Quite disappointed in how this “tour” went. First, there were so many additional payments after the initial payment went through, which I was okay with, but considering the experience I got, I’m not happy. I was moved to another group with Machu Picchu Expeditions without any communication from Mega Expeditions. I did not receive a proper briefing in person the night before like I was told and instead the guide called me and rushed through the morning plan and nothing else about the next five days. I had so many questions that were left unanswered. Had to request another guide, which Mega Expeditions did help with, and only received a proper briefing at 9pm (mind you wake up call is 4am). For the actual tour, the guides were extremely disorganized. Gave the group no history along the way, rushed through instructions for the next day, and did not even stay with the group on the Salkantay trail. One guide ran ahead of the group while the other sometimes just took a car and met the group at a later point. It was pretty much a self-guided experience with the guides tagging along. Almost lost one person on the second (hardest) day because the guides did not pay attention to make sure all participants made it to the meeting spot before continuing. The guide had great energy which was good for getting the group up at such early hours but I wish he would’ve have put more of that energy into the tour, most importantly explaining things clearly. But instead, he often left the group confused and even showed up drunk some mornings (worst of all on the last day when he was supposed to guide the group through Machu Picchu and was too drunk to do it, gave the group to a random guide he found in Aguas Calientes). The accommodations were okay, but not what was expected when I booked this tour. Food was good, but definitely not enough for our big group considering the trek we were doing (barely any protein). And finally things were sent way too last minute. I bought my train ticket months in advance when I booked the tour and was told I would receive the ticket before the first day. However I only received it the night before I was supposed to take the train after contacting the company to request it. My train was booked for 6pm even though my circuit finished at 10am. When I requested an earlier train (the one that the majority of my group had) I was told I needed to request two days in advance which makes no sense at all because there’s no way I could’ve done that when the company only sent me the train information the night before. Very disappointing. Most of these issues (except the guides) are small things that I could look past, but considering the amount of money I paid, this is not the tour I thought I would be getting when I booked it. The experience of doing the Salkantay Trek and seeing Machu Picchu was still incredible and I would highly recommend doing it, but choosing which company to do it with is so important for the type of experience you get. And maybe this is more a problem reflecting Machu Picchu Expeditions, but there was minimal involvement from Mega Expeditions. Again, I’m happy I got to do this, but I wish I used a different company who actually made sure participants received a proper tour for the amount of money they paid.

















