This is a question we often get asked via email so we thought we would help explain it here…
If you google “10 day tour of Peru”, you will see tours (not flexible…but with fixed itineraries) costing $1,500 – $4,500 USD. These tours often don’t even include everything… read the small print!!
Peru Hop’s most popular ticket is $179 USD for a pass that is valid for one whole year.
If you add to our price the extra activities in each destination, and the accommodation (check online or check our exclusive accommodation discounts), you will see that the overall price will still come out MUCH MUCH cheaper.
Well Peru Hop, unlike most tour companies, is LOCALLY based. We have a local Peruvian team and pay local taxes. For extra activities, we work with local tour operators and we get the best possible prices from them, and pass these directly to our customers. Other companies make 200% and 300% profit… they tell you a 2 day Colca Canyon Tour costs $90 USD when it really costs around $27 USD.
In terms of accommodation, hotels and hostels work with travel agencies on a confidential rate basis. They tell an agency “We don’t care what price you charge the customer, you need to pay us $30 USD”. ALL agencies then mark up these prices, and charge you, the customer, $80-$100 USD… easy money for them!
What we do differently is we pass on the confidential price DIRECTLY to our customer. Check our exclusive prices on accommodation… we 100% guarantee these rates CANNOT be beaten on any website (booking.com or anyone else) or with any travel agency.
Well it’s quite simple. We make our money through volumes of people on our buses. The more people that come to Peru the better for this whole country, including Peru Hop. So if we can make Peru more affordable for travellers, they will then recommend this country to more people, who will bring more visitors etc etc. As a local company, we want this country to grow and tourism is a massive driver of growth for this country where over 35% of people live below the poverty line.
Travel agencies and tour companies that charge $2,000 USD+ are NOT local companies. They do not employee local people. They don’t really care if the economy grows here or not. They are simply interested in making as much money as possible. They prey on tourists lack of knowledge about Peru, and tell tourists that it is such a dangerous country, and that $2,000 USD is actually quite cheap for a tour as it is less than 1 months wages in most western countries. Tourists fall for it and end up paying way too much for a fixed tour, with no flexibility, which does not even take them to REAL local destinations.
Peru Hop is a proud Peruvian company and our whole team is proud of the fact that we are different from these huge travel agencies and tour companies that rip tourists off. Keeping our prices as low as possible is something we always aim to achieve so more and more people can come visit this amazing country.
We hope this helps explain why we are a lot cheaper than normal travel companies but our quality is MUCH better (according to TripAdvisor reviews online) and we hope to see you on board a Peru Hop trip in the very near future!
