Bring a hat and sunglasses for a day of fun blowin- in the wind. - What a fabulous day! The boat ride to Islas Ballestas was so fun - bring a hat!. Then we went back to tour office and the drove us to the mini-buggy location. After donning a helmet, we were off - driving through town, out of town on the open road, and into the National Park. This is not "off-roading" - there are specific trails for minibuggies and motor bikes, etc., but still so much fun! We visited several different sites within the park before driving back into town. The only glitch was upon our return to the minibuggy location we were told to walk back to the tour office - but we didn't know where to go. The mini-buggy leader showed us how to get back to the main road, but we were still kinda lost. We found our way, though. It turned out that the tour operator had been out looking for us, as well. Kudos to Pisco Travel staff.

Best tour in Peru - This is the best tour you can possibly book! James is one of the best guides I have ever had, so friendly and accommodating

The most exciting way to tour the national park - By going on a small, private tour of the park we saw all the sites there without the crowds and had a thrilling ride on atv's to get there. Our guide was knowledgeable and interesting. Thankyou.

Do it if you are fluent in spanish - The ballestas islands are considered the poor man’s Galapagos and are heavily touristed. The guide met us at our hotel and then we walked over and we joined in the throng of people lining up for the boat tour. The best time of year to see the animals is January-March. There are many birds there year round. The boat tour is done in Spanish and English, with usually Spanish first. I felt we saw more animals in the palomino islands in Lima. Then we had an hour break until we met up at the blue chairs by the tourist office. The guide walked us over to the agency where we dropped off anything we did not want to bring on the mini buggy tour. Then we walked over to the mini buggies. It was fun to drive the mini buggies, but the guide for the mini buggies only spoke Spanish. He was very nice and we had our Puerto Rican friend translate for us. I don’t know how you would do this tour in English. Our guide seemed to be a “middleman” who would buy the tickets in person at the sights and bring them to you. It is cheaper to book the ballestas island in person since it is constantly running and you can always get a seat. Minibuggy was fun but you need to know Spanish to communicate and understand instructions. It was nice that our mini buggy tour was private and probably why our tour costs more.

Operator misrepresents tour size - Tour operator's listing lies about the size of the tour by saying that it is no more than 15 people--which, unfortunately, is what led us to make the mistake of booking with them. In reality, there were 45 people on the boat. The scene in Paracas is a madhouse overall--everyone is crowded onto a steady line of packed boats, with 20+ minutes of the tour spent just to get in and out of the very busy tour port. No one really cares about the visitor's ecperience. The tours are done in a mad rush, the operators of the boats more interested in getting back to port and grabbing another boatload of tourists. They also favor the left side of the boat--if you're on the right side of the boat, forget getting good photos, without strangers in your viewfinder. Even the tour narration is rushed--i missed a third of what the narrator said, because she was speaking so fast--in English (this wasn't a language issue). Our tour operator--and "operator" in all senses of the word applies here--is focused on her own convenience. After being crammed onto a bigger boat than she advertised, we were expected to spend 45 minutes killing time in town before going on the minibuggy portion of our tour. After the way the boat tour was misrepresented, we decided to bail, in no mood to be disappointed with the second half of the tour. We expected her to charge us the $30 we owed for a (it turned out unnecessary) port pickup, but she's now charged us $60. Buyer beware.