Do you need to hire a tour guide?
It's helpful, but not a necessity.
With the prevalence of Internet booking sites, you can plan and book your trip yourself. However hiring a guide might be worth it to you.
Booking your own travel to pick up your missionary can be daunting, especially if you don't speak Spanish. Many websites will be in Spanish. You can use Google Chrome to translate most pages, but one significant exception is the Machu Picchu website. Google doesn't translate that page for some reason.You will need to enlist someone who speaks Spanish to help you there.
Guides are knowledgeable, and can give great advice on what to do, and where to stay. Hiring a guide to book your vacation will be less time consuming but more expensive. Ultimately it may depend on how much time and money you want to invest in your plan, and how comfortable you are in traveling in a foreign country.
Your Missionary is a Great tour guide
While you are planning your missionary pick up tour, you should not bother your missionary with lots of questions about your Peru vacation. You don't want them to get distracted. You should book all of the flights, hotels and tours on your own, or with the help of a tour guide. Once you get to Peru, though, you will have a built in guide. Your missionary has been walking the streets of Peru for 18 months to 2 years. They will likely be fluent in Spanish, comfortable with hailing taxis, knowledgeable about money, food, safety and more.
Make sure to leave some time free to travel around to the areas your missionary served, and to visit the people he or she cares about. This will be a highlight of your trip. Don't worry about nailing down the details of this before you pick up your missionary. It can be planned easily once you arrive.
Local LDS Tour Guides
Local Mormon tour guides are an excellent way to book your vacation to pick up your missionary. They can simplify planning. While there are large tour companies can book your flights and hotels, local guides give your tour a unique flavor. They can be with you the whole time you are in Peru, or they can simply recommend and book tours, flights and hotels. Because they are LDS, they are familiar with the unique experience of picking up a missionary.
What to expect
If you use one of these guides, you will need to pay all of the money before you travel. This was a bit scary for me, sending money before even meeting the person, but it worked out fine. These tour guides are small operators, and need to prepay for your tours and hotels. They will send you information on how to wire money directly into their bank accounts.
Our bank charged a $40 fee for an international wire transfer. At one point we tried to send money through Western Union, but WU took our money, then refused to send the money because we didn’t know the person personally, then gave us the run around giving our money back. I would NOT recommend trying to pay through Western Union.
Recommendations
Local Peruvian LDS Tour Guides, with contact information.
Click on each guide's image to visit their website.
- Moroni Tours
- Cusco,Peru
- info@moronitours.com
- telephone: 51 984 695531
Javier is an LDS tour guide based in Cusco, Peru. He speaks English. He specializes in missionary pick up tours. He will communicate with the mission office to keep track of changes, etc. He can book flights, hotels, tours, etc throughout Peru. He will pick you up in Cusco, and work with you personally. In other cities, he will book other guides to help you.
When planning our tour to pick up our son from his mission, I worked with Javier. He was very helpful and knowledgeable. We felt well taken care of. He suggested options for activities, and was familiar with many hotels, and people. Javier took care of our plans in Cusco, but we booked the rest of our travel on our own to save money. His prices were higher than I could find on the Internet myself.
- Legacy Travel
- Lima,Peru
- info@ legacytravelagencyperu.com
- telephone:51 98 494 2330
Betho is an LDS tour guide based in Lima, Peru. He has very reasonable prices, and can book everything from airfare, to hotels and tours. His tour prices include hostels, rather than hotels, but he can arrange different lodging if you ask. Coincidentally, he served as a mission companion to my husband's brother in Peru in 1980.
- Arequipa,Peru
- Peru_travel@outlook.com
- telephone:51 97 367 1085
Norma is also an LDS Peruvian tour guide. She is less established, but is another option. Missionaries who know her call her to arrange good deals for trips to Colca Canyon and other places on their p-days. She can do tours throughout Peru including Machu Picchu, etc. Norma does not speak English.