Cruz del Sur Buses

If you are going to travel in Peru, I can recommend the Cruz del Sur buses.

The bus station is inevitably at the edge of every town - so that the buses do not have to navigate their way in and out, and hence waste valuable traveling time. So a taxi is always necessary to get you to and from your hotel - we only ran into a problem once with this - we had problems at 9pm at night in Nasca getting a taxi to our out of town hotel. I would add that Cruz del Sur are very helpful in getting you a taxi, and would advice you to use the "bloke" at the bus station to get you a cab.

• You are told to get to the bus station an hour in advance of your departure time - we found 30 minutes more than enough to check in our luggage (you have to check in your baggage)
• Security is much higher than on European buses. You will have your hand baggage searched before you get on the bus, and will have to show your passport, and once you are on the bus, a security man comes and videos every passenger. I understand that highjackings have taken place in the past!
• The buses seemed to run about 30 to 60 minutes late on long journeys, but we could live with that.
• The seats were very comfortable, more comfortable by far than aircraft seats.
• Cruz del Sur claim to offer food as part of your ticket. We only had one hot meal, that was from Lima to Ica. On other legs it was a sandwich or similar. So do not rely on them to feed you and if you are going to be on the bus more than 7 or 8 hours, bring your own food.
• I found their continuous films, played at high volume annoying as one cannot turn off the sound
• Their drivers are good, do not overtake dangerously, and stick to the speed limits. Full marks for all our drivers

Having said that, I was very happy to have used them to cover most of Peru, from Lima to Puno, in several stages. We used another bus to get from Puno to Cusco, as Cruz del Sur do not do that leg.

Cruz del Sur web site

Peru Holiday