Kuoda TravelReviews of kuodatravel.com

Perfect trip. Kuoda delivered the trip of a lifetime. Each experience Provided a unique exposure to the people, culture and land of Peru.

Excellent customer service and planning- unique private tours to unbelievable places. Mery and Kuoda Team are wonderful ambassadors to South America and touring with them is so professional! Accommodation and transfers are amazing. I would highly recommend them for a wonderful experience.

great people, good knowledge

We are glad we chose Kuoda Travel to design a custom tour of Peru for the two of us. They exceeded our expectations. Kuoda listen to us. They had great suggestions. Example: We would have not known to include the Amazonian as part of our experience. They suggested this, based on our desire to immerse ourselves in Peru and savor the diversity it offers. We agreed. We spent 3-4 days in the Amazonian. it was a wonderful experience. This was in addition to Lima, Cusco, Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu. Kuoda also recommended Lake Titicaca at the conclusion - another must see destination. The guides were very informative. We saw familiar sights we wanted to see, and they took us a bit off the beaten trail, so to speak. They were sensitive to our needs (we are seniors, and my husband needed a cane for walking in some of the areas we visited, including Machu Picchu.) We received full attention the entire time. My husband saw a lot of Machu Picchu, as the guide knew where the best places to pause and sit were. The staff at Kuoda, including the owner, Mary, checked in to be sure we were more than satisfied. The ideas, the boutique hotels, guides, drivers and special events tailored to us were all first rate. Their itinerary was thoughtfully prepared, well documented, and seamless.

Kuoda travel is fantastic. Our trip to Peru was everything we expected and more. They took care of every little detail. Highly recommend them.

Very organized. Great experience for travel in Peru.

Kuoda travel was very organized and we didn’t have to worry about anything. Very punctual and knowledgeable! Would use them again.

