Woohoo....IHG Awards A FREE 1000 Points!

Here's an easy way to score an extra 1000 IHG points. When you sign up for their free program and complete your first survey, they will deposit 1000 IHG points into your account. I am not a huge fan of the IHG brand which includes Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Candlewood Suites, Intercontinental and Hotel Indigo. But sometimes you can find a gem or take advantage of the point break promotion the brand offers during the year.
I had a few thousand IHG points so this award brings me close to 5000 points which may come in handy one day.

Get a free $10 from VISA checkout

My $10 eGift from Visa Checkout!

Starbucks and Visa Checkout have teamed up for a promotion. 
If you buy a $10 Starbucks gift card you can receive a $10 bonus card. 
Here’s how the promotion works:

1. Download the Starbucks app and create an account
2. Load $10 to the Starbucks app with Visa Checkout 
3. Receive your $10 eGift within 5 days courtesy of Visa Checkout

The promotion is valid through September 30, 2016, or “while supplies last.” Unfortunately since you only get the $10 bonus card after the fact (within five days of your purchase), you won’t know for sure at the time of purchase whether you qualify.

But I did it and my husband did it and sure enough, a few days later we both received emails with an eGift from Starbucks. If it doesn't work, you would probably spend $10 at Starbucks one day anyway. 

Huacachina with kids

The secret to travelling with kids is to find interesting and exciting things to do. You can always mix in a few churches and museums, but the kids want adventure! When you travel for almost free, money well spent is on experiences.

Peruhop is a hop on, hop off discount bus/tour service. We chose a 2 day/1 night tour. The company gave us a group discount (family of 5) and a second discount because we chose to book our own hotel in Paracas. We had enough Hilton points to book a room at the Doubletree Paracas. It is a suite style hotel and even though they would only allow me to book a room for 4, we could easily accommodate our family of 5 in the room. The hotel even gave us welcome drinks and cookies for FREE.
The tour included the bus, guide, stops at Cristo de Pacifico vista near Lima, breakfast stop, Chincha slave tunnels, sandboarding in Huacachina, Ballestas Islands boat tour and Inca ruins. A true bargain!
The tour is low key, the people were all young tourists and families, the bus very comfortable and safe. The vista was informative with lots of history. The breakfast stop is in the middle of nowhere and has the most amazing bread I've ever eaten.

The slave tunnels were educational and prompted lots of questions from the kids. More on sandboarding and the islands later. The Inca ruins were the weakest stop, but that being said if you actually toured the ruins it would cost you $25 per person. The bus stops near a wall so you can peek over for free.
Bottom line, this is a great way to get from here to there and see some things along the way.
It took several hours to reach Paracas, a small beach town. If you stay at the Hilton, you need to take a taxi to and from the hotel.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the pool at the hotel. Nice break from travelling and a good chance for the kids to unwind. For dinner, I recommend heading back into town and there are a number of great inexpensive restaurants lining the beach. We ate dinner and breakfast at El Arizal because the woman working there was so friendly. The food was very good! One tip, there are limited ATMS in Paracas and a lot of restaurants only take cash.

The next morning, we met our Peruhop guide at a hostel. The hostel stored our luggage for the day and our guide walked us to the Ballestas island boat tour. The Ballestas islands are the poor man's Gallapagos. You do get to see the Nasca lines from the boat which is a bonus plus a variety of birds, sea lions and penquins. It's cold on the boat so dress accordingly.

After the island tour, you have the option to take a 1 hour tour of the Paracas Natural Reserve. It's a quick bus tour with stops at a few vistas and the museum. 

Then we hop back on the bus for a few hours to go to Huacachina. I highly recommend visiting Huacachina for several reasons. One, it's perfect for kids. My 10 year old loved it, my 17 year old loved it, my husband loved it. It's crazy and it's unlike anything you have ever done before. Definitely a highlight of the trip. 

The company puts 12 people in a dune buggy type of car, straps you in and then the driver takes you as fast as he can over huge sand dunes. Crazy! Check out the video at the top of this post! They make 3 stops along the way so you can sandboard down the dunes which increase in elevation with every stop ending with the giant 200 meter hill. I tried the first one and then decided to ride the buggy the rest of the way which I enjoyed. So no worries if you are not a fan of this activity.

