At QUECHUANDES all travellers receive a high standard of service and comfort on whichever trip they are taking. We understand that people have different travel preferences and budgets. For these reasons, you have the choice between luxury and basic service.



Luxury Service:
This service is aimed at travellers who enjoy greater comfort. Compared to the basic service it offers:

A higher guide to client ratio

Cook accompanying group whichever the size

Greater porter/donkey/horse support, meaning that you are able to bring more personal gear (15 kg allowance)

Better quality and more varied food (more meat, fish, fresh vegetables & fruits and dried fruits & nuts); a cooked lunch accompanied by hot drinks is given every day

Better equipment (larger tents, chairs with back, self inflating sleeping mattresses)

More inclusions (down sleeping bag with silk liner, water for washing in the afternoon as well as in the morning, private transfers to/from the bus station on arrival and departure from Huaraz, leaflets, full colour itinerary, anti bacterial hand gel, soap & water to wash your hands while in camp, gas light for use in the dining tent instead of candles)

Access to our library to borrow books to read during the trek

Basic Service:
This service is aimed at backpackers or people on a tighter budget. It is still a very comfortable service, but with less frills and inclusions than in the luxury service (see above).

You will find the biggest difference in the guide to client ratio and porter/donkey/horse support. For example there is only one guide for a group of maximum 8 people on the Santa Cruz trek (as opposed to a maximum of 5 people for the luxury service, an assistant guide accompanies larger groups). This means that faster trekkers may have to wait around if some members of the group are much slower. We try as best we can to ensure that all members of the group are suitably acclimatised and prepared to take part in the expedition, but our knowledge has its limits, and we cannot guarantee that all trekkers will have the same level of fitness

In groups of no more than 5 people, no additional cook accompanies the group, and the guide is the one who does the cooking. While our guides are excellent cooks, this means that you may have to wait around in camp a bit, while the guide gets the cooking started (as opposed to luxury groups who will have their snack and hot drinks ready and waiting for them as soon as they arrive in camp, and have an early dinner)

Lesser porter/donkey/horse support means that you are only able to bring minimum and essential gear (for instance for the Huayhuash trek, you have an allowance of 8 kg, as opposed to 15 kg for the luxury service). On mountaineering expeditions it means that you are expected to carry more gear.

Lunch is a packed lunch with sandwiches, not a cooked lunch.