Budget Your Trip: Peru

Peru is usually seen as one of the best destinations – in Latin America second only to Bolivia -for travellers wandering around on a tight budget. After our “costly” experience in Ecuador, we were excited to be in a country where we could easily stay under our daily budget of 35€/day but amazingly enough, that was not the case.

In recent years, the already tourist-oriented economy of the country has focused even more on the international guests visiting from all over the world and in making so has deeply changed Peru. As a result, what were before less-visited destinations are now fully exploited and ready for the mass tourism.

That said, this has luckily taken only a small toll on the beauty of this country and the possibility for backpackers to explore it on the cheap. Around the country, there are still plenty of places – even in tourist locations – where you can eat, sleep and wander around ruins for some bucks a day.

Here follows a collection of our budget experience during our one-month roadtrip throughout Peru. We tried putting together a comprehensive guide to help you organize your trip from the start. Just choose your budget and go with it!

1# Accomodation Cost

Throughout the country – be it a simple hostel, AirBnB, a cute posada or a luxury resort – is pretty easy to find the right accomodation for everyone’s pocket.

As usual, accomodation price can vary a lot depending on the location, proximity to tourist areas and type of room. That said, on average we found that the price for a double room with private bathroom is within the range of 50-70 SOL.

Most of the times, if traveling as a couple, staying in a double room can definitely be cheaper than two beds in a dormitory – in fact, as you read, the majority of Peru’s hostels are tourist (high prices) oriented.

Thankfully, if you do your own research properly, we found out that you can easily find double rooms with private bathroom for as little as 30 SOL all around the country, even in the most famous destinations.

2# Food & Eating Out

In Latin America, everybody will agree that Peruan cuisine is among the tastiest and most delicious of the continent. That being said, the great variety of dishes present in the country is offered at an incredibly affordable prices.

Street-food is big around the country and from roasted guinea-pig to boiled quail eggs, it will never stop surprising you! Usually, you can grab a skewer or some fried chicken for as low as 4-5 SOL but should you wish something bigger expect to spend around 5-10 SOL.

The almuerzo corriente is usually a pretty cheap yet tasty & filling option at every local comedor. If you’re eating it at the local market or somewhere far from the touristy hotspots, expect to pay as low as 10-15 SOL.

Even many more high-end restaurants are used to offer a daily lunch but in this case, expect to pay at least 50 SOL up to 150 SOL sometimes.

As always, cooking the food yourself is an inexpensive way to eat in the country; at the local market, you can find plenty of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese and much more available for literally half the cost of what you’d find in supermarkets.

3# Transport & moving around

Luxury sleeping buses, microbuses, colectivos, vans, shared cars… the country features on of the most widespread transport network of Latin America. In Peru, you can virtually go anywhere anytime!

The most common way to travel around the country are sleeping buses. Even if they might seem expensive at first, the great variety of operating companies and services offered, make it pretty easy to find the right one for you wallet. All in all, long bus journey on sleeper buses (sometimes even double-decked) would usually include on-board meals, entertainment and even sleeping gadgets.

It’s hard to line up an average bus cost given the great difference in companies but just to give an example, for the 21-h journey from Lima to Cusco, a top-end company such as Cruz del Sur would cost you 115 SOL (34$/30€).

Planes are also an option with the companies AirPeru, Peruvian and Viva Air all offering very competitive rates (sometimes more convenient than buses), but make sure to book reliable ones as often flights gets postponed.

For short trips, taxis are also an option. Apart from Lima, you’ll rarely see using a taximeter so always make sure to ask and bargain the price beforehand. Should you need more freedom, renting a car can also be relatively cheap when in a party (read our experience on Hiking Rainbow Mountain after renting a car) – expect to pay at least 35$/day – but be aware that driving around Peru is not for the faint-hearted.

4# Tours & Day-Trips

As you can imagine, given the tourism present, in Peru you can virtually find a tour for anywhere. Whether you’re on the coast and want to visit the jungle, or you’re in the north and wanna briefly see the south, that will be no problem.

Thankfully, every tour you’re being offered you’ll easily find out that you can do it on your own and at your own pace. This is also the reason why we never took a tour! Going by ourselves was more enjoyable and less pricey!

Just to give you an example, a tour from Cusco to Machu Picchu would have costed us 350$/person; by doing it on our own, we spent around the same amount but for a group of 4 people!

Final Thoughts

Overall, we entered Peru with the expectations of finally being travelling in a cheap country – several travellers told us so – but this was not it. Even though finding cheap accomodation/food was not a hard task, generally it ended up being more expensive than what we budgeted. Lastly, visiting archaeological sites e.g. Machu Picchu, Fortaleza de Kuelap, Valle Sagrado etc.. was what pushed our daily costs even higher. All those places were extremely tourist-orientated (for obvious reasons) and therefore prices were too.

The final budget for Peru was around 156.5 SOL/day for the both of us and it was broken down into the following:

Accomodation – 36.50 SOL (9.60€)

Food & Eating out – 35.45 SOL (9.32€)

Transport & Moving Around – 58.75 SOL (15.46€)

Tours & Day Trips – 23.15 SOL (6.10€)

Extras – 2.65 SOL (0.70€)

TOTAL – 156.5 SOL (41.18€)

PLANNING A TRIP TO PERU? CHECK MORE GUIDES BELOW!

[pt_view id=”c969b5d80o”]