Frequently Asked Questions

Are you wondering about the organization of our tours, or about Peru and Bolivia? You’ll be able to find a lot of that information on our website, but here is a list of our most frequently asked questions. Don’t hesitate to contact our specialists if you can’t find the answers to your questions.

Are the tours accompanied by an English-speaking guide?

Not necessarily. Our tours are custom-made, meaning the customer decides which services are included. However, in the case of a 2-person tour, the cost of having a guide accompany you along the whole tour can be high, so most of our travelers end up opting for a guide only during the individual guided tours. Generally, only the larger groups (of 8 people or over) choose to hire the services of a guide over the duration of the whole trip.

Do the tours include meals?

As for the previous question, the answer is usually no. For organizational reasons, it is better to include meals only when a guide is accompanying you across the whole tour. To include meals, or some meals, can simplify the running of the tour for groups of certain size (10 people or more). However, for smaller groups, we would recommend holding on to the freedom and spontaneity of being able to choose where to eat. However, breakfasts are always included at your hotels.

When is the best time to travel to Peru and Bolivia?

Two main elements are to be taken into account when answering this question: tourist affluence and the climate. In order to offer a concise answer, we should mention that most people opt for the dry season, from April to November. But according to your travel preferences and the type of tour you are considering, the choice could be different.

If you’d like a more detailed answer to your question, do check the When to travel to Peru page of our website.

How do we know that your company really exists?

Before trusting a company so far away with thousands of your hard-earned dollars, we do recommend you check its legal existence. In Peru, companies are registered at the SUNAT (Superintendencia Nacional Tributaria) by a RUC (Registro Unico de Contribuyente). On the SUNAT’s website (http://www.sunat.gob.pe/cl-ti-itmrconsruc/jcrS00Alias) you can make a query by searching for a company using its RUC. Different information will pop up,  such as “Estado del Contribuyente”, which should be active, “Condición del Contribuyente” which should be “Habido”, or the number of workers “Cantidad de trabajadores”. Our RUC is the following: 20558033313.

Besides, travel agencies must also be registered with the Ministry of Tourism. You can also find us on their website: Paprika Tours in Mincetur, Ministry of Tourism Peru

You should need to type in our RUC and click « search ».

Watch out, sometimes these links can be modified. We would be grateful if you could let us know when one of these links is no longer working.

OK, I’ve checked your legal existence, but how can I be sure of the quality of your services?

Since 2006, many travelers have agreed to leave testimonies on our website. You can also find certified reviews from our travelers on TrustPilot.

Do your prices include international flights?

No. Our prices do not include international flights to Peru or Bolivia. However, we do include all domestic flights within Peru and Bolivia, and, if required, an international flight between both countries.

Are Peru and Bolivia safe countries?

Yes. Peru and Bolivia have relatively low crime rates, much lower than the rest of Latin America. Besides, by traveling with us, you are considerably reducing any sort of risk as we take charge of all transportation, and the hotels we work with are always located in the centres of the cities, so you won’t need to take any taxis.

In our 10 years’ worth of experience and almost 10,000 travelers, we only have a track record of a few minor incidents (the theft of a handbag from a restaurant for example), but no attacks or muggings of any kind.

Which are the most common kind of medical problems?

Altitude sickness is the most common syndrome during any tour around Peru or Bolivia. We recommend to those suffering from cardiovascular or respiratory problems to consult their doctor before coming on the tour.

When you get there, make sure to take it easy at a high altitude and if the symptoms worsen (headaches, fatigue, nausea), let us know so we can get you to a doctor. All our hotels located in cities at a high altitude and all tourism vehicles have bottled oxygen at your disposal in case of any unease.

Apart from that, the classic “turista” (traveler’s diarrhea) could affect some travelers, but we’ve never had a case of it interrupting a tour.

Do I need to be vaccinated to travel to Peru and Bolivia?

No vaccines are compulsory in Peru and Bolivia, but we do recommend you be vaccinated against the yellow fever if you are planning to travel to the Amazon.

How easy is it to change euros, dollars, and other currencies? 

The US dollar can easily be changed in most places around Peru and Bolivia, in currency exchange offices (it’s better to avoid banks, where you will get much worse rates). The euro is also easy to change in the big cities, although it tends to be slightly overpriced.

Other currencies, including the British pound, Swiss franc and the Canadian dollar, are difficult to change and definitely tend to have mediocre rates. Avoid bringing those currencies if you can.

Are tips included, should I tip, whom and how much?

By definition, tipping is a liberality and therefore can’t be included in the service. It is common to tip the guides, drivers and waiters. However, unlike some countries where there is almost a fixed tipping rate (15% in the USA, for example), there are no such rules in Peru.

