Here's a short summary of our tour on August 22nd 2019 (for more details, please read the whole story below):
- We were seemingly forgotten on the day of the tour, but thanks to a phone call to Liberty Peru Travel, we were placed on the last two seats of a big bus with approx 40 people.
- The tour-bus which we were placed in, was obviously intended to be a Spanish-only tour, as everyone on the bus were native Spanish speakers.
- The tour was not operated by Liberty Peru Travel, but by Peruadventuretrek.
- Luckily the guide was was very good with English and could make it a good tour for us.
- The tour itinerary is very packed, which is why we would rather recommend to spend 1.5 to 2 days for all those activities.
Here's the more detailed version:
My wife and me booked this tour with Liberty Peru Travel via tripadvisor already months before our trip. As we can only speak a few sentences in Spanish, we booked the tour with an English speaking guide.
We got a booking confirmation from tripadvisor, but it was lacking needed information, e.g. pick-up time window. Even after some weeks after booking, we did not get a final confirmation from Liberty Peru Travel. Only after contacting them via mail, they replied to us, that our booking was received and also missing details were provided.
Once we were in Cusco we did the tour on August 22nd 2019.
The tour should start with a pick-up at our hotel lobby in San Blas. We were in the lobby already 10 minutes before the pick-up time window, which was given to us via mail. About 10 to 15 minutes after the given time window elapsed, we had the hotel's receptionist call Liberty Peru Travel (just to make sure, they don't forget us).
On the phone they stated, that someone is on the way and will be there in the next 5 minutes...
Again 10 minutes later, a young guy arrived by foot (and a bit out of breath) at our hotel. He then asked us to follow him. We were almost running for a few blocks until the guy catched a taxi for us. Following a 15-20 minute taxi ride, we arrived at a gas station somewhere in Cusco. There we waited for another 10 minutes until a huge bus, which was already full of people arrived.
We got the last two seats on the bus, as everyone else seemed to have been picked-up already way before us.
The guide on the bus (who was actually from Peruadventuretrek - not from Liberty Peru Travel) asked us, if we booked the tour in Spanish, which we declined, because we wouldn't understand a thing.
It turned out, that out of approx. 40 people on the bus everyone were Spanish native speakers except for us.
All these circumstances made us quite sure, that we have been forgotten by Liberty Peru Travel and only after our hotel's receptionist called them, we were hastily placed in the last bus which they could find - which was obviously intended to be a Spanish-only tour.
During the bus ride to the first stop, the guide emphasized, that the tour will be quite packed, as our one-day-itinerary is usually for 1.5 to 2 days.
He then proceeded to give lengthy explanations in Spanish and only short summaries in English.
As we wanted to get more information, than just short summaries, I took the guide aside at the first stop of our tour and asked him to give us the same kind of explanations in English, as he's doing in Spanish.
Luckily for us, he was very understanding and afterwards gave interesting facts and useful information to us in English throughout the whole day.
The tour itself is super interesting, but it is definitely also super packed. It's usually just enough to get a quick overview at each stop, but you don't have the time to go around or take more pictures.
Therefore, I would only recommend to do this tour, if there's no way to free up more time in your schedule for the Sacred Valley.