Where to stay in Peru when picking up your missionary.
How to Choose Hotels in Peru
There are a wide variety of places to stay in Peru, from hostels, where you share a room with others, all the way to lavish 5 star resorts. Pricing varies widely as well. When we picked our missionary up from Peru, we stayed in 3 star hotels with prices ranging from $100-200 per night. They were clean and nice, but not lavish.
You can get recommendations from your local travel guide. I would also suggest researching various travel sites such as Tripadvisor and Booking.com to read recent reviews from travelers. I will share my reviews of the hotels that we stayed in. Javier recommended hotels for us, but after doing some research, we upgraded to nicer hotels in several cities. He booked some of our hotels, and we booked some through Booking.com. Both ways ended up being about the same cost.
Hotel Fees
These fees will be added to the base price of each hotel room. Even if you pay for your rooms ahead of time, you will be expected to pay these fees when you check out.
- 10% Service Fee - This fee will be charged once you arrive at the hotel. It is added whether you book through a guide or an online booking site.
- 18% Tax - This fee will be charged because your missionary is considered a resident of Peru. People living in Peru longer than 60 days are required to pay this tax.
What type of room to book for your vacation
Keep in mind that your missionary will still be a missionary, and should have a companion at all times. Because of this, we booked a "triple" room in each of the hotels. A triple room has 3 single or full beds. We were unable to find a "two queens" option like is found in the United States.
My Recommendations
These hotels are places where I stayed personally, or that were stayed in by other missionary parents
Click on the hotel image to visit their website.
Lima Hotel
Sonesta Posada del Inca is good hotel, in a good location. Pick the one located in the Miraflores district. There is another in the central district. The Miraflores district is the nicest part of Lima, and is the safest area to walk around in. It is close to shopping, parks and restaurants. We stayed in a triple suite, which had 2 rooms, with 1 king bed in one room, and 2 full beds in the other.
Cusco Hotel
The Wyndham Cusco Saqsayhuaman was the nicest hotel we stayed in. It had a great big King sized bed for my husband and I, but the roll out bed for our son was small. He had to sleep diagonally on it, and he’s only 5’8”.
It is located away from the city center which was a little inconvenient, but it has a breathtaking view. It is too far away to walk anywhere, but taxis are available.
We stayed here one night, then went to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu). The hotel kept the majority of our luggage, and we only took backpacks. We stayed in Aguas Calientes the next night, then came back to Cusco and stayed in the Wyndham again before flying to Arequipa.
This hotel is owned by an LDS couple
Aguas Calientes Hotel
The Taypicala was nice. We stayed in a triple room, that had 1 full sized bed, and 2 twins. It had a great view, and a good location. The room was nice, although the bathroom was a little weird, with a shower tub combo, with a tub that was 3 feet long. The one complaint I had was that the room wasn’t very dark. There was a frosted window above the door to the room, and they left the hall light on. Aguas Calientes is built on a steep hill, and Taypicala is near the top. There are no cars in Aguas Calientes, so you will have to walk everywhere. It is very small, just a few minutes walk from one end to the other, but if you have limited mobility, consider staying near the train station.
The picture shows a view from our Taypicala room window.
Ollantaytambo Hotel
Another missionary mom, Sister Sullivan shares her impression of Intitambo. "We stayed in Ollantaytambo instead of Aguas Calientes. (If you stay in Ollantaytambo, you will get to MachuPicchu later in the day, because it is further away than Aguas Calientes.) It depends on how early you want to get into MachuPicchu and if you are climbing HuaynaPicchu. We stayed at Intitambo Hotel, which we booked through airbnb.com. Nothing fancy but clean and comfy. They packed us breakfast to take on the train since we were leaving so early in the morning."
Arequipa Hotel
The Tierra Viva hotel is located 2 blocks from Plaza de Armas. This was nice because then we could walk to nearby restaurants and tourist areas. We stayed in a king suite with an extra bed (full). It was a nice hotel, and we were very happy with it. The staff was very helpful, and even provided us with old newspapers and tape to wrap up a vase we bought that we couldn’t fit in our luggage.
Puno Hotel
We didn't travel to Puno, but another missionary mom told me she stayed at this hotel. It was nice but definitely far from town. Taking the combi was very easy, though, and made them feel pretty adventurous. Taxis are also readily available.