Our position on this rather delicate topic is that we don’t want you to feel obliged at any moment to leave a tip, especially for a service which you have already paid. Tipping should remain completely voluntary, and only in the face of exceptional service. We forbid our guides and chauffeurs from requesting tips, and even from broaching the subject of tips. If you feel like one of our contributors is being inappropriate on that topic, we would be grateful if you would let us know.

What are the formalities in terms of entering Peru and Bolivia?

The formalities are quite simple: all travelers (regardless of origin) will need a passport with a validity of no less than 6 months from the date of your arrival in the country. No visa is required from travelers from Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, and the rest of the European Union.

Travelers from the USA do not need a visa for Peru. For Bolivia, however, you will need to obtain a tourist visa, all the requirements are explained in detail on the following page:

http://bolivia.usembassy.gov/service/living-in-bolivia/travelling-to-bolivia.html

If you are of a different nationality than those mentioned above, please check with the relevant authorities.

How much will meals cost in Peru/Bolivia?

This is extremely variable. It definitely isn’t expensive to eat in Peru, a meal in an informal restaurant/eatery can cost a few dollars. But if you wish to enjoy the local cuisine at a finer restaurant, this should cost around 10-15 dollars for a dish. For example, at the prestigious Chicha restaurant in Arequipa, a complete “à la carte” meal (drinks, appetizer, main course, dessert with a bottle of wine, for 2 people) could cost around 50 dollars per person.

What is the weight limit for luggage?

Almost all our tours include at least one domestic flight. Luggage authorized per person on these flights are as follows: 2 pieces of hold luggage which, combined, weigh no more than 50 pounds for the hold, and 1 piece of cabin luggage weighing no more than 17 pounds. In Bolivia, 2 pieces of hold luggage weighing no more than 44 pounds, and one piece of cabin luggage weighing a maximum of 11 pounds per person.

Should I use a backpack or a suitcase?

You are welcome to use a suitcase, but make sure you do bring a small backpack for the day trips and excursions. In some cases, you could go away for 2 or 3 days before returning to your hotel. This could be the case for the Colca Canyon excursion, on Lake Titicaca, in the Sacred Valley or at Machu Picchu. In this case, you will be able to leave your luggage at the hotel and only pack what you will need for the excursion.

Which airlines do you work with for the domestic flights?

In Peru and Bolivia, we work with regular airlines such as Star Peru, Peruvian, LAN, Avianca, LC Peru, Amaszonas, and BoA, respecting time constraints indicated in the program and making sure to leave plenty of time ahead of your international flight. If you have any specific preferences as to the airline and/or flight time, please let us know before we finalize your itinerary and book your tour. We will then let you know if this brings about an additional charge.

What is the electrical voltage in Peru and Bolivia?

The electric system in Peru and Bolivia works on 220 volts. Some electric sockets work with flat plugs, others with round plugs, and others will work with both. It would therefore be useful to bring an adaptor on your trip.

Why some admission tickets must be paid directly on-site?

On custom-made tours, some admission tickets are not included in the price of the overall tour and must be paid directly on-site. Here are the main reasons why we do not include tickets in the prices of the tour, and the benefits of doing so.

• Apart from the entrance to Machu Picchu (which we do include*) all admission tickets can be bought directly at the site, at the entrance of the site you are visiting. It is not necessary, and sometimes not even possible, to book them and buy them in advance.
• In these conditions, in order to buy your tickets, we would have to give cash to our guides or drivers in the different cities, who would then have to send the tickets back to the agency for internal auditing, and for our accountancy department to justify that expense. Recording thousands of tickets into our accounting system would also imply an important logistical effort, which ultimately would end up driving up the price of the tour.
• On most of our services which make up a tour, we have negotiated lower prices than the ones you would get directly, which allows us to make our profit margin without affecting your budget. This is not the case for admission tickets, where we pay the exact same price that you would pay. Therefore, we would only be able to make our profit margin on these tickets if we increased their price, which we would rather avoid.
• If for any reason you would need to cut your trip short or would not be able to attend any visit or guided tour, not having paid for the entrance ticket yet would make things much easier.
• Some of our travelers like to keep the tickets to the places they visited as a souvenir, which would be impossible if we had to bring the tickets back to the agency for the accountancy department.

In a nutshell, with Paprika Tours, you pay for your admission tickets at cost value, without any intermediary. In order to be completely transparent, and for you to be able to compare the total price of our tours with other service providers who may include all tickets in their prices, we will always make it clear which excursions or tours include admission tickets, and which don’t.

Also, the time we save by not having to register the entry tickets, we can put to good use: dedicating more time to the organization of your tour, and the smooth reservation and running of transport, hotels, restaurants and guides.

*The entry ticket to Machu Picchu is always included and bought in advance, because there is a limit on the number of admitted visitors per day. Likewise, some entry tickets can be included directly by a local service provider. You will always find in our programs a detailed explanation for each service.