Trails 2 Travel

Hiking to Machu Picchu Mountain Tips for visiting Purchase your entrance tickets at least a month in advance, 3 months if you want to hike Huayna Picchu during the high season. You can purchase them here for the best rate. (use Google translate if needed) Purchase your entrance tickets for a 6AM start so you can be among the first into the site. Purchase your BUS tickets for the ride up the night before your visit so that you can get in line at 4:30 AM the day of and be ready to go. Don’t hike up (unless you really want to) It is a very steep trail with BIG steps up and traverses the same path the bus takes (so you don’t get any different perspective) Even the most fit people in our group got to the top very out of breath and sweating.  DO get a mountain hike ticket! This ticket gets you 1 re-entrance (the normal MP ticket only gets you 1 so if you get hungry or need to pee… you’re outta luck)  Dress in layers. It is COLD in the morning but gets very hot...

Salkantay Trek Day 4 – Llactapata   Day 4 was our earliest start on the trail, with a wake up of 4:30 aiming to leave 30 minutes earlier. While we had electricity in camp the night before, the power was out for the area in the morning so it was DARK indeed. We ate breakfast using the collection of headlamps our group had ( I can’t imagine how they cooked stuff for us) and packed our stuff up as normal. This was our last morning with our chefs who we tipped and said goodbye to before hitting the trail at 5:30. The first few hours of the trail were steady uphill and we raced to be done with the uphill before the sun heated everything up. Watching sunrise over the valley was STUNNING and overhead flew parrots squawking and making a ruckus.

Cusco Day 3- The Museums   Following our EPIC riding tour in the morning, we still had an afternoon to play in Cusco and plenty still to see. What better way to polish our time off than with a trip to the Inka Museum and Qorikancha ruins.

Horseback Riding to forgotten Incan Temples While our first 2 days in Cusco were enjoyable, this day really BROUGHT it. It was one of the first tours I landed upon when searching things to do in Cusco for a half day and for only $65 riding, it really intrigued me. So far the only other country I’ve ridden in was Iceland, so I was definitely interested to see what tours were like in other countries. Luckily my friends were also game for a little riding adventure so we booked it, made sure to wear pants, loaded up on sunscreen, and got ready for out tour.  We did NOT know what we were getting into, in the best way possible. This was hands down the BEST riding tour I could imagine , and possibly one of the best tours I’ve ever taken. 

The Sacred Valley What is a trip to Peru without a visit to the famous Sacred Valley? About as important a visit as seeing the top wonder of the World, Machu Picchu, the many sites and towns along the Urubamba (sacred) river are a must see. Preferrably over a few days with time to spend in each place. But if you are on a time crunch like we were, 1 day on a tour is what you get. 

Fall Carbon County ATV Tour Let me start off this post by saying that not only did this tour far exceed my expectations, but the entire area did. If you hear Carbon County, most people immediately ask "what is there to even do there," "where is that?" Then you mention "Price" which is on all the road signs when you head from SLC to Moab and you get a few nods.  WELL, time to change that.

Greece Day 2: For the 2nd and 3rd days of Greece we booked a tour through Astoria Travels/ G.O. Tours. It would take us to Delphi and Meteora with a few stops along the way! The tour picked us up around 8 AM and we were off with a few rest stops and got to Delphi around 10:30/11. To the left: The Mountain of the Muses (as seen/ photographer from a moving bus. sorry for the terrible quality) The bus ride to Delphi took us through so many gorgeous mountain passes! One of the most scenic bus rides you can take.

Greece- As many of my friends and family know I've booked A LOT of trips this year! And I'm so stoked for all of them! But many people have wondered A. how the crap can you take so much time off? and B. how do you afford them? So I'll try to include my budgets/ spending habits for my trips starting this year! (I do have... a tad of back posting to do: Havasupai from last year, Zion National Park/ Kolob Canyon/ Las Vegas from this year, and also a 2nd road trip to Bryce Canyon & Capitol Reef National Parks to post about. I Will get to those but first... I'm too excited to post about my Greece trip so doing that first.