Iquitos Travel Forum

Hi there,

Im planning on Ttravelling in May, landing in Lima and travelling up to Iquutos to experience the Amazon and do a boat trip.

Do you think its safe for a woman travelling on her own and apart from flying, what is the best way to travel to Iquitos from Lima?

Thanks a lot

To Iquitos the only reasonable way is flying.
You may want to have a look at my Peru transportation pages.

For the Iquitos/Amazon experience you may want to have a look at Ken's-kzapanta-pages.

It`s an excellent idea........can i join you?

Trying to use VT as a dating site, Nadhim? Be careful.....!!

Hi Tania!

I can advise you to fly with LAN Peru from Lima directly to Iquitos. It's a very safe airlines and costs about 280 dollar round-trip.
I wouldn't spend much time in Lima. It's really a noisy, hectic and also dangerous place. If you need to stay overnight I recommend you to search a Hotel in Miraflores - the richest district of Lima. For someone with your travel expirience it's probably routine.

Because there is no street connection the only possibility to get to Iquitos besides flying, is by boat. But this takes weeks!
Probably that's one of the reasons, why it's a very safe place.
You can walk there almost everywhere without having any fear, even during the night. There are a few execptions like the Belen district.
In common the people are very friendly and not officious. In my eyes it's a very special place. I've already been to a few countries in Latin America..but this is my personal favourite place! I just went back from my third trip. If you need some advices for a hotel just write me a mail.

If you have some time to travel you could travel to Pucallpa by bus or airplane from Lima - and from there take the boat to Iquitos.
I never did this myself..but I'm sure it's great. There is really nothing between this two cities..it's the amazon jungle!

Sounds like a wonderful adventure! I think Peru is a relatively safe country for solo female travelers. I, for one, was alone in parts of my trip to Peru (in Lima & in Puno) and made it back whole to Boston. :) The greatest thing about traveling alone (and I've done some international traveling on my own) is not only highly adventurous, but it gives you total freedom to do as you please. The added bonus is that you get to meet many nice people (both locals & tourists) along the way that you get to hang out with. So, no worries at all about that! As for some cautionary measures, see my warning tip in my Lima page. Goodluck & do enjoy beautiful Peru!

your experience and safety drastically will improve if you book ahead of time one of the jungle lodges. There are a lot of them to choose from online.

The reason I say this is if you do not have a pre formulated plan and someone to meet you at the airport luggage area, you will be mobbed by persistent salesmen for lodges, taxi drivers, tricycle drivers and general kids asking for money. Most are safe but very persistent. And its a crap shoot of picking the right lodge and right driver by yourself.

On the other hand, if you have booked ahead a representative of the lodge will wait for you at baggage and when you get approached by anyone just say 'so and so is waiting for me and I have made my bookings with them. Everyone will immediately leave you alone. They will even find your guide for you.
The guide will then be with you from airport, taxi, river dock, boat and all thru the jungle lodge activities.

Well that is our experience at least by using our jungle lodge and our head guide Ruben. Check my Iquitos pages for the lodge name and what we did if you like.

Ken

Hola Tania!
Yo fui a Iquitos hace unos aņos. Hace bastante calor, pero en general es agradable. Si estas en la ciudad, hospedate en hoteles en donde NECESARIAMENTE haya aire acondicionado, de lo contrario nisiquiera en las noches podras dormir tranquila.
Use los servicios de un tour a la selva (no en la ciudad) por dos noches, y estuvo excelente, una experiencia que jamas olvidare.

Sobre la seguridad, solo usa el sentido comun ... no camines sola por las noches, no muestres joyas, etc ... Una amiga mia de Australia, viajo sola a la selva, y no tuvo ningun problema, a pesar que no sabia hablar espaņol. Por otro lado, la mejor manera de viajar desde Lima a Iquitos, es via aerea

SANDRO

Noel,
Just a question to test this place. Are you able to see member Null's comments on this post and others? Cause I can't and he seems to post a lot. Is this a spammer?

Cheers.

Hi Ken-yes, that's right. There is/are a spammer(s) active joining many times under different names, spamming and/or promoting own businesses. My list is also full of NULLs.

WOauuuuuuuu.. there's no problem for a gorgeous girl like u here.. :)
Welllllll.. i think it's very innocent say this but, if u need someone to guide u in Lima and Iquitos (whatever i don't know Iquitos) contact mee.. im a young runner and student pilot and could be my first experience in the junglee.. inocent, eh? See uuuuuu