A nice entrance to a great country
Written: Aug 02 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Start of Peru, clean, many people speak English
Cons: Long lines, including one to get an exit stamp...
The Bottom Line: Peru is a great country with great people - this airport just happens to be the gateway.
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| tgregoryt's Full Review: Lima International Airport Jorge Chavez |
Well the guy above seems to know what he is talking about, but my experience wasn’t that there were sixty people working every station. Everything in this airport seemed normal to me except for the customs line to get out of the country. Usually you have a customs line to get in; getting out is a formality. In Lima you have to stand in what seems to be the same line to get in as you do to get out. Very odd…
Arrivals
But I’ll start with arrivals. When you arrive you get out of the plane and you follow the crowd to the immigration. The planes seem to arrive about every 20 minutes, so when you arrive there will be a line in front of you, and by the time the last people in your plane get their passports stamped there will be a line behind them, too. The point is that it doesn’t matter too much if you are first or last off of the airplane. Either way you are in a line.
My passport is from the United States, I didn’t have to answer any questions, and it only took about 30 seconds to get my passport stamped (no visa required). Other passports may be more complicated. Aim for a line with single men in it. Also, realize when you get into the immigrations room, there are several lines, you can go way to the back of the room and the line may be shorter.
After you get your passport stamped you collect your bags. There are several belts, look for your flight above them or ask the person standing in the middle of the place which belt your bags will come off of. Here they also have an ATM and a place to change your dollars/euros/pesos or whatever else you have. The sign says “no fee”, but I don’t believe them. Perhaps there is no fee but a poor exchange rate. Either way I change my money in Miami before I arrive. If you are late to your local airport, or that currency exchange runs out of money, don’t panic, you can change money here.
After this you drag your stuff through an inspection of sorts (I wasn’t inspected) and then meet a herd of people. About 20 people will offer you a cab ride. Make sure you agree on a price before you go. Bring a cheap-o calculator to speak your numbers for you if you don’t speak Spanish (the Spanish word for how much is ‘Cuanto?’, so you would say ‘Cuanto a Sheraton?’) You are probably better off shaking off the first several people and finding a taxi in the street. Anything more then 50 soles is suspect, 30 is about right to get downtown.
Another thing before I get to departures is this: it seems most flights into Lima arrive late at night – like 2300 or so, and all flights to Cuzco leave at 0600. Connecting flights to other cities (like Iquitos or Chiclayo) will also depart early in the morning.
If your flight arrives at 2300, give yourself another hour to get through customs – that’s 0000. If you have a hotel, it will take you another hour to get there and another hour to get back, as most hotels are quite a ways away and you have to check in/check out. Add another hour for domestic check-in. This gives you perhaps 3 hours of sack time at your hotel. If you have a connecting flight the next day early in the morning, I would strongly recommend simply sleeping at the airport – do not bother going to a hotel. There is nothing comfortable to sleep on, but at least you can sleep.
Your alternative is to spend an extra day in Lima and visit a museum or two the next day. This isn’t a bad choice, either, although most people on vacation have limited time schedules to get back to work.
Departures
They tell you to arrive 3 hours before your flight for international departures, and they aren’t kidding. Check-in at the airline takes a little while, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that your airline only has one plane leaving at that time. Delta had six agents and a line out the wazoo (or at least beyond the pretty ropes) despite the fact they couldn’t fit more then 280 people on the plane. That line was about an hour.
After this, you have to go pay your departure tax of $28 and change (your change will be some nice sole coins for souvenirs). It’s payable in soles or dollars. This doesn’t take any time, but then you go behind these frosted doors which hide the surprise of a huge line of people trying to get their passports stamped to get out. In this area, there are about 8 lines. Aim for a line with single men with blue passports. It seems to me that families and Peruvian (brown) passports take extra time. For some reason one family seemed to take at least 10 minutes; maybe they lost their little cards.
After you get the stamp in your passport (this only takes 30 seconds if you are a single man with a United States passport and you have your little card), then you get in the next line which is similar to the lines in the United States as you pass security. Security is very similar to the United States: you put your stuff in the X-ray machine, take of your shoes, and walk through a metal detector. The security part didn’t take much time at all – maybe 5 minutes.
Either way you need to be headed to the gate about 80 minutes before departure time – more if you are the nervous type. Most of this is waiting in that silly line to get out of the country. I’m not sure why my passport was stamped within 30 seconds, yet the line was about 40 minutes. I’m guessing Peruvian citizens and people without their little cards take a while.
The airport itself is rather nice and modern. There is a food court outside of the gates with several choices including some American chain restaurants (I seem to remember a McDonalds there). There are also overpriced stores in case you forgot to buy your souvenirs in the city. At least 50% of the employees in the airport speak some English, so if you have a question, ask about and you’ll probably find somebody that will help you.
Peru as a country realizes the value of tourists and they treat tourists very well. Of course they will try to suck your dollars off of you in any way they can, but you’ll be treated very well while they try to do that. Peru is a great country to visit; it is somewhat inexpensive (rather cheap depending on where you go) and the scenery is amazing. Use standard foreigner caution, and you will have a great time.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
tgregoryt
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Member: Thomas Gregory
Location: Winter Garden, FL
Reviews written: 249
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