This was our first trip to Peru and to South America. Normally, for European trips, we would plan everything ourselves. For this trip, we wanted to do something different as this was a special trip for us. I did some research on tour providers thinking I would arrange for guides for a few days of our visit, I would figure out transportation later. I contacted Kuodo Travel because of the great reviews and I liked the fact that it is a local Cusco based business and woman owned. Celine put together our itinerary with a focus on the Inca sites and food. Celine included a couple of memorable lunches at two unique locales (food was phenomenal & focused on locally sourced produce). We would not have found these places on our own.

Having a guide at the different Inca sites, for our first afternoon at Machu Picchu, on city walks in Cusco and Lima and the amazing Maras salt pans was so informative! The visit to the Andean village was the best! We would not have found that on our own. Our guide Jeremy explained the history, culture, nuances of the places we visited and that made our trip more memorable. Jeremy was great. He was always pointing out native plants and birds and always let us know the best angle for our photos with the lighting we had, often deciding the order of our visits based on the lighting on the ruins we were seeing that day (and he also changed things up so that we beat the crowds to a couple of the sites).

Using Kuoda allowed us to save time at each point on our trip. From greeting us at the airports, getting us through the ticketing with our luggage tags, they expedited a normally tedious part of travel. We had never moved so quickly through the check in process! Our guide in Lima, when we arrived, had already gotten our luggage tags for our departure flight for Cusco two days later, saving us time. On our last night of the trip, our hotel had an event that ended up being quite loud and our coordinator, Jason was concerned that would impact our sleep and asked if we would like to be moved to another, quieter hotel. He had already spent the afternoon finding a property that had availability. These are just two examples of what the Kuoda team did for us. They truly wanted to make this a trip perfect.

If you are considering a trip to Peru and you found Kuoda Travel, shoot them an email and get the ball rolling. You will not be disappointed with what they put together for you and they will work with you on tweaking your trip to fit your budget.

Tips:
If staying near Urubamba, take a cab to town and try el Huacatay Restaurante, food was amazing!
Cooking class at Marcelo Batata in Cusco is also a must!
Being in the sun in the mid 60’s at that elevation is like the 80’s in the states, but when you get in the shade, it gets cool, be sure to always have a light jacket.