Peru Inca Trail - Just booked, so excited! Any Tips?

rtipple

Hi all,
The other half and I have just booked an adventure holiday to Peru next year with 'The Adventure Company'.
It's the extended 'High Inca Trail' which is 7 days trekking and takes us to the lost city of Machu Picchu via the less well travelled 'high route' getting upto 5000 m above sea level. Scary stuff as that's higher than Mt. Blanc!!!

We're so excited. It's been a dream for a long time.

So, just wondering if anyone has been on this actual trek at all, or better still, done this trek with 'The Adventure Company'? They won best 'Adventure holiday tour operator' last year so we've got high hopes.

Would love to hear from anyone who's been.

Thanks R & H

bap98189

You will have a great time, that much is guaranteed. I've not been on this particular trip, but I have been to Kenya with The Adventure Company and it was great.

The one piece of advice I would give you is to really get fit before you leave. I mean really fit, get out hillwalking at the weekends, go running whatever you can. If you haven't been to this sort of altitude before, you really cannot appreciate the effect it will have on you. I thought I was fairly fit when I went to Peru, but once you are at that altitude even walking half a mile is very tiring. Don't worry, the people that organise these trips are used to the effect it has on tourists, but I would say you will have an even better time if you are as fit as possible.

Oh and you are bound to suffer from HAFE. It's not particularly worrying, but can be a little embarrassing :-)

black-saturn

Havn't been but hope you have a great time.

Craig_A

There is an article in this months Real Travel magazine about this very trip with the Adventure Company. Might be £2.95 well spent - it was a very interesting read!

rtipple

Hi bap98189,
Nice to know of someone else who's been with 'The Adventure Company' and found them to be good. As for the fitness and altitude, well that's the only thing of concern. My girlfriend and I are 22 & 30 respectively and quite fit and active. But we know that there's no predicting who will be affected by altitude so we've actually started a program now to become as fit as possible for the trip. Fortunately we both enjoy fitness and I've been running, cycling, weight training and walking / trekking for years so hope that we should be more than fit enough, given that we've got 12 months to improve some more. Still ... we're certainly not going to underestimate the effects of altitude and are just going to try and be as prepared as possible.

rtipple

Thanks for the link Craig A. We'll be hitting the magazine stores and book shops this weekend to try and get a copy. Do you know if it's a well stocked magazine or will it be something I'll more than likely have to pre order?

Craig_A

I picked up my copy in WHSmith the other day after being lured in by the snappily titled 'buy one travel guide and get the second at half the price' promotional banner in the window. It was the first time I had seen the magazine so I picked a copy up. It *should* be available in a reasonable sized newsagents I'd have thought but it was only issue number 3 IIRC so I don't know about the number of copies they would stock - they could be sold out

Sallys_Savings

Just wondered if you've tryed the virtualtourist website, they have forums where you can receive hints and tips.

Have a fantastic time