Peru for the Holidays • 8 Day Peru Tour Package

Your Peru for the Holidays tour begins upon your arrival in Lima where your guide will be waiting to greet you. We recommend arriving to Lima in the evening, our guide will await you at the airport lobby holding a sign with your name on it in order to transfer you to your hotel. Your guide will describe your schedule at your hotel afterwards you have the evening free in Lima to explore, the amount of time depends on your international flight to Lima. You spend the night at your accommodations if you have included them.

Todays tour offers Lima’s best attractions in its three historical periods: pre-Hispanic, colonial and modern.

This tour begins with a panoramic view of the Huaca Pucllana, built in the IV century A.D. We then visit the Central Reserve Bank of Peru Museum*, where you can appreciate a showroom of the ancient cultures of Peru, a fine selection of gold objects, ceramics, textiles from different pre-columbian cultures and the Cohen Gold Collection. We will also walk through the Main Square (Plaza de Armas), seeing the Cathedral, Government Palace and Municipal Palace. Furthermore, we will have the time to explore the Convent Museum of Santo Domingo. The Tour ends with breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean.

*Museum of the “Banco Central de Reserva” is closed to the public on Monday and Sunday. 

Following this tour you will return to your hotel.​

In the morning your guide will pick you up from your accommodations and take you to the airport to board your flight to Cusco. Domestic flights are optional and can be included at extra cost, if you book your own domestic flights you will need to send us your flight itinerary, transfers will be programmed based on your schedule. Upon arrival in Cusco your guide will await you in the lobby holding a sign with your name on it in order to transfer you to your accommodations. Depending on the time of your arrival in Cusco you may have some free time before the start of your Cusco City Tour.

The Cusco City Tour visits the most important sites in and around Cusco. The Tour Begins at 1:45pm with it’s first stop being Koricancha, the temple of the Sun, the most important building in Cusco during Incan rule. Today a church sits atop the foundations of the magnificent temple, but you can make out the differences in architecture between the two buildings. The massive earthquake resistant rocks built by the Incas make up the temples walls while the Spanish church sits lazily atop the structure, having been rebuilt twice due to powerful earthquakes that brought down the Church.

You then head outside Cusco to the fortress of Sacsayhuaman overlooking the city. Here you have the opportunity to take some great pictures of the city and and valley below. The stones that make up the Sacsayhuaman complex are huge in scale and very impressive. From here you go on to visit the smaller sites of Tambomachay, Qenq’o and Puka Pukara.

At the end of the tour it is common for your group to be taken to shops to browse or purchase items from local artisans. These include artwork, hand made alpaca sweaters, blankets and souvenirs, these shops are outside of Cusco.

Today you embark on the Sacred Valley Tour which takes you to the center of Inca cosmology, visiting some of their sacred site located at the heart of of the Inca Empire.

The tour begins around 8:45AM as you begin to drive out of Cusco and into the fertile Sacred Valley. You will reach lookout points where the tour bus will stop and you will have the opportunity to snap some photos. Your first stop is the town of Pisac, a small colonial town where on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays there is an extensive market where you can barter for souvenirs and other goods. Surrounding Pisac there is also extensive Inca ruins, elaborate terracing and housing, it is said that Pisac was used for agricultural experiments.

You then continue to Urubamba where you will have lunch with the beautiful scenery surrounding you. It is then on to the town of Ollantaytambo and the fortress that overlooks the small Inca town. Ollantaytambo in fact was the only place where the Incas were actually able to repel Spanish attacks. The vast fortress ruins are an incredible sight too see and the valley itself is unique, making the recounting of its story come to life.

At 6pm you make your way to the nearby Train station at Ollantaytambo where you will board the PeruRail Expedition train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Town). Note that this train can be upgraded to Vistadome or Hiram Bingham Trains upon request at additional cost.

In the evening you arrive at Aguas Calientes, here you have a free evening to spend exploring the small town. You will also be met by your guides who will give you a short briefing on your next days tour of Machu Picchu.

This morning you wake up early to board one of the first buses up to Machu Picchu. Once up at the ruins you’ll catch a beautiful sunrise over the site, your then given a tour of the ruins. After the tour you have the option of hiking to either Huayna Picchu (subject to availability) or Machu Picchu Mountain for an overhead view of the ruins. afterwards you have free time at the ruins. In the afternoon you catch your train back to Cusco where you are transferred to your hotel for the evening.

​In the morning your guides will collect you from your hostel at approximately 7am and shuttle you to the MER Terminal to catch your touristic bus to Puno. During the trip you will visit many Archaeological ruins on the way towards Puno. Sites include pre-Incan Pukara, followed by Raqchi and the colonial church of Andahuaylillas. Lunch is included during this bus tour. You arrive in Puno at 5pm where you will be transferred to your accommodations, you have the evening free to enjoy Puno.

We continue the Peru for the Holidays tour with today’s tour of Lake Titicaca beginning at 6:00 AM where your guide will pick you up from your hostel/hotel to catch your 7:00 AM boat tour. Your boat departs the city of Puno and heads towards the Uros Floating Islands.

Upon arrival at the Island you will see a demonstration of how the islands were built as well as interact with the locals and view cultural traditions that they will display for you. You will be explained the history of the islands and how the locals make a living in today’s world. They will also demonstrate the many uses of the Totora reed as well as invite you to try some staples of their daily diet.

Afterwards we leave the Uros and head towards the Island of Taquile which we will reach at approximately 11am. We arrive at the pier on the southern part of the island where we will have an easy 30 minute hike into the heart of the community where you will meet weavers and knitters.

For about an hour and a half you will be met by many of the towns communities residents and families who will show you their cultural traditions with great enthusiasm as well as show you their crafts and textiles. The locals will also demonstrate for you and interpret their traditional dress and dance. After the demonstration you will continue the short walk to the restaurant where lunch will be served at approximately 12:30 PM.

After lunch we will have another short walk to the lookout point of the island where you can appreciate the beautiful views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. We then descend back to Taquiles small port to catch our return boat to Puno. On the way your guide will explain some facts about the lake and recount stories of the lake’s history. You overnight in Puno at your accommodations

Today your guides will pick you up from your hotel depending on your domestic flight schedule to Lima and transfer you to the airport at Juliaca. Here the guide will say his goodbye as this concludes your Peru for the Holidays Tour with Karikuy Tours Peru.

​*Note that you should schedule either an evening international flight back home on this day or a morning flight the following day. Additional transport and hotel night can be included at additional cost should you decide to spend an extra night in Lima, otherwise the tour ends upon your arrival to Lima.*