All Tours in Peru

Machu Picchu - photo by TERRA ANDINA

By Caroline Bennett

Organized Peru tours are available to a wide range of attractions, landscapes, climates, and cultures. A slew of reputable agencies offer a number of excursions, from scenic day trips to Lake Titicaca—the world's highest navigable lake—to mystical multi-day hikes through Machu Picchu and along the Inca trail. Peruvian Amazon tours explore one of the most bio-diverse areas of the planet and highlight the unique flora and fauna in the rainforest, while Andes trips will take you high into the picturesque peaks. Choose an adventure trekking tour, or sit back and take in the sites by bus: there are trips for every spirit of traveler, with expeditions that can include hiking, mountain biking, rafting, culture tours, and shopping. A wide range of itineraries means there is something to fit your interests, timeframe and budget. Tours can easily be booked internationally or in all major cities once in Peru.

ANDES TOURS

The snowcapped peaks and glacial lakes of the Peruvian Andes offer some of the most incredible scenery in the hemisphere, and a wide range of tours cater to both expert mountaineer and greenhorn trekker alike. It is not necessary to be "super fit" to hike in the Andes, but you do need to be of generally good fitness and a regular walker. Tours are rated by level of difficulty and often last a couple of weeks or more, though many several-day trips are also available. The majority of Andes tours depart from Huarez, though trips can be taken from several of the country’s other mountain towns.

AMAZON TOURS

Amazon tours allow you to explore one of the most bio-diverse areas on the planet via boat trips down the Amazon tributary rivers, eco-lodge stays, or often a combination of the two. Typically knowledgeable guides take you deep into the rainforest in search of the more than one thousand five-hundred species of birds, two thousand five-hundred species of fish, and more than fifty thousand species of plants. Tours can last anywhere from two days to two weeks and offer a wide range of accommodation.

LAKE TITICACA TOURS

Tours of the world's highest navigable lake offer a variety of single and multiple-day tours of the waters and the communities living on its shores and islands. Tours range from a few hours of island exploration to days of getting to know lakeside villages. Most travel agencies in Puno handle the conventional tours of Lake Titicaca and Sillustani, along with a handful of other ruins programs that can extend trips by a few days.

INCA TRAIL TOURS

Hiking the Inca Trail is by far one of the most popular activities in Peru, and there are a host of tour possibilities to guide you. Shorter jaunts of a few days touch in on the sites, while trips of three days to more than a week will take you winding through an array of scenery, altitudes, climates, and ecosystems that range from high Andean plains to dense cloud forest. Many excursions end with a climactic arrival at the breathtaking Machu Picchu site. Most trips leave and return to Cusco, and if you haven't had time to acclimate to high altitudes it may be worth hanging out here for a few days before hitting the trail. Look around: trips vary greatly in levels of difficulty and price.