DAY 1: LIMA TO CUZCO
After an early morning flight from Lima brings you to the beautiful Inca and colonial city of to Cuzco (locally spelled Cusco). You will be met at the airport and transfer to your hotel in town (either Hotel Casa Andina Private Collection or Hotel Emperador Plaza or similar). Cuzco stands at 11,500 ft so it is important to start at an easy pace. You’ll have the rest of the morning free for some easy walking around the beautiful city to see some of the detailed colonial architecture as well as examine some of the finest examples of the Inca’s precise stonework.
After lunch, we will drive up through eucalyptus groves into the hills overlooking Cuzco to the magnificent fortress of Sacsayhuaman, one of the most impressive megalithic structures in the world. With three partial zigzag ramparts, one above the other and each incorporating 21 bastions, the structure runs for nearly 1200 ft and exhibits some of the best large-scale stone work in the world. We’ll then move on to three other important ruins in the area: Kenqo, Puca Pucara, Tambomachay.
Lodging: Casa Andina Private Collection or Hotel Emperador Plaza or similar
DAY 2: CUZCO – SACRED VALLEY OF THE INCAS
After an 8 am breakfast at our hotel, we will travel to the Sacred Valley. We will enjoy views of the Cordillera Vilcabamba as we drive to a small altiplano and to the settlement of Chincheros, a culturally and economically important market town and one in which we can see distinctly dressed Quechua groups from surrounding villages.
We visit the market and then descend into the Urubama Valley to have lunch, and later to descend the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo, an Inca city where we will explore the ruins just above the town and river. Ollantaytambo is a Quechua town of small cobbled streets, traditional homes, and extensive Inca ruins. It was originally built as a fortification to guard access to the Urubamba Valley which abruptly narrows at this location. In the ruins we hike up Inca stone stairways and explore old rooms and passageways built into the mountainside.
Late in the afternoon we will head to the train station and board a “Vista Dome” rail car from which we can enjoy views of the river and steepening valley walls as we travel downstream an hour-and-a-half to a spot on the river not far from Machu Picchu.
Lodging: Hotel Hatun Inti Classic (breakfast and lunch included).
DAY 3: MACHU PICCHU TO CUSCO
The Urubamba River runs through the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba. Dunham Gooding
We’ll have an early breakfast in the hotel and at 6:00 am, transfer to a bus for the drive up to the citadel of Machu Picchu, and be there early enough to enjoy sunrise.
Machu Picchu is the most remarkable of Inca ruins, and it is considered by many to be the most awe-inspiring accomplishment of all ancient civilizations. Sunrise will gradually and dramatically reveal its complexity. After sunrise, we will enjoy a complete guided tour of the site, lasting approximately 3 hours.
Once the tour has concluded we will have free time to walk around, to explore, and for some to climb to the summit of the peak of Huayna Picchu (seen in the background of the classic vista of Machu Picchu). If you make it either part way or all the way up this peak, you’ll enjoy seeing Machu Picchu from a different angle and getting an impressive panorama of the surrounding mountain peaks and the great gorge of the Urubamba Canyon.
In the afternoon, we will take a bus down to the town of Aguas Calientes on the river and have lunch there at Restaurant Indio Feliz. After lunch we’ll have time explore Aguas Calientes and its market.
In the early evening, we’ll take the train back to Ollantaytambo and then bus to Cuzco, where we arrive after nightfall.
Lodging: Casa Andina Private Collection or Hotel Emperador Plaza or similar (breakfast and lunch are included)
DAY 4: CUZCO – LIMA
Breakfast in the hotel, and transfer to the airport for leave Cuzco for the flight to Lima.
Itinerary
