DAY 1: CITY TOUR
Your local expert guide will collect you to your Hotel for a private tour of the city Starting in the San Blas neighborhood to Santo Domingo Convent monastery. This monastery was previously the Koricancha temple. The most important temple dedicated to worship the Sun God back in the Inca times. According to the chronicles, it was covered in gold leaf and filled with golden representations of nature. Your next stop will be the main plaza of Cusco and visit the Cathedral. After, you will drive to Sacsayhuaman. Here you will be impressed by the handmade Inca architecture with enormous carved stones combined with the utmost precision. In the Inca times, it represented one of the most important temples to worship their deities. After, you will continue exploring other archeological sites, Qenko, Pukapukra, and Tambomachay. After you will drive back to the city center where your guide will have recommendations for you to have lunch. Afterward, you will have a free afternoon to explore the city independently.
DAY 2: SACRED VALLEY TO AGUAS CALIENTES
Your private guide will collect you from your hotel. Drive to the archeological site of Saqsayhuaman considered one of the most important temples in the Inca times. After your visit, you continue driving to Llama and Alpaca farm Awanacancha. Along this drive, you will stop at beautiful viewpoints to see the outstanding farming communities and the sacred valley, a large valley surrounded by Snowy peaks of mountains. In the middle of the valley flows the Vilcanota or Urubamba River, which was very important during the Inca period for agricultural production until today. We used irrigation systems for the production of corn, potatoes, quinoa, and vegetables in this valley, which is one of the sources of the Amazon River. Eventually, you will get to Pisaq archeological site, where you will explore with your private guide. After you finish, you will come down to the colonial town of Pisaq. Where you will explore the biggest local handicrafts made in the area as well. Their specialty in this town is making Empanadas. Type of bread. If you like, you can try it after you will drive along this beautiful valley looking at the towns located on both sides and traditional Guinea pig restaurants. If you want to see and try it, let your Guide know to stop. As well, you have a choice of recommendation to stop for lunch. After lunch, you will visit Ollantaytambo archeological site. From here, your guide will take you to the train station, where you will take the train for 1:45 hrs to Aguas Calientes town. Here you will spend the night in the Hotel. Today is an easy day exploring hours 4 to 5 hours. The rest are driving and stopping for very nice photos.
DAY 3: EXPLORE MACHU PICCHU AND AFTERNOON BACK TO CUSCO
After Breakfast, your guide will pick you up from your hotel for a short bus journey to the entrance of Machu Picchu. Today you will explore this magical Inca city and enjoy learning about it was built and discovered for 3 hours. You will then have free time to wander around, and if you got a Ticket for Wayna Picchu, you can climb.
Note. There are just 400 visitors allowed per day. You have to book the entrance in advance, In the afternoon we meet in the town of Aguas Calientes. From here, we take the train back to Ollantaytambo or Poroy, depending on the space, and private transportation back to your hotel Cusco.
PROFESSIONAL TOUR GUIDE
All of our guides of Private Machu Picchu hold a degree in tourism, they studied at Cusco National University. They are passionate about sharing our Peruvian History, culture, gastronomy, and others, they are fluent in English speaking and many of them speak our local language (Quechua) they will make sure your safety and lifelong memories.
HOTELS
On this tour, we will include a one-night Hotel in Aguas Calientes. We can easily add extra nights before or after the tour if needed, please let know our travel specialist. Upgrade Hotels are always possible. We can also book the tour without any Hotels if you prefer to book them on your own.
TRANSPORTATION
We provide private transportation through the sacred valley to the train station and back to your hotel. It is also included trip bus ticket from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu.
TICKETS
The entrance fees are included to visit the sacred valley tour and Machu Picchu.
TRAIN TICKETS
Train tickets are in expeditions tourist class around trip from Ollantaytambo. If you would like to upgrade to Vistadome train, the fee is $75 one way and $100 round trip from Ollantaytambo.
CLIMATE AND WEATHER
The Cusco Region mainly presents two seasons, the rainy season, from November to April, with the heaviest rainfalls usually occurring between January, February, and March, and the dry season from May to October. The dry season is colder, so temperatures can drop to below 0 degrees at night.
Along the Inca Trail, the temperature ranges from 15-20°c during the day if it’s sunny, to 10-28°c during the day if not sunny, or 05-15°c at night in the first two campsites. At Wiñay Wayna and Machu Picchu, at a lower altitude, temperatures are usually warmer, though warm clothes are still recommended at night.
There are benefits and drawbacks to visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu during each season. The dry season is usually crowded at all the sites, and especially on the Inca Trail, you need to ensure your permit at least six months in advance.
The rainy season can be a very pleasant time for you who are looking to do cultural tours or for you who will design your vacations without trekking, including visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu with fewer people.
The altitude of Cusco city: 3400 meters
The population of Cusco: 1,300,000
MACHU PICCHU TICKETS
With the new regulations of the Peruvian government, the Machu Picchu entrance tickets go on sale from 6.00 am to 3.00 pm.
