Back from our Family Trip to Peru and Easter Island: Bumpy Start, Awesome Memories

Both Peru and Easter Island (local name Rapa Nui) were on my bucket list for many years, and I finally got a chance to see them with my own eyes. Even better, I got to experience them with my husband and kids. I’m still pinching myself looking at the photos. Was it all just a  dream or did we really take this iconic photo of Machu Picchu?!

Or walk around Moai statues?

We went on total of 6 flights in 12 days and lived to tell the tale.

But let me back up for a minute because so many things went wrong just before the trip started. All of us got sick from something my son brought from school and my husband was the last one to get over this bug. Oh, and he also pulled a muscle in his back, though fortunately the pain subsided on the day of our flight. Did I mention that I booked a red-eye flight in economy to save miles?

On top of it, my daughter’s wisdom teeth were bothering her and we had to remove them only two weeks before the trip. The doctor had assured me that we had enough time, except she got an infection. She was fortunately cleared to go on the trip. Still, I had to get special syringes and make tiny bottles of peroxide mix to use while we were transiting through airports, in order to make sure no food particles were left behind.

Finally, the day of the trip has arrived. We drove our van to Miami airport (3.5 hours from our home), having allowed a bit of extra time in case things go wrong. Well, things did go wrong because we got a flat tire as we were approaching Miami suburbs. I called a bunch of towing services and all were booked up. At that point, I thought we would miss the flight for sure. But my husband said “not on my watch” and drove the car slowly to a nearby parking lot, while the tire rim was making an awful screeching noise. We figured if the van gets towed, it gets towed. We then ordered an Uber and drove 45 minutes to the airport where we barely made our flight to Lima.

But the worst thing of all, by far, was getting a phone call from my mom two weeks before the trip, telling me my dad passed away. Under normal circumstances, I would be canceling all other plans and flying to Belarus to be with my family. Unfortunately, under current regime it’s not safe to do so, plus, my Belarus passport is expired. So, I had to attend the funeral over Zoom while feeling like I’m letting my mom down. Needless to say, it was hard to get excited about anything, travel included.

But my mom told me to go have fun in South America, that dad would want me to. He had this insatiable curiosity about the  world and enjoyed living vicariously through my adventures. My dad was a bookworm and knew the history of each place I ever visited. He thought it was so cool that I would be the first person in the family to see Machu Picchu and also to complete the Polynesian Triangle. And so we went.

Peru vs. Easter Island

Obviously, comparing both places is like comparing apples and oranges. They are quite different, which in my opinion, makes it such an appealing combo. But if you absolutely have to pick one, Peru it is. It absolutely blew us away. I knew I would like the country because I enjoy history and ancient architecture. But Peru is so much more than that. You have amazing natural beauty, which looks like something plucked from the “Lord of the rings” series:

People are friendly, dignified and proud of their culture:

 

Then there is delicious food, probably the best we ever had during our travels:

Last but not least, there is Inca architecture, with ruins scattered all throughout  the Sacred Valley. As amazing as Machu Picchu is, there is more to Peru than just that one sight. I absolutely loved the Inca village of Ollantayatambo that we chose as our base in Peru.

Another white guy cosplaying a Peruvian. Oh wait, that’s my husband….

That said, Peru is not for the faint of heart. If you choose to take your family there, you need to be aware of some challenges. First one is the road safety. Most Peruvians we have encountered drive like maniacs. The roads can be sketchy, to put it mildly, with no barrier. If the car slips a little to the side, you fall off a cliff and die. Period.

You have to be careful about drinking  water, eating street food and occasional pickpockets. Oh, and there are a bunch of stray dogs who may carry rabies. Then there is a serious issue with hot water in most hotels that are not four stars. You will likely have to take a cold shower once or twice. We did.

Sure, there are more reliable western chains you can get via hotel points, but none of them are located in Ollantayatambo where I actually wanted to stay. In general, if you are looking for a reasonably priced, well located hotel with dependable hot showers, you likely won’t find it in Peru. You can maybe have two out of three, so pick your poison.

