- Route plan

  Perhaps the trip we have postponed the most, for differentreasons, is the one to Peru. More than a decade has passed since we had the itinerary prepared and, finally, the moment has arrived to do it.

  It is the last trip we have left with more than one wonder to visit in it: The Amazon and Machu Picchu. The idea has always been to do the three-day tour in the Amazon from Iquitos at the beginning, which is further away from everything else, and then focus on an itinerary that links Ica, Nazca, Arequipa, and Cusco.

  We had to go over that itinerary several times because doing it all by car meant too many kilometers and, if you don’t want to pay a high fee for returning the car in a different location from where it was picked up, you would have to drive back to Lima, which literally means days. Using the Cruz del Sur buses to Arequipa reduces all that driving time by starting from that city, but once you complete the route up to Cusco, you would still need to drive at least two days back to Arequipa.

  In the end, by deciding to remove Puno from the itinerary, the only reason to rent a car would be to reach the Condor Viewpoint from Arequipa, since we have no intention of doing any trekking in the Colca Canyon and, although I am especially excited about seeing condors, it is not even guaranteed even if we dedicate a full day driving there and back from Arequipa just for that. So we removed it and will link all the destinations in Peru using domestic flights, which are very well priced.

  We will not go through Nazca either because there are flights that depart from the airport in Ica, so one night in that city, specifically in the oasis of Huacachina, would be enough to see everything we wanted. Or so we thought, until we discovered that the airfield in Ica was closed and we were left without any option to see the Nazca lines.
Our itinerary in Peru
  Thus, our route through Peru, which begins with an afternoon arrival in Lima, looked like this:

 1: Arrival in Lima
 2: Three-day tour of the Peruvian Amazon from Iquitos.
 3: Bus trip to Ica with a stay in the Huacachina oasis and a visit to Paracas and return to Lima.
 4: Flight to Arequipa and visit to the city and surroundings.
 5: Flight to Cusco and visit of the city.
 6: Transport to Ollantaytambo from where the train to Machu Picchu departs.
 7: Flight to Lima and visit of the city until we return to Madrid.

  On the map, the routes by plane appear in red and those done by bus in blue.

   The general route plan (day number and where we spend the night), now finalized, is as follows, starting on 09/25/2025:

1: Lima
2: Iquitos
3 y 4: Amazon
5: Lima
6: Huacachina
7: Lima
8 y 9: Arequipa
10 y 11: Cusco
12 y 13: Ollantaytambo
14: Lima
15: Flight


  With this, the total price for this travel has been a bit over 4000€ for both of us, so around 2000€ per person.

- Flights

 After much searching we reached the conclusion that the best option is to fly from Madrid, which has a low-cost Iberia subsidiary that flies to destinations in the Americas, including Lima.

  Besides the price advantage, it also has the advantage of time, since they are direct flights to Lima.

  Finally, then, the flights purchased with Plus Ultra are as follows, for 1556€:

08/25/2025   MAD   11:00       LIM    16:10
09/08/2025   LIM    18:10       MAD   13:05 (+1)

  For the domestic flights, the first necessary trip is the one that will take us to the Amazon. So we look at the available flights to Iquitos. We have a hotel in Iquitos and they will pick us up the next morning, so we have no restrictions on arriving there, but after considering the option of being able to see the city by the Amazon River or buying what we still need for the jungle, we decide to fly in the morning. For the return, however, we do have a restriction that comes from the tour we booked: the flight has to be after 5 p.m. so that they can bring us from the jungle. Since we are returning to the same hotel in Lima we will carry only our backpacks.

  With this, the outbound and return flights to Iquitos, purchased with LATAM Airlines for 120€ per person:

08/26/2025   LIM   11:40       IQT    13:30
08/29/2025   IQT   07:55       LIM    09:40

  The other airline we looked at for domestic flights is Sky, from which we purchased the flights from Lima to Arequipa and from Arequipa to Cusco. These already include full luggage.

  The first flight with Sky, from Lima to Arequipa, cost us 90€ per person:

09/01/2025   LIM   09:25       AQP    10:55

  The other flight is the one that will take us to Cusco from Arequipa for 86€ per person:

09/03/2025   AQP   08:00      CUZ    09:10

  The only one left is the flight back to Lima the day before our return home. Due to schedule and price reasons we bought it with LATAM Airlines for 88€ per person:

08/29/2025   CUZ   07:55       LIM    09:40

  With this, our total expense for flights is 2324€, which makes it, by far, the largest cost in our budget.


