We organised this tour very last minute, after our trip to Machu Picchu. It turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip! Samuel runs the company and was very easy to deal with over email. Pickup from our hotel at 7am, Samuel was extremely punctual and very friendly, we commenced the 45-60 min drive out of central Cusco with some beautiful country side scenery backed by snow capped mountains. Once we arrived at the base camp for the quad biking we met our tour guide, Alberto, and had a brief induction on riding the quads. My partner and I were the only people in the morning tour, so we got a personalised private tour!
The first 30 minutes of riding was at a slower pace to get adjusted to the bikes, we rode to the first stop, which was the Salt Mines. On arriving at the outskirts of the mines, Samuel picked us up again in his car (no quad bikes allowed into mines). Cost to enter is 10 soles per person and we drove down into the mines.. they're spectacular! Alberto took us around and explained the history of the site, which is still active today. After 15-20 mins at the salt mines it was time to get back on the quads and travel to our next site.
We had the option of Moray ruins or a lagoon. The Moray site costs around 70 soles to enter and we had just done Machu Picchu, we decided to extend our time on the bikes and do the lagoon (no entry fee). Alberto lead the way and we were averaging 30-35kms at this point (very comfortable). We travelled down a variety of dirt roads, stone roads and main roads, stopping to let any cars pass.
At this point my partner and I were feeling confident and asked Alberto if we could speed things up a bit. This is when the tour became exhilarating! Speed picked up from 35km to 55/60km. The roads started to become more challenging with some serious bumps and pot holes, there was some light rain.. it was great fun. We then arrived at the lagoon with a 360 view of the countryside and mountain ranges.. really beautiful spot, stopped for some photos and continued on the trek.
Alberto took us down one of the advanced tracks, which was down hill with drops, ditches and big bumps. A little nerve wracking at first, but bloody fun! My partner Lucy and I are not experienced on quad bikes at all, but we managed to get down without any issues and then sped back to the base-camp. That was it for the quad side of the tour, Samuel was waiting there for us.
On the return to Cusco, we stopped off at a local textile market. The girls there were dressed in traditional attire and spoke English, they showed us how they hand colour Alpaca wool and how they make heir wears. It was a great little way to end the tour, we didn't feel obligated to purchase anything but saw some beautiful hand made clothing that can't be purchased in the street markets.
We were then dropped back to our hotel in central Cusco. Both Samuel and Alberto were great fun to ride with. We shared stories and compared Australia (our home) to Peru. I have to highly recommend this tour, Cuatrimotos was the first quad bike tour company in Cusco, and Samuel's passion and customer service is above and beyond. Cost per person was $55USD and entry to sites is not included.
I would recommend wearing several layers, a thick jacket, crappy pants and shoes. You will get covered from head to toe in dust!