One of our biggest concerns when creating your customized itinerary is how to get you to and from all the wonderful tourist destination within Peru. While most of our short transfers utilize private vans, it is more cost effective and efficient to use airplanes (and sometimes charter bus service) between cities. We take the following things under consideration when designing your transportation plan – safety and reliability as well as your individual budget and total time in Peru.
Here are some of the companies we typically book with – let us know if you prefer one of these options when you book your trip.
Airlines
LAN Airlines
LAN (a member of the Oneworld airline alliance) is one of the largest airlines in Latin America, with flights to Latin America, United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Oceania, and Europe. LAN uses Jorge Chavez Airport in Lima as a hub and has direct service to 14 cities in Peru (the most of any airline). LAN is Trip Design Peru’s preferred carrier for several reasons.
- The majority of LAN’s flights are direction – which means you will get to your destination quicker and there is less chance of delays
- LAN is Peru’s most reliable and on-time airline
- Customer service on LAN is top notch
However, for those on a budget, LAN may not be the best option as they price all these benefits into their ticket price and are usually 1.5-2 times more expensive than StarPeru or Peruvian Airlines.
Visit LAN’s website
StarPeru Airlines
StarPeru was a welcome entrant into the Peruvian airline market in 2004 as it brought added competition and the lowest fares on the market. It has a relatively new fleet of planes that visit 12 destinations throughout Peru daily. While StarPeru tends to be 50% cheaper than LAN and 10-20% cheaper than Peruvian Airlines, its service reflects those prices. Check-in and customer service tend to leave something to be desired, the interior of the planes aren’t anything to write home about and flights typically arrive a bit late to their destinations. Additionally, longer flights are not direct, with a stopovers in Cusco or other cities, before arriving at their final destination. Plus there is typically on one flight to each destination per day (Cusco being the exception). With that being said, they get you to your destination safely and for those on a budget, StarPeru is an attractive option!
Visit StarPeru’s website
Peruvian Airlines
The third, and newest, airline in Peru just launched in October 2009 and is somewhat of a hybrid of the other two. It mainly operates direct flights on larger aircraft like LAN, but also tends to have many of the customer service problems that plague StarPeru. It currently services only 7 cities (the fewest of the three airlines), but it has more than one flight per day to most destination and it has plans to expand to other routes in the near future. Its pricing model is also a bit of a hybrid, as prices tend to fall between those of LAN and StarPeru.
Visit Peruvian’s website
Bus companies
As noted above, flights are typically the most cost effective and efficient ways to get you from point A to point B in Peru. However, if you are on a tight budget or if you need to connect between close cities (Trujillo-Chiclayo, etc), we can look into booking on one of the many dependable bus services. There are a huge selection of bus types and classes as well as timetables to choose from. Some of the most popular companies are Cruz del Sur, TEPSA and Oltursa. Prices for most routes tend to be cheaper than flying, but you are also on a bus for up to a day.