Best Peru Travel Agents
Peru, a massive country that spans ecological zones ranging from coastal desert to alpine mountains and dense jungle, is a place like no other on earth. A kaleidoscope of peoples, culture, history, and ancient traditions, planning a trip here can be… intimidating to say the least.
Peru presents almost too much choice when planning: you’ll find fine beaches in the north, soaring snow-capped peaks in the central Andes, verdant valleys in the mountains around Cusco, dense lowland jungle of Iquitos and Madre de Dios, and stunning highland deserts in the south. There’s a lot to cover.
Most visitors to Peru have as little as a week and rarely more than 14 days. This isn’t much time to try to cover a country of such size and so dense in attractions. And while recent decades have seen enormous advancements in standard of living, infrastructure, and ease of transportation, navigating Peru on your own is still not always the easiest.
Our recommendation? Work with a fabulous local agent who can help you hit your highlights without pulling your hair out. You’ll have a better trip for it.
Read on for our advice on how to find a great travel agent for Peru, and why you should work with one based in the country.
Table of Contents
Planning your trip with a Peru specialist
Why local matters
Sustainable and responsible travel in Peru
Where to find a great local Peru travel agent
Common Peru trip planning mistakes
Plan your trip to Peru with a local travel agent
Our first piece of advice for anyone planning a trip to Peru and intending to use a travel agent is to hire a Peru-specialist. For the best trip possible, working with a local agent is an absolute must.
Peru is a developing country and travel here can be complicated, convoluted, and confusing! Not everything is on the internet. Information is often conflicting or downright wrong. Circumstances change on the fly. Guidebooks are out of date the moment they’re printed.
You want to work with someone who not only knows how to navigate this complex country, but is an expert in it. For that, you need someone based on the ground in Peru.
Why local matters
With in-depth hyperlocal insight and experience, a local Peru specialist knows how to get you away from the crowds and maximize every minute of your vacation.
They know all the local tips and tricks to make your vacation seamless and exceptional. And with limited time, it’s imperative that your Peru travel agent know how to fine tune each component of your trip to make sure no moment is wasted.
Going local means that your trip planner will have firsthand experience working with local guides, tour operators, hoteliers, restaurateurs, and service providers. In most cases, they’ll have longstanding relationships and personally know the people who you’ll be meeting while traveling.
Most local agents in Peru exclusively specialize in their country (and sometimes Bolivia or Ecuador) and many of them have been involved in travel for decades, often having worked as guides before becoming agents. This means that they have serious personal experience in the places you’ll be going rather than just having seen it on a computer screen or visited once on a familiarization trip. Their level of regional knowledge and expertise is simply unparalleled.
Sustainable & Responsible Travel
Equally important to the hyperlocal expertise of a local agent, working with one is also much more sustainable than the alternatives.
Non-local agents and foreign companies aren’t based in Peru and their financial interest isn’t always in line with that of the local community. When you book your trip with one, many of the profits are immediately whisked offshore into foreign bank accounts.
With a local agent, your money gets reinvested into the local community. And good local agents know the contractors and service providers they work with, are involved in the communities they plan trips in, and are invested in seeing all stakeholders thrive and succeed.
In an era of over-tourism and checklist travel, it’s important to know that your trip is helping the destination and not just taking from it.
Best Peru Travel Agents
Finding a good Peru travel agent is surprisingly hard! The vast majority of Google searches turn up two things:
Tour operators who can plan a few days of your trip or one or two activities, but not the entire vacation
Multi-day group tours run by foreign companies
If you’re looking for a travel agent to plan your entire Peru vacation, neither of those is much help.
Fortunately, for travelers looking to create a tailor-made trip to Peru with a local specialist, there are a number of online platforms that connect travelers with reputable and vetted in-destination Peru travel agents and agencies. We’ve listed some of the major platforms below.
Kimkim
Zicasso
Travellocal
Each platform has a slightly different focus and a different way of helping you connect with local agents, but the goal is the same: help you plan your trip with a Peru travel agent who’s based in Peru.
