Peru: Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and the Amazon

Arrive in Lima

Jorge Chávez International Airport to your hotel in Miraflores

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Lima
• Environ 1 h de route

Soir

Plan to land by mid-afternoon so you can join the evening; the latest arrival time is confirmed with your final itinerary. Miraflores sits on cliffs above the Pacific, and if you have energy left, the malecón is a few minutes' walk from the hotel: a clifftop path of parks and lookouts where paragliders ride the sea breeze and the sun sets straight into the ocean. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on what lies ahead: the early flight to Cusco, how we handle the altitude, what to pack for the train and the rainforest. Then we walk to a local restaurant for a welcome dinner and a first taste of Lima's cooking, from ceviche to lomo saltado.

Compris

• Pick-up at Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner in Miraflores

Fly to Cusco, sleep lower in the Sacred Valley

Lima to Cusco by air, then over the Chinchero plateau to the Sacred Valley

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Sacred Valley
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

A morning flight takes about an hour and twenty minutes from the coast to Cusco, at about 3,400 metres. Instead of staying in the city, we drive straight out over the Chinchero plateau, where on a clear day the snow peaks of the Cordillera Urubamba line the horizon. In Chinchero, at about 3,760 metres, we stop briefly at the colonial church built on Inca foundations and watch a weaving demonstration: natural dyes from plants and insects, and backstrap looms, with no obligation to buy.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal on the way down. By mid-afternoon we reach our hotel near Urubamba, at about 2,870 metres, some 500 metres lower than Cusco, which is the kindest place to spend the first Andean nights.

Soir

The rest of the day is for coca tea, water, an early night and getting used to the thin air slowly.

Compris

• Flight from Lima to Cusco
• Drive to the Sacred Valley via Chinchero
• Chinchero church and a weaving demonstration
• Sit-down lunch on the way

Pisac at opening, then Moray and Maras

Urubamba to Pisac and back, then up to Moray and the Maras salt pans

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Sacred Valley
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We leave after an early breakfast to reach the Pisac archaeological park when it opens, around 7 am, before the tour buses arrive from Cusco. Walk the curving agricultural terraces and the Intihuatana sector, where some of the finest Inca stonework sits on a ridge high above the valley, and look across the gorge to a cliff dotted with Inca tombs.

Après-midi

Down in Pisac town there is time for the craft market before we head back along the valley for lunch, hosted by a family in a farming village: potatoes, corn and quinoa grown a few steps away. After a short rest at the hotel we drive up to the plateau in the mid-afternoon, timed to reach both sites well before they close, usually around 5 pm. Moray is a set of circular terraces sunk into the ground that the Incas may have used to test crops. Nearby, the Maras salt pans are thousands of small pools fed by a salty spring and worked by local families.

Compris

• Pisac archaeological park at opening, with your guide
• Pisac craft market
• Hosted lunch with a family in a Sacred Valley village
• Moray circular terraces
• Maras salt pans

Ollantaytambo early, then the train to Aguas Calientes

Urubamba to Ollantaytambo, then by train along the Urubamba river to Aguas Calientes

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Aguas Calientes
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

We are at the temple hill when it opens, around 7 am, and climb the steep terraces in soft morning light while most visitors are still on the road from Cusco. Your guide shows you the unfinished Temple of the Sun, six huge blocks of pink stone hauled across the river from a quarry on the far side. Your main bag goes ahead to the Cusco hotel today, so you travel light with a small overnight bag.

Après-midi

After lunch in Ollantaytambo we board the panoramic-window train for about an hour and a half down the Urubamba gorge, where the dry valley gives way to cloud forest, orchids and waterfalls. Aguas Calientes sits at about 2,040 metres beneath the mountain.

Soir

The evening is free: the thermal baths, the market or an early night.

Compris

• Ollantaytambo temple hill at opening, with your guide
• Lunch in Ollantaytambo
• Panoramic-window train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes
• Main luggage taken ahead to your Cusco hotel

Activités en option

• Thermal baths in Aguas Calientes. Small entry fee paid locally.

