LIMA safety/tour info please.

[edinburgher]

What did YOU do in Lima?

 

We leave in 3 weeks time on a Regal P. cruise from Valparaiso to Ft. L. We need to make a decision one way or another very soon on a private tour in the only place we are having difficulty in coming to a decision......LIMA

 

We are there one full day, overnight and until 2pm the following day. Due to the way the ships own tours have been put together its not possible for us to see everything we are interested in, and theres also some duplication.

 

We have had an itinerary (happy with that) and price given us by a reputable tour operator, however its pretty expensive for 2 and so far no one on the Roll Call interested in joining with us to reduce the cost. We might still go ahead even on our own if we think its worth it, but exploring possible alternatives first.

 

Has anyone used:

Taxi tours (with English speaker driver) from the port at Calleo. if so, how much was it and more importantly, was it any good? And were there any smaller Tourist Operators at the port offering mini bus/van shared tours? Or,

Was there nothing there at all?

Or,

Did you take a taxi from the port into Lima city centre and sightsee independantly? Or did you take a taxi into Lima to join a tour company shared tour at a central meeting point?

 

We welcome any comments and info you can give us.

 

We have read so many warnings about independant sightseeing here and the risk of theft/pickpocketing/scams etc that we are a bit spooked at the idea of heading off with no firm arrangements in place. In addition, we have read that taxis dont seem to be metered and we speak no Spanish so agreeing a price before getting in could be difficult. And I am not sure we would want to be driven away to goodness knows where by someone we could not communicate with.

How much of this is hype and how much genuine? Obviously we will be taking the usual precautions.

[minke]

Hi, great win on saturday for you!! We did Callao for Lima a few years ago on the old Arcadia. If you go to cruisereviews.com find the P&O section click on Arcadia & scroll down to old Arcadia reviews you will see mine & what we did (it's the only one). We had a free ships tour first day that was very good. 2nd day we hired a taxi, but no English speaking driver, no probs he drove home & got his visiting sister (from USA) out of bed to interpret! The review tells you what we did & cost, but the museum is superb. There are photos on cruisemates & cruise talk @ travelserver. net

[edinburgher]

Thanks, but not sure if "great" is the right word! The word "miracle" springs to mind more easily!:) With the win over France as well, can you get a second miracle?

 

Just went over to read your review which I found most helpful despite it being some time ago. Its answered a couple of other questions we had, in particular for Vicuna (from Coquimbo). I tried emailing several tour and taxi companies in Coquimbo and La Serena re a price to take us from Coquimbo to Vicuna, wait for maybe 1 and 1/2 hours to allow for sightseeing and pisco factory tour, then drop us off at La Serena for independant sightseeing from where we would make our own way back. Did not get a single reply, even after resending at least a week later. Only thing I concluded was that there seemed to be plenty tour and taxi companies in town so hopefully something at the dock. From what you said, looks like that might be a real possibility. We are keen to do this. Maybe we can find 2 others to share taxi with us. Ships tour is, I think, about 8 hours....too long.

 

And the Ballestos Islands. We are booked on ships tour (a huge $89 each) despite guide books indicating that $15 or so was the average price on a tour from Pisco. Again, could not get any response from Pisco tour operators who appear to run these trips, and books indicated you had to go on an organised trip. And the only mention of getting on independantly was by way of a local hotel close to where you embark the boats. It all seemed a bit iffy and as the ships tours had very few spaces left, we booked (knowing the price was probably way over the top) as we did not want to risk not doing this trip.

 

So thanks for that. Maybe will get more replies re Lima.

[edinburgher]

Ballestos Islands. Should have said how surprised we were that you turned up and went, so easily and cheaply! I guess guide books can get it wrong sometimes.

[minke]

Ilas Ballestas is unmissable if you are going to San Martin. An experience I will never forget. The P&O ships tour was 92 pounds sterling! for that they did get an English speaking guide & a cup of coffee or soft drink at the hotel & went from the hotel pier. We turned up at public pier, no one spoke English, guy ushered us to front of queue, sign here, hand over $ & onto pier. The boats seemed to be well regulated, as after we got on with life jackets they cast off & had to hang around untill they got a mobile phone OK from someone in control. This spaced the boats out nicely. Enjoy the trip.

[kannna]

Hi,

 

We were in Lima in January on Millenium. We had hired a private guide through a travel agent in Lima. It was a bit of money but it was great. We had our own little tour bus which had a/c and a guide who knew absolutley everything and a driver. they met us at the pier at the agreed upon time. We had given the travel agent our information so they could get in the pier area. First, she took us to the pachacamac ruins and we went all through and she told us all about them and what buildings were what and then we got out and walked through the temple area at the top and she came with us and told us all about it. I don't know if I could keep that much information in my head. Then we went to the handicraft market which is huge and she walked through with us and told us where certain crafts originated from and what significance they held in the culture and when they started making them. It was the most educational shopping trip. She also helped in translating. I can understand most spoken spanish but am not too good speaking it myself. So I would talk to the person the best i could and if i had something to say i didn't know i would ask her to say it. After that we went on a tour of the city were she showed us the different parts of the city and the oacas(sp?) ancient temples in the middle of city neighborhoods and the olive groves and all kinds of things

 

As i stated before it was a bit of money but we felt it was so worth it. I'm sure a lot more people could have fit in our little bus other than just the two of us. We also had arranged the tour to do exactly what we wanted to do I am sure that the travel operator could customize a tour for what you want to do. I don't think i am allowed to give you their name until you ask for it. At least that's how I understand the rules.

