Andean Discovery Avis 227

The Andean Discovery team handled all arrangements, including flight connections, lodging choices, excursion and experience choices and food availabilty. All this was done comprehensively and efficiently. The food and hotels were all five stars.

Overall I had a mixed experience, they were very punctual which is much appreciated. But they weren't good at listening to us, making us feel that they knew best even if we didn't want to do something. For example, we wanted to go for a hike we didn't want any hired llamas on the hike we made this clear when booking the trip. We show up to the hike and there are the llamas. They weren't able to hike fast enough and the llama owner kept making them run to keep up with us, it was a very frustrating experience when we have a bit of hiking experience and didn't need the animals for anything. Our guide wouldn't listen to us and besides the llamas took us on a hike overlooking cities, hiking on roads and through farms even though we had asked for a nature hike. The hike was also much shorter than we had been told when booking which was a bummer. At least the last two miles of the hike were pretty (it leaves the farmland) and that was fun!

We had also wanted to explore the Cusco on our own and explained that at the time of booking. Did we get to do it on our own? No, once again they didn't listen to us, didn't respect our wishes and made us feel like we had to have the guide everywhere. We didn't want to hurt the guides feelings but we spent a bit of money and it was frustrating that the company put us in such an awkward position.

Also, they should really consider the hotels they place guest in. In the sacred valley our hotel was 40min away from any dinner restaurants (besides the one at the hotel). Getting a taxi all the way out there was complicated and frustrating.

I think if you are 70+ and looking for a laid back trip to see the highlights this company would be great. The guides are very knowledgeable, just know what you're getting in for!

Great trip planning. Super gudes and well organized

We just got back from our trip to Peru and it was nothing short of extraordinary. Every single detail was thoughtfully planned and taken care of — from the acclimatization process to the delicious food and wonderful hotels that made us feel comfortable every step of the way.

The breathtaking beauty of Peru was unforgettable, but what truly elevated this experience was the incredible care and professionalism of our guide Elias and driver Diego. They were absolutely phenomenal — knowledgeable, patient, kind, and always making sure we were safe, comfortable, and fully immersed in the experience.

From challenging hikes to surreal views and meaningful moments, this trip exceeded all expectations. Grateful for memories that will stay with us forever. Highly recommend!
P.S - We've used them for Galapagos as well and were very happy!

The expertise Andean Discovery has in planning trips to Equador & Peru is obvious to anyone who has been lucky enough to use their services.
In Ecuador we were accompanied by our guide Daniel Diaz thru airport check in and hotel check in. We truly would have been lost without Daniel’s help. Daniel speaks English very well.
Our experience aboard the Galapagos Legend was top notch. Pedro was our guide for the majority of our excursions. Francisco was our server at meals. Carlos was our housekeeper. Fabio & Christian were the bartenders. All were excellent hosts! Smiling & knowledgable and always willing to help.
Sebastian Vargas was our guide in Peru. Raul was our driver. I highly recommend team Sebastian & Raul. Sebastian speaks English very well.
We enjoyed the history and cultural information the guides shared.
All are apparently very proud of their respective countries. All were very efficient, dedicated and always on time. They constantly reminded us to watch our step and be careful getting into & out of the vehicle.
Always willing to give us a break and offer a refill of bottled water.
Our vacation was truly a dream!!! We will never be able to express how amazing our trip turned out!!!

This is our fourth trip to South America with Andean Discovery. They are the reason we keep going back
Can not say enough positive things about using this company
Everything from the first to the last step is taken care of by them. The places we stay in are just as special as the trip itself
The guides and drivers are excellent
Makes us want to try for maybe a fifth trip

The destinations (Galapagos, Machu Picchu) were magical, and the concierge treatment from AD enhanced the experience immeasurably.

The four guides who looked after us were efficient, friendly and extremely knowledgeable. In summary: The Quito guide, a new mom, was delightful and we were happy to meet her family. Glad Andean Discovery is a family friendly employer. Special kudos to our guide in Guayaquil- what we thought would be just a place-holder stop - whose knowledge and evident pride in her city enriched a 3 hour tour. The Lima facilitator did a great job adjusting our travel plans on the fly after airline and immigration delays got us into Peru very late. Cusco and MP guide was excellent in weaving a comprehensive narrative tying in all the sights and places we visited. His pride is what he shared with us was evident and contagious. His deep knowledge of Inca history greatly enhanced our appreciation for and knowledge about what we saw.

