Andean Discovery Avis 227

Everything that Andean Discovery provided for us with our trip to the Galapagos was first rate. From the the hotels in Quito to the cruise ship (Coral I) to Karla our guide...everything was done perfectly. I don't know if we've ever been on a trip more carefully planned and executed with greater skill. Andean Discovery is the BEST!!

I’m lucky I found this travel company experts in South America destinations. Specifically Lima and Machu Picchu, Cusco, DAMIAN amazing advisor and to benefit your time and money. We were 8 person group and each of us felt the same after this trip about ANDEAN DISCOVERY. Excellent itinerary between flights, trains, guide driver and van. And amazing choice of hotels and tours. Can’t forget Francisco out tour guide leader whom is very knowledgeable with history. I highly recommend Andean Discovery the experts in South America travel.

We traveled to Peru and the Galapagos over winter break 2024 and very much enjoyed our trip!
The level of organization that made our trip fun and enjoyable was great. We received brochures, emails, and even met in person with Damon, on how to prepare for our trip. We were met by guides with drivers that took us to all our destinations. The hotel accommodations, excursions, Galapagos Legend experience, and small thoughtful gestures were excellent.
A special shout out goes to our guide in Peru, Cesar.
His knowledge, friendly demeanor and willingness to accommodate our needs made our trip extra special.
We highly recommend Damon and his stellar team at Andean Discovery!

Our guide in Quito was excellent: professional, personable, and supportive. Managed our activities and time very well and insured our safety throughout.

Andean Discovery is a first class travel company that went beyond our expectations. From start to finish, they took care of all our needs!

great tour guide, wonderful hotels, good food and a great place to visit

This was a big trip for us both financially and bucket list fulfillment. Andean Discovery and their travel guides were exceptional in planning out to the greatest detail all aspects of our trip. Made for a worry free excursion and enabled us to check off a full bucket!

We just returned from a 2 week Galapagos & Machu Picchu trip with Andean Discovery. Everything was perfectly coordinated, excellent guides, great hotels & experiences. We are seasoned travelers who usually coordinate trips ourselves. I’m glad a made the decision to leave the planning to Andean for this trip. I can recommend without hesitation.

My sister and I dreamt of a trip to The Galapagos and Machu Picchu for more than a decade. We finally decided it was time to make a plan, grabbed our two best travel buddies and searched for a tour that would allow us to maximize our time. Andean Discovery checked every box. The itinerary was packed - and customizable to our hopes/dreams/needs. We saw the option to add a day for the Rainbow Mtns at the end and extended our trip by a day. When the airline canceled our flight? We added another day at the beginning to spend at Papallacta (what a way to begin our trip - with a dip in the thermal springs and full body massages!). Everything was handled for us - check ins and transfers to hotels and airports, tickets and reservations. But also, our guides subtly catered our experience to us, assessing our individual interests and abilities, and really turned it into a bespoke adventure. (Shout out to Cesar, who was patient and funny and always had ice delivered for my friend's drinks and special shopping experiences based on our casual conversations.) We learned, we hiked, we snorkeled, we ATE, we experienced. It. Was. Amazing.

The variety of the sites we experienced in both Peru and Chile was high and the guides had in depth knowledge and good pacing throughout. Whether getting through heavy traffic in Lima to working with a rainy day at Machu Picchu, we were well taken care of.
Sometimes the unplanned stops (a local food market in the Sacred Valley) were just as special as the 'big ticket' locations such as Machu Picchu and Easter Island. Again, the pacing was very considered, whether it was a colonial city tour of Cusco, Peru or street murals in Valparaiso, Chile. Highly recommend these itineraries with Andean Discovery.

We had a perfect trip to Ecuador for 10 full days. Got to see so much of this beautiful country with so much to offer. Our guide and driver met us at the airport day one and was with us for the entire trip
Everything you could possibly think of was preset for us. All we had to do was enjoy our well planned and versatile itinerary
This is our third trip to South America,different country each time, using Andean Discovery
Would encourage anyone to use this agency to have a truly great experience

We had a guide that could not be any better. He was funny and fun but also very knowledgeable in the Inca history and the history of the places we visited. Our driver was the best! Our accommodations were top notch and the food was gourmet at every meal! The staff at every place we stayed were so accommodating and pleasant to work with. Machu Pichu, the Sacred Valley and the Amazon were spectacular! It is a trip we will remember forever!

