1

One cardinal rule...., never pay any attention to government travel advisories.

You are staying well on the beaten path and shouldn't have any problem.

I spent two months backpacking and hitch hiking Peru at the height of the Sendero Luminoso and lived to tell the tale.

Things are still pretty much under control now.

2

One piece of advice, don't go alone(ie the two of you)to the beach in Lima/Miraflores and don't take any valuables.
Probably the most "dangerous" place on your trip.

3

Apparently the Canadian government has decided to take an even more conservative stance than the US state department, which is saying something. Mostly, this comes down to bureaucrats looking after their own job safety. They worry that someone will be fired if they fail to warn citizens about potential problems, even if there is only a 0.05% probability of said problems impacting travellers. But there is absolutely no risk that a government official will lose their job because they reccomend that travellers cancel their plans and stay at home with the doors locked.

Peru is generally a safe country for travellers, and has many thousands of tourists moving around and enjoying themselves at any given time.

4

Yes, I agree. "CYA" is always the most important thing for government bureaucrats!

Unfortunately the beach in Miraflores involves a long walk/ride from your accommodation. If you surf in a wetsuit just wear that to the beach with your keys/valuables in an inside pocket. That way all that can be stolen is your towel
(perhaps take a hotel towel to the beach!).

You would be aware of the usual precautions such as don't do drugs etc so I won't rehash here.

All travel involves risk and Peru is fine.

5

I wouldn't worry about the travel advisory. Basically there are a few areas of the country to be avoided because that's wear drugs are grown. You're not going near any of them. I agree that Lima is certainly the most dangerous part of your itinerary. Definitely exercise caution in Lima. Don't go out at night alone, beware of fake taxi's, etc. The guidebooks cover this pretty well.
I wouldn't waste two days in Miraflores or on the beach in Lima which is likely to be cloudy/foggy anyway. Get out of Lima as soon as you can and head to the highlands where it's sunny and beautiful. Seeing Manu in two days is basically impossible since it takes 2-3 days just to get there if going by land. You can fly to Manu but due to the cost I'm not sure if anyone does that for just two days. Rather than going to Manu I would go to the Sacred Valley (especially Ollantaytambo). Puno is a dump. Lake Titicaca is worth visiting but don't waste any more time in Puno than necessary. The islands are nice. I spent two nights on Isla Amantani with a host family and it was beautiful and very relaxing. You don't need to book a tour to go to the islands. If you want to go to Amantani just show up at the dock in Puno at 8 am and ask for the boat going to Amantani. It's a comfortable 4 hour ride with a short stop in the Uros (floating) islands along the way. When you arrive in Amantani you'll be assigned a host family to stay with. You don't need to do anything to arrange this ahead of time. Much cheaper than going with a tour and all the money goes to the locals this way. Nice though Amantani was, if you're also going to the bolivian side of Lake Titicaca then it might be a bit redundant. Better to spend that time in the sacred valley or Arequipa.
Of course everybody likes different things. If I were going back to Peru and only had a limited amount of time I would probably spend the whole time in the Huaraz area because the trekking there is amazing. But your trip sounds like it'll be great fun.

6

I notice that the Canadian travel advisory for France still has a regional 'avoid all travel' warning for Dieppe. Says something about the prevalence of armed groups of Germans and the need for air support.

7

You have about as much chance of being eaten by a leopard in Manu as of being kidnapped by the Sendero Luminoso.....

8

Mothers can be a bother. We notice that that is the experience of quite a few travellers, especially (young) females. And certainly when these mothers start reading travel advisories by Foreign Affairs agencies.
Nothing wrong with reading these notices as long as you bear in mind that these government people live in a totally different world with a completely different perspective. Overly protected bureaucrates who do not travel, at least not the way TT members do. They get the bad occurrences reported (for instance passport stolen, I need a new passport) and are not aware of the great majority of travellers who have no problem at all.
Still, they are not always wrong. Reading this advisory my reaction is that yes, all this has happened somewhere some time. And if you group this all together you can make up such a horror scenario. Just like a travel agency can group together all the fantastic things of Peru. It is a matter of perspective.
I do not consider Peru particularly safe. Which country is? One should be careful, I would even say very careful. The case of going to the beach in Miraflores (which to me has no attraction anyway) is just a matter of not going alone descending a deserted footpath. Sure, there might be a person halfway who wishes to relieve you of your belongings. That is Lima, that is Peru, so are many places in the world. Just don't do that. And a streetwise traveller would not do that and would not do (or do) many other things.
Anyway, if the travel advisory and your mother bother you too much, you can always go to lovely Prince Edward Island.

9

With common sense and normal precautions you will be as safe as in Canada or USA. This travel advisory is ridiculous. It is a good idea to know some of the scams and dangers which will be unlikely to experience for you but not completly impossible. IMO if you are well informed and prepared you are much safer travelling in countries like Peru or Brazil as running around in your homne country because in your home country you are usually not aware of certain dangers, risks and scams. Pay attention to the traffic as it is more likely to have a car accident than to have a violent robbery

10

Ask your government how do they worn tourists in your own country about East Hastings in Vancouver.
Oh, no warning at all? Interesting, as I haven't seen worst place in whole South America and it's just few blocks from downtown in Vancity. And what about all those not so funny hoods in Toronto? Looks like nothing.
Maybe those government parasites would care about their own yard first?

Anyway even if there would be 1000 Somali pirates waiting for me on destination airport I would still like to get out of this cold, dull orwell country.

11

You won't be visiting the places mentioned in the Canadian government advisory.
I have been travelling to Peru for over two decades and except two minor petty theft troubles nothing happened to me so far and I have been travelling to well off the beaten path places.

Don't expect to find a surf camp like you find these in for example France, Spain, Portugal or States.
There are real good surf beaches and you'll be able to find 'surf hotels' near Lima (San Bartolo, Punta Hermosa, ...) but don't expect too much from the beaches, nothing really exotic but good left waves.
Check out http://www.peruazul.com/hospedaje.html for accommodation at surf beaches and places they call 'surf camp'.

12

we always talk about american, canadian or central european advisory. It would be interesting to know about chinese, indian or southamerican advicing their citizens.
I had a look in Argentina and din´t find anything. Spain does the same advice as the canadian government. The canadian government advices about parts of Peru to stay off where 97% of tourists won´t go anyway

13

Thanks #13. I checked #12's posting record - it's dominated by travel agent (his presumably?) recommendations.

14

#14 Of course, it's standard spam and advertising, but not mine - #12 was just deleted so it messed up the numbers ;-)
For the record: is perfectly safe to travel on your own in whole South America, and actually people like former #12 are you biggest treat as they try to milk the tourist of their money like cows.
Reputable tourist agency doesn't have to go so low with quasi-advertisement, when they do it it's something wrong with them
Unfortunately those people fail to understand that you can only success by customer satisfaction, they only think short term and later they need those desperate moves to sustain themselves.
Beware of them and avoid at any cost

Edited by: ban_janti_return