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TV Travel / An Idiot Abroad / Peru Travel / Machu Picchu / Reality TV Travel / Ricky Gervais / → All Tags

Karl Pilkington Takes One Last 'Idiotic' Journey to Peru

This weekend on An Idiot Abroad Karl Pilkington conquered the last of the world's seven wonders: Machu Picchu in Peru.

Of course, Ricky Gervais wasn't going to let his sidekick have an easy time of it, especially on his last trip, so he planned an excursion through the Amazon for Karl which included a visit with a local tribe who seemed to be as confused by Karl as he was by them.

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Travel Tips / Peru Travel / Machu Picchu / Adventure Travel / What Not to Do In / Historical Travel / UNESCO / Lists / Tourists / → All Tags

What Not To Do In Machu Picchu: The Top 5 Tourist Mistakes

For such a well-worn travel destination, it’s surprisingly easy to make some pretty simple mistakes when planning a visit to Machu Picchu thanks to confusing transportation schedules, conflicting advice, and what we like to call “Peru time.” There’s also been a lot of misinformation out there after last summer’s devastating floods, but the UNESCO World Heritage Site is now back open for visits from the public, and rest assured that it looks as breathtaking as ever.

Based on our recent visit to the lost city of the Inca, we’ve compiled this handy Jaunted guide of What Not To Do In Machu Picchu: The Top 5 Tourist Mistakes. Buena suerte!.

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Floods / Peru Travel / Machu Picchu / Tourism / Travel Safety / → All Tags

Machu Picchu Will Finally Reopen To Tourists on April 1

It's already been almost two months since out of control flood waters washed away the main routes for accessing the remote Inca ruins site of Machu Picchu, in Peru. But today, the Peruvian Minister of Tourism has announced that the UNESCO World Heritage site will reopen to tourists on April 1, 2010, barring any other weather delays.

Since the heavy rainfall of January caused the nearby Vilcanota River to tumultuously overrun its banks and take out rail lines and roads, stranding thousands and thousands of tourists in the small town of Aguas Calientes for days before being evacuated by helicopter, tourism to the country has been severely impacted. Airlines that fly many visitors to Peru, like Delta, offered one-time ticket changes for people postponing trips, and many with booked package tours were issued refunds or change waivers.

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Floods / Peru Travel / Machu Picchu / Tourism / Travel Safety / Weather / → All Tags

How Long Will Machu Picchu Be Out of Reach For Tourists?

For tourists to Peru's famed Machu PIcchu site, the nightmare of being trapped by raging flood waters in the nearby Vilcanota River has ended. The last trapped tourists were airlifted out of the remote area at the end of last week, but locals are already attempting to rebuild as the waters subside.

As the river gushed out of control, beginning back around January 25, over 3500 visitors found themselves stuck in the town of Aguas Calientes with the only transportation route back to the nearest city of Cuzco—the train—wiped out in the flooding and mudslides. As evacuation by helicopter progressed slowly and prices of basic things like food and water were jacked up in the small town, tourists became desperate, and a few even hiked back along the dangerous route.

So how long will Machu Picchu be out of the commission?

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Surveys / Travel Surveys / Machu Picchu / → All Tags

Survey Travel: Brits Heading to All the Globe's Corners

In the UK, another travel survey's been done to serve the needs of another travel company. OK, cynicism aside, the recent discoveries of Opodo are actually pretty interesting: Their theory is that a relatively strong Euro and pound have had British travelers heading further away from Europe for their vacations.

The first weird thing is that the destination which has really taken off is Lima which has had an almost 100 percent increase in bookings. We're guessing these travelers are actually en route to Machu Picchu, but the survey makers are letting us draw our own conclusions.

Other spots where you're likely to find a sudden influx of British travelers include the eclectic mix of Jordan, Cairo, South Korea and Bulgaria. Of course, following the example of the naughty Brit who pretended to be Spanish, you may not even know you're traveling amongst Britons.

Related Stories:
· Travellers Show Interest in Mid- and Long-Haul [Opodo]
· Brit Posing as Spaniard in Tokyo Vies for World's Worst Tourist Title [Jaunted]

[Photo: markg6]

Machu Picchu / Seven Wonders of the World / Tourist Traps / → All Tags

Mobs Descend on Machu Picchu

We like to think that Machu Picchu really is a great destination, not to be detracted from just because it wound up on the biased and strange New 7 Wonders list. So it shouldn't come as any surprise to hear that tourist numbers to Peru's famous Inca ruins are rising rapidly.

Unfortunately we're not sure if this is a good thing. With tourist numbers constantly rising in the past decade--they'd already reached 400,000 a year in 2003, and 850,000 are predicted this year--they'll soon reach the one million a year mark. Disregarding peaks in tourist traffic, that means on average we'll have to share Machu Picchu with another 3,000 cameras and backpacks on the day we visit, and that makes a remote scenic ruin turn into something of a tourist trap.

Related Stories:
· 800,000 Tourists to Visit Machu Picchu [Living in Peru]
· Waterworld II: Machu Picchu Island [Jaunted]
· New 7 Wonders of the World Announced [Jaunted]

[Photo: Marc Schandro]

Climate Travel / Travel Warnings / World Monuments / Machu Picchu / → All Tags

Waterworld II: Machu Picchu Island

The World Monuments Fund has joined the Gore battle cry. The non-profit introduced its 2008 list Wednesday of 100 famous natural and historic sites in danger of drowning. For the first time, the World Monuments Watch lists climate change as a threat, in addition to political conflict and unchecked development. Potential global warming victims include Machu Picchu, the historic neighborhoods of New Orleans (which have, arguably, already fallen prey to the crisis), and all of Shanghai. Yikes.

Is the report a legitimate warning or another ploy to elicit enough fear in lazy Americans to change consumption habits? We still plan on flushing twice and using that extra cardboard holder to keep our hands from burning on a hot cup of Starbucks. But just in case, we're recruiting Costner for our team.