We had a wonderful experience in Peru. We spent time in Lima, a thriving city. We stayed at a beautiful hotel in a great location. Then we went to Machu Picchu and Cusco. The guides we had were helpful, very knowledgeable and friendly. Our accomodations were first class. Some of the places we stayed at made us feel like we were in the jungle. So many unusual and striking birds. Then we spent 4 days in the Amazon. The hotel was lovely, the guides were terrific. We did and saw so much. It was a fabulous trip. Everything was perfect. Not a single problem!!

Great itinerary. Amazing lodging. Cesar is the best Inca Trail guide! Once in a lifetime experience. Thanks Andean Discovery!

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience from the moment our plane touched the ground in Ecuador and Peru. The seamless journey was well planned out from being transferred to airports and hotels with our own private driver and guides to delicious meals and interesting excursions. We loved Maria from Quito and Franco from Cusco and would highly recommend Damon from AD for a trip of a lifetime!

The guides and trips arrangement was good. It was however packed into to short of a time, but we sitll enjoyed it.
The gratiuties was not declared prior to the trip, as this was quite high in the Amazon and the Legend cruise. We paid it but found it extremely high for 2 adults and 2 children to pay for 4 people, when it was a shared experience. However it should have been disclosed.

Well-organized trip from start to finish aboard the 100 passenger Galapagos Legend, plus a day in Quito with fantastic local guide, Maria Vela.

We traveled Feb 18-28 2023, arriving late at night, where our guide and driver were waiting to take us to the hotel, and spent the following day touring Quito. Maria is a delightful guide, very knowledgeable and possessing high emotional intelligence.

We then toured the Galapagos Islands for a week aboard the 100 passenger Galapagos Legend (the Legend's "C&D" Itinerary, East & South), to the islands of North Seymour, Bartolome, San Cristobal, Espanola, Floreana, and Santa Cruz. Passengers are assigned to a specific species (we were "Boobies") for their time aboard, so that you know when to arrive and depart for your scheduled excursions on the zodiac boats. Each day, you select which morning and afternoon excursions you wish to go on (e.g. beach or deep-water snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, glass bottom boating, etc.) or you can choose to stay on the boat to nap, sunbathe, or get a massage.

The guides are all good and some are outstanding. Diego was our guide for the week, and he was fantastic: sweet, incredibly knowledgeable, genuinely interested in the flora and fauna, kind, with a good sense of humor.

We saw an orca, tons of frigate birds and cormorants, all three types of boobies, giant tortoises, land and marine iguanas, sea lions, penguins, and sharks that swam after/along the boat at night!

While it would have been nice to have the option of longer or midday excursions, the crew has to balance the heat of midday (it was very hot in February) with the large spectrum of its passengers' abilities (kids through octogenarians), so it makes sense there would be a large midday/lunch break each day during the hottest time of day.

Andean Discovery was highly communicative from start to finish, working with us on tour dates and options, suggesting travel insurance, providing detailed itineraries and options, advising us of what to bring, how to best keep in contact, etc. We tend to self-tour instead of using tour companies, and they exceeded our expectations. We would absolutely go again to experience the Legend's "A&B" itinerary, and we would happily work with Andean Discovery again!

Fabulous trip! We explored Peru and Ecuador/the Galapagos with Andean Discovery, and we were delighted with the whole trip. It was obvious that all hotels and experiences had been carefully vetted. The guides, especially Cesar, were responsive to our every request. Everything about this trip, from the planning to the trip itself, was wonderful. We checked out many companies before choosing this one, and, based on our experience, we highly recommend Andean Discovery.

At the last minute I had to rebook a trip to the Galapagos. Damon and all of his staff were amazingly helpful. My son and I got a land based tour with Markus Medina-just the 3 of us!! It was lovely to tour with just my son. We had a flexible schedule and traveled with alone most of the time. Markus was very knowledgeable and managed time well. The islands are very safe with outgoing, friendly people. The accommodations were lovely and the food good even though we were vegetarians-not common in the islands. With a land based tour you give more back to the local economy. The ocean, animal, birds and scenery is spectacular. I am definitely going to travel back to South America and will be using Andean Discovery again!

Everything was better than expected!! Our guides were like family. The schedule was a little hard getting up so early but, was worth every second of sleep I missed once we started our day. The planning of this kind of trip should only be done by professionals, I was a travel agent for thirteen years, never would I have ever been able to do what Andean Discovery did. Big shout out to Jo in Quito, Milton in the Amazon, Franco in Macho Picchu. And all the guides in the Galapagos. Was our best trip ever and that’s saying a lot being an ex travel agent. Highly recommend Andean Discovery!!!