The tour takes about 2 hours and then you are returned to the hostel and bus to return to Lima. We had a great experience with Peruhop and met people who were taking the bus for as long as 10 days.

Next post: The Amazon

#peruhop #almostfreefamilytravel

Save $10 on your next Ryan Air flight!

Ryan Air is offering a promotion to save $10 when you sign up for a FREE account. Since most flights on Ryan Air are super cheap anyways, it can make some flights almost FREE. Ryan Air is a low cost carrier with flights across Europe. Remember to check the fine print since the airline will nickel and dime you for checked luggage, printing boarding passes etc.

Lima, Peru With Kids

View from Larcomar in Lima Peru

Lima, Peru is a big city! I'm not talking New York or Los Angeles big, I'm talking 20 million people big. Think New York on steroids! That being said it is manageable, fun with kids and budget friendly. Sometime during your trip to Peru, you will fly through Lima. You may even fly through Lima a few times so it is worth spending a few days here.
Expect to pay 50-60 soles to travel from the airport to Miraflores.
Here's what we did. First, we used airbnb.com for accommodations. As you know, we are a party of 5. In South America, we found many of the chain hotels would not allow 5 in a room. And we prefer to use points or miles which for 2 rooms starts to get expensive. Airbnb.com offered lots of inexpensive options in the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores. We settled on a 3 bedroom/2 bath apartment with laundry facilities. It was nice to have the kitchen, laundry and extra bathroom.

We were actually staying in Lima for 3 nights, but we chose to break up our stay with trip down the coast. The Airbnb agreed to let us pay for 3 nights and store our luggage at the apartment for the 4th night while we were travelling for free. Awesome!

Skulls and bones arranged in a design in the catacombs

While in Lima, we checked out the catacombs at La Iglesia de San Francisco. Not as creepy as they seem on Yelp and really interesting and unusual for the whole family. Cost 10 soles per adult, 5 soles per student and 1 soles for my 10 year old. Be sure to get to the cathedral by noon so you can check it out, but the real highlight here is definitely the catacombs and tour of the convent.Near the church and the Plaza Mayor, there are dozens of small restaurants serving a typical Peruvian lunch for cheap approximately 10-15 soles. I highly recommend eating at one of these just to experience the culture and typical foods.
Another must see sight with the kids is Kennedy Park or "cat park". This park is filled with cats. Locals hang out at the park just to cuddle and pet the cats. At first, I was hesitant to let the kids cuddle the cats, but the cats are very friendly and seem well taken care of. I did hose them off with sanitizer when we left though.

Hundreds of cats in Kennedy Park in Lima 

If you forgot to buy any souvenirs in Cuzco, there is an Artisan market near the park with decent prices. Another must see in Lima is the "Magical Water Show" at Parque de la Reserva.



We took the metro (it's actually an express bus) to the catacombs for 2.50 soles per person each way and then a taxi to water show park. Always negotiate a rate with the taxi before you get in the car.
The Water show costs 4 soles per person for a laser fountain show that rivals Disneyland. Shows are at 7:15pm, 8:15pm and 9:30pm. Leave some time to walk around as well.

Fountain next to the laser water show

Another tip to help make Lima affordable, the big grocery stores have a hot food counter, ceviche and salad bar. Decent prices and the food is pretty good. We found that we would eat a big breakfast and lunch and then just pick up empanadas and fruit for dinner. Another place to visit in Lima is the big shopping center built into the side of a cliff, Larcomar in Miraflores. There is a food court here so if your family is anything like ours and can't agree on one type of food. There is also a Pardos Chicken which has about the best roasted chicken I have ever eaten and it's totally reasonable.

Next post: Sandboarding in Huacachina, Peru

Peru Part 4 - Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is one of the great wonders of the world and should be on everyone's bucket list! It is breath taking and awe inspiring. Why the Incas chose such a remote place to build is a mystery, but you can appreciate the beauty and expanse of what they accomplished.
Now all that being said, getting to Machu Picchu is expensive and a hassle.

