Besides loving to travel, I also enjoy immensely the process of researching and planning a trip. I am usually inclined to book all aspects of a trip on my own, but have learned that there are times when the services of a travel agent are helpful. Of course, this doesn’t replace my need to obsessively research every little detail, which most likely makes me a travel agent’s worst nightmare.
When I started thinking about going to Peru, the first thing I did was to talk a friend of mine who had recently been there. I met Manuela when we were both traveling by ourselves in Ecuador, so I know that we have similar travel styles. Over lunch, we skimmed her Lonely Planet and she gave me some specific recommendations. I also spent some time reading posts on the Thorn Tree (www.lonelyplanet.com) and Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor.com) forums. Based on information from Manuela and what I read, I was feeling that Peru by myself might be unmanageable. To get to most places from Lima, you have to either take very long bus rides (not an option for me) or fly. To get to to Machu Picchu for example, first you have to fly or take a bus to Cuzco, then take a train to Aguas Calientes, then a bus to the actual ruins. Flights and trains must be booked in advance; the whole trip was starting to sound like an expensive logistical nightmare.
So I started thinking about other destinations. I had the dates that I wanted to travel, and I just kept putting random destinations into Sidestep’s search engine. I was looking for inexpensive, direct flights to places where the weather would be good late November-early December. Panama was an option that met my criteria: $345 non-stop flight round trip on Continental, warm weather (with some rain likely). Something kept drawing me to Peru, and kept me from buying the ticket to Panama. I couldn’t stop researching trips to Peru. One day I got an email from Travelzoo with their specials for the week. I didn’t see anything in the email but decided to check their website, www.travelzoo.com where I found this listing: “$989–8 Day Best of Peru: Puno, Cuzco, Machu Picchu w/ Air” That price sounded too good to be true, but it was the exactly where I wanted to go so it was worth checking out. Travelzoo linked me to a travel agency in California called Southfares.com, which was offering this package. Of course, the price did not include taxes and there was a single supplement, but it still seemed reasonable. I added 2 nights in Lima at the end, which raised the price some more, but I think the package actually comes out cheaper than if I booked everything myself. Sometimes travel agents can get a lower airfare than individual travelers. I also learned from all of my research that the prices for the domestic flights in Peru are cheaper when purchased within the country. The agent can also negotiate cheaper rates for hotels and tours. My package, which has already been billed to my credit card, includes the round trip flights from New York to Lima, a flight from Lima to Juliaca (Puno, on Lake Titicaca), bus from Puno to Cuzco, train from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes, flight from Cuzco to Lima, 9 nights in hotels (3 in Lima, 2 in Puno, 3 in Cuzco and 1 in Aguas Calientes), admission to and tour of Machu Picchu, a tour of some islands on Lake Titicaca, a tour in Cuzco, all breakfasts, a few lunches, 1 dinner, and all airport transfers. I won’t be part of a group, although for the individual tours I probably will be with other people.
I imagine that some travelers would simply book the trip as it was listed and be done with it. Not me. First of all, I read reviews of all 4 hotels on Trip Advisor. The ones for the hotel in Lima were absolutely horrendous. I found another hotel myself that seemed to be in a good location, was reasonably priced, and had good reviews. I asked Ramiro from Southfares.com to book me in that hotel instead, which he did.
One thing I noticed is that Ramiro was very quick to respond to my questions before I booked the package. Now that I have been billed, the response time seems a bit slower. Ramiro told me that I would receive my trip vouchers within 72 hours of payment. After about a week went by, I sent an email asking when I could expect to receive them. Shortly thereafter, I received the voucher and there were some changes from the original itinerary. The hotels in Cuzco and Aguas Calientes were different. I quickly read some reviews of the new hotels, and they seem fine. More concerning to me was that the flights within Peru had been changed. The first flight, from Lima to Juliaca, had originally been at 5:55 AM and was now at 12:05 PM. This is actually a welcome change. My flight to Lima leaves JFK at 5:17 AM, and this flight is for the following day. I am thrilled not to have to be at the airport at the crack of dawn 2 days in a row! I did have a problem however, with the change in my flight from Cuzco to Lima towards the end of the trip. This flight had been originally scheduled for 9:52 AM, but when I reviewed the voucher, I saw that I was now on a flight at 7:25 AM. I don’t have a connecting flight that day or anything scheduled in Lima, so I definitely do not need (or want) to travel so early. I was, quite frankly, annoyed to find out that these changes had been made after I had been billed for the trip, without asking or notifying me until I requested the vouchers. I went to the website for the airline, Lan Peru, and learned that this flight leaves basically every hour. I immediately emailed Ramiro, who told me that he would call Peru the next day to change the reservation. When I didn’t receive a response in 2 days, I called him to find out what the status was. He told me that the airline has to reissue the ticket but he is working on it. I did express my surprise and displeasure that there was a change made from the original confirmation without notifying me, and he seemed to be surprised as well. I now understand that Southfares.com subcontracts with another travel agency in Peru, Rainbow Trails and Tours, and that agency made the flight reservations. Before I authorized payment to my credit card, I checked out Southfares.com on Trip Advisor–there wasn’t much information but nothing negative. Now I checked Rainbow Trails and Tours as well–they have somewhat mixed reviews but most of the problems seemed to be related to a company who subcontracted with them and then filed for bankruptcy.
Once I get the flight situation straightened out, I think that most of my planning will be done. The next two big decisions I have to make are if I want to take medicine to prevent altitude sickness and if I want to buy travel insurance. Any thoughts about either of those are welcome. I am anxiously awaiting delivery of my guidebook from Amazon so I can continue my research. (It’s not Lonely Planet this time; their most recent edition is from 2007. Instead I went with Rough Guide, published in 2009.)
So to answer the question that is the title of this post: It depends, but even when using a travel agent, I still end up doing quite a bit by myself. It’s more interesting that way.
Fierce Sunflower 