Ultimate Lares Trek & Inca Trail 5-Day Adventure

Lares and short inca provides you with the opportunity to have a tranquil, scenic and cultural experience. It joins onto a short Inca trail group - in my case we had to join onto a new group with a new guide / larger group. As far as I know though this was due to the Inca trail closures. The tour provides you with a mix of both worlds, you camp for 2 nights and rise to beautiful views but you also have 2 nights in a hotel with the chance to shower and sleep comfortably. Overall, with the help of the Trexperience staff, in particularly my guide William, the trip was very comfortable. William is professional, calm and organised. Throughout the trip, he kept us well informed and happy. My favourite trait of William is that he set a perfect pace and always provided us breaks which were well needed on Day 2. It made the trip so much more enjoyable. He provided us with local knowledge (being from a local Quechua speaking village). You never have to worry about being hungry on this trek! Another great highlight is that Trex gives back to local villages and offers horseman in the community work. They rotate the village visits between different homes and treat their mules well.

I booked TreXperience for the 5 day Lares+short Inca for myself, my adult daughter and teenage son. Communications through email prior to the trek were prompt and clear. During the trek we had great guides and trekking teams. We were under the impression that what we booked was one complete trek but it turned out to be 2 separate treks with two separate trekking teams. I believe this is not typical and only occurred because part of the classic Inca trail was closed due to the recent mudslides and TreX has to pivot and accommodate those impacted into the short Inca. Although I wish we had the same trekking team and group throughout here is my review of each trek separately. Our guide on the Lares Trek was William with chef Felix and two excellent horsemen. They made sure to take care of every need. It was more glamping than camping with many dishes at every meal, hot water for light washing and hot water bottle and blanket for extra warmth at night. Our guide on the short Inca was Monica with chef Sinchi. Monica was a wealth of information and our lunch on the trail was delicious. I saw other trekking teams on both treks and I was even more impressed with how TreX guides and team conducted themselves with a higher degree of professionalism and respect for the communities. I learned that TreX also has more guides per group and lighter loads for their mules than other companies. Very happy we booked with TreX.

After being back for over a week I still have very mix feelings about the 5-day trek to Machu Pichcu with Trexperience. I will rate each part of the journey separately to be fair to staff who worked hard. Reservations/Office Support - 5 star - communication was great and agents were available to answer my questions. Transportation - drivers were on time and very professional - 5 stars Guide on the trek - 3 stars and I am being generous - unprofessional, she also had a hard time understanding questions. On tipping day, she tries to hassle us for 50% tip which is unheard of. We did our homework and were prepared with envelopes for the whole crew. The experience was horrible as she described how poor the porters are and how they will starve with their families unless we tip them 50% of the trip cost. We had 2 teenagers in our group, and both cried at nigh how the porters will be starving. I traveled all of the world, and I have never come across something like this as part of an organized tour. Porters, days 1 and 2, 5 stars. After tipping, 0 stars. On day 4, after tipping ceremony, we were treated to an early wakeup call because the porters all of a sudden had to run to catch 9 am local train and no other trains were available that day. At least this is what the guide told us. There was no morning water to wash or hot tea made for us. Our breakfast was chocolate cake at 5 am!!! and cold coffee. If I would have known this is how they will treat us after tipping them at a standard rate, I would not have given them anything and donated the money in Cusco. For lunch, we were the only group sitting in the full sun without a tent for shade and we were served hot soup in 85-degree weather. I just left and waited under the tree. Ridiculous. Last item about the porters, ask how many will be assigned to your group. I looked at Reddit and a group of 13 was assigned 10 porters, 2 guides and 2 chefs. For 5 of us, we had 15 porters, 3 chefs and 1 guide. Not sure why we ended up with so many people supporting us, but I suspect it had to do something with our USA passports and perception about the 50% anticipated tip. Food - 3 stars - the vegetarian food was the same every day with no protein option besides eggs on day 1. Water - 1 star - water was not boiled resulting in us getting sick. The chef only filtered water and did not follow company procedure for boiling. I started using sanitizing water tablets after I got sick. Very irresponsible. Hotel in Aqua Caliente - 4 stars - basic accommodation but clean and with a nice breakfast. Walkable everywhere. Permits - 5 stars - all permits were in place without issues including additional hike. Overall, if you go with this company make sure you educate yourself especially if traveling from USA.

We’re a family of 3 (daughter age 10) and had a brilliant experience with TreXperience. The whole team took great care of us from start to finish. The Lares trek was beautiful (even if we didn’t get the sweeping views over the pass due to snow) and so quiet - it felt special to be somewhere remote and to have the chance to see how the communities live. Seeing alpacas and llamas on the mountains and amazing stars added to the experience. We took time to acclimatise beforehand in Arequipa, Cusco and Sacred Valley and all of us were fine up to 4750m. Our guide, Royer, was amazing and taught us a lot about local plants, traditions etc, and we enjoyed playing cards together in the evenings. The chefs, Beto and Erica provided excellent meals and catered brilliantly for my gluten free diet - we are in awe of what they create! We then joined a different group for days 4 and 5 and loved the Inka trail too. The scenery, flora and fauna was totally different from the high Andes - this was something we especially liked about this trip. Our guides Gilbert (Mr G) and Danny took great care of our whole group, ensuring everyone could go at their pace. Machu Picchu was incredible and surpassed our expectations. Gilbert was incredibly knowledgable and we got so much out of our visit. Getting to see Machu Picchu on days 4 and 5 from different vantage points added a lot. The TreXperience team also knew the best photo spots! We would absolutely recommend TreXperience to anyone.

We did three days on the Lares Trek and were pleasantly surprised to find out we were the only ones booked on this trip so it ended up being more of a private tour. Sebastian was the most incredible guide we could’ve asked for, he made our trip unforgettable and taught us so much about Peru history, culture, and people. Our chefs Tiburcio and Eliseo made incredible meals every day and even made us a cake to celebrate on the final day. Our horseman Gironimo helped get all of our gear through the hike and made sure everything was set up for us in camp. Our drivers Hayme and Edwin took us safely through all the winding roads to reach our destinations. Thank you to this incredible TreXperience crew we really had the most amazing time and wouldn’t have changed a single thing! On the Inca trail Daniel was fantastic, so knowledgeable and made sure we were set up wherever we went. We met some lovely people in our tour group and had a wonderful time going up to Machu Picchu.