Peru is a comfortable country to travel in. People are honest-- even gentle. Total cost (used points to fly there and back) was $5600 for 2, 28 days, $200/day for two people. Travel was independent but with plenty of assist. No cellular service during trip. We chose a middle path, independent travel with a lot of upgrades in transportation. Multi-day tours cost 3-5 times more per day than we paid. Shoestring travel could probably be done for less than $40/day using the local transport options.
This was a retirement trip composed of a lifelong Peru wish list of sights, having never been. I filled an itinerary of 4 weeks of travel to be able to see everything I had hoped to see. The basics were Inca ruins, the Andes, Lake Titicaca, Nasca Lines, and the Amazon River. Although we were not on a tour (there was no tour offered that covered everything I wanted to see, and I wasn’t going to compromise sights), we used what I call transit tours on a couple occasions which is something they offer in Peru, to go from one tourist destination to another with set stops along the way at sights, and with a guide. I thought this was nice compromise over not taking a days-long tour. We also hired a driver for the day twice, which was another way to enhance independent travel by easing the logistics (at a price of course). In the end we never took the cheapo combis or the basic long-distance buses to get from place to place, I guess thinking we are too old for that. The deluxe long-distance buses are really something, with virtually lie flat seats and privacy curtains, and a goodie bag with water and snacks, about $25 for a 10-hour journey.
ATMs were a problem that was unexpected. Typical local fees for an ATM are 35 soles (about $10) PLUS a percentage of the amount withdrawn. This is not a dynamic conversion issue, these are the basic fees charged. The only exception was Banco de la Nacion with their MultiRed ATMs which had no fee and are fairly common, but unfortunately are restricted to about $105 worth of soles withdrawn per day (for Mastercard, Visa debit cards can withdraw $210). There is often a line for the MultiRed ATMs. So avoiding the fees become a problem, but I managed to spread out the ATM visits to 6 over the trip, always taking out the maximum allowed, and nearly always had enough cash. I did have to change a US $50 bill at a restaurant in Ollantaytambo in a pinch; the rate wasn’t bad. Only using cash when necessary (admissions, taxis, tips, places not taking cards) I needed about $750 in cash or about $200/week as a minimum. Some travel forums say you can get by with just a card but that’s not true, you will need a lot of cash. I left home with about $250 as an emergency stash and needed more than half of that. Usually on Europe trips all the dollars I take come home with me.
Flights were on American via Miami, day flights. During daylight time in US, Peru time = Central Daylight Time, ie no jet lag w/10 hours of flying. I had churned a couple of AA Citibank cards for the sign up bonuses and had points required for 2 business class tickets (but not lie flat seats, these were single aisle jets). Had lounge access both directions in Miami, and needed it since after booking the layovers increased and so had 5 hour and 7 hour connections. Note that neither of these American jets had screens in First Class or Business Class, but free streaming to a phone was pretty easy. Kind of like Southwest….
As an aside, I’d had a yellow fever vax but my wife had not. Checking around home I could only find a vax for about $800, and it’s not covered by insurance (it was in the old days). I found that I could drive to Winnipeg (6 hours) and get one for less than $200 US but passed on that. Decided to get one in a local clinic in Lima or at the airport there, $50.