Machu Picchu

[AndrewShooter]

On S America cruise, do P&O excursions run trips to Machu Picchu? If so, assume

overnighter and ball park cost advice appreciated. TYIA.

 

[Cristaltips]

We did the South America cruise in 2018 and it was wonderful. There was an option for pax to book a trip to Machu Picchu. They left the ship for a few days, did the trip and rejoined at a later port. I have no idea how much it was but not cheap!! 

[Bill Y]

On 1/9/2022 at 4:48 PM, AndrewShooter said:

On S America cruise, do P&O excursions run trips to Machu Picchu? If so, assume

overnighter and ball park cost advice appreciated. TYIA.

 

We have also been considering Machu Picchu, there seems to be three options for tours to iconic sites not within a days excursion.

1 The “Once in a lifetime” tour from a ship,

Like any ships excursion these are expensive, and take a chunk out of your cruise but tend to cover most costs. For example “The Great Ghan Train” in Australia 5days, fr £2.5k PP leave ship in Fremantle re-join in Adelaide, “The Taj Mahal” 5days leave ship in Colombo re-join in Mumbai can’t remember price but think it was much much more than £1k. Others may have an idea of the Machu Picchu P&O cost, but P&O do not often go to that area and also of late do not call at Argentinian ports.

2 A pre or post cruise extension.

These can be provided by the cruise line (Princess 6 day Machu Picchu explorer) these tend to be more expensive than a holiday put together as a cruise and escorted tour package by an operator. The operator may well use the same local tour company at the cruise line if going for a high end package. This option includes being able to spend more time in the area and including more sites.  If doing the classic around The Horn cruise I can recommend the Rio & Iguazu Falls extension that we booked as a non-cruise line pre extension package.

3 A separate holiday

Machu Picchu is often included in a land based south American Holiday, At the moment the UK operators that normally do these holidays are not supplying many details as presumably they are waiting for more certain times

You tend to get what you pay for, all meals included, escorted by guides throughout, small groups, higher grade and more central hotels etc. some operators will sell different levels of service at different prices.

Best of luck

[niltava42]

From memory this was offered as an option on a Princess Cruise we were on many years ago.

 

I believe the itinerary was:

 

Day 1 Leave ship & fly to Cusco / overnight hotel
Day 2 Machu Picchu & back to Cusco for overnight
Day 3 Back to ship (different port)

 

Cost-wise was certainly into 4 figures, I remember checking at the time and discovering that you could have a 10 day trip to Peru with flights from the UK for around the same price.

 

We spoke to several people afterwards about the experience and this is the real kicker that didn't get mentioned beforehand.  

 

Cusco is at an elevation of over 11,000 feet, you can book a room with extra oxygen at an additional cost!!

 

Several people on the tour suffered so much with altitude sickness that they never made it to Machu Picchu - they spent the day in the hotel in Cusco!

 

 

[englebert]

Greetings,

 

A few years ago (2002) we completed a South American holiday which included Peru and whilst in the Country we visited Machu Picchu.  A few years later we were on a Cruise that included the port of Lima which had a tour to Machu Picchu. 

 

As niltava42 says the ship tour was a 3 day event 

 

    Day 1   Depart ship from (Sea level) Lima and fly to Cusco (3300 meters)

                Stay overnight in hotel

   Day 2  Train from Cusco to Machu Picchu - Train LEAVES THE TRAIN STATION at 6am.

                3 and a half hours on the train.  30 min bus ride up to 'the lost city of the Incas'

                The train leaves mid afternoon to go back to Cusco

                 Overnight in Cusco

   Day 3   Flight back to Sea level and join the ship

 

Those who 'did' the trip came back with different stories.  Those who DID NOT suffer with altitude sickness enjoyed the experience and would do it again.

The majority who did suffer told a different story.........

 

During our own tour of Peru we met numerous (young and fit) people who suffered and others who were not effected at all (or at least not very much).  As with most things you pay your money (in this case quite a bit) and you take your chances. 

 

As it is a once in a lifetime experience our own view is DO IT 

 

Regards

 

[wowzz]

John Peel, the DJ, died in Cusco from a heart attack.  You need to be fit !

