Sparkytravelingheart

I am planning our first visit to Galápagos now, and trying to decide which ship to go on and where, so I can’t help you with that, but a couple of years ago we went to Machu Picchu at the end of an Oceania cruise. It was a great tour but if I had to do it again, I would also recommend going with a private tour, only to have more time at MP. As another person said, we were only at MP maybe 4 hours. I suggest you stay overnight up there, unless it is really something you just want to check off the list.  I would have liked time to just sit and enjoy and we had almost no time for that. Plus just coming off a 12 day cruise, my balance was a little off and I would have preferred to slow down. I went with the cruise tour only out of concern for making arrangements etc.

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Then make sure you have major a data plan - I think GPS uses data, but a techno type can tell you for sure, or your provider

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It is pretty easy. Helps to know some French. We rented a car at airport about 6 years ago and drove around Provence for 3 days, returning it to a location in Marseille and taking taxi to cruise ship - we were told not to hang out in Marseille. It would be good to read up on French signs too. I reserved an automatic, and double checked to be sure as I guess sometimes font honor that, and also get GPS in English - we never could figure out how to get ours into English. So last time we rented (in Alsace) we has rental staff set it up in English, it sure helped! Our biggest problem was in Avignon, old section, lots of no parking or limited parking signs we didn't understand...and be careful of very narrow streets, ha ha. But it is mostly pretty easy and fun. Bon voyage!

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