Peru Travel Review: Machu Picchu, Paracas

Initially Everything was great when planning the trip. Then I didn't hear from them and three weeks before the trip I had to insist on an itinerary and to pay. I don't like last minute changes and that is why I started in July for December. They changed my trip to Machu Picchu to leave from the train station versus the hotel which was one of the benefits of staying at the hotel. I did not catch this change when we finally got are final itineray two weeks before the travel. Basically this meant driving on Christmas Eve to the train station versus just leaving from our hotel. So the traffic was so bad we had to just get out and walk about a mile and the train was late. Bottom line our half day tour was 90 minutes and Machu Picchu was the basis for the whole trip. Additionally we had asked about comercial flights from Peru to Paracas. We were told only charters and limited availability. Actually the concierge at the hotel told us they have commercial flights for $97.00. No weight restrictions. We spent 6 hours driving both ways which basically cost you a day when we could fly in 45 minutes. The agent in Paracas was late and made us miss our flight (for the Nazca lines) as he didn't know where our hotel was, (came to the service entrance) and then had to stop at a gas station and ask how to get to the airport and then was late picking us up. They did not call the night before and we had to have the concierge track down the company as the number we were given was dis connected.