Ideal South America organized our 15 day visit to Peru and Ecuador. Our original intent was to…read moretravel with two other couples, but illness caused them to drop out--this after already needing to change the trip to accommodate our air travel. Max and his team made these changes and also added my sister only a few weeks before the trip.
The trip was great. We visited Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Quito, the Galapagos, and Guayaquil in our 15 days. At each airport, we were met with a guide and driver. Usually we had a guided tour, walking or small van. All breakfast and some other meals were included. Dinner was usually ours to find, but the guides were happy to offer suggestions when asked. Every guide was knowledgeable and responsive to our requests. Our second day at Machu Picchu was self-guided--but by then we knew what we wanted to see.
The Galapagos 5 day trip was on a smaller boat, the Coral I with about 15 passengers, providing a small group visit to a number of the islands. My wife, sister, and I like smaller boats, and this one (Coral I) was very well equipped, but still closer to adventure than "Princess Cruise". A great way to see the islands, birds and animals.
The tours required a fair amount of walking--but the amount of exercise is really determined by the group, and we all wanted to see as much as possible. I came home a pound lighter, and in much better shape.
One real value Ideal South America provides is taking care of all the transport and lodging, so you can concentrate on the tour. In some ways, the biggest value of Ideal South America was not adding to the well known Machu Picchu and Galapagos, but rather giving us a good overview and interesting detail about Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, Quito and the biggest surprise: Guayaquil.
Our trip included 6 different places to sleep--that ranged from very good up to "Oh My Goodness", and 4 internal plane trips in addition to the flights to South America that were our responsibility.
A wonderful trip. Thank you Ideal South America