WAYNA PICCHU TICKETS
With the new regulations from the Peruvian government, the Wayna Picchu tickets go on sale from 7.00 am until 10:00 to 11:000 am. The hike Will take 45 minutes up and 30 minutes down all the way. The step is not recommendable for people who have vertigo.
Note: It’s essential to book in advance to ensure your entrance tickets to the sites.
MACHU PICCHU MOUNTAIN TICKETS
The hike will take you 1.45 hrs and 1:00 hrs down. The tickets go on sale in two windows of time from 6 to 7 a.m., and the second group is from 8 to 9 a.m. Takes longer, but it’s more beautiful.
STRIKES
It is the biggest problem in South America, not just in Peru. It can affect us on our tour treks. Roads are often blocked as well as trains stop their operations. Usually, the advice is two weeks in advance to prevent do not affect too much any of this country’s problems on our tours. In the worst-case, Private Machu Picchu Will let you know to cancel the tours or treks. Your health and safety are our top priorities.
ARRIVAL AT CUSCO
Cusco has an airport, mostly for domestic flights from inside the country. Our international airport is Jorge Chavez in Lima.
LATAM Airlines is the biggest company that operates in Peru and has connections all over the world. It is the only airline that doesn’t have too many cancellations in the weather conditions here in Cusco. The time flight from Lima to Cusco is one hour. You can always connect your flights to Puno, Arequipa, Puerto Maldonado Jungle, Iquitos, or the north of Peru, in our extension tours.
There is always a bus option from Lima to Cusco. The time will take you 22 hours.
FOOD
Peruvian cuisine is recognized for its biodiversity of products and continues conquering the whole world. Peruvian food is being awarded internationally for owning the most delicious food in the world.
The Cusco Region has unique gastronomy for the use of local products like potatoes, quinoa, corn, a variety of vegetables, and its exotic fruits, plus guinea pig and alpaca meat. Your travel expert will recommend restaurants that you can visit here in Peru and Cusco.
On our treks, we provide you with delicious food. You just need to make sure to let us know your dietary restrictions before departure on our treks, as well as our chefs are well-experienced in cooking in the mountains.
WHAT WE RECOMMEND TO BRING
- Backpack with a change of clothes for the whole period of the trek.
- Strong footwear and waterproof trekking boots are recommended.
- Sandals or jogging shoes for higher comfort while at camp.
- Warm clothes, including jackets and fleece. Thermal clothing is also recommended, especially for sleeping.
- Camera and batteries (batteries consume more quickly under cold conditions).
- Sun block or sun cream.
- Hydrating cream for face and body.
- Insect repellent – minimum recommended 20% deet – no malaria risk has been reported.
- Toilet paper and tissues.
- Snacks: biscuits, energy bars, chocolate, dried fruits, etc. Please note that we provide a snack, and our meal service is complete and well-supplied. This recommendation applies to all clients being used to a specific snack, as it may happen that it’s not included in our selection.
- Water container and water for the first morning. Important notice: plastic water bottles are no longer allowed on the Inca trail. Plastic water containers or camelback or metal ones are recommended.
- Optionally water sterilizing tablets in case you pick up water from streams or rivers along the route; otherwise, we provide filtered, boiled water, which is safe to drink and has not reported any health problems so far.
- Small towel.
- Swimsuit (If you have an extra day in Aguas Calientes town, you can go to the hot springs).
- Cash in soles or in Dollars.
- Original Passport, travel insurance, and any important health document you may have to follow any restrictions.
- Original international student identity card (In case you have applied for a student discount).
- Optional, walking sticks or hiking poles (rubber covers necessary to avoid damaging the Inca Trail). If not, we have some here for rent.
OPTIONAL SERVICES TO BE HIRED
An extra hotel night in Aguas Calientes can be booked for you at an additional cost depending on the Hotel you choose. Please note that the additional entrance fee cost is not included if you wish to revisit Machu Picchu the following day.
Massage sessions: us$50 per 1-hour session. Our massage therapists have the highest recognition in Cusco.
RECOMMENDED PACKING LIST FOR TREKS
- Passport.
- Valid student card in case you booked as a student.
- Immigration stamp.
- 25L or 30L day pack.
- Water bottle or camelback with 2L of storage.
- Footwear, waterproof hiking boots.
- 4 or 5 hiking t-shirts, three hiking pants considering one nice outfit for Machu Picchu, five sets of undergarments, four pairs of socks, one fleece and down jacket for cold nights, a set of rain gears jacket, pants, a sun hat, wool hat, headlamp, warm waterproof gloves, shoes for camp, quick-dry small towel.
- Battery charger. There is no place to plug in while trekking.
- Sunscreen, face moisturizer, insect repellent, hand sanitizer, wet wipes, toothbrush and paste, toilet paper, personal medication, band-aids, moleskin, and others.
- Camera, phone, music player.
