Cusco Travel Forum

Hi,

We are planning to go with a group of 10 people and are looking to find tour operators to take us on the 5d Inca Trail. Does anyone have any suggestion? Other than the quality of Guides, can anyone mention any other experience, such as "tent quality", "food", any other parameter to compare each other with? Specifically, we have seen, Peru Treks, Explore Andes, SAS, Q'ente and Enigma.

Thanks for any recommendations/tips!

We used Andean Life, http://www.andeanlife.com/ and were very impressed by the efficiency. The guide was brilliant as well.

I used GapAdventures in 2005 and they were abs brilliant: good tents, plenty of food, little plus like a hot bowl of water to wash at the end of the day and a snack pack each day.

Any operator you choose, ask them how they are treating their porters (sufficient food & a tent to sleep). If you find something much cheaper than the others it often means that the porters are badly treated and badly paid. Ou guide provided first aid to a porter from another group who did not even have sandals on and told him he did not eat enough. Those guys work hard and desrve to be paid fairly and looked after properly.
A

i used to work for G.A.P. Adventures and they now completely run the trail with their own company. but the operators we used to use were enigma and united mice which are both very good.

Hi there, I recently went with operator inka magik that organizes volunteering as well. The alternative inca trail is 4 days-3 nights but you go through the warm jungle and go on horseback and on foot as opposed to 4 days trekking. You also stay with a local family one night in the jungle, and have freshly toasted coffee as well as papaya off the trees! A different route to the classic 4 day trail. This is more coomunity or eco-tourism. Anyway. Hope this helps.
Caroline

Hi there:
You have a mail with a good recommendation, take a look.
Traveler-1

I don't know if this is such a late response to your question, but I just saw the posting.

I highly recommend Peru Treks and Adventure. They are a reputable company and set themselves apart from others by: giving a lot back to the communities from which their porters come from; decent & humane treatment of porters which I have directly witnessed; unlike other off-shore companies that subcontract with local agencies, they are locally run & administered which means that they pay direct taxes to the goverment--this is really vital to the sustainability & growth of the Peruvian economy; excellent & competitive pricing; EXCELLENT & gourmet-like meals; provision of snacks/beverages in between meals; knowledgeable guides; warm porters; highly skilled chef; and attentive assistants. I am all praises for this company!!!

Here's their weblink:

http://www.perutreks.com/

Goodluck & Happy Travels!