- Hotels

  The first hotel we looked for was for our first nights in Lima. They are two separate nights since we plan to leave our luggage to go to the Amazon with only one backpack each and pick it up again on our return. We searched in the Miraflores neighborhood which, although not ideal for going to and from the airport, works for us to catch the bus early after the last night. It also allows us to use our free time to visit the interesting places in that area. We chose the Hotel Antigua Miraflores for 70€ for each of the two nights.
   
  For the Amazon we have accommodation booked with Muyuna Lodge, where lodging is included in their 3-day, 2-night package in the jungle, with meals and activities included, for 880$.

  But, to make things easier, we will spend one more night in the Amazon region in the city of Iquitos, where they will pick us up the next morning to take us to Muyuna Lodge. We chose a central location so we could explore what we want to see in that city. We are talking about Casa Morey, for which we paid 58€.

  After our adventure in the Amazon, and with all our luggage, the first night outside Lima should be in the Ica area, and there the Huacachina oasis stands out. Since we want to enjoy those landscapes as much as possible we looked for accommodation in the oasis itself and chose the Hotel El Huacachinero for 63€.

   Since the plan is to return to Lima to catch a flight the next morning to Arequipa, we looked for accommodation near the airport in the capital and ended up booking one night at Matty House for 39€.

  In Arequipa we are staying two nights and we prioritized a central location so we could visit the most interesting places on foot. We ended up choosing the Condes de Lemos Arequipa hotel, which is between the Plaza de Armas and the Santa Catalina Monastery, for 37€ per night, 74€ in total.

  From Arequipa we will arrive in Cusco where we will also stay two nights. Accommodation in this city is more expensive because it is the most touristic, but even so we searched in the historic center and chose the Cooper Hotel Boutique, where we paid 81€ per night, 162€ in total.

  The highlight of our stay in Cusco is, of course, the visit to Machu Picchu. Since we want to go up to the wonder of the world and return the same day, and because the train station is not in Cusco, we will spend two nights in Ollantaytambo so we can wake up there, leave early, and return late. Considering our goal, we looked for accommodation near the station and booked at Sequeiros Garden for 31€, 62€ in total.

  We still have the last night in Lima, where we return to Miraflores, but we won’t repeat the same hotel because we want to make sure we visit the historic site of Huaca Pucllana. We chose a hotel next to it, Lima 18 Boutique, for 63€.

  This makes the total hotel cost around 655€ + the 880$ of the Amazon tour. With the exchange rate at the time of payment, this gives us a total of 1406€.


-Rental Car

  In the end we will not rent a vehicle for this trip to Peru

-Other expenses

  Since all activities in the Amazon are included in the lodge price, only one more tour remains to include: the Ballestas Islands and Paracas tour from Ica, which we booked with San Travel Experiences. Since the price suited us and the private tour offered great flexibility, we paid 160$ for it.

  There is another mandatory expense on any trip to Peru: the visit to Machu Picchu. We paid 246$ for the train tickets for both of us from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu on perurail.com and the two entry tickets for the classic route booked at noon on the website of the Ministry of Culture of Peru for 159.50 soles each (around 38€). We bought the tickets more than three months in advance because the classic routes sell out quickly, even more so on a Sunday, as is our case.

   Detailed plan, then, is as follows:

AUGUST & SEPTEMBER
Day Night Morning Afternoon
25 Lima Flight Lima
26 Iquitos Lima Iquitos
27 Amazon Amazon Amazon
28 Amazon Amazon Amazon
29 Lima Amazon Amazon
30 Huacachina Nazca Huacachina
31 Lima Paracas Bus
1 Arequipa Arequipa Arequipa
2 Arequipa Arequipa Arequipa
3 Cusco Flight Cusco
4 Cusco Cusco Cusco
5 Ollantaytambo Cusco Ollantaytambo
6 Ollantaytambo Machu Pichu Machu Pichu
7 Lima Flight Lima
8 Flight Lima Lima