In the old days, the Incas walked to Machu Picchu and that is one option today. You can walk the Inca trail. With my three kids in tow, we opted to take the train and the bus. So I will be talking about that route. If you want to walk the Inca trail, people ran into said it was amazing, but difficult and you need to book early.
So if you want to take the train, I highly recommend finding a private guide who can book the train, bus and entrance tickets for you. You can do it yourself, but I found that you don't save very much money, you do save yourself a big headache.
I will be posting my itinerary and all of my contacts for Peru in a separate post.
The train leaves from Poroy (near Cuzco) and takes 4 hours to get to Aguas Calientes or from Ollantaytambo and takes 2 hours to get to Aguas Calientes. We tacked on a 1 day tour of the Sacred Valley to the front side and had our private guide drop us off at the train station in Ollantaytambo.
Ollantaytambo is a beautiful old Inca town with an aqueduct water system running through it. It is definitely worth a walk around.
Aguas Caliente gets a bad rap in my opinion. Not that you would want to spend a lot of time in the town, but it's interesting. The train tracks run straight down the middle of the main street. In fact, there are no cars on the main street, just the train tracks. Just watching the garbage train go by was fascinating.

Train tracks right through the main street of Aguas Caliente

Okay, here's where it gets interesting. The buses to Machu Picchu start running at 5:30am and take about 20 minutes to go up the hill. People start lining up for the bus at 3am so you can do the math, we (my husband and I and our guide; we left the kids in the hotel) got in line at 530am and the line was already at least a mile long. Our guide said it was the longest line she had ever seen, but I'm pretty sure the line is long everyday. Only 2500 people are allowed to our Machu Picchu per day. Most of them take the bus. So you get the picture. By the way, the reverse traffic happens around 1pm with people to leave Machu Picchu to get back to Aquas Caliente to catch the 5pm train back to Cuzco.

Crazy bus line at 6am

My recommendation since we did it all wrong in my opinion is to do the trip backwards. Plan to spend 2 nights in Aquas Caliente....arrive by train to Aquas Caliente in the evening, spend the night, catch the 9am bus to Machu Picchu and then you can stay until the park closes and the last bus comes down the hill around 4pm, spend the night in Aquas Caliente and take a morning train to Cuzco. I know it's an extra hotel night, but you have more time at the park so you can a hike or just enjoy the park after the crowds depart in the afternoon and you don't have to deal with the horrible bus line.
By the way, we did not pay extra for the Vistadome train and we could enjoy the view from the train just fine. So if you want to save some money, this is a good place.
Besides logistics, our trip to Machu Picchu (train, bus, entrance tickets for 5 people, guide for the park, Aguas Calientes hotel for 1 night, taxi from Poroy train station to Cuzco) cost us $1465 for 2 adults and 3 kids. Not cheap!
I did book the hotel through booking.com  so I got 10% back.

Peru Part 3 Sacred Valley

Maras Salt Pools in the Sacred Valley 

My theory is that you should fly for free and stay for free and then spend that money on experiences. After spending a few days in Cuzco to adjust to the altitude, we hired a private guide to take us on a day tour through the Sacred Valley. I highly recommend a private tour since there are many small towns, ruins and markets in the area and you can customize the tour. We found Percy on TripAdvisor.com. He had lots of great reviews and answered emails promptly. I felt totally comfortable wiring him an $800 deposit. We included in the private van, 1/2 day tour of Cuzco and Sacsayhuaman tour, 1 day of the Sacred Valley (Maras Salt Pools, Chincheros Inca Town, Native Church, Moray experimental farming terraces and Ollantaytambo), all train, bus and entrance tickets plus a guide for Machu Picchu, return pick up from the Poroy train station outside of Cuzco. We paid approximately $1500 for this tour for 5 people. When I priced it out separately, I wouldn't have saved much so I decided to let someone else do it and avoid the headache. We still needed to pay for park entrance tickets, overnight in Aquas Caliente and food. Found the Killa Inn in Aguas Calientes which had decent prices and included breakfast. For a family of 5, breakfast included is key. They also held our luggage for us while we visited Machu Picchu. 

Chincheros Inca Town 

Inca ruins near Ollantaytambo

Percy was able to tell us lots of personal stories and theories about the Incas. He answered all of our questions honestly and we really enjoyed spending two days with him. For kids, the Maras Salt Pools were a huge hit! The farming terraces and ruins were interesting and held the kids attention, but it is a long day. We ate dinner and took a walk around Ollantaytambo and then boarded the train to Aquas Calientes.

Next post: The trek to Machu Picchu