I feel compelled to share the wonderful experience I had working with Nina Fogelman at Ancient Summit. I found her through this forum, and she was very kind, responsive and accommodating. What I particularly liked was her interest in supporting local businesses and communities. And her tours incorporate interesting visits off the beaten path. If you’re looking for a unique experience with great customer service, check out Ancient Summit.
Peru Trip with Ancient Summit , August 4, 2010
I just got back from a 10-day Peruvian vacation put together by Nina Fogelman of Ancient Summit. This was a vacation of a lifetime. It was a 40th birthday present for my husband, and it turned out wonderful.
Peru is a beautiful country. We did the Cusco – Sacred Valley – Machu Picchu itinerary. We stayed at Sol Y Luna for three nights (beautiful place with beautiful flora), Inkaterra Machu Picchu two nights (another beautiful hotel) and Royal Inka 1 two nights (standard hotel but very nice).
Nina put together a great vacation for us. My husband has MS and mobility issues, so Nina designed a trip for us that would be comfortable for my husband but still allow us to see the sights. Our main guide, Laura, was great. She was friendly, very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English. Most of our meals were included in our package, and the food was surprisingly good. We traveled to tourist sites but also got to visit some homes and villages that aren’t visited regularly by visitors. These stops were the highlight of our trip. The people of Peru are so beautiful, and we were lucky that Nina let us meet them.
A couple of other ways Ancient Summit hit the mark: our flight from the US was running eight hours late, and I called Nina late at night to let her know. She promised that they would figure everything out for us. We missed our connecting flight to Cusco, but Nina’s staff in Lima managed to get us on the last flight of the day to Cusco by doing some major negotiating with the LAN rep at the airport. Without her help we would not have gotten on that flight, would have been pretty shook up since we really didn’t speak the language and would have put us a day behind in our itinerary.
Again – our guide and our driver were wonderful. They were on time and made us feel safe and comfortable in Peru. My husband also liked that we got to spend some meals with our guides and drivers, and we got a chance to exchange stories and the cultures of two countries.
The best thing of all about Ancient Summit was that the price was very reasonable. Since coming home and doing a little research on some other tour companies that I noticed on our trip, I realized that the cost of our trip was much less than some itineraries that were almost identical to ours (without the added bonus of meeting local people and villages).
