You start at 3,400 metres. Machu Picchu is downhill from here.
Which Machu Picchu train is worth the upgrade. What the 3am bus to Rainbow Mountain costs. Whether the Sacred Valley earns a whole day or a stop on the way to the ruins. Reviews of the tours and treks you can book out of Cusco.
Sacsayhuaman, the salt pans, Machu Picchu, Humantay: the four days a first Cusco trip is built on.
Booked in this order, they ease you into the altitude before the early starts.
01Day one, gentlyHalf-Day City Tour with Sacsayhuaman and Q’encoQorikancha and the stone walls on the hill above town in an afternoon, with the bus doing the climbing.
02The valley loopSacred Valley & Maras Salt Mines Tour with LunchChinchero weavers, the Moray rings and the Maras salt terraces, with lunch in Urubamba, a few hundred metres lower than town.
03The big oneFull-Day Group Tour of Machu PicchuRoad and rail to Aguas Calientes, a guided walk through the citadel, back in Cusco by night.
04The early startHumantay Lake Tour with Breakfast and Buffet LunchA pre-dawn pickup, breakfast in Mollepata, then a steep climb to a turquoise lake under the glacier.
Train, Inca Trail or the long way round: how you reach Machu Picchu.
There is no road to the citadel. You ride the railway along the Urubamba, or you walk in over the passes. Four ways to arrive, what each costs to book, and how many days each one takes.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Machu Picchu Day Trip from Cusco · from $336
By trainPanoramic carriages down the gorge, there and back in a long day.
The Inca TrailPermits, porters and the Sun Gate, in two days or four.
The Salkantay routeA higher, quieter trek past a glacier, no trail permit needed.
The Inca JungleDownhill biking, rafting and zip lines on the way in.
All 196 Machu Picchu days →
The Cusco day trips travellers book most.
Every Cusco tour we have reviewed →Past the four above, these are the days out of Cusco that fill first, and what earns each of them the spot.
1
Moray, Maras Salt Mines & Chinchero Weavers Tour
This roughly six-and-a-half-hour trip links Chinchero’s Quechua weaving traditions, Moray’s circular Inca terraces and Maras’s working salt pools. Expect a bilingual guide, transport and hotel pickup outside Cusco’s historic center. Guides vary, with Felipe, Julio and Edi among those who lead the route. Site entry fees are extra, so bring cash.
From · $15
Read our review →
2
Machu Picchu Day Trip from Cusco
from $336
3
Sacred Valley, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Salt Mines Moray
from $28
4
Full-Day Tour from Cusco with Optional Lunch
from $283
5
Chinchero,Moray & Salt Mines drop-off in Ollantaytambo
from $27
6
City Tour Cusco Qoricancha Sacsayhuaman y Tambomachay
from $13
7
Excursion to Humantay lake from Cusco
from $20
8
Peruvian Cooking Class, Cocktails & Local Market Tour
from $67
Rainbow Mountain, Humantay, Ausangate: the Cusco days that start at 3am.
The minibuses leave Cusco in the dark so you reach the trailhead before the cloud does. Vinicunca tops out above 5,000 metres, Humantay sits under a glacier at about 4,200, and Palccoyo gives you the stripes on a gentler walk. Give yourself two days in town before any of them.
Pisac, Moray, the Maras salt pans and Ollantaytambo in one long Sacred Valley day.
The valley floor sits roughly 500 metres below Cusco, which makes it the kindest first excursion on your lungs. Most tours run the same loop: Pisac terraces and market, lunch near Urubamba, the salt pans and the Moray circles, then the lived-in Inca streets of Ollantaytambo, where the Machu Picchu trains leave from.
- 1Moray, Maras Salt Mines & Chinchero Weavers Tourfrom $15
- 2Sacred Valley, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Salt Mines Morayfrom $28
- 3Chinchero,Moray & Salt Mines drop-off in Ollantaytambofrom $27
What a day out of Cusco really costs, from bus seat to Hiram Bingham.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what you pay per person. Much of the best of Cusco costs less than a dinner on the Plaza de Armas.
City tours, the Sacred Valley loop, and the group buses to Humantay and Rainbow Mountain.
Small-group mountain days, horse rides above town, cooking classes and the Titicaca day trip.
Machu Picchu by train, the Inca Trail and the multi-day treks, with permits, rail and entry in the price.
- 1Full-Day Group Tour of Machu Picchufrom $321
- 2Machu Picchu Day Trip from Cuscofrom $336
- 3Full-Day Tour from Cusco with Optional Lunchfrom $283
Four Cusco bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of Cusco can be arranged from a café on the plaza the evening before. The road to Machu Picchu cannot. Trail permits, entry hours and train seats are all rationed, and in the dry months they run out.
