One of Matt and I’s biggest resolutions for 2019 was to find more time to be “us” and to remember who we were as a couple. We spent A LOT of time in 2018 focusing on being parents, and hustling to save money for our home renovation happening in the next month, and being romantic and dating each other fell a bit to the wayside. To kick that goal into place, we thought we felt ready to take a big solo mom & dad trip out of the country. We have only taken one solo trip together for a friends wedding in March of 2018, but we were with our group of friends so it was more of a fun trip, not romantic. When Matt’s parents offered to watch Hudson, our idea became REAL! We flew to Miami to spend the New Year with our best friends like we’ve done in years past, and then from Miami we picked a destination we both really wanted to visit together – Peru. Matt studied abroad and learned to speak Spanish in Lima, Peru right before I had met him in college, so it’s a place that he holds close to his heart that I had never visited.
DAY ONE: CUSCO, PERU
We flew from Miami to Cusco, with a layover in Colombia. We started our trip in Cusco because we wanted a day to adjust to the altitude before we headed to Machu Picchu. Our flight was overnight, so we landed in Cusco in the morning, and spent the day sipping on Coca tea, walking around, and napping away our altitude headaches. It will take a bit to adjust – I felt fine for the first hour or so, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Matt and I walked into a market, and I looked at him with tears in my eyes because the market looked so incredible, but I felt soooo crappy. We walked back to the hotel to rest, and had to sit multiple times along the way. It really is wild how the altitude leaves you breathless. I’d say a good nap, chugging water and drinking tea left us feeling adjusted after a day.
Where We Stayed In Cusco
This hotel was MUCH better than we could have envisioned. I think it’s one of my favorite places I’ve ever stayed. It was close to the center of the city, and we had a gorgeous view of the mountains. We had our own fireplace in the room, and a little nook to sip on tea. I would HIGHLY recommend it.
Where We Ate/ What We did In Cusco
Morena Peruvian Kitchen
We ate lunch at this cute little restaurant on the day we arrived. They have delicious ceviche and coca tea!
Organika
This place is a MUST eat at – We had dinner here on our only night in Cusco, and it was so so delicious. Everything is farm-to-table, and we even saw the farm the vegetables are grown at on our drive toward Machu Picchu.
Café Loco
This quaint little coffee shop is located on the most gorgeous cobblestone street, and the coffee was amazing.
Mercado San Pedro
This was probably my favorite part of Cusco. The Market is so inspiring, and filled with tons of fabulous sweaters, homemade gloves and artisans!
DAY TWO: OLLANTAYTAMBO
We woke up in Cusco, grabbed coffee, and then headed toward Ollantaytambo to catch the train toward Aguas Calientes. This was a pretty heavy travel day, but visiting this town in between was a nice way to explore amongst a lot of travel. We opted to take a cab VS a bus to Ollantaytambo because we wanted the option to pull over on the side of the road if there was something that caught our eye (we stopped and snapped some photos with alpacas along the way!) The cab cost about $30 in total, so it wasn’t much more than the bus, and it took about 1.5 hours.
Ollantaytambo is pretty small, but has beautiful cobblestone streets, and is definitely worth stopping in to. There’s also a hike right in the city that takes about an hour roundtrip with some beautiful views overlooking the cities’ market. The hike cost about $15. We grabbed lunch, spent a few hours roaming around, and then headed to the train station to catch the Peru Rail into Aguas Calientes (the city where Machu Picchu is located). We arrived to our hotel in Aguas Calientes around 9:30 PM that night.
Where We Stayed in Aguas Calientes
It’s fairly expensive to stay in Aguas Calientes since it’s such a tourist destination, but we managed to find this nice place for around $120 a night.
