Top Cusco 4WD Tours - page 10

Great way to get to know the culture of a place. The market visit was fun and exciting and we saw and learnt about so many new things. The cooking session was brilliant - truly hands on - we actually did our own cooking - and Christian was the perfect guide and story teller…. Great way to get to know a country….

This was a really early start (and I doubted, at first this decision) However, it was the best decision! Pickup at our hotel was around 3am but we slept a bit in the van. After the stops to pick up up passengers, we journeyed a few hours where stopped for breakfast. Then we headed one more hour to the base camp of the ATVs. The sun was dawning and it was cold. Bring hats, gloves and a winter coat . We were outfitted with the atv and headed to Rainbow Mtn. - so much Fun! About 20 minute ride . At Rainow Mtn, we were given some time to walk around to the different pictures sights &just take it in. I will say there were no crowds at this time so it was very serene. Perfect blue skies graced our day. After our Atv back (again so much fun and better than walking) we boarded the van and stopped for lunch at the same place for breakfast. A little bumper to lumper traffic back into Cusco slowed us down a little. But I must say that arriving back in the early afternoon gave us the whole day to keep exploring Cusco :) This was a great excursion and highly recommend if the early departure isn’t a factor. It was awesome to see Rainbow Mtn before all the crowds showed up and it was a wonderful sight to see and experience.

This was the first tour for us in our Peruvian vacation, and what a wonderful start. Our tour guide Vidal contacted us the afternoon before to schedule pick. The next morning everything worked like clock work. Vidal and the driver arrived precisely when they said they would. Luckily for us, my boyfriend and I were the only ones on this tour so it felt more personal and we immediately liked our tour guide. We settled entrance fee payments and we started our Sacred Valley tour journey. Vidal was so informative and helpful from the get go. He volunteered his information and we could tell how much he enjoyed his job and how passionate he is about his country. Our first stop was Chinchero to feed the llamas, alpacas and guinea pigs, this was my first experience with them and how lovely it was, there we also witnessed the production and hand weaving process which was so interesting and informative. As we carried on with our adventure we stopped to take pictures of the beautiful sites. Vidal explained to us many things about the People and area we drove through. Then we arrived at the Salt mines which is such a very unique and interesting place. I could not get over the landscape of where we were, then we learned about how the salt mines work which was so informative, after Vidal took many photos of us we left the salt mines and headed to our next site Moray. On the drive there we stopped to buy some of the salt harvested from the mines, Peruvian chocolate which are amazing and refreshments, again the Peruvian country landscape takes my breath away, so the drive was always enjoyable for me. Moray what a historical place, the intelligence behind these ruins is so fascinating. We got may beautiful photos here as well. Then driving through mountains and fields of barley we traveled to Ollantaytambo. Another fascinating and intellectual place, a place of engineering before its time. Vidal climbed and walked us through all of the many fascinating rooms of the ruins, teaching us all the intricacies of the carved granite, the view from up in these ruins down on the valley and mountains surrounding is breath taking. Our lunch was at the beautiful hotel Sonesta Posadas Yucay, the lunch was amazing, the hotel was amazing, friendly staff. We had a lovely lunch before our long, beautiful journey home. I totally recommend this tour, everything about it was enjoyable.

With a couple snags along the way, it was still a wonderful experience. We were picked up from our hotel in Cusco at 4 am. The driver was actually 5 minutes early. The roads were bumpy so I was happy to have already recovered from altitude sickness the day before. After 2 hours we reached the train station in Ollantaytambo. The train schedules seem to be a bit flexible, but we eventually boarded and our car was not very full. This allowed us to change seats to face the direction of travel, at the attendant’s suggestion. After about 45 minutes the train came to a stop. The conductor said we had to wait for another train to pass. We waited a very long time until we found out the train ahead of us had broken down and was being repaired on the tracks, causing us to be very late for our arrival (2 hours). This affected our Machupicchu tour time and tour guide’s schedule. We kept in contact with him, the other person who was supposed to meet us at the train station in Aguas Calientes, and the tour company. The first two stayed in good contact with us and reassured us that this happens and they would handle the change in entry times for us. Mauro, our guide, was so kind and helpful. However, after waiting in the long line to enter Machupicchu, he was told our virtual tickets would not be accepted, only paper tickets. We had followed the directions the evening before and met with Frank at the orientation where instead of picking up tickets, he said he would send them virtually to my phone, which he did. I didn’t foresee this being a problem, but it was. Mauro, our persistent and kindhearted guide told us to wait right there at the entrance of Machupicchu for him to figure it out. After what seemed like 30-40 minutes, he came back with printed tickets! He had to pay someone with his own money to let him use her printer so we could enter. I will be forever grateful to him. Machupicchu is AMAZING and he was so informative and didn’t give up on us. He didn’t cut our tour short, either. But we had to hustle to get on a bus down, and Mauro convinced someone to let us go in front of everyone so we could make our train. I hope nobody else has to go through this, because for awhile I thought there’s no way we’re going to get in, which would have been devastating. Mauro even rode the bus back down to the train station, took us to a restaurant and instructed them to make something fast (we hadn’t eaten all day due to the circumstances which left no time), and made sure we were at the station in time for our regularly scheduled train. Mauro was our hero and a great companion, as he handled it all so well. Meanwhile, the tour company had gone silent from the time I told them there was a problem with the tickets. Luckily they have a very communicative team picking up the slack and handling it well. Mauro is the reason that this story has a happy ending. Thank you!!!

The ATV through the mountains is extremely fun - highly recommend. Wear glasses and full length clothes because you will get dust everywhere. Only recommendation would be to start the tour earlier because by the time we got to the salt mines the sun was setting a bit.

This tour is well organized and hits all the major sacred valley highlights. It would be impossible to fit in any more. Despite packing so much in it didn’t feel rushed. The guide Arnold was very knowledgeable and friendly. The driver was great. My only criticism is I would cut the “silver workshop” at the end.

Such a fun cooking class! We really enjoyed learning about the local Peruvian foods and getting to cook with them. Our chef Mauricio was very nice and even went out of his way to help us navigate a personal problem. He also paid for a taxi to take us back to the kitchen when it started raining and I didn’t have a coat. The food was all very delicious and the kitchen was very nice and clean!

My sister, a friend and I traveled with Bamba travel company to Machu Picchu on the 4 day/3 night trek. I can’t say enough good things about the team that we were with. Our porters were amazing, helpful, and caring, especially Loco. They always had a smile on their faces! they worked so very hard carrying all of our equipment to each location where we camped. There were no alpacas, donkeys or horses used to carry the equipment. They carried 25 kg on their backs. I could barely carry 10 pounds in my day pack. They effortlessly ran up and down the steps. They made it look so easy even in the rain! They ranged anywhere from 20yo to 61yo. It was just amazing. Our chef Sanom, made each meal like a feast with minimal effort and equipment. Our team leader Edwin was fantastic. This trek was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life. I was always last to camp, Edwin made sure that I was safe, he stayed with me and was my own personal cheerleader. He gave me the encouragement that I needed to finish each day. He was very knowledgeable. It was definitely fascinating to hear the history of the Incas and walk the same path that they did many, many years ago. As I said, in the beginning, I can’t say enough good things about the team we were with. I would definitely recommend Bamba travel if you’re thinking about doing the trek to Machu Picchu. Please pass along my thanks to the team. I never would’ve made it without them.