I stayed here before and right after going to Machu Picchu. The rooms were very nice here, but even though I asked for a quiet room and probably got the one furthest away from the lobby, I could still hear noise. They nicely took my suitcase up the stairs for me, though the check-in clerk wasn’t that fluent in English. Soundproofing is not a strongpoint of this hotel. The rooms were quaint, though, with plenty of hot water.
I got in late one night, and I asked what time the kitchen closed. I think the cook was leaving in 15 minutes or so, but he agreed to make something for me. Great customer service there. I ordered soup, and it was pretty good. Breakfast was also good and included in the rate.
The location was good, not too far from the main square.
One of the main reasons I booked this hotel was that they offered free airport pickup and drop-off. I was a solo female traveler in South America for the first time. I was paranoid, and I’d heard horror stories about Cuzco taxi drivers. When I got to the airport, I was expecting the hotel to have a van like I saw Rumi Punku had. They did not. I was eventually met by a young woman who just hailed a normal taxi there. Initially this kind of freaked me out a bit and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go with her. Okay, that was embarrassing. Just a heads-up for those of you looking for a formal hotel shuttle at the airport.
Also, I had emailed before I came to set up a Sacred Valley tour. I got a confirmation for this. When I got asked the morning it was supposed to be, the check-in clerk had no knowledge of this and it was unclear whether I would get to go or not. I did. But the tour operator they hire is bad and consistently tries to rip off the tourists by clearly going to places where he gets commissions. He wouldn’t let us spend more than 15 minutes at the Pisac market, but we had time to go to a “weaving demonstration” where they charged $40 USD for the same throw I bought at the Pisac Market for $15 USD. We also had time to stop at a tourist market where goods were also extremely overpriced. The lunch that was included was very good, but they didn’t tell us that we had to pay 8 soles for the drinks until we were leaving! 8 soles for an orange juice in the SV is a major rip-off. Also, the information materials at the hotel said the SV tour included a hotel drop-off, but we were all just dropped off in Cuzco’s center square. This was after dark. Luckily I had brought along a map of Cuzco, but I was very uncomfortable trying to find my way in a strange city after dark. Whatever you do, don’t book the SV tour through the hotel!
- Los Apus Hotel
- Los Apus Cusco
