The best way to travel through Peru and Bolivia – Why should you choose Peru Hop? – Information – Tours – Peru Hop Buses – Discounts – Safety – Crossing the Bolivian border.
Peru is such a unique country in its diversity. If you have any significant amount of time, I strongly recommend you not to limit yourself to only Lima or only Cusco. Besides these most visited cities, Peru has so much more to offer! The country has plains, mountains, jungle, islands with abundant sea life, beautiful colonial cities, and even deserts with the only oasis in the Americas!
However, especially if you haven’t traveled around the world much, the idea to cross the whole country might seem a little bit overwhelming. How to do it? By bus? Rent a car? How to buy tickets? Where are the bus stations? Is it safe?
To eliminate all these concerns, several friends created Peru Hop in 2013 and now even extended it into Bolivia and Equador! When you first compare the prices of Peru Hop with local bus companies, you will notice that Peru Hop is a bit more expensive, but let me explain why it will be worth your every dollar!
1. One Ticket. The Whole Country.
To cross the whole country of Peru (and a part of Bolivia, if you wish), you only need to buy one ticket. Just one. Choose the itinerary that fits your needs the best. Peru Hop offers as many as 22 different itineraries, depending on how much time you have and what you want to see. We had a month, so we chose the most detailed itinerary that covered all the available stops in Peru and Bolivia.
The cities that our itinerary included were: Lima, Paracas, Huacachina, Nazca, Arequipa, Cusco, Puno, Copacabana and La Paz. For this whole trip, you can buy just one ticket with a simple transaction online. The start date is open. The ticket is valid for one year.
2. Peru Hop Is the Ultimate Hop On-Hop Off Service.
Once you buy your ticket and start planning your trip, log in into your Peru Hop account. You will see the suggested bus schedule. This is indeed only a suggestion, a schedule for the minimum time to do your trip. If you have more time, you have the freedom to choose how many days to spend at each destination.
First of all, put all your dates ON HOLD. This will get rid of the suggested schedule and you can fill the slots as you go. We started with the departure date from Lima and put everything else on hold. Once we departed, we started figuring out how many days we wanted to spend in each city and scheduled our buses accordingly, one leg at a time. Just make sure you do it at least 12 hours in advance!
The system proved to be excellent, because we did usually stay a bit longer than the other passengers. Sometimes, it was a last-minute decision. For example, this was the case in Arequipa, where we spontaneously decided to spend one more day.
3. Peru Hop Has a Convenient and Easy-to-Use Phone App.
Once you register on the Peru Hop website, get their phone app immediately. It is very intuitive and easy to use. You can access tons of info and schedule and re-schedule your buses and tours right from your cell phone.
4. Peru Hop Offers Tons of Information on Locations, Tours and Things to See
The Peru Hop website offers many articles on every destination in Peru, so even before you buy your ticket, you can thoroughly educate yourself. Once you are in the bus, you will get several brochures and a 62-page book. Don’t part with this book! There, you will find everything you need for making your trip smooth and easy.
5. You Can Book Your Tours Right through the Web-site or the Mobile App
In your Peru Hop book or online, you can study the available tours and book them right through the app. The tours are booked through a partner agency.
Peru Hop states: “Our partner operators are NOT the cheapest NOR the most expensive. We work with these operators as they are safe, reliable and give the best value for money based on our years of experience trying all operators.”
We found that booking through the Peru Hop partner agency FindLocalTrips is indeed the best value for money. In many cases the prices were better than anywhere else for a comparable tour, and the service was always impeccable. Booking the tours through someone trustworthy also eliminated a lot of unnecessary stress.
If you don’t want to book the tours online, you can simply pay cash on board the bus.
6. You Get Discounts on Hotels and Restaurants
You can get a discount for select hotels and restaurants: just show your Peru Hop wristband. Their names and descriptions are listed in the Peru Hop book. Please note that to get a discount you have to book the hotels directly via email. If you have a problem doing so, the Peru Hop guides will assist you.
7. Peru Hop Ticket Includes Several Free Tours
One of the coolest “perks” of traveling with Peru Hop is several free tours along the way. I know for a fact that if we had been traveling by ourselves, we would have never seen those places! The free tours include pisco tasting at one of the pisco vineyards, exploring slave tunnels in Chincha, Paracas National Reserve and multiple look-out point stops.
8. Peru Hop Buses are Extremely Comfortable
Bus rides from Lima up to Nazca are pretty short, but after Nazca you step into the “overnight” or “all-day-long” ride territory. I was honestly dreading those overnight trips, but only until the moment I saw the overnight double-deckers. That bus certainly made that trip from Nazca to Arequipa quite comfortable.
TIP: get the first floor for the best seats!
