Name: Peru (in Spanish: Perú)
My name's Charlotte and I have a passion for travelling and documenting my adventures through writing and photography. Having lived in several countries and visited 30, I've seen a lot of the world, but still have much more left to explore! Here on this blog, I do full recaps of all my trips - big and small - and write about a range of travel-related topics. Hope you enjoy and find plenty of travel inspiration!
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Saturday, 5 October 2024
Country Guide: Peru
Sunday, 21 July 2024
My Year of Adventurous Travel
Sunday, 15 October 2023
Travel Tips: The Best Hotels I've Ever Stayed in
Seeing as I won't be going on any "big trips" for at least a couple of months, my plan for the blog is to alternate between writing posts about my travels and day trips around Bristol and beyond, and writing posts about other travel-related topics, in order to keep things varied.
My latest post was about a local trip, so this one is going to be something a bit different. I had a look through the list of post ideas I've built up over the years (quite a few!) in order to decide what took my fancy to write about today, and in the end, I decided to write about the topic of hotels, as it's something I haven't really done before!
Generally, these days, I'm happy to stay somewhere clean, comfortable and reasonably priced. I used to try to look for more unique, characterful places to stay, with somewhat mixed results - I remember regretting staying at the old-fashioned pub/hotel in York that was freezing cold with a smelly bathroom, and the supposedly fancy boutique hotel in Bournemouth where my room was tiny and the shower didn't work. Both times I wished I'd opted for the reliability of an Ibis or Premier Inn! Having said that though, when you do stay in a hotel that's really special, it definitely makes your trip that extra bit special too.
I like to think that nowadays I'm quite good at choosing hotels that are both good value and super nice places to relax after a day of exploring. I've stayed in quite a few really great ones over the years, particularly during the last couple of years, and so I've decided to put my favourites together into a list.
Here they are!
Admiral Grand Hotel, Slano, Croatia
Cedar Manor Hotel, Windermere, England, UK
Novotel, Arica, Chile
Ayenda Estancia San Pedro, Cusco, Peru
Park Inn by Radisson, Puerto Varas, Chile
B&B Vergilia, Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
39 St. George, Victoria/Rabat, Gozo, Malta
Tuesday, 8 November 2022
Machu Picchu
Visiting Machu Picchu had been a dream of mine since I started planning my Year Abroad back in 2016 - I initially intended to spend a few months volunteering in Peru, and hoped to include a trip to the iconic Inca citadel during that time. But then my plans changed, and I ended up spending a crazy, eventful and ultimately incredible semester in Chile instead.
Four years later, I've found myself living in South America for the second time in my life, and I knew that this time, I couldn't let the opportunity pass to visit this archaeological site, which is considered to be one of the most incredible sights to see in the entire world. In fact, it was voted as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007, which made me want to visit it even more, as I'd never been to any of the 7 Wonders before!
So, as you can imagine, I was extremely excited to finally go to Machu Picchu last month. But I was also very nervous that something could go wrong - I'd had a couple of problems with the information on my ticket, and although I'd been assured via email that everything was okay, I was still worried that somehow I'd be denied entry. How awful would it have been to have gone all the way to Peru and spent a week there, and then to be unable to visit the place I'd wanted to see most!
For this reason, I barely slept the night before my visit to the citadel, and I got up in the morning not feeling too great. I'd planned to hike to the site rather than taking the bus, both to save money and because I wanted to feel like I'd earned my visit to Machu Picchu, but I started to wonder if the bus might be a better idea, given how I was feeling.
However, once I got out into the main street of Aguas Calientes and saw the huge queue for the bus, I changed my mind again and decided to hike after all!
The first part of the hike is just an easy walk along the river, which took me about twenty minutes, walking reasonably fast. Once you reach a checkpoint next to a bridge, you have to show your ticket and passport, and then you begin the hiking trail itself, which is basically just lots and lots of steep and uneven steps cutting through the zigzag road that the buses take up to the site. It's considered a moderately challenging hike that's meant to take around 60 minutes on average. I was a little daunted by it but very motivated!
I entered the trail, and was instantly surrounded by sweltering jungle, with exotic butterflies and swarms of mosquitos flying around. After putting on some sunblock and insect repellent, I was ready to begin climbing.
The hike was certainly challenging - walking up hundreds upon hundreds of steps is an exhausting task, so much so that I took the longer route around the zigzag road a couple of times, just to have a bit of a breather. Although I enjoy exercise and consider myself reasonably fit, I usually do more varied workouts of around 30 minutes or less, and rarely do exercise as long and relentless as this.
However, the hike is enjoyable too, because the views you get of both jungle and mountains are so spectacular; this is truly a unique area of nature.
Two people passed me on my way up the trek, and maybe around ten passed on their way down, but the trail was surprisingly quiet. I had expected more people would want to do the hike (it's free, unlike the 12 dollar bus ticket!), but it seems that the bus is overwhelmingly the more popular option. The quietness of the trail made me feel even more adventurous and intrepid!
When I finally reached the top, I was dripping with sweat and panting with exhaustion, but feeling very proud of myself for completing this challenge! Despite having taken the longer route around the road for parts of the hike, I'd still managed to do it in around 60 minutes as expected, so I was really happy.
And at last it was finally time for me to enter Machu Picchu!
The first thing you see when you enter isn't the iconic view we've all seen on social media and travel guides, but it's still pretty amazing!
After walking up some steps (I was very tired of steps by this point!), you finally get to see the citadel laid out in front of you.