7 Day Trek Along The Inca Trail

After you arrive in Cusco, a representative of Valencia Travel Cusco will be waiting for you. We will pick you up in our private transportation and take you to your hotel, where you will spend the night. You will have a whole day to relax and enjoy the beauty Cusco has to offer. You will stay in this hotel or one of similar standard to this one:

Casa Andina Hotel or similar

IMPORTANT:: Check-in is around 12:00pm and check-out is around 10:00am. (Early check-in is possible for an additional charge).

Optional Cusco City tour (Not Included in price)
We will pick you up at 2:00pm from your hotel to start the tour and visiting the following places.

The Koricancha: Temple of the sun.
The Cathedral: Marvel of the religious art.
Sacsayhuaman: a majestic place with impressive works in stone, some up to 120 tons.
Q´enqo:(Labyrinth) a religious center dedicated to the adoration of the Earth.
Puca pucara:(reddish place) that was used as a military control center.
Tambomachay:(Temple of the Water) a center of adoration and worship of water.

Ending around 6:30pm, we will drop you off back to your hotel.

OPTION 1. – HALF DAY CITY TOUR

We will pick you up around 2:00pm at the start the tour. The places we will visit are:

The main cathedral (Plaza de Armas)
Qoricancha (The temple of the sun)
Four archeological sites, which include: Sacsayhuaman, Q´enqo, Pucapucara and Tambomachay.

The tour ends at around 6:00pm, after which, we drop you off at your hotel. Meals are not included on this tour but we are always happy to offer suggestions. We do offer an optional buffet dinner with a folkloric show at an additional $24 USD per person.

OPTION 2. - FULL DAY SACRED VALLEY

You will have breakfast (which is included) and picked up from your hotel around 8:15am. This will be a full day excursion to the Urubamba Valley, visiting the colorful native market in the town of Pisac where you can appreciate the mixture of colors, traditions, have an opportunity to test your bartering skills, interact with the local craftsmen and purchase their hand-made souvenirs. Pisac is located at the entrance of the Sacred Valley.

The valley is approximately 31km/19miles from Cusco and at an altitude of 2,970m/9,700 ft. After Pisac, we will go to Urubamba, where we will have a delicious lunch buffet at Tunupa restaurant. We continue our journey to Ollantaytambo, the oldest continuously occupied town in the South American continent.

The narrow streets of Ollantaytambo, along with their canals, have not changed much from the time of the Incan Empire. They display their ancestral inheritance and will give you a feeling of what it was like to live during that time.

Our last stop in our journey will be the Chinchero market. Chinchero is believed to be the mythical birthplace of the rainbow! Its main attraction in tourism is its colorful Sunday market, which is less tourist-orientated than the market at Pisac. Our journey ends, returning you to the Plaza de Armas in Cusco around 6:30 pm.

The night is free for you to eat in any restaurant of your choice; although we always have plenty of suggestions available should you require them.

The total distance to be covered on day 3 in the Inca Trail is approximately 12km (5 to 6 hours). We will pick you up from your hotel around 4:00 or 4:30am (the exact time is confirmed at the briefing) and travel by bus to Piskacucho (which is called kilometer 82), this is where the trail begins.

There will be a breakfast stop in Ollantaytambo (6:30-7am) to load up on energy! Breakfast is not included in the trip. Upon arrival at kilometer 82 (around 8:30am), you will have some time to organize yourselves (use of the restrooms, applying sunscreen, insect repellents, and more).

Arriving at the trail's first control point, you will have to show your entrance tickets, passports and (if paying a student rate) your student card. The start of the trail (2720m/8923ft), we cross the Vilcanota River and follow it to the right.

The first day is relatively easy (a warm-up along the Incan flat terrain) you will have great views of an Incan Fortress (Huillca Raccay), the vast and incredible Incan site of Llactapata (officially called Patallacta), the Urubamba mountain range that divides the jungle, the Andes along with views of the beautiful snow-capped peak of W'akay Willca (5860m/19225ft), known in books as Veronica.

Our first campsite called Ayapata, is located in the small village of Wayllabamba (3000m/9842ft) in the temperate green valley of the same name. Temperatures at night are usually around 5ºC (depending on the month).

The total distance to be covered on day 4 in the Inca Trail is approximately 16km (8 to 9 hours). Upon waking up at 5 (or 5:30am) and breakfast, we will start a steep ascent towards the highest pass along the Inca Trail called the Abra de Warrmihuañusca or Dead Woman's Pass (4200m/13779ft).

On our way up to the pass, you will see lots of hummingbirds among other species of birds. We will also have time to appreciate an incredible variety of native plants and trees such as the Polylepis or Q'ueuña trees, which grow in the astonishing cloud forest located at 3650m/11972ft.

You will feel a real sense of achievement upon reaching the top! After a rest at the top, we will begin our descent to the lunch stop, which is located at Pacaymayu (3550m/11646ft). After lunch, we shall begin our second two-hour steep climb towards Runkuraqay pass (almost 4000m). We arrive to our campsite around 5pm. Temperatures at this campsite can be around 4ºC during the night!

The total distance to be covered on day 5 in the Inca Trail is 10km (approximately 5 hours). This is the most impressive day (in our opinion) so just keep thinking of that on the ascent on day 4!

We wake up for breakfast around 6am to start the day with a gentle climb and visit the archaeological site of Phuyupatamarca (meaning Town in the Clouds) while reaching the third highest point along the trail (3680m). The views of the mountains, canyons and surrounding areas are spectacular!

The Incan site of Phuyupatamarca is located a few minutes by walking from the third pass and after visiting this point. We continue walking through the cloud forest and the impressive agricultural Incan site of Intipata until we arrive to our third campsite Wiñay Wayna (2680m/8792ft).

On this day, we will only walk about 4 to 5 hours and arrive at our campsite by lunchtime! A short distance from our campsite is an Incan site of the same name Wiñay Wayna(meaning Forever Young). Even if you are tired after the day's trek, don't miss out on visiting one of the most impressive sites along the trail. Temperatures during the night are around 12º C.

The total distance to be covered on day 6 in the Inca Trail is 5km (approximately 2 hours).

We leave our last campsite at about 5:30am on the final day of our journey (breakfast will be around 3:30-4:00am). It’s an early start in order to get to Inti Punku otherwise known as the Sun gate (2730m/8792ft) before sunrise. This is the place where you will have your first dramatic view of Machu Picchu (2400m/7873ft) with the sun rising over it!

After some time there, we will walk down the last part of the trail to a spot where you can take the classic picture postcard shot of this ancient citadel. Finally, we will visit Machu Picchu! Your tour guide will give you a walking tour (2 hours) and after this, you can explore the mysterious citadel by yourself.

You will meet your tour guide in Aguas Calientes (the small town that hosts the citadel of Machu Picchu)! You can reach this town by bus or foot(which is approximately 2 hours) have lunch and be given your train tickets back to Cusco. The train takes you as far as Ollantaytambo and then a bus will take you the rest of the way to Cusco. Your train leaves Aguas Calientes in the afternoon so you need to be at the train station 30 minutes early ahead of time (your tour guide will tell you the exact times).

In Ollantaytambo, you will have a bus waiting for you to return to Cusco. A representative of Valencia Travel Cusco will be waiting for you, when you arrive to Cusco to take you to Hotel Casa Andina Cusco, where you will spend the night.

After having breakfast in the hotel, we will pick you up and take you to the airport in order to catch your plane.