Trip logistics, pre-trip briefing and prep materials from AD were spot-on, for the most part (more below). As noted above, our Lima guide/expediter was resourceful and efficient when an airline delay threatened to disrupt our trip unpleasantly.

Tips/Suggestions to travelers and AD on trip logistics:
- interior flights (AD arranged) booked on economy. Leg room on Avianca and Latam is quite limited. Would have appreciated having choice of upgrading to business class.
— the first and final day lang excursions in the Galapagos, involving long bus rides, were essentially to the same destinations and left us a bit frustrated; recommend suggesting to cruise company that they find different options for travelers either short programs like ours.
— transfer from last day on Galapagos thru Guayaquil to Lima took 21 hours due to flight connections and delays. Although we opted for this program, it was a long, grueling day, so recommend breaking it up for others.
— Likewise, taking a 2+ hour 4 pm train ride back from MP followed by a 2+ hour drive on often terrible roads after dark with heavy traffic was tiring and uncomfortable, and also got us to the delightful Cusco hotel too late to really enjoy its amenities.
— Restaurant selections were superb. We had many memorable meals (especially at the estate on the way to the MP train).
— we appreciated the absolutely gorgeous and top service hotels, but per above, felt some were a bit hard to appreciate when we only spent 10-15 hours there.

Overall, we highly recommend AD for a stress free turnkey visit to its various destinations.

I would preface by saying we are avid travelers and it is hard for me to turn over the reins and let someone else be in charge but boy am I thankful we did !
Andean Discovery made this trip absolutely seamless . Daniel met us in Quito and was prompt, personable and very attentive to anything we needed ! It was nice to let someone else figure everything out for us. He really saved the morning for us before we flew to Galapagos getting us all checked in and on our way ! Hope you are lucky enough to have him as a guide !
As our adventure continued from Galápagos Islands to Machu Picchu , we were very fortunate to be in the good hands of Raul ( driver ) and Sebastian our guide . Raul was a master at handling the sometimes iffy roads and tight corners . I never felt nervous while he was at the wheel. Sebastian was a pure delight . He was with us all the time taking care of our every need. He was always punctual, he was extremely knowledgeable in all of the areas we traveled . He helped with luggage, pictures , always had water for us …. He was just the best and we could tell well liked by the locals . BUT my absolute favorite part of Sebastian was his heart ! He stopped and gave children and adults alike food, drinks , snacks throughout our trip and it just touched my heart . We had leftover pizza one day we were taking back to Raul but on the way he gave a piece to the most precious little girl and just the pure joy on her face to have such a treat . He also shared with her mom. I can not recommend Sebastian or Raul enough . We had the best!!

Thank you Andean discovery . I will gladly recommend you to all my friends and so thankful Patsy recommended you to us!

We are just home from the trip of a lifetime! Our driver Raúl and guide Sebastian were absolutely wonderful. We felt like Sebastian was a part of our family and raúl seemed to appear out of nowhere just when we needed him! Sebastian was so knowledgeable and proud to show us his beautiful country. He was also very patient when we asked for photos again and AGAIN.
Thank you Andean Discovery for a seemless trip & buckets full of memories!

My family enjoyed a great trip to Quito and Galapagos Islands thanks to Andean Discovery. They made the planning easy. We particularly enjoyed our guides, Wilson in Quito and Alejandro in the Galapagos! Both were well organized, very knowledgeable and really personable.

We will look to Andean Discovery next time we plan travel to South American.

We were greeted by someone from the Andean team at the airports at each leg of our journey. Especially appreciated being greeted at the late hours for our arrivals. Also loved how they helped with check in.
The guides, Bartolome Alvino in Lima and Elias Maxdeo in Machu Pichu/Cusco are both AMAZING!!!! They are extremely knowledgeable on everything about Peru. Their info on architecture, history, people, food, you name it, made the trip really special and fun. All of the excursions were once in a lifetime events.
The hotels were spectacular in each location...Lima, Cusco and Machu Pichu ... They were definitely 1st class. I could not have picked any better accommodations myself. The perfect trip with Andean Discovery!!

