Machu Picchu ruins on a ridge with cloud drifting through the Andes behind

Andean · Peru

Machu Picchu

Inca Ridges & Sacred Valley

Best time
May to September
Location
Peru

About Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was built around 1450 on a ridge at 2,430 m, abandoned within a century, and never found by the Spanish — which is why it is the one major Inca site whose walls are still standing to their original height. Reaching it is half the point. The Sacred Valley below runs sixty kilometres from Pisac to Ollantaytambo, at a gentler 2,800 m, with terracing, salt pans and market towns that still work on Inca foundations. Above it sits Cusco at 3,400 m, where every colonial church is bolted onto Inca masonry the earthquakes could not shift. Come between May and September, when the trail is dry, and give the altitude two days before you ask anything of it.

Good to know

Flight time
24h from Delhi via Madrid or Amsterdam
Currency
Peruvian Sol (PEN)
Language
Spanish and Quechua; English at the lodges
Visa
Required, or visa-free with a valid US or Schengen visa

What you'll do

The four we'd book first

  1. The Sun Gate at dawn

    Intipunku on the fourth morning of the trail, with the whole site laid out below and cloud still moving through it.

  2. Ollantaytambo's terraces

    The only Inca town still lived in on its original grid, under a temple hill of six monoliths hauled across a valley.

  3. Maras and the salt pans

    Thousands of hand-cut evaporation pools worked by the same families since before the conquest, on a hillside above the Urubamba.

  4. The Pisac market

    Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, when the highland villages come down to trade rather than to sell to visitors.

Curated itineraries

Machu Picchu packages

The Sun Gate at first light after four days on the trail, Sacred Valley markets on their proper days, and Cusco's colonial lanes built straight onto Inca stone.

*Per person on twin sharing. Prices move with season and availability — we confirm yours in writing before anything is booked.

Still deciding

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Plan this trip

Tell us how you'd like to see Machu Picchu.

Any of these six is a starting point, not a fixed menu. Send us the dates and who's travelling, and a planner will come back with a version built round you — usually within twelve hours.

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