Puno Travel Forum

My friend and I are interested in an overnight train from Lima to Puno (or thereabouts). We are arriving at the Lima airport very late (11pm ish) on October 23rd. Are there overnight trains that run late?

Thanks!!

There's no overnight train from Lima to Puno. YOu could do Lima-Cuzco/Arequipa (bus) then take a train to Puno. Check perurail.com for schedules. The other alternative you could do is by bus. THere are overnight buses but I doubt there will be buses leaving after 11pm; And a bus ride from Lima to PUno will be a VERY, VERY LONG journey. E-mail me if you want more info.

There arenīt a train route between Lima and Puno. And it isnīt recommendable traveling from Lima to Puno by bus if you canīt wait more than 18 hours of journey.
The safest way is by air. The flights depart from Lima in the morning and you will have to stay at a hotel in the city.

The domestic flight within Peru is relatively inexpensive, you could book plane ticket leaving right next early morning to Juliaca (JUL) where the airport is, then take taxi or bus/mini bus etc to Puno. Taxi was around 50 soles two weeks ago.

Lan Peru has a 9:40 flight to JUL which is cheaper but takes a bit longer time to get to JUL:
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?tovr=2003070303&ps3u=

Try www.lanperu.com to check if price there is cheaper (we used it for Cusco->JUL leg).

While Aero Continentes has a 12:00+ flight to JUL (two hours of time). If you read Spanish, you could also check www.aerocontinentes.com site.

The good thing in Peru is that one does not need to buy round-trip ticket, one way ticket makes it easy/convenient to 'chain' the trips, and the round trip ticket is only exactly twice of the 1-way price.

If you have time but short of budget, you may choose to take bus/train combination. www.perurail.com will show you that train does NOT run everyday, so you have to plan your trip accordingly. Train leaves Cusco to Puno at 8:00 AM on its running weekdays.

Best luck and have a good time!

If you also visit other parts of the country, and knowing that you may suffer high altitude disease, many people recommend to 'acclimatize' by going to places with higher altitudes gradually, e.g., Lima ->Arequipa->Cusco->Puno, the latter is around 3,900 meters elevation).