Machu Picchu Peru Tours — Local services in Distrito de Cusco

Sign up and buy directly with the tour operators. Signed up for 3 tours with Machu Picchu Peru Tours: Salkantay Trek, Rainbow Mountains, and Super Valley. An important thing to be aware of it that Machu Picchu Peru Tours does not operate the tours themselves, but offers tours operated by other companies. Thus, my review (and probably the other reviews here as well) does not concern the tours themselves, but instead the service offered to me by Machu Picchu Peru Tours with the purchasing of the tours as well as information provided. Machu Picchu Peru Tours offered a lower price for e.g. my Salkantay trek than the tour operator could provide me, which was the reason I signed up with them. I asked many questions to ensure there was no hidden fees and that the tour would be the same as the one offered directly by the tour operator. My gut feeling was telling me to buy directly with the tour operator but I listened to my logical sense and bought the cheaper tour with Machu Picchu Peru Tours despite them not seeming to know all details about the tour and two people at the company giving me slightly different information about the tour contradicting each other. Also, when I had to go to the ATM to withdraw money, one person went with me and kept standing right next to me as I was using the ATM and even reached in to press some buttons. This should have been a clear sign to me that they would be too considerate about the feelings and comfort of their clients. After having paid for my tours and agreed that a guide will come to my hostel to provide me information about my tour, Machu Picchu Peru Tours send me a Whatsapp message if I can come to the tour operator’s office now. Fortunately I just finished my dinner and could do so. It turned out to be the information meeting about my tour which I was told should happen at my hostel. Furthermore, there is a challenge with the tour I bought as it did not include the full itiniary, which I was not informed about. Apparently, a section of the tour was not include in the cheaper price, and I would have to pay extra USD 20 which now made the tour same price as it would have been directly with the tour operator (it later turned out that breakfast first day was not included for me either - again extra cost making it more expense than buying directly with the operator). Furthermore, Machu Picchu Peru Tours forgot to mention an extra cost for entrance to a park, which everyone had to pay anyway. Regarding the other two tours, Machu Picchu Peru Tours communicated with me by WhatsApp, but was anything from on top of things or proactive. I had to contact them myself and inquire when and where my tour would start, who will pick me up and where etc. It all seemed rather dodgy and one time I stood outside waiting nearly 45 minutes at 5 in the morning. If this was just because Machu Picchu Peru Tours told me an earlier time or the tour operator was late, I don’t know. But communication and service did not live up to what I think would be reasonable to expect. Regretted not buying directly from the tour operator already the same night. It ended up being at least the same price or maybe even slightly more expensive than had I bought directly with the tour operator. At least there was a highly communication and emotional cost for buying with Machu...

I took a package with my husband for three tours with the Machu Picchu Peru Tours agency to visit the Sacred Valley, Humantay Lake and the Rainbow Mountain. Unfortunately, the experience of arriving at these beautiful places was very poor and I am going to explain in detail why.

ORGANIZATION

On the tour to the Sacred Valley, they took a while to find us because they couldn't find our apartment and then they told us that they were not using the GPS, which would have left them right at the entrance of our apartment. In each stop of the trip, we always took longer than necessary because the guide did not establish a minimum time per stop, we had to tell him to please hurry up the people that were delaying the trip. Anyway, at the last stop the guide suggests we take another bus from the agency that arrived later and left the place first.

For Lake Humantay, the tour guide told us to walk one block to meet him. After finding him, we walked for more than 10 minutes, and he left us waiting at dawn (like 4:00am) in a place where some drunk people came out. We felt unsafe, something that no tourist wants when traveling to an unknown country.

Finally, those trips that included breakfast and lunch did include the drinks but at lunch you had to pay for it. The company wrote to us that it included the food but not the drinks. Another important missed detail.

TRANSPORTATION

When a tourist goes on a tour, I dare to say that 80% of the time is spent on the bus. Therefore, the comfort of the trip is very important. For the entire trip the driver had the windows down and the air conditioning off. The buses only have two moving windows at the front, the other windows are sealed. Not using the a/c in the mornings didn't affect much because the weather was cold. But after noon the bus was a sauna and with approximately 15 passengers it was abusive not to turn on the a/c for us tourists. We told the driver, the tour guide and the agency and they never acted. This happened on all three tours that we took.

The air ducts were full of dust. With the windows down and the air not circulating, we were swallowing dirt ALL the way. We were coughing, sneezing and when we got to the room our nose and throat were sore. We wrote to the agency and the response was that this is normal in Cusco. However, they never took action to roll up the windows, turn on the a/c, and recirculate the cabin’s air.

I hope the agency will act and fix or readjust this problem. If not, my tourist friend who reads me, look for another agency and ensure all...

We were looking for the agency that could be good for going to Machu Picchu on a guided tour. But, it turned out that they had very bad communication skills, far from what normal clients should expect. Not only the fact that their responses were slow, didn't respond to what we asked. And later, they started to contradicting what they have mentioned before. On Whatsapp, they asked my email address so that they can send more information, and guess what, I never received such emails from them afterwards. One has to recognize that there are serious problems in their administration. Despite the high-rated reviews, it didn't seem to be what we expected. Also, there seem to be no one that understands English. In the end, we decided not to make a reservation with them. Regrettably, such things aren't important for them. They get a lot of tourists coming into the city anyway. Well, good luck.

Estábamos buscando la agencia que podría ser buena para ir a Machu Picchu en una visita guiada. Pero resultó que tenían muy malas habilidades de comunicación lejos de lo que los clientes normales deberían esperar. No solo el hecho de que sus respuestas fueron lentas, no respondieron a lo que preguntamos. Y más tarde, comenzaron a contradecir lo que habían mencionado antes. En Whatsapp, me pidieron mi dirección de correo electrónico para que puedan enviar más información, y adivinen qué, nunca recibí esos correos electrónicos de ellos después. Hay que reconocer que existen problemas serios en su administración. A pesar de las críticas de alta calificación, no parecía ser lo que esperábamos. Además, parece que no hay nadie que entienda inglés. Al final, decidimos no hacer una reserva con ellos. Lamentablemente, tales cosas no son importantes para ellos. De todos modos, llegan muchos turistas a la ciudad....