Recent trip: Canada, Mexico, Peru, DR

This post summarizes my recent trip to Canada, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Canada and back.

Detailed post on individual destinations/attractions will be included as and when ready.

My main agenda was Machu Pichu, Peru. But there is no easy flight to Peru from India- best is to go through USA or Canada. Included Mexico and Dominican Republic in my plan mostly because they came on the way and flights were suitable.

Below was my trip plan day wise.

• Day 0: Reach Blr from Udupi
• Day 01: BLR to Toronto via Paris CDG, Air France
• Day 02: Niagara falls day trip from Toronto, including helicopter ride
• Day 03: Fly to Cancun, Mexico
• Day 04: Day trip: Tulum Ruins, Cenote Mariposa, Playa Del Carmen
• Day 05: Day trip: Chichen Itza, Cenote, Velladolid
• Day 06: Fly to Cusco, Peru
• Day 07: Cusco Local, Acclimatization
• Day 08: Sacred valley day trip from Cusco
• Day 09, 10: 2 days INCA Trail trek to Machu Pichu
• Day 11: Cusco local and flight to Lima
• Day 12: Lima city & beach side
• Day 13: Paracas day trip from Lima
• Day 14: Lima city exploration, drop to airport
• Day 15: Lima to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Punta Cana city
• Day 16: Punta Cana to Toronto, short cruise in Toronto harbor
• Day 17: Toronto to Halifax
• Day 18: Piggy's Cove and Lunenberg day trip from Halifax
• Day 19: Halifax local- harbor & city
• Day 20: Halifax to Montreal via train
• Day 21: Montreal Local
• Day 22: Quebec city day trip from Montreal
• Day 23: Montreal to Toronto, visit Toronto Island, Return flight to India
• Day 24: Transit via London Heathrow, Virgin Atlantic
• Day 25: Arrive in Blr
• Day 26: Arrive in Udupi from Blr

Trip expense breakdown:

My 3+ weeks trip cost me over 4.5 lakhs INR everything inclusive. Below is a high level breakdown

Flights: 1.55 Lakhs total

• India to Toronto return I got cheap at 63500 INR on Delta, 9 months in advance, which was the main trigger for the entire trip.
• 6 other flights: Flight from Toronto to Cancun, Cancun to Cusco, Cusco to Lima, Lima to Punta Cana, Punta Cana to Toronto, Toronto Halifax cost me another 90k total

Day trips: 1.26 lakhs for 8 trips

Main expense was 2 day Machu Pichu Inca trail that cost us 520 USD or 50k INR

Halifax-Piggy's Cove-Nunenberg was next most expensive trip at 17k

Niagara falls + Helicopter ride together cost around 24k

Booked 5 other day trips in Cancun, Lima, Canada on get your guide costing another 75k, including some entry fees & Niagara Falls helicopter ride

Stay: 60k INR for about 21 nights

Spent little less than 60k in stay expenses over 3 weeks, averaging around 3000 INR per night. Mostly hostel accommodation and few budget hotel rooms. Canada stay was expensive averaging around 5k per night despite hostel. South America was a bit cheaper, bringing down average cost.

1 night was spent in train, 2 nights at airport/flight, 1 night was covered part of INCA Trail package

Food: 44k

Despite attempts to reduce food expense by staying in hostel & cooking, ended up spending about 2000 INR per day on an average on food. 

1 coffee costs 400-500 INR, a proper meal is 1800-2000 INR abroad, so I feel 2000 INR per day average is pretty good.

Local Travel: 41k

Public transport from airport to city, within city, occasional taxi rides, couple of train journeys (Halifax-Montreal & Montreal Toronto) and Udupi to Bengaluru travel & back

Halifax to Montreal train was 10k+, Montreal-Toronto was about 6k

Some taxi expenses in Peru were shared with friends hence my share was little less than actual.

Misc: 17k

International roaming, insurance, laundry and other miscellaneous expenses.

Visa: I had a Canada visa and same was adequate to visit Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic.

Little more comfort, luxury I could have easily spent 5 to 6 lakhs.

Things that went well:

• Didn't face any flight cancellation or major delay. Despite war risks and fuel shortage, all my flights operated without a disruption. One flight was 2 hours late, but manageable
• Few friends joining from US for Peru made that part more comfortable and economical
• May-June was probably shoulder season- crowd was manageable everywhere
• Was planning and researching since an year, hence overall things went well
• Immigration was very smooth all over.
• Had some USD from earlier trips, hence didn't have to buy USD at its current price
• Tried several new airlines in this trip- Virgin Atlantic, LATAM, Flair Airlines, Porter, Arajet etc

What could have been better

• Not knowing Spanish put me at some disadvantage, but was manageable through apps
• Carried extra items like hydration bladder for Machu Pichu trek- but there was no checking and those with normal bottles managed file- unnecessarily spend 500 Rs + and carried it all the way.
• I delayed booking some of the tours- ended up paying 10-20% more because of rupee devaluation
• Hostels are 2x more expensive in Canada compared to Europe. Had to budget minimum 4500-5000 INR per day
• Air France check-in crew in Bengaluru were amused why I am not flying directly to Mexico, why I am going first to Canada and then to Mexico. Explained as best as I could, gave them some time and eventually they let me through!
• Our tour operator in Cusco could have suggested that we stay for a night in Ollantaytambo, instead of traveling 2-3 hours back to Cusco and going again to Ollantaytambo next day 4 AM for train. More on this in my Cusco/Machu Pichu related posts.

Overall the month-long trip concluded within budget, without any incident. Now recalling memories, writing blogposts and have to start preparing for next trip. Standby for detailed posts