Go Ask A Local (that’s us!) offers the easiest and most personal way to connect; you can browse our network of Peru-based local experts, pick one you like, and then schedule a free Zoom call to meet the person who would be planning your trip and see if they’d be a good fit for you. If you hit it off, you can then continue working with them via email, phone, and video calls.
Our focus is on authentic and sustainable travel and we work exclusively with Peru-based trip designers who offer tailor-made trips. Every trip booked via a Go Ask A Local expert is a tailor-made experience and you won’t find any generic package tours or cookie cutter itineraries.
The trip planning process is very collaborative, with clients able to be as involved or uninvolved as they like.
Meet our Peru experts at www.goaskalocal.com/peru-travel.
Kimkim
Kimkim let’s you browse sample trips, see example itineraries, and then message with a chosen local agent. Many of their local agents work for midsize travel agencies, so in some cases you’ll be working with a team and not necessarily the person whose profile you initially clicked on. You’re able to connect with the local agent for planning via messaging. We don’t think they’re as personalized as what you get when planning with us, but KimKim does a good job!
Zicasso
Zicasso’s specialty is luxury travel. They offer a host of pre-made itineraries that you can tweak to your interests as well as the option of fully tailor-made trips. Many of the agencies they work with are regional specialists, meaning they don’t only focus on one country.
Zicasso doesn’t give you much information on the local agents, so you’re not able to get a very good feel for the type of person you’d be working with. Like Kimkim, after the initial communication, the person charged with planning your trip may not be the same as the person you initially contacted.
TravelLocal
TravelLocal is fairly similar to Zicasso. You’ll be working with a local agency, though not always directly with the person whose profile you see on their site. They have a lot of pre-made itineraries, but you also have the option of creating a tailor-made trip. You’re able to connect with the local agent via messaging.
Common mistakes people make when planning their trips to Peru
Trying to see too much.
Too tight of schedules.
Expecting everything to line up perfectly.
Only seeing the highlights.
Not being realistic with budget.
This is not a country where you try to fit 8 cities into 9 days. Distances are large and travel can be slow. Itineraries need to build in time for travel days and account for possible issues. Back up plans for when things go sideways are a must!
We’ve already said it, but its worth repeating: Peru is big! Getting around isn’t always easy and it’s likely that you’ll encounter some hitches that delay things. It just takes one strike or one broken train track for a whole day to go up in smoke. A good plan will take this into account and always have options.
Peru is also more than just Cusco, Machu Picchu, and Lake Titicaca. This is the 3rd largest country in South America and an incredibly diverse one. While Machu Picchu gets all the attention, many local pros don’t even consider it in the top 3 for Peru’s most impressive ancient indigenous sites.
The Inca trail and Lares trek are so busy the government needs to limit permits for them when all around you have ancient Inca paths where you won’t encounter another soul. Hotels in Cusco can sell out in high season while elegant Arequipa a few hours south offers luxury at half the price. And we haven’t even touched on the central Highlands, the jungle, or the ruin-strewn northern coast.
And lastly, Peru isn’t a budget destination. Tourism here is a major driver of the industry and millions of people come to visit every year. Many of the treks, tours, and experiences you’ll do require a lot of labor, heavy logistical planning, and serious expertise. These things come at a cost.
Distances are also large and public transportation is limited. If you have limited time, you’ll need to book domestic flights. Even for those traveling overland, to do so at a certain comfort level, you have to be prepared to pay more than you might expect. But compare the experience with what you’d need to pay in Europe or even neighboring Chile and you’re still getting one hell of a bargain.
Plan your trip to Peru with a Local Expert!
If you’re looking for a trip to Peru that gets you away from the crowds and deep into the heart and soul of this stunning country, connect with Peru specialist Nicholas!
Nicho is a Lima-based travel agent who’s been helping travelers experience the best of Peru for over a decade.
Learn more and schedule a free Peru trip chat at www.goaskalocal.com/peru-travel-agent-nicho!
Connect with a Peru expert!
