Best Sustainable Tourism Operators on Lake Titicaca

Titicacaways

Titicacaways is a local agency located in Puno itself, operating for more than 10 years and certified by Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism – MINCETUR and Regional Management of Foreign Trade, Tourism, and Crafts – DIRCETUR. It organizes kayaking tours, which is rather rare for conventional agencies on the lake, as they organize trips using motor boats only. The advantage of Titicacaways is small groups, it takes a maximum of 8 people per trip, which provides an opportunity to have a more personalized interaction with the guides and families from the islands, unlike the trips organized by the big agencies in Puno using boats that can take up to 20-30 people.

The guides of Titicacaways are natives of the Lake Titicaca area; they are certified in first aid and water rescue; and they claim to be committed to helping local communities and protecting Lake Titicaca ecology on their website. Titicacaways offers both private tours for people who do not want to share the boat with others, as well as two-day tours including kayaking or boating and one-night stay at a homestay in Amantani.

Services Provided by Titicacaways

• Tours by motorboat to the Uros Islands with the possibility of an extension to Taquile.
• Tour groups by kayak with various durations (2, 3, and even 9 hours).
• Day trips with kayaking and traveling by support boat to the islands of Amantaní and Taquile.
• 2-day and 1-night program including an overnight stay on Amantani with travel by boat or kayak.
• Personalized tours with a personal guide for a family or group.

Titicacaways Prices

Price as of inquiry date: Uros + Taquile by speedboat from US$35 (9 hours); half-day Uros by boat from US$62 (3 hours or more); Uros + Amantaní without overnight stay by boat, 2 days/1 night, from US$50; half-day kayaking trip to Uros from US$35; kayaking and speedboat to Uros and Taquile (9 hours) from US$60.

The prices differ according to transport method (by boat or by kayak), type of services (private or not) and the day of the trip.

Planet Odysseys

This tour operator based in Cusco not only provides all types of tours to Lake Titicaca but also has many different kinds of active programs in the lake area, including short tours to the Uros Islands as well as the traditional two-day tour with a stay on the Amantaní Island. The agency is often referred to by travelers in their reviews due to its approach to cooperation with locals; several reviews mention the hospitality of guides and organization of the homestay, which is more than just visiting the islands.

In its Lake Titicaca tours, the company offers three levels of duration, which allows tourists to organize trips for a few spare hours in Puno as well as to spend there two days. Guides in the company are locals, and they work with moderate groups of tourists, not very small as those in boutique agencies and not too large like the ones in generic tours on the street. Planet Odysseys answers to reviews from its clients in public.

Services Provided by Planet Odysseys

• Half day tour of the floating islands of the Uros, suited for guests with little time in Puno.
• Full day tour featuring the Uros and Taquile Islands with lunch provided.
• 2 days and 1 night tour with a homestay in Amantaní and tour of Taquile on the second day.
• 2-day combo featuring Lake Titicaca and the Sillustani archaeological sites.

Transfers from and back to your Puno hotel are provided in all the tours offered by Planet Odysseys.

Planet Odysseys Prices

Current prices: Half day tour of Uros – US$23; Full day tour featuring Uros and Taquile with lunch – US$44; 2 days/1 night tour with a homestay in Amantaní and visit to Taquile – US$67 per person; 2-day combo tour featuring Lake Titicaca and Sillustani archaeological sites – US$68 per person.

Uros Expeditions

Uros Expeditions is an agency from Cusco operating tours to Puno for more than 6 years, aimed at tourists visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu and willing to add a trip to Lake Titicaca to their itinerary without taking care about transport issues. The tour to Lake Titicaca offered by the agency is not a stand-alone one-hour excursion but a 3-day tour that combines overland tour along the so-called Ruta del Sol, with visits to colonial church in Andahuaylillas, Raqchi archaeological site and ceremonial center Pucará and a tour to Lake Titicaca on the next day.

The distinguishing feature of this agency in the list is in the way how it defines the tour to the Uros. Unlike other agencies which offer only one-hour guided tours there, it treats the experience as experiential tourism when visitors have an opportunity to engage in daily activities among locals, cutting totora reeds and traditional fishing. What is also peculiar to the agency, it has a special page on its website devoted to its social projects in the area, where it describes actions aimed at support of high-Andean communities. Though this is not a sustainable external certification like Aracari’s, it is a commitment made by the agency on its own website.

Services Provided by Uros Expeditions

• Land transfer from Cusco to Puno through the “Ruta del Sol” route, accompanied by visits to the sites of Andahuaylillas, Raqchi, and Pucará.
• Tour boat trip to the floating islands of the Uros people, where you have an opportunity to take part in their cultural activities together with locals.
• Visit to Amantani or Taquile Island as well as the rest of the services during the 3-day package tour.
• Two nights of accommodation in Puno included in the group package rate.
• Personal service available along with a guide and private transfer for the group.