Executive summary: My wife and I arranged a 5-day, post-cruise tour of Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley with Kuoda Travel based in Cusco, Peru. The choice of Kuoda was based on a combination of on-line reviews and, most importantly, the recommendation of Oceania cruisers who had used them before. In a nut shell, Kuoda fulfilled our wish list of things to see & do as well as the style of touring that we like. The details of this trip were so well covered we always felt at ease. The logistics of the entire 5-days were arranged impeccably! Each and every step of the way was covered down to the finest detail and there was only one very minor delay (it did not affect our tour). In fact, at the end of the tour we had a – what could have been – a severe problem with Peruvian Immigration. Kuoda provided a manager to help us solve that problem leading us through the bureaucracy every step of the way. We would not hesitate to use Kuoda again (we are in the nascent stage of planning a trip to the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands) and would strongly recommend them to anyone who travels to South America. They may be a bit more expensive than others but the added cost is well worth the comfortable feeling that you have knowing that you and well protected in all phases of a wonderful trip. As Mery, the owner, describes it “…Luxury is not defined by expense or excess. Luxury is about helping you to have the experience you crave and taking care of the nitty-gritty logistics so all you need to concern yourself with is enjoying your trip”. That was absolutely fulfilled on our trip! A huge THANK YOU goes out to the entire Kuoda team. But a special thanks goes out to those with whom we had direct contact: Jesus Ramos, Alex Baca, Jason Ayerbe and our guides and drivers: Ophelia & Eberth (sp??), Lillian, and Manuel. (Sorry, but I’ve forgotten some names) Details: We started our conversation with Jesus Ramos, our Travel Designer, 22 months before our cruise. Jesus was always prompt and complete with his responses, requests and questions. After responding to his request for information about what we were looking for and how we liked to tour, he gave us two quotes differentiated by the quality of the accommodations (3 & 4 star hotels). With minor tweaking to the itinerary we accepted the 4-star quote. Full information about all of the aspects of the tour (suggested clothing; packing for the final leg to Machu Picchu and even suggested tipping of the guide and driver) came to us with plenty of time to ask questions for clarification. Jesus made some suggestions for restaurants and even guided us on key phrases in Spanish. A few days before the trip started we got an email with contact information for two of the staff that would be available 24-hours a day as well as the name of our guide for the Lima legs (outbound and inbound) and the main tour, Cusco, Machu Picchu and back to Cusco. Arrangements were made to meet us on the pier in Lima’s port of Callao at 7AM to be taken directly to the airport for our flight to Cusco. Manuel, our guide, had our flight reservations and tickets and escorted us into the airport, guided us to the correct check in desk and stayed with us all the way up to the security gate. A nice touch by Miguel was diverting us from a very long check-in line to a priority desk and then convincing the airline’s reservationist to allow us to check in there. Saved a long wait in line! Manuel gave us complete instructions on where to go beyond the security check and what to look for inside. He also gave us a running commentary about Lima on the way to the airport. (An aside: I applaud the security at the airport! There were three security check points: Driving onto the airport property (U.S. should do this!!), the normal body/bag security check and a final bag check before boarding the plane.) Upon arrival in Cusco, we were met by Ophelia holding a sign with our names on it. From then on Ophelia was our guide, advisor - and soon became our friend. Ophelia’s amazing breadth of knowledge (she has a Masters in Ecology) spanned all of the disciplines of history, nature, civics, government with all of that wrapped in a warm smile and a great sense of humor. Ophelia was with us for the next 4 ½ days sharing all of her vast knowledge, answering question and allowing us a peak into her family life. Her love of country was evident and she exuded a desire for Peru’s improvement. Naturally the entire 5-days was well planned with all logistics taken care of down to the minutest detail. The day we arrived in Cusco, those plans were jumbled into chaos as drivers in the city were to put on a work stoppage strike basically shutting down the city roads for at least the next day. Lynda and I never felt a ripple of concern from either Ophelia or any of the Kuoda team. The schedule was rearranged quickly with a re-issue of all travel arrangements – bus and train tickets. We did not miss one site or event of our itinerary! Fantastic work! Ophelia was in control of every possible situation. At one point we found that there was a fairly serious problem with our immigration into Peru which could have delayed our exit. Ophelia immediately notified the office and steps were taken to rectify (more later). Whenever we stopped in a market or store to buy souvenirs, art (we are collectors of local art), etc. Ophelia was our “agent” and was the key to our getting some very nice bargains. We said goodbye to Ophelia after a wonderful tour of Cusco and both of us were sad to see her leave. If you do decide to tour with Kuoda, you will do best by requesting Ophelia as a guide. (A couple we had met on the cruise was also using Kuoda and we often crossed paths during the tour. At one point they said to us, “Your guide is great!”) Our driver during this time was Eberth (sp?). While the language barrier prevented most direct communications, we found that he had a wonderful sense of humor, always had a smile and was a fantastic driver (Peruvian traffic is nutsy!!) Eberth met us the final morning in Cusco to drive us to the airport. He was joined by Jason who made sure we made it safely onto the airplane to fly us back to Lima. In Lima we were met by Lillian and our driver who finished our Kuoda tour leading us through immigration and then escorting us to our hotel in Miraflores. This is where Kuoda showed that they ARE determined to ensure that all goes well with your time in Peru – they stayed with us during the entire process of correcting our passport problem even though it was not caused by them. Here’s what happened: Our cruise ship’s first stop in Peru was the port of Salaverry. Since this is a small city, the immigration department hand transposed our passport information into their database. Unfortunately, they mixed up our names (instead of Keith & Lynda we became Christine & Alexander). It wasn’t until the second hotel that the mistake was noticed. While it seemed to us a careless yet inconsequential mistake, Ophelia and the hotel staff understood that there was a mix up in the immigration department’s database. That meant that we would not have be allowed to leave the country without rectification of the error. Ophelia notified the home office and the wheels were set in motion. The only place to resolve the error was in Lima upon our return from Cusco. Our plane, originally due to leave Cusco at 10:30 was delayed 1 ½ hours and we finally made it to Lima about 1:15. Gathering our bags, Lillian whisked us to the airport immigration office only to find that our problem could only be taken care of at the main office in town. Our driver raced to the office and we arrived about 90 minutes before closing. As our flight was leaving the next day at 7:30 AM we needed to get this error corrected NOW. Lillian led us through typical bureaucracy using her best Spanish to get us through this malaise in time. Finally, less than 30 minutes before closing time, we were notified that the problem had been solved. Lynda and I breathed a lot easier on the final leg of our journey heading to our hotel for the night. Remember, this was not a fault of Kuoda and they had no obligation to help solve it. But there was NO hesitation in accepting the responsibility to help us solve a problem that would have taken us at least another day (and much additional cost!) THANK YOU KUODA AND LILLIAN! One last thing – on the way to the airport we received a call from Mery Calderón, the founder and president of Kuoda Travel. Mery apologized for not being able to meet us in person and wanted to say hello and ensure that we had a great time. Date of experience: March 2018