Yes! I went in 2008 and loved it. I didn't hike the Inca Trail but we did go to Machu Picu.
Originally, I was really disappointed that the tour we ended up doing didn't include the Inca Trail hike, but honestly after going I'm glad it didn't because I don't think I could've managed it (and I'm relatively fit, and was much fitter at the time). The effect of the altitude on your ability to brief is incredible and a great deal of the trail involves 2 or 3 hour stints walking up steep steps on the edges of cliff faces. To actually get up to Machu Picu itself from the base you have to do a 15 or 20n minute version of these steps, I stopped about 5 times and also discovered that I get vertigo. But hey that was me. Mind you we did talk to people there who had done the trail and they said that by the time they actually got to Machu Picu they'd seen so many ruins and were so exhausted they just wanted to go to their hotel and have a shower. So, I guess my advice would be if you are going to do the trail you need to do a lot of prep for it first because from what I know it is incredibly gruelling.
We did a Gap Adventures tour that went through Peru, Bolivia and Chile. I can't recommend Gap highly enough. I've always been anti-tours when we've travelled, but there is no way we could've gotten to all the places we did and overcome the language barriers without them. It's a very relaxed form of tour where they basically organise your transport, accomodation and entry to a few places. The rest of the time you can stick with the group or go and do your own thing.
In terms of Peru itself, Lima was a bit of a let down in my opinion. But then we went to Cusco, which is gorgeous and is pretty much the starting point for traveling through the Sacred Valley. The journey through the Sacred Valley was great, we explored 3 or 4 of the key ruin sites along the way, stayed the night at the town at the start of the Inca Trail (can't remember the name now) and then traveled by train to the town at the base of Machu Picu (you can only get there by train or hiking). Machu Picu was amazing, being there is such a humbling experience. I highly recommend going with the first group of the morning, because you get up there before the clouds have risen so you are just exploring this amazing peak and ruins that is completely surrounded by clouds.
From there we continue on and went to Lake Titicaka (sp?) which is also a must see. There are communities that are hundreds of years old who live on man made reef islands on the lake. It is unlike anything you will see anywhere else in the world.
I think if you are making the trip to South America it is well worth taking extra time and seeing other countries. They are all so different and the people and the cultures you encounter are in a lot of ways life changing. I also found Bolivia amazing. Even La Paz which is the capital is an amazing city (I generally don't find the big cities that great because many are westernised, but La Paz is different) and the small towns are something else. But the salt flats are incredible. We spend 3 days on a 4wd tour travelling across them. They are like something out of this world and truly a must see.
We finished up in Chile. Again the small towns were good, but Santiago was a bit of a let down because it is very much like any other big westernised city in the world. I would love to go back and see more of South America, the amazon, the gallapicus, argentina - it is an amazing continent! But I don't think we'll be doing anymore of those sort of trips until the kids are much older...
Hope this is the kind of info you're after... Let me know if you want to know more, I haven't reminisced about this trip for ages, it's great to remember all that we got up to!
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Peru
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