My boyfriend and I are travelling to Peru for 2 weeks. First day or two in Lima (anyone have recommendations on accommodation?) then fly to Cusco to hike Manchu Pichu for two days. Thinking about the peru hop bus (any opinions) what are some MUST sees that we can do in two weeks? And any accommodation recommendations
has anyone done hostels?
Thanks for any info you can provide!

too funny, just got home from Peru yesterday after 2 weeks there. In Cusco we stayed in a hostel called Casa Hosteria de Anita. It was plain, the staff were pleasant the breakfast was good. Be aware that most hostels don't have heat, so expect to be cold! When we got back from Machu Pichu, we stayed at the hotel Marqueses, just because that was right beside our drop off with SAS tours. Highly recommend them for the short trek to Machu pichu and the sacred valley tour.

That's great! I don't mind being a little cold hah. Do you mind letting me know what else you did/where you stayed? Did you choose hostels the whole trip?

Hike Rainbow Mountain if you can. Two days in Machu Picchu doesn't sound like you're trekking there, so you'd only need one day. Puno and Late Titicaca, Nazca, Pisco and the Ballestas Islands

We plan to hike in and camp overnight and leave the second day for Machu pichu. All the 4 day hikes are already booked up.

Heather with a tour company you can choose to camp overnight

Interesting. Didn't see anybody doing that last year. Have fun. Bring lots of warm things. It's freezing up there at night and you're hitting winter

I think you need a permit to hike any part of the trail. You do NOT want to get arrested in Peru or spend any time in a jail.

In Lima we stayed at Casa Wayra Miraflores. The owner is great. The hilton is just down the street where the airport express picks up to go to the airport, cheaper than a cab if there are only 2 of you. My friend, who was there at the same time, used Peru Hop and said it was fabulous. A great way to get around.

Fabulous! We were planning to stay in mirafores for a day or two at the beginning and end as we fly in and out from Lima. Great to know the peru hop was worth it!! Did you go north to the beaches?

We flew to Puerto Maldonado and were picked up and stayed at an eco lodge up the river. It was not a hostel, just the opposite, we were quite spoilt there. If you choose to fly anywhere, take Latam airlines if you can. We made the mistake of taking Star Peru with dismal results. Long delays, ended up wasting a day in the airport unfortunately. We spent quite a bit of time in Cusco trying to adapt to the altitude before our hike. Cusco is awesome! Love it there, Lima, well, Lima was not our favourite.

What is in puerto Maldonado? And thanks we will book with latam!

I did Peruhop. While it is nice meeting other travelers, it is way cheaper if you book your buses on your own. Once you book peru hop, you are committed to the route you chose. I wish I didn't.
I will be writing up a review on trip advisor about Peru hop soon.
What I didn't like about Peru hop is that most of the time the buses I ended up in were nothing like the pictures on their website. At the least when you book locally in Peru, you can see the type of bus you will be getting on.

TIP: For problems with high altitude you need to do the following: when you get to Cuzco, go to your hotel directly from the airport, order a mate de coca leave tea and have a little nap. Do not anything spicy for lunch. Just order a "dieta de pollo" which is a chicken noodle soup. In the afternoon, you could take a city tour or something like that but nothing that will get you to do a lot of movement. Try not to eat too spicy for dinner either and don't forget another mate de coca tea. This way will help you a lot with the high altitude!!

You can also take Acetazolamide with you. It's a diuretic that has action on the brain and prevents altitude sickness and the brain swelling that goes with it

THANK YOU!! I'm nervous about having altitude issues

You're only there for two weeks you don't want to be ill for several days of that. LOTS of water with or without the Azetazolamide. If you're going to the Amazon check the map, we needed Yellow Fever vaccines and malaria meds. I spent so much on meds for this trip

also take some activated charcoal with you, it comes in a capsule and helps almost immediately if you get any mild stomach issues. You just can't take it when you have taken any other meds, you have to wait a few hours, the recommendations are on the bottle. Works like a charm though!

Melanie all these medications found at a regular pharmacy?

Charcoal is but the others are prescription. I highly suggest a trip to the closest travel clinic. They can also set you up with some antibiotics that you take if you do get more serious tummy issues. And have health insurance!!! I'm a nurse and you'll want to have insurance that covers repatriation

The charcoal you can get at a health food store, they will go over how to take it. We also went to the travel clinic before we left to make sure we had all of our vaccinations up to date and get any prescriptions that we would need. We took the altitude drug that was suggest earlier, plus we had to take some malaria medicine for when we went down to puerto maldonado.

The diamox get from Canada before you leave and start taking it a few days beforehand. That's what I did and I was fine. With fair pharmacare it cost like $4.
The yellow fever vaccine, if you can get it here, get it. If you can't, then get it in Peru. You might not need it, but because the vaccine is so hard to get in Canada (shortages), it will benefit you on other travel having proof you got it.
What I would recommend considering is going into Bolivia from Cusco. I really enjoyed La Paz. You can get buses from Cusco to La Paz

You must start taking Acetazomide before you get to altitude. Check into a travel clinic before you go.

Any other accommodation recommendations besides Lima and Cusco? Or any other must sees after machu pichu.

Elizabeth Irene

Just sent you our itinerary done by our travel guide - we are going in September - hopefully it gives you some ideas of what was recommend to us

Thank you! We will be there September as well

Amanda Helena - maybe we will run into each other

Another must see besides Cuzco and Machu Picchu is Arequipa!! Is a beautiful city. While there you definitely should go to: Convento de Santa Catalina which is a city within the city and also to the Colca Canyon.

You're going to have so much fun!!

Definitely take the altitude sickness meds as prescribed before you go and take it easy on first day in Cuzco. We saw so many people not follow that advice and get going on sightseeing right away. Next day they were all down, some on oxygen tanks, unable to do anything. It sneaks up on you.