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Part of my 10 Days in Peru with Kids series. Catch up on My Daughter’s 10th Birthday in Cusco first.

Ten days, six travelers, and more guided activities than I can count, and we came away loving every single one of the people who led them. Some we found and booked ourselves, some Las Qolqas arranged on our behalf, and it didn’t matter which category they fell into. The quality was consistent the entire trip, which is rare enough over ten days that it’s worth its own post.

Stephany at Las Qolqas

If there’s one person who made this trip run smoothly, it’s Stephany, who coordinated our logistics throughout our Sacred Valley stay. From the Machu Picchu departure at 4:45 AM to storing our luggage for the day to arranging the driver pickup at the Ollantaytambo station on our return, she handled the pieces that could have gone wrong and made sure they didn’t.

Patacancha textile visit and Ollantaytambo. We spent a day visiting a Patacancha weaving community, then wandered Ollantaytambo on foot, no rental car needed since everything was walkable or arranged through an operator.

Naupa Iglesia, Perolniyoq waterfall, and a spa afternoon. One of our favorite days combined a hike out to Naupa Iglesia and the Perolniyoq waterfall with a relaxed spa afternoon back at the lodge.

Pumamarca hike. An archaeological hike to Pumamarca gave us real elevation and real walking, good prep before Machu Picchu. Our guide for the day goes by @xficarbajal on Instagram, is a tour conductor, ultra runner, and farmer, and that range of experience showed in how he ran things..

Our Sacred Valley Private Guide

The full-day Sacred Valley tour, Ollantaytambo, Moray, the Maras salt mines, and Chinchero, included private transport and a bilingual English-Spanish guide, with hotel pickup. That kind of pacing — one guide, one vehicle, our schedule — made a huge difference for a group with a wide age range.

Disclosure: this day was a hosted partnership with Peru Spirit Adventure, a locally owned Peruvian tour operator. Two of us paid the standard tour rate, and the rest of our group joined in exchange for content coverage of the day. All opinions here are our own.

Aaron: Our Cusco Walking Tour Guide

Las Qolqas set us up with Aaron for a Cusco walking tour, “Explore Cusco’s Beauty,” starting at 3:00 PM and running 3.5 hours. We met in the main square, walked the old city streets learning the history, explored San Pedro Market and tasted local produce right there among the stalls, and finished with the panoramic view from the San Cristobal mirador.

Aaron comes from a family business: his uncle and dad both drive, and Aaron and his sister guide. We actually ended up hiring his uncle to drive us to the airport at the end of the trip. A genuinely great family to work with from start to finish, and exactly the kind of local connection that makes a trip feel less like a checklist of tours and more like you actually got to know a place. I’d love to connect any of you with them if you’re headed to Cusco.

Wilfredo Ayma: Our Rainbow Mountain Guide

Our mountain day, the Palccoyo Full-Day Trek to the Rainbow Mountains, was hosted by Wilfredo Ayma and booked through Airbnb. It’s a serious day, a 5:30 AM start and 13 hours round trip, but Palccoyo is a gentler, less crowded alternative to the more famous Rainbow Mountain trek, which made it a better fit for our group. This was by far not a private booked experience. We were in a full van with 14 people, and breakfast and lunch were at a buffet that lots of people were being moved through. I do not feel like the Airbnb listing gave a clear picture of what the day was like but I do feel like the day accomplished what we wanted from it.

Our Horseback Riding Guide in Cusco

I wrote about this one in detail in the birthday post, but it deserves a mention here too. This was part horseback ride, part history lesson on the “Inka’s Face” rock formation, Inkilltambo, and the Moon Temple, led with real depth on Andean history and cosmovision. I went in expecting to tolerate it and came out having genuinely loved it, which says a lot about how the guide ran the experience.

Anthony at ChocoMuseo

Our bean-to-bar chocolate workshop in San Blas was led by Anthony, whose energy made the two hours fly by for a group that ranged from adults down to a 10-year-old. Everyone left with their own finished chocolates and a much better understanding of what actually goes into a bar of chocolate before it hits a store shelf. My group loved this experience it was so fun and of course, delicious!

Rounding It Out

That covers everyone from the trip. If it feels like a lot of names for ten days, that’s kind of the point, this trip worked because of the people running it, not just the itinerary.

What Made the Difference

Looking back across all of it, the guides who stood out weren’t just knowledgeable, they read the group. They paced things for a family with a wide age range, they slowed down when someone needed it, and they never made the trip feel like it was being rushed through a checklist. If you’re booking guides for your own Peru trip, that’s what I’d screen for over anything else.

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Next in this series: When Award Travel Goes Wrong: The Qatar/LATAM Meltdown