Uros Expeditions Prices

Quotation made at the time of booking: Group service rate starts at $230 per person for 3-day/2-night package; personal service rate starts at $230 per person for groups of 8 or more travelers up to $665 per person for individual travelers. The personal rate varies in stages based on the number of guests (for instance, $410 for two guests or $310 for four guests).

Impactful Travel

Impactful Travel started operating in 2009 and bases its whole business model on community-based tourism, and not just as one of the options among other standard tours offered by the company. Now Impactful Travel works with more than 100 families from all over Peru, and when it comes to Lake Titicaca, Impactful Travel offers a very unique solution to visiting this destination, because instead of bringing people to such popular places as Uros, Amantani, or Taquile islands (the most crowded places for visitors) it focuses on communities on the lake, where tourism is still an additional source of income.

Of course, this makes its business model less flexible, because there are no published itineraries, and the tour depends on dates and number of travelers, and this means negotiating with the agency to get the price and itinerary. However, as a result of this, visitors receive more direct connection with host families and better share of revenues with them, because this is how agency’s business model works.

Services Provided by Impactful Travel

• Customized travel experiences around the Lake Titicaca communities that do not often receive mass tourists.
• Homestay in families chosen and trained to accommodate visitors.
• Boat tours around Lake Titicaca using traditional totora boats or canoes depending on the community you visit.
• Engaging in the day-to-day activities with host families such as farming, fishing, and making textiles.
• The opportunity to mix the Lake Titicaca experience with other community experiences provided by the agency in various parts of the country.

Impactful Travel Prices

Due to the customized nature of these trips, the agency does not have set prices but rather offers them depending on the length of stay, number of people, and particular itinerary of your choice. Usually, they tend to be quite high when compared to those of a traditional agency tour because of the direct involvement with the host families.

Aracari

Aracari is a luxury tour operator that is specifically concerned with social and environmental issues and the only company from this list that has an outside certified recognition: Positive Luxury’s Butterfly Mark, given to those organizations that show verifiable ethics, such as paying their employees fair wages. This point is especially important, because unlike the declaration of principles on the agency’s web page, the certification process includes the external audit.

The program offered by Aracari for Lake Titicaca does not consist of a usual one or two day tour, but of luxury travel packages throughout the southern regions of Peru that combine the experience of the lake with other experiences of the Sacred Valley, for instance, community-based tourism programs of Tierra de los Yachaqs. The target audience of Aracari differs from the other tour operators listed in this guide, it is people who spend money not only for comfort, but also for ethical transparency.

Services Provided by Aracari

• Handpicked homestays in the community surrounding Lake Titicaca.
• High-end local accommodations that are inaccessible to mass tourism.
• Itineraries combining Lake Titicaca with community projects in the Sacred Valley and other areas of Southern Peru.
• Specialists guides and private logistics for your entire journey.
• Custom-made itinerary according to your preferences and available days.

Aracari Prices

As these trips are made-to-measure luxury tours, Aracari doesn’t provide a per person price since each itinerary is quoted separately. However, as a general guide, a responsible luxury tour in Southern Peru costs hundreds of dollars per day and includes specialists guides, handpicked accommodation, and private logistics.

Comparison of Sustainable Tour Operators on Lake Titicaca

Uros, Amantaní, and Taquile (2 days / 1 night)

The most sought after community-based tourism package in Lake Titicaca. This package features a visit to the floating islands of the Uros, spending one night with a homestay in Amantani (dinner with host family, hiking up to the temples of Pachatata and Pachamama, traditional party), followed by a visit to Taquile the next day, famous for its textiles that have been declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

• Duration: 2 days / 1 night.
• Tour operators providing this tour: Titicacaways (Uros + Amantani, starting from US$50), Planet Odysseys (Uros + Amantani + Taquile, starting from US$67).
• Suitable for: Community-based tourism including homestay, first-time visitors to the lake.

Uros + Taquile (full day)

An option for day trippers who do not have much time but wish to contribute to the local economy of the islands.

• Duration: 1 day (approximately 9 hours).
• Tour companies providing this package: Titicacaways (starting from US$ 35), Planet Odysseys (starting from US$ 44).
• Suitable for: tourists visiting Puno but have just one day to spare.

Kayaking on Lake Titicaca

A more environmentally-friendly option which uses human power to propel the vessel in place of an engine, great for bird-watching in the totora reed channels in the national park. Travel to and from the starting point is typically done via car or support boat, thus it’s not entirely zero-emissions, but it does involve non-motorized paddling while the actual kayaking occurs.