We had a great experience with the Andean Discovery Team during our recent trip to Peru. From the first contact, the team was very receptive and helpful. They made a custom plan for our trip. They provided detailed itinerary updating it as needed. Kept on top of logistical details and provided a travel app to keep track of our trip. Reception and drop-off services at the airports were immaculate. The guides and drivers were fabulous. Both our guides were quite friendly and were very knowledgeable and flexible. The hotels were of good quality. We recommend Andean Discovery team very highly.

The trip was well-planned and we had excellent guides in every city, which was very helpful. We will recommend Andean Discovery to friends and family.

We stayed in some nice hotels. I wish we'd had more time to explore Cusco (that could've been limited by days we had for the trip).

The Galapagos portion of the trip was great. The ship (Galapagos Legend) is a little tired (in our opinion). The Naturalist to Passenger ratio was great.

In the Sacred Valley, Andean Discovery arranged for us to see things we never would've found (or driven to) on our own (Estate Lunch, Misminay Lunch, Moray Salt Mines)

Our guide in Peru (Cesar Perez) was excellent. Very knowledgable and well-spoken. All of the guides were great.

We did the Machu Picchu and sacred valley itinerary, and I do not have enough good things to say about our experience! Andean Discovery handled pretty much everything except the flights to and from Peru, which took a lot of stress out of the planning process. The activities, hotels, and restaurants that were selected as part of the experience were all fantastic, and Andean Discovery was very open to adjusting aspects of the trip to fit the needs of our group. The guides in Peru were all wonderful, and our primary guide Cesar was one of the best guides we have ever had. He was extremely knowledgeable about all the places we went, and kept the itinerary flowing smoothly. When there was an issue with one of our tickets he was on it right away and had it resolved within 15 minutes. A huge thank you to the entire team at Andean Discovery for a wonderful trip!

Andean Discovery did a great job finding us a wonderful vacation of a lifetime to the Galapagos Islands. From the moment we arrived in Quito til the time we left the Quito airport to return home we had white glove service. Bravo and thank you for a great experience. Now to find time to go back to Equador to see the Amazon portion of the country.

Amazing guides. Vaniiya in Peru is the best. The driver, Raul, was also excellent. Well planned itinerary, flexible with changes as needed, great guidance on clothing and gear required for activities, superb hotels and restaurants for the most part. Well done.

Expert advice and experienced guides made the trip memorable. In the cloud forest, the rain forest, and on the Galapagos Islands, we experienced the wonders of Ecuador.

Our guide Cesar was the best anyone could ask for. He helped us with everything we needed and went above and beyond his duties as a guide. He made our time in Peru amazing and I look forward to meeting him again one day.

The destination was incredible but the Andean Discovery service was not. The transfers were managed fairly well but often pick-up times were too early and resulted in lots of waiting time. Sometimes breakfast was included but it wasn't available until 7am which was the pick-up time. We were not advised there would be no food service on a 3.5 hour internal flight in Chile that was 6:30pm or that there would be no food or barfood available at hotel when we arrived at 10.

We wasted a day trying to fly from Buenos Aires to El Calafate and the flight delay resulted in our missing our half-day excursion to See Perito Morena and we were not refunded the admission tickets or the guide and driver time. We tried to delay out departure to Las Torres by a few hours 2 days later to avoid missing the UNESCO site but Andean was not flexible on changing any arrangements and suggested we ask the hotel who suggested it was Andean's role. We offered to cancel our Sunday excursion to go to the UNESCO site instead but this was not facilitated either. The drive/boat/hike Sunday excursion turned out to be almost identical to the Grey Glacier drive/boat/hike excursion in Chile and we tried to change our itinerary at Las Torres to avoid this full-day (over 10 hours) repeat excursion but they were not able to accommodate any change despite the materials indicating excursions could be selected each day.

Also, we were not given the option for a non-all-inclusive meal/beverage plan at Las Torres and a la carte would have been much better for us.

Response to Andean response:

Thanks for the feedback - you did provide a possible upcharge on the drive to Chile but it was $1100 USD above what we had already paid for a drive that we researched as $180-200. Not sure if you contacted Ryan Travel or Las Torres but we were the only passengers on both drives so I believe there could have been flexibility on that date.

Also, we weren’t refunded for the missed excursion.

It was the easiest, most exciting trip ever. Guides were excellent!