Occasionally, you can also see mammals such as the capybara, or reptiles resting on the banks of the river, such as white caimans and turtles.

Upon arrival, the guide will orientate you and show you your jungle cabins. Then the activities begin, with walks in the forest in the late afternoon and in the evening (to see birds and animals at their most active and the crepuscular and nocturnal wildlife). Your guide will also show how Inotawa uses the money from tourism for a series of conservation projects.

These include monitoring of wildlife with camera traps, allowing counts of large predatory ‘indicator species’ which are signifiers of the health of the forest.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 9 – Peruvian Amazon → Expedition to Colpa Chuncho & Jungle Camp

Today you begin your expedition to one of the most extraordinary locations in the Peruvian Amazon  the huge Colpa Chunco clay lick; where birds congregate in vast numbers to ingest clay from a ten metres high exposed mud wall in remote rainforest.The lick is in the heart of the Tambopata Reserve and you will plenty of other fauna en route there and in the wild surrounds. The day begins with a four-hour boat ride from Inotawa, along the Tambopata River, with stops along the way to look for wildlife in the numerous creeks and channels and around the river islands. You will see myriad water birds – including rare Agami herons and several species of kingfisher; and there is nowhere you are more likely to see large Amazonian mammals like capybara or even jaguar. You make a stop at the La Torre checkpoint to register, have lunch next to the plunging El Gato ravine and waterfall and take guided walks in the rain forest nearby, looking out for the spoor of peccaries, tapirs, and other mammals who use these paths to access the clay click. You will camp in the forest tonight.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch

Day 10 –  Peruvian Amazon → Colpa Chuncho Clay Lick

At dawn you will take a 25-minute boat ride and walk 10 minutes to reach the hide right in front of the clay lick – which sits in a small ravine off the river and wait for the birds to arrive. It’s an impressive spectacle – with scores of big red and green macaws, dozens of blue and yellow macaws and myriad parrots and parakeets gathering in raucous cacophony on the riverbank walls.

You will take a boat ride up stream through Ese Eja indigenous community lands to the Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake. Here you will board a traditional native rowing boat and explore the lake in quiet contemplation. You’ll see many wading birds, large raptors like black collared hawks and rare 2-metre-long giant river otters, who live in the lake. In the late afternoon you continue to explore the rivers around the Tambopata and at dusk take a tour to see more nocturnal fauna and to star gaze. These are some of the clearest, cleanest skies on Earth and your guide will point out constellations like Scorpius, Sagittarius and the Southern Cross. In the darkness the guide sends out beams of lights from a powerful torch to catch the eyeshine of caiman, capybaras and nightjars on the banks and bends of the river.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 11 – Peruvian Amazon → Puerto Maldonado → Lima

Today you transfer back to Puerto Maldonado and from there to Lima. You will stay overnight in a comfortable hotel near Lima airport before your early flight to Huaraz and the mountains the following morning.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 12 – Huaraz & the Andean Cordillera

Early this morning, you fly to Huaraz – the Pokhara of Peru, gateway to some of the most impressive snowy peaks in the Andes, with several reaching up over 6500 metres. Our representatives will take you and collect you from the airport and transfer you to your Huaraz hotel where you will have an early check-in. There are plenty of hiking and mountaineering shops in the town if you need to get any warm clothes or other provisions for your forthcoming hike. You spend the rest of the day at leisure (you will already be acclimatised from your time in Cusco) and you can take a short walk to the Churup lagoon should you wish. Our guide will help you with this (15km -2-3 hours)

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 13 – The Santa Cruz Hike Day One

After breakfast you will begin the first day of the Santa Cruz hike in the Cordillera Blanca. This classic high Andean hike has been nominated as one of the World’s Best Epic Hikes by National Geographic magazine. As the magazine describes the hike: ‘The mountains take precedence here – the Cordillera Blanca are one of the most concentrated collections of big peaks in the Western Hemisphere, with 33 summits topping 18,000 feet and 16 over 19,500 feet, including 22,205-foot Huascarán, the highest mountain in Peru, all squeezed into a 13-mile-wide, 112-mile-long corridor’. The route is spectacular and begins with a drive along the magnificent Callejón de Huaylas Valley between the breath-taking Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negra mountain ranges, to Vaqueria where you will start walking.

You begin with a traverse of the Huaripampa Gorge, passing the villages of Collo, Manchaca and Huaripampa and enjoying stunning views of the two towers of Chacraraju mountain, as well as swampy meadows, small lakes and lush forests. You make camp at 3,780m.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 14 – The Santa Cruz Hike Day Two

Today is all about the stunning as you walk through grassy meadows and past the brilliant green Morococha lakes. You will climb stone-carved, pre-Incan steps to reach the Punta Unión Pass that marks the highest point of your trek at an impressive 4,780m. The panorama in front of you is dominated by the majestic ice walls of Taulliraju Mountain rising above Taullicocha Lake. Your camp tonight is at Taullipampa, a 4,250m where you will see a stunning sunset followed by clear skies filled with billions of stars.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 15 – The Santa Cruz Hike Day Three

It’s another wonderful day’s trekking today as the path cuts through a range of different alpine and cloud forest ecosystems, winding beneath the icy peaks of the Cordillera. Climbing to Arhyuaycocha Lake you will see the icy, fluted south face of the 5,947 metre high pyramid-shaped Alpamayo Peak in all its rugged grandeur. Towards the end of the day, you’ll descend past Jatuncocha and Ichiccocha lakes to reach Llama Corral camping at 3,780m.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 16 – The Santa Cruz Hike Day Four

The final day of this beautiful trek takes you down the left ridge of the deep Santa Cruz Canyon. The first glimpses of the jagged Cordillera Negra on the horizon announce your approach to Cashapampa village. Your trek is completed here, and a driver will be waiting to drive you to your hotel in Huaraz – with glimpses of the towering massif of 6,768m Huascarán Mountain (Peru’s highest) en route to a well-earned rest!

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 17 Huaraz – Lima – Flight Home

After breakfast you will be collected and transferred to the airport for your short flight to Lima and connection to your flight home.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast