Destination: Southern Peru
Cities visited: Lima, Paracas, Huacachina, Arequipa, Puno (Lake Titicaca), Ollantaytambo and Cusco
In case you haven’t had a chance to read my last Peru post, here’s a recap: There are several ways to travel Peru by road, but for tourists, many are dangerous or discouraged.
Taxis and Ubers aren’t always regulated, leading to muggings and price inflation. Colectivos are overcrowded, oversized vans that prioritize speed over safety. And tuk-tuks are cute mini-cars not suitable for far distances and heavily-trafficked roads.
So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one mode of land travel made me feel quite safe: Peru Hop buses.
I’ve liked bus travel ever since my Birthright trip in Israel in 2010. While I don’t like being stuck on a bus for endless hours, tour buses allow you to interact with new people in a way that other modes of transport don’t.
On planes, everyone is too busy being uncomfortable to make friends. Cars are solitary endeavors. But when you’re touring around a country in a bus, you’re experiencing things together, and what better way to pass the time than to talk about these experiences with your compatriots in adventure?
When we were planning our trip, there was a lot to compromise on. My partner is the kind of person who will travel with only the vaguest of plans, seeing where the wind takes him, whether he knows the language or not. He has a trusting nature, a way with people, and relaxed personality.
If you’ve read my previous posts, then you’re catching on to the fact that I’m not always the most personable and I’m wound tighter than an anaconda around an alligator.
I didn’t want to travel without a plan, especially in the off-season in a country where I know little of the language. While I like planning logistics, on-the-ground improvisation sounded stressful. But I didn’t want to miss anything or be held to a strict itinerary that left no room for self-exploration, either!
And so, we had the seemingly impossible task of finding a way to travel that pleased us both. We started to grow worried as we ruled out traditional guided tours one after the other because they:
1. cut out too many things we wanted to see
2. were out of budget
3. were too structured with no time to explore on our own
Peru Hop: A Review
Then I found Peru Hop. Named such because you can hop on and off at its respective stops and stay there as long as you want, Peru Hop is a fast-growing, European-owned company run by locals. It has two sister companies: Bolivia Hop and its newest project, Ecuador Hop. Ecuador Hop is definitely on our radar since we had to cut the Amazon from our Peruvian adventure even though the jungle is high on our bucket list.
With Peru Hop, we took the Full South to Cusco route, which connects Lima to Cusco via the seaside town of Paracas, island oasis Huacachina, Nazca of Nazca lines fame, the “white city” of Arequipa (gateway to Colca Canyon), and Puno (the city on Lake Titicaca’s shores). The bus tour was an affordable 199 USD in January 2020, which included some small tours like a pisco tasting along the way.
The company offers several potential routes that allow for skipping cities you’re not interested in or taking the bus reverse from Cusco to Lima. It also offers one- or two-day excursions from Lima or Cusco if you are flying between the two travel hubs. For those who want to get in two countries in your trip, you can also use Hop to cross into Bolivia and back.
We were immediately drawn to Peru Hop for a few reasons. Unlike most Peruvian websites, Peru Hop was on top of updating its website for the new year. It had no outdated information and its usability was constantly being improved. When we had a question, customer service got back quickly.
Their emphasis on safety of course struck a chord with me, too. Any long trip splits the drive between two drivers so they can switch off, beating fatigue. I also didn’t have one faulty seatbelt the whole time.
While structured, Peru Hop also maintains flexibility. I liked that you could change bus plans up to 12 hours ahead if you decided you liked a city and wanted to stay. You can stay legitimately as long as you want, too. A month, per se, without penalty. We didn’t do this, but we could have, you know?
One thing to note, though, is that the company doesn’t offer buses the month of February, Peru’s rainiest month, and for certain holidays.
Peru Hop Pros and Cons
Pros
Safety for Solo & Women Travelers
We met several solo women travelers on our route who had chosen Peru Hop for its reputation as a safe company. It was reassuring to me to have someone expecting us. When I reached out to Peru Hop for this blog, they had this to say:
“With our unique features, such as hotel and hostel drop off and pick up, bilingual local guides, and GPS tracking on each bus, we have cultivated an experience that allows passengers to travel independently but never alone.
“We know how intimidating it can be to visit a new country and Peru Hop aims to help you to discover Peru like a local while keeping you safe. Our passengers are 65% female, and we are confident in saying that we are the best choice for solo female travelers from all over the world.”
Flexibility
Tickets are good for one year, so once you hop on your route, you can extend your stay up to 12 months. Fall in love with Arequipa? Extend your stay with only 12 hours’ notice. This makes it a good choice for flexible travelers who may not have a clear itinerary or those who have a lot of time to explore.
Side Quests
Peru Hop has recommended tours and activities in each of its destination cities. You can sign up in advance or on the bus if you want to feel out which of your friends are going (and help the tour guides earn some commission). It takes the guesswork out of sifting through hundreds of seemingly identical tours to find safer, more trusted providers. I’ll get more into city-by-city activities in a future post, but we took advantage of this in multiple cities, visiting the “Poor Man’s Galapagos” in Paracas and even sandboarding in Huacachina.
Free Tours
Included in the trip were some mini tours that added a nice breadth of activities and broke up certain drives. We stopped at the ethereal Nazca lines to climb the viewing tower (hello, fear of heights!), a plantation-turned-upscale-hotel to tour the slave tunnels underneath (hello, claustrophobia!), the most Instagram worthy stops in the Paracas Nature Reserve, and a Pisco vineyard tour. Since then, it looks like Peru Hop has switched these tours around a little to include a ruins stop. As mentioned above, they’re constantly updating their offerings to reflect what travelers want.
Tour Guides
A big shoutout to Gabi and Sandra, who were our fantastic guides from Lima to Arequipa. Depending on your schedule, you will rotate through guides, but each one we met was friendly and helpful, even when incredibly stressed (see “overnight buses” below). It’s easy to tell when tour guides are just in it for the money and it was evident that our guides genuinely enjoyed their jobs. It can’t be easy being a tour guide in Peru – we heard that many can’t cut it due to altitude changes and the hectic schedule – and Gabi and Sandra hosted with humor and poise.
Cons
Communication
While, for the most part, communication was smooth sailing with Peru Hop, we did run into communication issues that led to some stress and frustration.
Twice, our shuttles were late picking us up. The pick-up system gives you a 15-45 minute block in which your bus – or in some cities a shuttle – will collect you from your hostel.
The first time, the shuttle was only a couple minutes late. The other time, the overnight bus that was meant to collect us was several hours behind schedule because of a flat tire. That happens and I totally get it, but what was frustrating was that we were never told of the delay, so we were sitting in the lobby wondering if our pick-up reservation hadn’t gone through, if it had come early and we’d missed it, or generally what was going on.
Thankfully, the hostel lobby attendant called his Peru Hop contact on our behalf and got the details. He was told we should have received an email with the schedule update, but we never had.
It would be nice if the Peru Hop app had a way of sending out notifications to warn of delays, but at the time of our trip, the app was underwhelming and generally of little help.
Overnight Buses
During our research, one Peru Hop negative came up several times: The overnight set up was not as comfortable as other bus tours. (Of note were several comparisons to Cruz del Sur, the other tourist-trusted bus company in Peru, which put Cruz del Sur above Peru Hop in this regard.)
Our overnight bus from Huacachina to Arequipa did offer a deeper recline than the day buses, plus had leg rests, but I felt the comfortable bed-like comparison on marketing materials was pretty overstated. I was uncomfortable and slept very little.
Other small inconveniences included the evening’s movie being played over speakers instead of through audio jacks and a pesky reading light that came on of its own accord several times throughout the night.
All ended well. We rearranged our schedule to avoid a second overnight bus out of Puno and I do have to say that watching the sun come up over Arequipa was worth the trip.
A Note on the “Get to Cusco” Pass
Neither the communication issues nor the overnight bus ruined the trip. We had far more Peru Hop positives than negatives, but we took the long route.
The “Get to Cusco Quick” pass seems like a good choice – enjoy Paracas and Huacachina then skip stays in Arequipa and Puno while still allowing some altitude acclimation before Cusco (which can set people who have flown from Lima to Cusco back a couple days). However, when we met up with this “quick” bus – the same bus that had been delayed because of a flat tire – its passengers were worse for the wear.
They had been on the bus for more than 24 hours with little reprieve and still had several hours to go before Cusco. The sanitation on the bus was questionable and by the time we stopped for dinner (which was originally supposed to be lunch), they were ravenous.
Talking to some of them, they acknowledged that the same thing could have happened on any bus company and some commended the tour guides’ stressed but in control vibes (the tour guides even hunted down popcorn as a treat for the after-dinner movie), but several expressed regret in taking the fast route through Peru as it essentially washed out a day and a half of possible adventure.
The Wrap-Up
The cons associated with this review could easily have happened with any other travel company and it doesn’t get in the way of my overall recommendation of Peru Hop. I know Peru Hop takes this stuff seriously and wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already tweaked their system based on feedback from this bus’s experience.
If you’re traveling to Peru, I recommend taking your time. The country is much more than just Machu Picchu and you’ll miss a lot if you barrel through. Plus, the longer you stay, the more time you’ll have to enjoy each location – and the less likely that one bad stretch will ruin the whole trip. Peru destinations are spread out and it takes time to see them all, but it’s well worth it!
I still have a lot more to share about Peru to help you in planning a Peru vacation. Look for information on Macchu Picchu, more in-depth looks at activities, and city guides that include information on where we stayed. Is there anything you hope I cover? Let me know below. I hope you’re finding this helpful in your Peru trip planning!
Until next time, Mel
As a note, I get no compensation for recommendations.
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