[ChattTenn]

Hi,

 

We were in Lima in January on Millenium. We had hired a private guide through a travel agent in Lima. It was a bit of money but it was great. We had our own little tour bus which had a/c and a guide who knew absolutley everything and a driver.

 

Hi Kanna,

 

I will be on the same cruise with Endinburgher. Can you give us the information about this tour company?. How much they charge per person? How long the tour last?

 

Several of us on this sailing 3/22 from Valpo to Ft. Lauderdale might wish to contact this company.

 

Some of us received the reponse from some tour company. Their price is a bit of money too.

 

We would like to make the best out of this trip because it might be the only trip out this way.

 

Thanks again.

 

Truyen

Regal Princess 3/22/-4/7 - Valpo - Ft. Lauderdale

[edinburgher]

Thank you for that Kanna.

 

My impression from the quotes I had is that Lima is quite expensive for tours but that they are worthwhile.

 

I am wondering if the lack of response to this post is due to the majority of people taking either ship or private tours.

 

Did any of you out there do Lima independantly?

[xpcdoojk]

I would definitely not feel that comfortable doing Lima on my own. I would definitely want to book with someone as a guide. We were there overnight in December and it is a very poor city that has grown rapidly in the last few decades. I am sure that there are some great things to see in Lima, but I have no great desire to return to Lima. I enjoyed Cusco a lot.

 

jc

[edinburgher]

XPCDOOJK

 

Thanks for your impressions of Lima. They are reinforcing our own. We are probably going to go with a private tour.

[BCHappyGal]

Dear Edinburgher

 

We visited Lima on our 2005 cruise and you can read about our wonderful private tour on my review on this thread called SA review Jan 3 - 31 located on about page 3. We used a private tour company called Orquidea Tours and our guide was "Snow" - our wonderful tour (a full day - way longer than the paid for 8 hours) was definitely a highlight of our trip. Snow made sure we felt safe at all times. She also made sure our mini-bus reached each site way ahead of hte ships big tour buses so that we enjoyed each place without any crowds. Usually we met the ships tour buses arriving as we werre leaving.

 

Scroll down on this thread and you can find my review. If you want further help you can e-mail me at ann @ century 21 vancouver . com

 

Enjoy your trip. I wish I was going again. But still have lots of places in the world left to explore before I can start repeating my voyages.

[kannna]

Hi all,

 

The travel agent was solmartour and our agent was Ms magda caballero. when researching agencies I did get a few responses. Ms Caballero seemed to have the greatest grasp of exactly what we wanted to do. I can not find where i wrote down the guide's name , but i believe her name was Mrs Theresa Marufallo. It was 100/pp and we prepaid<gasp>. It would probably be less if you had a larger group I would think. The lil bus had plenty of room. I do not usually prepay nor spend large amounts of money but it all turned out fabulous and was worth it. It was for 4 hrs and they showed up early and dropped us off at the appointed time so we got well over our 4 hrs.

 

the website is: http://www.solmar.com.pe/ingles.html

 

Ms Caballero's email is in the contactanos section. It's best to e-mail her through the website so it won't show up as spam in her in box.

 

When we were researching I also tried to reach BC's tour company and got no response. Perhaps some of you may have better luck.

 

Have fun

 

K

[edinburgher]

BCHAPPY GIRL.

 

Just wanted to say how much we enjoyed your SA review. And WHAT a lot of info and idea we got from it. It was really good of you to write it all up as theres not really that much info on SA on CC. Every little helps.

 

We did actually try to contact a couple of your recommended companies, but with only partial success.

 

ARICA. We tried Vicuna and another company( very prompt, efficient etc). Heard nothing back at all from Vicuna....not even when sent them another email maybe 10 days later saying "sorry, whilst awaiting your reply we booked with another company". No idea what went wrong, but that was 2 out of 2 with no reply. Maybe they got neither, but none of these came back to us as "undelivered".

 

LIMA We contacted Orchidea. We also contacted 3 others. We got a better quote so didnt use Orchidea.

 

If you look at the Panama Hat/Montecristi thread, theres a link you might be interested in.

[edinburgher]

Kanna. Thanks for looking out that info and posting. We are on the point of booking our private trip with a different company but might send yours an email asking for a quote as ours is pretty expensive, albeit the cheapest of the 4 quotes we got.