Tag: sandboarding

Visiting Paracas, Huacachina and Nazca with the help of Peru Hop

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Peru is full of wonderful places – all of which get overshadowed by Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley with Cusco as the gateway. I’m not saying these areas don’t deserve all the attention but there are some slightly more hidden gems in Peru that are worth exploring. I travelled through Peru and Bolivia with Peru Hop and I was so impressed by this organisation! It allows for travellers to move through some of the smaller towns fast overland bringing business to these places and doing all the hard work for travellers trying to figure out how to plan their journey. Plus you meet some great friends along the way. It’s like a Hop-on-hop-off tourist bus but covering significant distances and included tours on the way so you know there is no chance you will miss the bus and you can fit in more than if you had to organise your travel and your activities separately.

Top Tip for Visiting Paracas, Huacachina and Nazca:

I highly recommend staying a night or two in all of these places if you can – Peru Hop makes it easy to tweak your itinerary as you see fit but also gives you the option to fly through these places as fast as possible if you are lacking in time. We spent way too much time in the Galapagos and in Colombia so we were forced to do this the fastest way possible – yay to Peru Hop for giving us this option!

Where to stay:

Peru Hop gives you discounts with certain businesses (including accomodation) so its good to keep that in mind when choosing accomodation. Otherwise I recommend looking at your options on booking.com. These are small towns so you are not overwhelmed with choices.

Getting there and away:

To visit these locations you can start the trip in Lima, Cusco, Arequipa or La Paz in Bolivia and you can adapt your journey to suit with multiple route options and the option to stay extra nights and catch the next bus. All of these places have plenty of flights in and out and connections around the country while Lima and La Paz have international destinations.

Getting around:

The beauty of Peru Hop is that everywhere you need to go is included. You are picked up from your accomodation (or nearby) and dropped off at your accomodation and taken on tours along the way. The only exception is if you want to take a flight over the Nazca lines (which I highly recommend) and can’t fit a night in Nazca into your schedule. In this case you can:

  1. Book a local bus in the morning between Huacachina and Nazca and book your Nazca lines flight
  2. Skip the Huacachina to Nazca leg of ther peru Hop bus and travel from Huacachina into Ica via taxi to catch your local bus (we left Huacachina at 8am and our bus arrived in Nazca at 11am)
  3. Your Nazca lines tour operator will meet you at the bus terminal in Nazca and take you to the airport for your flight (we booked an 11:30am flight over the Nazca lines)
  4. Catch your Peru Hop bus again when it leaves Nazca at 7pm (Our Nazca lines flight time left us plenty of time afterwards to have a late lunch; wander around Nazca and do some shopping before having to catch the bus).

What to bring:

Make sure to pack some comfortable gear to sleep in on the bus from Nazca as you will be on it overnight. It tends to get quite cold on South American buses due to the AC so make sure to also bring a long sleeved top and a blanket or silk sleeping bag.

What to expect:

We took the route from Lima – Paracas – Huacachina – Nazca – Cusco

You will be picked up at 5:30am from your hostel in Lima to depart Lima at 6am. At 10am you will arrive in Paracas and have a short stop to get a coffee or a snack before the included visit to the Paracas National Reserve at 11am. This reserve is absolutely beautiful and you are able to spend some time admiring the landscape before the bus leaves to continue onto Huacachina at 1pm.

You will arrive in Huacachina at 2:15pm which gives you time to check in to a hotel and get organised before the 4:30pm Dune Buggy and Sandboarding Tour that is organised through Peru Hop. The tour ends at 6:30pm. Huacachina is a bit of a party town so its a good idea to head out to party after this but if thats not your thing or you are still an early riser I recommend hiking up the sand dunes for the sunrise in the morning.

As noted above we left Huacachina in the morning and skipped the next leg so that we could take a flight over the Nazca lines without staying the night in Nazca. The flight was so worth it but the early morning bus ride and the flight in a small airplane was not the best idea when hungover. I felt so sick. If you do catch the Peru Hop bus they leave in the afternoon and make a stop at the Nazca viewing platforms instead before continuing on to Nazca.

From Nazca you overnight on the bus and continue on to Arequipa or Cusco.

Travel with Peru Hop and you won’t regret it!

Erika xx

Itinerary: Overnight in Jaisalmer

Alibaba the Camel in the Jaisalmer Desert

Jaisalmer is otherworldly. The ‘Golden City’ is a small rugged city in the middle of nowhere where it almost never rains. The city is an oasis in the Thar desert where travelers long ago used to rest for months on end partaking in copious amount of Opium in luxurious havelis.