DAY THREE: MACHU PICCHU
In order to get in to Machu Picchu you need to buy tickets in advance, because they only let a certain number of people in per day within different time slots. Matt booked our tickets about a month in advance, but we traveled during the off season, which is the rainy season. We were VERY lucky and didn’t see much rain, but there was a risk of rain. We also purchased a hike for Montana Machu Pichu within our ticket. The only piece we couldn’t buy in advance was the bus ticket up to Machu Pichu, so the morning of our hike we woke up a bit early to make sure we were one of the first in the line. It took us only about 30 minutes to buy the bus tickets, and get on a bus to head on the 20 minute drive up to Machu Picchu.
The bus drops you off so close to that standard “Machu Picchu” view that you see in photos, and you really don’t have to hike or walk much at all to find epic views. It is breathtaking, and one of the most incredible places I’ve seen with my own eyes. There’s llamas just sitting all over the mountain, and you can walk right up to them! It also isn’t very strenuous to walk around the ruins, and everywhere you look is an incredible view. We decided we wanted to hike a strenuous hike while we were there for the experience, so we hiked Montana Machu Picchu which took us about 3 hours round trip. It was VERY hard, and probably the hardest hike I had ever done, but it was so worth it for the beautiful views, and the bonding time we spent together. We spent from around 8AM- 2PM walking around the ruins and hiking, and then we headed back to Aguas Calientes for lunch before our train ride back to Cusco. We ate at a delicious restaurant called The Tree House, and then headed to the train station. We took the Vista Dome train back, which served coffee and snacks, and had gorgeous mountain views the entire way.
We stayed at a hotel that I would not recommend on our 3rd night, back in Cusco. If we re-booked the trip, we would have just gone back to El Balcon for our third night.
DAY FOUR & FIVE: LIMA, PERU
We woke up in Cusco on day four, and headed to the airport where we caught the short 1 hour flight to Lima, Peru. We wanted to end our journey in Lima so we were near the airport and could take a direct flight back to Miami. We spent the final days of our journey exploring Lima!
Where We Stayed In Lima
This hotel was a bit of a splurge for us, but for our last two nights we wanted to stay somewhere amazing, and this place was indeed amazing. It had a gorgeous balcony for sipping coffee, gorgeous decor and natural lighting and it was located in Barranco, the part of Lima that we heard was the best to stay. It was close to a lot of bars and restaurants, and I would highly recommend it!
Where We Ate/ What We did In Lima
Colonia & Co
This coffee shop had delicious cold brew, and the coffee bar is beautifully decorated!
Taberna Isolina
We ate dinner here, and sat at the bar because there’s usually a bit of a wait. The food is delicious – we split a few dishes, because everything is pretty large in portion size. I had a local Peruvian red wine which was one of the best wines I’ve ever tried, and their ceviche was to die for.
La Bodega Verde
This is a must-visit. I ate an acai bowl for breakfast here, and we picked up coffee, but it’s set in a gorgeous green grass-filled garden, and all of the food is healthy. It’s a lovely spot for kids, and we kept saying how much Hudson would have enjoyed it.
Parque De La Reserva
So many of you recommended this spot to me, and I am so glad we went. It costs only about $3 to enter, and theres tons of gorgeous flowers and fountains all over the property. It opens at 3PM, and the light show with the fountains is later in the evening, so we actually missed it, but I’ve heard its fabulous.
One of my biggest pieces of advice for this itinerary is to PACK LIGHT. It would be a really difficult trip to have more than a carry on suitcase, or a backpack. I brought 1 carry on, and Matt just brought his backpack. Our travel essentials included a rain coat, hiking boots, a sweater for the chillier evenings, and for Lima some warmer clothes, because it was 80 degrees during our time there. The streets are cobblestone, and there’s a lot of steps, so its very important to not bring too much stuff to carry around!
We flew back to Miami from the airport in Lima, and the flight was about 5 hours long. There you have it, our full itinerary and some of our favorite spots. I would HIGHLY recommend this trip if you want something extremely magical that does not break the bank. It’s aways lovely to travel to Europe, but it is extremely expensive. This was something so different, and in so many ways better in my opinion! I for sure want to head back to Cusco someday, as it was one of my favorite places I’ve ever traveled to!
