Back in February of 2018 i signed my family up with Active Adventures to do a hiking trip in Peru. I was a bit hesitant: I had never used Active Adventures…they had good online reviews, but who really knows until you have worked with them directly, right? Also, I have 2 boys, 12 and 14…and my wife and I are both reasonably fit but the hiking was going to take us above 15,000 feet…and the highest my family had ever climbed at was about 10,000. So that made me lose some sleep. Finally, I was just concerned about the logistics of such an enormous undertaking…would Active really handle the details well enough to make this trip worth the cost?
We now have returned to the US, and I can emphatically state that Active Adventures crushed it. There were a lot of reasons why this trip was a success…here are the top ones:
1.Wilson, our guide, was attentive to our special needs, willing to accommodate unusual requests, patient with some whining, able to balance diverse group abilities seamlessly, accommodating, funny, hugely knowledgeable, educational and was easily the main reason for the success. Here are some of the things he did to make the trip special:
a.He arranged for us to see a local soccer game, since our oldest son plays competitive soccer, we thought it would be cool to try to catch a local game. We saw a local Cusco based team (Ciencano) in a super fun environment…that was really different and special. Wilson arranged for the tickets and went with us…it was really memorable.
b.Wilson also arranged for a local doctor to visit us IN OUR HOTEL LOBBY…on 2 HOURS NOTICE…on a SATURDAY MORNING. Our son had an ear infection which we were concerned about…and Wilson and the Active Adventure team doctor were incredibly helpful. Problems were solved in a few hours with local pharmacies and scripts. He also gave us sound advice on whether to take Diamox (which we did on his advice, and which turned out to be great advice).
c.Wilson introduced us not just to the Incan relics and ruins and history, but also introduced us to local people along the way…including others on the Active team, but also many of the local residents that we met on our hike in the mountains. He taught us about their livelihood and challenges and customs, which made the trip very unique from anything I had ever experienced before. I will not soon forget the 4-year-old girl sheepherder working at 15000 feet, overseeing the family herd (and I will also not let my kids forget that!)
d.He was energetic and fun and accommodating in every way, every day.
e.He was incredibly knowledgeable himself about the history of the Incas, the local cultures, and the interactions between the local Peruvian people and the Spanish influences (good and bad). He was passionate about these topics, which made it meaningful.
f.Wilson was (and is) an incredible advocate for the Peruvian people and culture, and specifically for the indigenous people of the Cusco region. In the end of I thought of Wilson as the “Mayor of Lares†(the hiking destination we took). I think that label fits perfectly.
2.The Active team did a great job of dealing with some tricky flight rescheduling, caused by the local airlines changing their flight plans. We ended up reworking the agenda…but the Active team made this happen without having to change our original flights, which would have incurred thousands in change fees.
3.The accommodations were fantastic…hotels were clean, comfortable, centrally located, and had great staffs and good buffest style breakfasts, with enough options for some picky eaters.
4.The arranged tours went off without a hitch, and were staffed by friendly, knowledgeable and helpful assistants…all whom Wilson treated like family. These tours were unique (sightseeing, with lunch at a locally renowned restaurant…biking along the sacred valley, and with stops at local churches and shops to meet and learn about the local history.
5.The hiking was phenomenally well organized and more like “glampingâ€. We got hot lunches, hot water bottles for our sleeping bags when it was cold, our tents were always up and ready when we hit camp for the night, the food was just outstanding, even in camp. And in the end, the pace of the hiking and advice we got for altitude and acclimatizing from the Active team helped us hit the ultimate goal of hiking the entire Lares trail and “summitting†at 15,500 feet with relative ease….even my 12 year old crushed it.
6.Finally, our trip to the Amazon was amazing and easily the favorite destination for our kids. We all loved the individual cabins in the rain forest setting, the wildlife walks, the treetop canopy walk, the night time tarantula hunt, and the great buffest lunches and breakfasts at the main lodge. Oh and also, in addition to Wilson, we had the best Rainforest guide in a fellow named Pedro, from InkaTerra. Pedro was his own fountain of information and knowledge, and made the last part of the trip hugely enjoyable!!

I cannot say enough about this team that Active has assembled…from the pre-sales team, to the post sales accommodation team in New Zealand, to the local team that was assembled in Peru, Cusco and the Amazon…everyone was super professional, knowledgeable and accommodating. So was it all worth it? Absolutely…I would recommend this team to anyone!! (and I already have)

| January 1970