Anyone done the Inca trail or its alternatives?

[wooohooo]

Hey guys

Myself and 3 friends are looking at doing the Inca trail or the alternatives (lares, choquequirao) in the middle of April. Anyone have experience doing any of these and and operators you would suggest?

[Cowboy89]

I did the Inca Trail with G adventures (It's a Toronto based company) in August 2012. G-adventures took care of many of the common concerns of touring Peru. They had excellent trail guides, cook staff, and porters. I would recommend doing the Inca trail (If you can still get permits for April departures) as opposed to Lares, choquequirao, just because of all the neat history and ruins along the way (And the Inca trail is warmer and at slightly lower elevation).

[wooohooo]

How much was it with g adventures? It seems alot more expensive going with them than other operators but they do have spectacular reviews. Very tempting

[troutman]

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ght=inca+trail

[Bill Bumface]

Just make sure you pick one that gets you in early enough to get one of the spots for Wayna Pichu. They only let 400 people up per day, and we met lots of people who hiked in around 10am and missed the cutoff. It looks like you may be able to book ahead online now, but at the time it was first come, first served every day.

Getting up there as soon as it opens is also the only time you'll be able to get a photo of everything not crammed with tourists.

[killer_carlson]

I went with a company under the umbrella of Peregrine Adventures. It's an aussie firm and absolutely outstanding. Used them for a number of trips. Absolute AAA company.

http://www.peregrineadventures.com/

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by wooohooo

How much was it with g adventures? It seems alot more expensive going with them than other operators but they do have spectacular reviews. Very tempting

I did this one:

https://www.gadventures.com/trips/in...very/PID/2015/

[GomerPile]

I second that trip, we did the same thing plus a 3 day Amazon Add on. We noticed that we kept seeing a group of people everywhere we went that were not on the tour, but were following a very similar path and schedule. I chatted with one of the girls and she was the organizer. She had independently researched and booked everything over about 6 months for her and her friends. I asked what their cost per person was compared to the tour. They had saved about $150pp. To me, just going on the G-Adventures site and picking a trip in less then an hour is worth that $150pp.

I am not a tour person, but the 10-11 day tour covered off the must do's, wasn't so painful and we met some great people. They also guaranteed a smaller Inca Trail hiking group then a lot of other guides/companies (We saw groups up to 25-30 people - We had 8). After our tour we spent another 25 days cruising around Peru on local buses which was awesome.

Edit:
This was the one we did - Costs have gone up a bit.
https://www.gadventures.com/trips/am...5/?ref=upgrade

[killer_carlson]

not sure i'd agree that local busses are all they are cracked up to be.