Overall, using Peru Hop is probably the easiest way to get through Peru and into Bolivia or vice versa, however, these are the things I wish we knew before setting off.

1. I don’t know if it was just the buses we were on, but the temperature control is not great. Mainly, I found the buses to be quite warm – shorts and t-shirts were enough! For the overnight buses it seemed to go from boiling to freezing and back again. They do give you blankets but layers are key.

2. On the Peru Hop app, it looks as though the drive from Huacachina to Nazca is all day. However, you’re actually at a Pisco tour until 2pm and then they go back to Huacachina to pick up more people, and then you finally drive to Nazca which is only 3-4 hours away. We decided to stay a night in Nazca as we didn’t want to be on a bus for 24 hours straight to Arequipa. If we had known the Pisco tour was more than half the day we may have made a different decision.

3. You can book all the main tours through Peru Hop but we found most of them to be slightly cheaper by booking yourself or going through your hostel. This goes the same for accommodation, check Hostelworld and Booking.com before booking through Peru Hop.

4. Try to break up your trip from Cusco to La Paz with 1 night in either Puno or Copacabana, otherwise you’re on the bus for 24 hours!

5. If you want to stay in Puno, stay at a homestay or one of the lodges on the floating islands – so much nicer than the town!

6. The 2 hour Floating Island tour wasn’t great but if you choose not to go, you’ll be sat on the bus waiting for everyone to come back anyways. There is nothing else to do in Puno at 6am so you might as well go, and its pretty cheap.

7. Same goes for the Isla del Sol trip in Copacabana, although this trip was much better than the floating islands. This trip lasts 4 hours and you can either go on it, or wait in Copacabana before travelling onto La Paz. Copacabana is nicer than Puno so if you did want to wait you could probably fill the time at one of the restaurants or bars.

8. Make sure you get both your exit Peru and entry Bolivia stamps at the border! Some people didn’t get their Bolivia stamp and it caused huge issues. You will get fined and you’ll have to go back to the border to get the stamp before you can leave the country. Officials also check your passport randomly so just don’t risk it.

9. Bring cash to book tours onboard the bus if you want to avoid the 5% card fee or don’t have signal.

10. You can probably move through Peru and into Bolivia cheaper but the Peru Hop made it so easy. Even just having someone who speaks Spanish you can ask questions to made our our trip much easier to manage.