[Haworth]

The major issue with ship's tours is that you fly to Cusco and go immediately to height of 3400M without any acclimatising and risk suffering from altitude sickness, rooms with extra oxygen are only any use when you are in them and don't help with acclimatising.  

Lots of good information here

https://www.perurail.com/blog/altitude-sickness/

[brian1]

21 minutes ago, wowzz said:

John Peel, the DJ, died in Cusco from a heart attack.  You need to be fit !

Not always Wowzz,we did the full Princess landtour and I was a fat geezer then but we had no problems.Machu Piccu is 2000ft lower then Cusco so once you've acclimatized there it's easier.Just luck of the draw with health problems.PS the Coca tea was orrible.

[david05]

An example nearer to home is the Jungfraujoch railway station in Switzerland at over 11,000 ft above sea level. If like my wife you have any problems at the top of this railway (we came back down on the first available train!) then Cusco is probably not for you.

[scarlet ohara]

We had looked at visiting from a cruise but decided we needed longer to do it justice. We did a two week land holiday to Peru in Oct 2019. As mentioned above, it’s important to acclimatise to the altitude. We flew into Lima (sea level) for a couple of days then flew to Cusco and then private car straight to the Sacred Valley for 3nights to acclimatise. It is at a much lower altitude and there was lots to see. We then got a very early train to the town at the foot of Macchu Picchu ( can’t remember it’s name) and straight to the citadel with a 10am entry with a guide. It’s one way round and there are no toilet facilities inside the citadel so we were there about 2-3 hours. We stayed overnight and had a ticket to revisit in the morning ourselves. We climbed up to the sun gate and had no problem with altitude. We then went back to Cusco for a few days and by then we were used to the altitude so had no problems. We finished up at Lake Titicaca for a couple of days. (even higher altitude than Cusco.) We managed fine, but it came home to me about the altitude when, as usual, I went to walk up the stairs to our bedroom and was out of breath after about 5 steps! So came back down and got the lift! So in summary - think carefully about the altitude.- there enough to make a 2-3 week holiday, probably for a lot less money than the whole cruise. Most of the hotels have oxygen available if needed,

[terrierjohn]

4 hours ago, englebert said:

Greetings,

 

A few years ago (2002) we completed a South American holiday which included Peru and whilst in the Country we visited Machu Picchu.  A few years later we were on a Cruise that included the port of Lima which had a tour to Machu Picchu. 

 

As niltava42 says the ship tour was a 3 day event 

 

    Day 1   Depart ship from (Sea level) Lima and fly to Cusco (3300 meters)

                Stay overnight in hotel

   Day 2  Train from Cusco to Machu Picchu - Train LEAVES THE TRAIN STATION at 6am.

                3 and a half hours on the train.  30 min bus ride up to 'the lost city of the Incas'

                The train leaves mid afternoon to go back to Cusco

                 Overnight in Cusco

   Day 3   Flight back to Sea level and join the ship

 

Those who 'did' the trip came back with different stories.  Those who DID NOT suffer with altitude sickness enjoyed the experience and would do it again.

The majority who did suffer told a different story.........

 

During our own tour of Peru we met numerous (young and fit) people who suffered and others who were not effected at all (or at least not very much).  As with most things you pay your money (in this case quite a bit) and you take your chances. 

 

As it is a once in a lifetime experience our own view is DO IT 

 

Regards

 

We did a Saga holiday which included Machu Pichu about 15 yrs ago, I found that Cusco which is a higher alitude than MP was worse for altitude sickness. I had no problems with the altitude at MP.   But it was definitely a holiday we will long remember.

[brian1]

Teide volcano in Tenerife is 12500ft.We were allowed at the crater back in the 80s,don.t know about now.In Cusco it's important to not drink booze and take it easy walking around.I managed a couple of voddies though.

[davecttr]

I took the cable car almost to the top of Teide a few years ago and found even walking a couple of hundred yards difficult and the upper cable car station was at 11,800 feet. Machu Picchu is about 8,500 feet

[brian1]

49 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I took the cable car almost to the top of Teide a few years ago and found even walking a couple of hundred yards difficult and the upper cable car station was at 11,800 feet. Machu Picchu is about 8,500 feet

Back in the 80s we were allowed the final few hundred foot climb to the crater.That was hard work even for a slimmish 31 year old me.

