Peru Travel Expenses

Our time in Peru felt both very short and very long. The time leading up to our Machu Picchu hike passed by really quickly. We spent a few days on the beach in Mancora and then ran around Cusco like madmen collecting supplies. After we finished our hike and returned to Cusco, after having been to Cachora, Choquequirao, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu, and Ollantaytambo, it felt like we had been gone a month even though it had only been a couple weeks. Our remaining time in Cusco, Arequipa, and Lima felt like it was just a long recovery from our hike that seemed to comfortably and quietly pass by.

Chilling on the beach in Mancora with a furry friend who followed us around for a while.

After our hardest day of hiking. Our bright yellow tent and snow capped Andes in the background.

Peru was very memorable. Mancora had the best seafood of our entire trip so far. Cusco was an amazing city. It was so much fun to walk up and down the staircases, alleyways, and Inca ruins everywhere. While Machu Picchu wasn’t as exciting as we’d hoped, the rest of our hiking trip felt like a real adventure. Arequipa felt like one of the few authentic Peruvian cities that we visited and I would be happy to spend more time there. I’m glad we got to see Lima, but our few days there were plenty sufficient.

Cusco has crowds of tourists but it still remains a great place to visit.

We went a bit over budget in Peru at $107 per day, but we can blame it on the high prices for touristic activities. I think Peru can be very affordable if you’re simply travelling, but if you want to see the big tourist attractions, like Machu Picchu, they come with a high price tag. There are entry tickets for everything and they’re always expensive. However, our budget also funded our 9-day Machu Picchu hike. We saved a boatload of money by organizing it ourselves. The trekking companies we talked to wanted over a thousand dollars per person while we spent just under a thousand dollars for the both of us ($240 of which was just for our tent). Over half off something that expensive is a pretty great deal. It may have taken us 4 or 5 days to organize, but our time is cheap now.

Accommodations: Our average accommodation cost was $28 per night, but we also spent some time camping which brought the average down a bit. We bought a tent, tarp, sleeping bags, camping mats, and a duffle bag to put it all in. We spent $364 on all this equipment but later sold it for $115. I think we could have sold it for more, but we were in a bit of a rush to get rid of it. We split the cost of the camping equipment by the number of nights we used it (combining its use both in Peru and New Zealand) and it ended up costing us $11 per night. We were also charged some fees for camping, but in Peru they only averaged out to be a mere $2 a night to pitch a tent.

Restaurants: The restaurants in Peru could get quite pricey. We spent a lot of time hunting down cheap places to eat, but we had some really excellent dinners along the way. It also helped that we were camping for a quarter of our time in Peru which kept the number of our restaurant visits down. 

Tourism: Ouch. This was our highest tourism bill yet. It seems like every time we wanted to go do something there was an overpriced ticket involved. We included the mule hire in this category which we spent $260 on, but we also had to spend $36 on tickets to Choquequirao, $92 on tickets to Machu Picchu, $79 on tickets to the Inca ruins in Ollantaytambo, and $130 on the one-way tourist train tickets out of Aguas Calientes. (You’re not allowed to ride the local train, only the overpriced tourist train.)

Transportation: We took two overnight bus trips and two domestic flights within Peru, plus the usual number of taxi rides and public transportation.

Grocery: This was also our highest grocery bill, but no concerns there since we were camping and had to buy most of our own food.

Other: We had to buy various other items for camping, like our cooking equipment, long underwear, water purification pills, etc. We bought new pants in Lima to replace our worn-out ones. Travis also had to buy a replacement rain fly for his backpack, which appeared to have been stolen on one of our overnight bus trips.

Drinks: At the bottom of the list this time. There weren’t too many opportunities for coffee or beer on our hiking trip.

One of our well deserved indulgences after finishing our hike.

On one of the easiest segments of our hike. 

It’s hard to believe that this was the end of our trip through South America. It developed a familiarity that we’ll certainly miss. But like always on this trip, we’re off to new and exciting places. New Zealand and Australia are next!  

Hanging out on the Inca terraces at Choquequirao.