The seats in those buses are truly comparable to the business-class seats in planes. Wide and comfortable, they recline to an almost horizontal position. I am not an easy sleeper while traveling, but I could actually fall asleep on those seats. Needless to say, that every bus, even a regular one, has a bathroom on board.
9. Peru Hop Brings You to Your Hotel
This perk not only eliminates a lot of stress, especially in an unknown location, but also saves you money on taxis. Even if the huge buses of Peru Hop cannot drive on small streets of historic downtown in some cities (Cusco is one example), they hire local drivers or minibuses to drop you off at your hotel. Only in Cusco we had to take a taxi ourselves back to the Peru Hop bus station. In all the other cities the same minibuses were there to pick us up on the departure day. You won’t get this with any regular bus company!
10. You Can Be Sure About Safety
First of all, no tired drivers here. There are at least two drivers on every overnight route who change every four hours.
Second, you are in South America where riots and unrest are not uncommon. We happened to be in Bolivia right before their presidential elections, which can always be the ground for multiple protests and demonstrations. Unfortunately, this was the case in Copacabana on the day of our arrival. According to the guides, there were fires on the streets and the roads were blocked. The bus had to reroute and use another road (and another border crossing point) into Bolivia and go straight to La Paz. Some people were upset, but in my opinion, this only tells a good story about safety of the Peru Hop passengers. The good thing is that once the protests ended a couple of days later, the company provided another bus for everyone who planned to go to Copacabana and those people still reached their destination.
11. Peru Hop Helps You Cross the Border in Bolivia (It Can Be Tricky)!
The only one potential disaster during our trip happened when we were crossing the border to Bolivia. Many websites clearly state that US Citizens can apply for the visa to Bolivia (yes, yes, we need a visa!) either at a consulate or directly at the border. The list of the necessary documents is provided. I collected those documents in a folder and we simply planned to arrange for our visas at the border.
But I guess, the border in Copacabana is used to this kind of a situation, however, because of the riots, we had to use another crossing point, in Desaguadero. When those people looked at our passports, the answer was short and final “no”. The border officers simply sent us back to the nearest consulate in Puno (almost 3 hours away). Needless to say, if we had to do so, we would easily lose three more days and all our reservations in La Paz.
Only the persistence of the Peru Hop guides, both on Peru and Bolivia side, helped us finally get our visas! They found an internet café, where we could type up our applications (the hand-written ones weren’t good enough), talked to the officers for hours… Who knows what other strings they pulled, but finally our papers were accepted.
Our luck that day extended to the fact that the Bolivian bus was late, becauses it had been initially waiting for us in Copacabana and had to drive all the way to Desaguadero. It took us over three hours to get our visas. The moment we were done, we heard the announcement that the bus was finally there. The timing was perfect!
Yes, we were lucky that day! But you might not be.
So, my recommendation to all the US Citizens, traveling from Peru to Bolivia:
- Do not rely on getting your visa at the border. If you haven’t gotten your visa in a consulate back home, stay an extra day in Puno. Apply for your visa there, so you are not in a hurry with the whole bus waiting for you at the border.
The Bolivian consulate in Puno is right in the middle of downtown, near their Plaza de Armas. The address is: Cajamarca 664, Puno 21001, Peru
This way, all you need to do at the border is get your entry stamp, like the rest of the world 😉
12. The Staff Is Always There for You
Besides the drivers, all the Peru Hop buses carry at least one English-speaking guide (sometimes there are even two on the overnight buses). You can have any question answered and get all the help you need.
There is a “Contact Us” page on the website and the mobile app with phone numbers, email, phone, facebook and whatsapp information. There are offices in Lima, Cusco and La Paz and you can walk in anytime and be assisted.
My experience is that the employees are really helpful and friendly. When we stopped in La Paz to get our free t-shirt, which was included in our ticket, we even had a small fun photo session! Maybe our faces will show up on one of the Peru Hop advertisements one day! I don’t mind, because we thoroughly enjoyed traveling with this company and I can absolutely recommend it. Way to go, guys!
Information About Peru Hop:
Information About Bolivian Visa for US Citizens:
Please be serious about the document requirements. Bolivian officials can be very picky! You will need:
- 6 month validity remaining on your passport
- 2 copies of passport information page (there are comments that sometimes they want color copies, so make both kinds just in case)
- 2 passport photos
- Evidence of a hotel reservation
- Detailed printed itinerary of your time in Bolivia (they are pretty picky about this one, so do write it up day by day
- Exit ticket out of Bolivia
- Photocopy of bank statement (in our case, after some persuasion, copies of the front of our credit cards were accepted)
- Special immigration application form. Has to be printed, the hand-written applications are not accepted
- US $160 per person in cash. The notes have to be in perfect condition. The officials literally study them under a microscope, so when preparing the money, ask your bank for newer crispier bills.
It seems rather expensive, but at least you get a 10-year multiple-entry visa.
More Information about Bolivian visa for different countries