GENERAL INFO

Getting there and away: We took an overnight train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer – this took 12 hours (we left Jaipur late at night and arrived in Jaisalmer at midday). You can walk into the centre of Jaisalmer from the train station or there are plenty of rickshaws.

From Jaisalmer, we travelled on overnight train to Jodhpur which took 6 hours and arrived in the early hours of the morning.

On our trip to Jaisalmer we were pushed for time (We had 3 weeks to explore 9 locations in India!) so we took an overnight train to Jaisalmer and back out again. This was the only way we could fit 2 days here into our itinerary. If you are in a similar situation I highly recommend doing the trip this way – its exhausting but much better than skipping Jaisalmer altogether. It is possible to spend only a day in Jaisalmer and take back to back overnight trains. The train station has a secure luggage storage service so you can explore the city with a daypack – however I highly recommend staying at least a night as the long train journeys are exhausting and your day would be very rushed.

Accommodation: There are many great options for accommodation in Jaisalmer – a lot of them quite pricey. We didn’t stay in the city itself so can’t recommend a specific place here.

I do recommend spending a night out in the Thar Desert however – there are multiple camps that combine a night in the desert with sandboarding, camel riding and dinner cooked under the stars. We stayed at Damodra Desert Camp which was a great experience. It is gorgeous (see photos below) and we particularly enjoyed dinner around the fire with local performances.

Food: Most of our meals were at our accommodation (as above) but we did have a great lunch at Natraj Restaurant. It is a lovely terrace restaurant with views of the upper part of Salim Singh Ki Haveli.

Getting around: We walked everywhere in Jaisalmer except for arranging transport with our accommodation out to the desert. All accommodation in the desert will provide this service and I highly recommend using it as its your only option to get out there unless you have your own car.

Top Tip: If you aren’t spending the night in Jaisalmer itself I definitely recommend making use of the luggage storage at the train station. This was so helpful as it meant we could do some sightseeing in Jaisalmer before and after our trip into the desert without lugging around our huge bags with us.

DAY 1

Use your morning to explore the intricate Havelis in Jaisalmer – you could even purchase one for yourself for a steal and settle in Jaisalmer permanently. Head to Nathmalji ki Haveli first and take a look at the outside – each side of this Haveli is slightly different.

Then make sure to visit Patwon-ki Haveli – the Kothari’s Patwon-ki Haveli Museum is the only part here worth entering. Allow an hour – hiring a guide is definitely recommended as you learn so much about the history of Jaisalmer and the beautiful Haveli.

Patwon-Ki Haveli Museum

In the early afternoon it will be time to head into the Desert for a little adventure. Your accommodation provider will put you on a camel to ride into the centre of the Dunes. After doing a bit of sandboarding to satisfy the adrenaline junkies you will then settle on the sand to watch the sunset.

The Dunes

This trip isn’t all that spectacular – don’t get me wrong its all nice – but there are more amazing deserts elsewhere; better places to sandboard and much more interesting camel rides. However, we had a good time and I did have the most impressively spectacular faceplant when I was sandboarding – it could have happened anywhere but it happened here and was captured on camera by my wonderful husband – so there’s that! *sigh*. Its a fun way to spend an afternoon.

My epic fail

You can still do the same activities above as a day trip if you would prefer not to stay overnight.

DAY 2

Day 2 should be spent visiting Jaisalmer Fort.

If you spent the night in the Desert (like we did) you will be dropped back into town around 10:30am after breakfast. Therefore, I recommend visiting the Jain Temples in the Fort first as they are only open to the public between 11am-12pm. No shoes or leather items are permitted inside.

Jain Temple

After the Jain temples wander the rest of the rest of the Fort. This Fort is particularly fascinating as it is one of very few ‘living forts’ in the world – almost one fourth of the population still resides within its walls. Make sure to visit the Fort Palace and Museum (the audio guide is worth getting).

Views from Jaisalmer Fort

EXTRA STOP

If you have time – try to visit the haunted village of Kuldhara near Jaisalmer. Deserted places are fascinating and this village has a great legend. Around 300 years ago it was a thriving village. The state prime minister at the time set his sights on the daughter of the village chief and decided to force marriage upon her. Instead of following orders, the whole village left their homes and vanished, but not before leaving a curse forbidding anyone to settle their village ever again. It is probably more likely that the true story is that taxes were raised and the inhabitants had to migrate as they couldn’t afford to pay but the village has remained empty to this day and many believe it is haunted by the curse.

I didn’t have a chance to go here but I will definitely be visiting next time I make it to Jaisalmer.

On the roof of the Fort Palace and Museum

I hope you enjoy Jaisalmer as much as I did!

Erika xx