But Peru is worth it, and I really hope we get to go back. In fact, my husband said he wants to move there when he retires, no joke. Peru is this rare combination of most things I look for in travel. It also happens to be relatively affordable, aside from Machu Picchu, which I will address later in the post.

On to Easter Island. It’s definitely a detour from Peru, which is an understatement of  a century. You first have to fly 3.5 hours from Cusco to Santiago. Then you have to overnight there before flying  another 5 hours to Easter island. Was it worth it? To me it was 100% worth it. Easter Island is what I imagine Hawaiian islands were like 80 or so years ago.

Rapa Nui is a mostly unspoiled piece of paradise, though natural scenery isn’t quite as dramatic as Tahiti or Kauai. To me it looked a bit like Iceland, but with warm climate.

The island has  a laid back community, where shops open up when the owners feel like it, not according to the posted hours. In the evening you see local kids bring their boards to surf the waves.

There are groups of young people watching the sunset while playing  guitars.

And an occasional  dog jumping in my daughter’s lap:

Of course, you go to Easter Island primarily to see Moai statues, and they didn’t disappoint.

There is even a Peru connection, believe it or not. This ancient wall was built with the same technique and methods  used by Incas, suggesting the fact that the two civilizations interacted in some way, despite the large distance between the two.

We all loved Easter Island, but agreed that it’s likely a “one and done” due to the difficulty of getting there from Florida. But I can wholeheartedly recommend it as a unique destination worthy of a detour while you are in South America.

Visiting both places with the help of miles and points

Traveling to Peru and Easter Island doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, even if you have a family of four or more. There will obviously be some cash outlay involved, but you don’t have to be filthy rich to pull it off. I wrote about using points for all of our flights, so won’t repeat myself. In a nutshell, we paid around 80k miles+$200 taxes and cancellation fees per person total after making some modifications. Naturally, we flew in economy. One major change was just a few weeks before the trip when I’ve decided to fly overnight to Lima a few days earlier. That worked out nicely, as it gave us 5 nights in Peru, enough to get a decent overview of the Sacred Valley area.

I’ve priced the flights and if we went the most budget route, we would have to pay at least $1,250 per person to replicate our mileage tickets. So, you can say that I redeemed 80k miles for $1,050 in value, giving me 1.3 cents per mile. Some may call it pathetic, but I literally couldn’t care less. All  the miles were acquired via sign-up bonuses and saved me real money on flights where I would otherwise pay cash. Not having to shell out over $4k on airfare has tipped the scales in favor of going vs. staying home and doing a cheaper trip. Miles are literally the main reason this amazing adventure happened in the first place. So yeah, I’ll take my pathetic 1.3 CPM value, thank you very much.

As far as hotels go, we only used points on airport-adjacent  properties in order to make the trip easier. I’ll have a separate post on it, but this is definitely one of the best uses of hotel points IMO. As to actual base in Peru, we paid for a suite in a guesthouse at a  cost of $120 per night, or $480 total. For that we got two bedrooms and two bathrooms, free local transfers, plus an excellent breakfast each morning. It wasn’t a perfect stay, but overall I can’t complain about the value we got. It was also an excellent base for visiting Machu Picchu. Speaking of, this is one place that will be a serious budget buster. We paid $800 total for our family of four (plus $80 for private guide), and I went the cheapest possible route. That said, if you are in Peru, you simply must visit Machu Picchu.

In Easter Island we rented a cosy guesthouse for $180 per night total, which was a very good deal. This is a relatively expensive island, so I was happy with the price we got. You have to pay $72 per person to see most Moai sites and hiring a guide is mandatory. So, that added around $700 in costs for two tours and four tickets. That was our main expense, but it’s not like we had a choice. We came to see the Moai statues and would obviously pay whatever was required.

Eating out as a family of four can also add up and we dropped around $110 (tip included) on dinners each time, a bit less in Peru. But trying different foods is a big part of travel for me and my husband, and we make sure to budget for that expense.

I do hope that my rough breakdown of the main costs you will encounter can help you plan your own adventure to these two unique destinations. I’ll have more detailed posts coming up in  a near future, but if you have any questions, hit me up in the comments.