- 014-Day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with AccommodationTrail permits are capped per day and the dry-season dates go months ahead. The trail also shuts every February for repairs.
- 02Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu from Cusco Full dayThe peak behind the ruins takes a limited number of climbers a day on fixed entry times, and those slots sell out first.
- 03Machu Picchu Entrance TicketEntry is sold by circuit and by hour under a daily cap. From June to August the morning slots go weeks in advance.
- 04Machu Picchu Tour by Vistadome Panoramic Train from CuscoSeats on the trains down the valley are limited, and the windowed carriages fill first in the dry season.
Inca walls under colonial balconies: a day in Cusco itself.
Every Cusco city tour →
The Spanish built straight onto Inca foundations, so the best of the city is in its walls: the curved stonework of Qorikancha under the Santo Domingo convent, the twelve-angled stone on Hatun Rumiyoc, and the giant blocks of Sacsayhuaman on the hill above the plaza.
Sacsayhuaman and the hilltop ruins
The zigzag walls first, then Qenqo, Puka Pukara and Tambomachay strung along the road out of town. Many half-day tours pair the four with Qorikancha.
A market run, then a Peruvian kitchen
Buy the produce at a local market, then cook a ceviche or a lomo saltado and shake a pisco sour to go with it. Indoors, seated, gentle on day one.
Pisco sours and the old town at night
Lantern-lit walks through the plazas, a mixology lesson in a colonial courtyard, or the planetarium with dinner and a pisco sour at the end.
Cusco sits at 3,400 metres. Plan a slow first day.
Most visitors feel the height on arrival: short of breath on the stairs, a dull headache by evening. The usual advice is an easy first day, plenty of coca tea, and the 4,000-metre hikes saved for later in the week. These are the bookings that suit a slow start.
Salt pans, a sacred mountain and walls without mortar: three sights you only get around Cusco.
Inca ruins are spread across the Andes. A valley of salt terraces still worked by hand, the zigzag ramparts above Cusco and the lakes under Ausangate are not.
Maras and Moray
Below the village of Maras a salty spring has been channelled into thousands of shallow pools since before the Incas, and local families still harvest them by hand. A short drive away, the sunken circular terraces of Moray drop so deep that the bottom ring runs noticeably warmer than the rim; the usual theory is an Inca crop laboratory.
- 1Sacred Valley & Maras Salt Mines Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,227 reviews
- 2Moray, Maras Salt Mines & Chinchero Weavers Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,925 reviews
- 3Sacred Valley, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Salt Mines Moray★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,058 reviews
Sacsayhuaman
The ramparts above Cusco zigzag in three tiers, built from limestone blocks fitted without mortar, the largest several metres tall. Every 24 June the esplanade in front of them fills for Inti Raymi, the re-staged Inca festival of the sun.
- 1Half-Day City Tour with Sacsayhuaman and Q’enco★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,129 reviews
- 2City Tour Cusco Qoricancha Sacsayhuaman y Tambomachay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 617 reviews
- 3Cusco City Sightseeing and Sacsayhuaman Archeological Park Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 101 reviews
Ausangate and its lakes
At 6,384 metres Ausangate is the highest peak in the Cusco region and an apu, a mountain spirit, in Quechua belief. The day hikes circle a string of glacial lakes below it, each a different shade of turquoise, and the longer treks cross passes above 5,000 metres.
- 17 Lakes Ausangate Trek with Breakfast and Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 360 reviews
- 2Excursion to Ausangate & 7 lakes with Coca Ceremony |Private|★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 80 reviews
- 3Ausangate Trek 5 Days★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 74 reviews
Cusco, the valley, the citadel, the mountains: the week most first trips to Cusco follow.
Cusco
Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Rainbow Mountain
Humantay Lake
Lake TiticacaBy place: the city, the valley and beyond
By kind of day: trek, ride, ruin or kitchen
Our latest reviews from Cusco and the valley.
More new Cusco reviews →
Vinicunca Mountain Tour – Full Day Tour to Rainbow Mountain
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TRIP FROM PUNO TO CUSCO WITH THE ROUTE OF THE SUN
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Exclusive Huayna Picchu Tour in 1 Day from Cusco
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2 Day – Short Inca Trail to Machu Picchu – Group Service
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5 Day – Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu – Group Service
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Private Tour Sacred Valley, Chinchero, Maras Moray, Ollantaytambo
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6 day Rainbow Mountain x Ausangate Trek – FlashpackerConnect
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