[annieuk]

My husband did the Machu Picchu trip from Aurora back in 2018.  It was three nights away from the ship and he had a fantastic time and said it was worth every penny.  It was 5* service all the way.  He would have liked more time at Machu Picchu itself but it was an easy way for him to visit with everything arranged.  He did find the altitude gave him a slight headache and he didn't sleep very well while away but he said the whole trip made that worthwhile.  The hotel he stayed in was amazing, owned, I think, by the people who own the Orient Express.  He rejoined the ship three nights later.  Other people on our table also went on the trip and also said it was worthwhile.  

[zap99]

On 1/12/2022 at 11:04 AM, brian1 said:

Back in the 80s we were allowed the final few hundred foot climb to the crater.That was hard work even for a slimmish 31 year old me.

I was looking at the exclusions for a well known and often used insurance company. One of their exclusions is trekking above 2500m.🤔

[brian1]

15 hours ago, zap99 said:

I was looking at the exclusions for a well known and often used insurance company. One of their exclusions is trekking above 2500m.🤔

I suppose I'll have to get one of those sedan chairs nowdays.

[AndrewShooter]

Thanks to all that replied - very useful confirmation of all I had found via Google. We had budgeted over £2k - £2.5k pp but would only do it via P&O (always way over the odds!) to make sure we were not left behind when we visit SAmerica on Aurora next spring. Jury still out on decision as my days of extreme adventures are, regrettably, becoming distant memories. 

[Snow Hill]

On 1/12/2022 at 10:12 AM, davecttr said:

I took the cable car almost to the top of Teide a few years ago and found even walking a couple of hundred yards difficult and the upper cable car station was at 11,800 feet. Machu Picchu is about 8,500 feet

I found the same when there, I was in my mid 40s then and fitter than I am today and we found it difficult, fast forward to 2019 and found it difficult at 2,500m in the French Alps, took me a week before I was acclimatised, it was then time to come home! 

[AdeAfloat]

Machu Picchu. Just picked up on this one and wanted to say that yes, it's a pricey tour from P&O's South American trip but it was very good value and an excellent tour. I recall it was £2500 pp for which you can probably do a two week holiday from the UK but not in the style that P&O did it. But it is odd going on holiday - from a holiday! We left the ship early after our arrival in Lima and flew to Cusco. The first day was spent checking into the Monasteria hotel in the centre of town - a Belmond hotel converted from an old monastery. All rooms had supplementary oxygen pumped into them 24/7 and there was even a magnificent chapel in the hotel. We were then split into small groups with our own guide and minibus and the afternoon was spent touring local Inca sights. The quality of our guide was excellent throughout - in our group no one suffered from altitude sickness though some did. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to who would be affected. My wife is asthmatic but didn't suffer at all. A superb evening meal in the main (El Tupay) restaurant complete with fine wines and opera singer!

 

Day 2 was the long one. A long drive to join the train at Ollantaytambo and the railhead for journeys to Machu Picchu. We had seats on the IncaRail Pullman train which fed us and entertained us throughout the spectacular journey. A little more upmarket than the PeruRail trains that provide the main rail services. A hair raising bus ride up to Machu Picchu itself - then a dramatic entrance into the site for a superb experience. We got 'home' very late but then a third  busy day afterwards looking at the main sights of Cusco itself.

 

The flight to Quito for an overnight in the capital of Ecuador and the long coach journey to re-join Aurora in Manta filled the last days and fortunately there were then a couple of sea days in which to recover!

 

The price/value equation is a personal one but we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The ship's Tours Manager escorted us throughout and we discussed the cost. She said that we could have done it for maybe £800-£1000 pp less but it would have been a very much more down-market experience and we agreed. If you going to do something like that it must be a bucket-list trip and therefore worth doing in style! Others with us had done the Iguazu falls tour earlier in the cruise too so they obviously felt the same.

 

If anyone cares to read my review of the whole cruise it is under the Aurora ship reviews as 

Aurora Cruise Ship: Review, Photos & Departure Ports on Cruise Critic