Cusco and Machu Picchu: travel guide

Built in the 15th century under the Inca Pachacútec on a ridge at 2,430 m between the peaks of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu, the city was abandoned less than a century later and revealed to the world by Hiram Bingham in 1911. Temples, farming terraces, the residential quarter and the Intihuatana, the solar observation stone, are read from the guardian's hut, the classic viewpoint. The site is part of the historic sanctuary inscribed by UNESCO in 1983.

Since 2024 the visit follows set circuits (1 panoramic, 2 classic, 3 royal) split into routes, with a time slot, one-way flow and no turning back; the named tickets are bought on the official platform tuboleto.cultura.pe or at the Cusco ticket office and sell out weeks ahead in the dry season. The foreign-adult price is published on tuboleto.cultura.pe (in the region of 150-165 soles), with the Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu mountain climbs extra. Access is from Aguas Calientes, terminus of the train from Ollantaytambo, by shuttle bus (25 min) or on foot (1.5 hrs uphill).

The Plaza de Armas occupies the former Huacaypata, the Incas' great ceremonial square, whose outline the Spanish kept while lining it with arcades. Two buildings dominate it: the cathedral (1560-1654), built over the palace of the Inca Viracocha with blocks taken from Sacsayhuamán, which holds Marcos Zapata's Last Supper with a guinea pig in place of the lamb, and the church of the Compañía de Jesús, the Jesuits' baroque masterpiece.

It is the starting point of any visit: the Qoricancha is five minutes away, San Blas ten minutes uphill. The square hosts the Corpus Christi processions and the June parades before the Inti Raymi; in the evening, the arcade balconies serve as a viewpoint over the floodlit cathedral.

On the hill overlooking Cusco to the north, Sacsayhuamán is the most imposing Inca structure in the region: three rows of zigzag walls nearly 400 m long, made of limestone blocks, the largest over 100 tonnes, fitted without mortar. Fortress or sanctuary, the site saw the 1536 battle between the Spanish and Manco Inca, then served as a quarry for the colonial city.

Along the same road come Q'enqo (carved rock and underground gallery), Puka Pukara (fortified post) and Tambomachay (ritual fountains), all included in the Boleto Turístico. From the esplanade the view takes in the whole city; this is where the Inti Raymi, the festival of the Sun, is re-enacted every 24 June.

The Qoricancha ('golden enclosure') was the most sacred temple of the Inca Empire, dedicated to Inti, the Sun god: its walls were lined with gold plates and its garden peopled with plants and animals in precious metal, melted down by the conquistadors. The Dominicans built their convent and church on its foundations, and the juxtaposition is striking: the curved wall of polished stone, fitted to the millimetre, survived the 1650 and 1950 earthquakes that brought down the colonial vaults.

Inside, the rooms dedicated to the Sun, the Moon and the stars open onto a baroque cloister; the trapezoidal niches and water channels bear witness to the cult. The temple is five minutes' walk from the Plaza de Armas, above a public garden from which the curved wall is seen.

60 km from Cusco at the end of the Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo is the only Inca village still lived in on its original plan: grid-pattern lanes, running-water channels and trapezoidal doorways of the canchas, the family compounds. Above, the fortress-temple climbs in terraces to the Temple of the Sun, six pink porphyry monoliths of over 50 tonnes hauled from a quarry across the river. This is where Manco Inca repelled the Spanish in 1536.

On the opposite slope, the Pinkuylluna granaries are visited freely. Ollantaytambo is also the departure station for most PeruRail and Inca Rail trains to Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu (1.5 to 2 hours); many travellers sleep here the night before to catch the first train.

About a hundred kilometres south-east of Cusco in the Vilcanota range, Vinicunca ('mountain of seven colours') owes its red, ochre, green and turquoise bands to mineral sediments (iron oxides, chlorite, sulphides) exposed by the retreat of the snow. The viewpoint stands at 5,036 m, facing the Ausangate glacier (6,384 m), on the land of the Pampachiri community.

There are two approaches: the Pitumarca (Quesiuno) track, a walk of about 1.5 to 2 hours with 400 m of climb, and the Cusipata track, shorter but irregularly open. Most visitors come on a day trip from Cusco, leaving around 4.30am, with the Red Valley (Valle Rojo) as an option on the way back. The entry fee is paid on site to the community, in cash.

33 km from Cusco at the entrance to the Sacred Valley, Pisac is twofold: the colonial village on the Urubamba, known for its craft market (daily, biggest on Sunday) and its bread ovens, and, 600 m higher, the Inca site strung along the ridge. Farming terraces curve down the slope, the Intihuatana sector groups temples and ritual baths, and the cliff opposite is riddled with thousands of looted tombs, the largest known Inca necropolis.

You climb on foot from the village (1.5 to 2 hours, steep) or take a taxi to the upper car park and walk back down the trail. The site is part of the Boleto Turístico; colectivos from Puputi street in Cusco get there in 45 minutes.

On the plateau above the Sacred Valley, 50 km from Cusco, two sites are visited together. The Maras salt pans line up over 3,000 terraced pools fed by a warm salty spring worked since pre-Inca times; the village families still harvest salt from May to October, and the view from the access road above is the most spectacular. Since 2019 visitors no longer walk between the pools, but along a balcony path.

Moray, 8 km away, is a set of concentric terraces dug into natural hollows, the largest 150 m across; the temperature difference between top and bottom suggests an Inca agricultural laboratory. Moray is included in the Boleto Turístico, the salt pans charge their own entry fee. The weavers of Chinchero often round off the trip.

On the slope north-east of the Plaza de Armas, San Blas has been Cusco's artisans' quarter since colonial times: steep cobbled lanes, white walls with blue doors, workshops of carvers, silversmiths and painters of the Cusco school. Its small church (1563), the city's oldest parish, keeps a cedar pulpit carved from a single piece, a masterpiece of Andean baroque.

The San Blas square, with its fountain and Saturday craft market, is the heart of the quarter; the Cuesta San Blas and Hatun Rumiyoc street, home to the twelve-angled stone of Inca Roca's palace, link it to the Plaza de Armas. In the evening, cafés and bars with terraces up the hill look out over the city's roofs.

Ten minutes west of the Plaza de Armas, the San Pedro central market has occupied since 1925 a hall attributed to Gustave Eiffel's workshop. Under its iron framework come stalls of Andean and Amazonian fruit, fresh-juice counters, cheeses, potatoes in dozens of varieties, medicinal herbs, meat and Oropesa bread, then, at the back, the canteens where you lunch on a set menu for a few soles.

It is the everyday market of Cusco's residents, not a staged attraction: you see the stallholders in tall hats and layered skirts, and you also find textiles and craft items at lower prices than the shops in the centre.