• Duration: 3 to 9 hours, depending on route choice.
• Tour operators offering this activity: Titicacaways (half-day kayak tour of Uros from US$35; kayak + Uros and Taquile via speedboat, 9 hours, from US$60).
• Best suited for: active tourists who enjoy the quieter side of nature without noise pollution.

Sun Trail + Lake Titicaca from Cusco (3 days / 2 nights)

For people coming from Cusco looking to include both the overland route (stopping by Andahuaylillas, Raqchi, and Pucará) and the tour of Lake Titicaca into one trip package.

• Time required: 3 days/ 2 nights.
• Provider of the tour package: Uros Expeditions, priced from US$ 230 per individual for group trips (prices vary between US$ 230 to US$ 665 per individual according to group size for private trips).
• This package suits: people already based in Cusco and looking to skip the direct flight to Puno.

Being on a budget does not necessarily mean being unsustainable; however, it should be mentioned right away that just because something is cheap does not mean that the local community gets fair pay for their services. It would be reasonable to clarify in advance how the money is shared before you make your reservation, avoiding any presumptions.

Half-day Tour to the Uros Islands

The cheapest solution for tourists who only have a spare morning or afternoon in Puno.

• Duration: 3 hours approx.
• Operators offering this tours: Planet Odysseys (from US$ 23), also many local companies in Puno provide this half-day tour for US$ 10-25. Optional totora raft ride costs about US$ 3-5 (paid directly to the family).

Uros + Taquile on a shared tour (full day)

The economy version of the famous tour, taking place on boat shared with other tourists.

• Duration: 1 day.
• Operators offering this tour: Titicacaways (price from US$ 35); other companies in Puno organize this tour route from approximately US$ 25–30 during low season.

Uros + Amantaní + Taquile Shared Tour (2 days / 1 night)

You can get this tour for less than US$ 50 with small companies in Puno which do not have prices listed on international websites. Sometimes accommodations in Amantaní are paid by themselves directly to the hosts, approximately US$ 20-27 per person in full board.

• Helpful hint: Do not forget to ask specifically before getting the cheapest tour whether accommodation fee is included in the price or paid separately, and to whom.

How much do sustainable tours on Lake Titicaca cost?

Lake Titicaca is a high altitude lake located 3,810 meters above sea level and within which Peru boasts its Titicaca National Reserve, created by SERNANP on October 31, 1978, and declared a Ramsar site in 1997 for the ecological importance of its wetlands. A sustainable tour around here should, at the very least, fulfill the following conditions:

• Economic benefits for the local population: either by making clear payments for food and housing services or through microcredit loans, such as those proposed by the network ASTURS from tourists’ donations.
• Small environmental footprint: with small group sizes, minimal use of disposable plastics, and respect for the totora reed beds, which physically support the Uros islands.
• Respect for the culture: without forced traditional shows but rather with interaction with the host families.

The tradition of textiles in Taquile has been included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO since 2008; an important fact to remember when selecting a tour operator: buying a tour is no guarantee of safeguarding the heritage, but can be very helpful when the operator is working directly and openly with the artisans.

Some sustainable tour agencies in Puno are not always sustainable in reality. It should be noted that not all the tour operators who call themselves “sustainable” are really sustainable. Some have sustainability policy documented (with certifications, publications, participation in tourism networks for communities), while others offer just community-based or eco-friendly tours without external certification.

Both are fine options, but one should know to what category a certain tour operator belongs.

It might be helpful to ask the following questions before booking:

• What percentage of the total cost of the trip ends up going to the host family? How are the host families paid (directly by visitors or via the tour company)?
• What is the maximum number of participants in your specific tour?
• Is the company licensed either by Mincetur or Dircetur?
• Does it have any policy about waste disposal or limitation of visitors per island?

Booking through a local operator may turn out cheaper than booking on an international website due to savings on commission. But before concluding that the cheaper option works better for locals, find out how many services host families provide independently and how they are paid.

• Elevation: Puno and Lake Titicaca are more than 3,800 meters above sea level. Come prepared with one or two days for acclimatization and plenty of water.
• Temperature: Temperatures in Amantani at night can go down to 0 °C even in the dry season. Pack thermal clothes if you plan to spend the night at the homestay.
• No electricity or phone signal in some houses: In Amantaní and Taquile, most homes lack electricity or have poor phone signals.
• Cash: Carry some Peruvian soles for cash transactions with families, tips, and handcrafts, since there are no ATMs in the islands.
• Respect for culture: Ask permission before photographing people, and do as instructed by your host.

• Avoid plastic: Use a refillable water bottle and do not litter inside the fragile totora reed beds within the reserve.
• Ensure that your guide company is certified by Mincetur or Dircetur, and inquire about their policies regarding financial contributions to the local communities.
• Make advance reservations if you visit the area between May and September since homestay capacity will be restricted during that time.