Machu Picchu in the early morning, then back to Cusco

Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu, then by train to Ollantaytambo and by road to Cusco

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cusco
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

Because we slept at the foot of the mountain, the bus up is a short ride of about 25 minutes, not a pre-dawn transfer from Cusco. We enter on an early timed ticket, aiming for the first slots, and a licensed Machu Picchu guide we book for the group takes you round with your See Sight Tours guide. Built in the 15th century and listed by UNESCO in 1983, the citadel sits on a saddle between two peaks, with Huayna Picchu rising behind it. We start at the upper terraces for the classic view while the light is soft, then walk down past the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows and the main plaza, on the circuit our tickets allow. Allow about two and a half to three hours inside.

Après-midi

After lunch in Aguas Calientes we take an early-afternoon train back to Ollantaytambo and drive about two hours to Cusco, arriving around 6:30 to 7 pm, where your bag is waiting.

Compris

• Bus up to Machu Picchu and back down
• Machu Picchu early timed entry with a licensed site guide and your See Sight Tours guide
• Lunch in Aguas Calientes
• Early-afternoon panoramic-window train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo
• Drive to your hotel in Cusco

Activités en option

• Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain. Separate ticket, limited numbers each day; ask when you book.

Sacsayhuamán at opening and the stones of Cusco

Sacsayhuamán, Qorikancha and the Plaza de Armas

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Cusco
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

After a night in Cusco and three lower Andean nights before it, its altitude of about 3,400 metres no longer feels like a climb. We start at Sacsayhuamán above the city at opening, around 7 am, walking along three tiers of zigzag walls built from enormous stones fitted without mortar, with the red roofs of Cusco below. Back in the centre we visit Qorikancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun, where a Dominican convent was built over the finest curved masonry in the city, then walk Hatun Rumiyoc street to the twelve-angled stone and on to the Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas. On a Sunday the order may swap, as Qorikancha keeps shorter hours. The tour ends by late morning or early afternoon. The afternoon is yours: San Pedro market, the San Blas artisans' quarter, a museum or simply a long lunch.

Compris

• Sacsayhuamán at opening, with your guide
• Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun
• Hatun Rumiyoc and the twelve-angled stone
• Cusco Cathedral

Down to the Amazon and up the Tambopata river

Cusco to Puerto Maldonado by air, then by boat up the Tambopata river to the lodge

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tambopata
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

A short morning flight of about 50 minutes drops you from the Andes to Puerto Maldonado, at about 180 metres, and the air turns warm and heavy as the doors open. At the lodge's office in town we leave large bags in storage and take only a small one into the forest. From the river port, a covered motorised canoe carries us up the Tambopata river, between one and three hours depending on the lodge we confirm, watching the banks for herons, kingfishers, turtles and capybaras.

Après-midi

Lunch is served on arrival or on board. After settling into rooms with their own bathroom, a resident naturalist guide leads a first walk on the trails near the lodge, explaining how to move quietly and what the forest sounds mean.

Soir

After dinner we head out with torches on a night walk for frogs, insects, spiders and, if we are lucky, a tarantula at its burrow.

Compris

• Flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado
• Luggage storage in Puerto Maldonado
• Motorised canoe up the Tambopata river to the lodge
• Afternoon forest walk with a naturalist guide
• Guided night walk
• All meals at the lodge

A dawn clay lick and the oxbow lake

Tambopata: the clay lick, an oxbow lake and the river at night

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tambopata
• En bateau

Matin

We leave the lodge before dawn by boat to reach a clay lick at first light, the time when parrots, parakeets and, on good mornings, macaws gather on the exposed riverbank to eat the mineral-rich clay. Activity changes with the season and the weather, so your guide reads the morning and we wait quietly from a hide or the boat. Breakfast is back at the lodge. Late in the morning we walk to an oxbow lake, a cut-off loop of old river, and paddle across it in a canoe looking for hoatzins, herons, turtles and the families of giant otters that live on some of these lakes. The hot middle of the day is free for a hammock, a shower and a book.

Soir

After dinner we go out on the river by boat with a spotlight to find the red glow of caiman eyes along the banks.

Compris

• Dawn visit to a clay lick with your naturalist guide
• Oxbow lake by canoe
• Caiman-spotting boat trip after dark
• All meals at the lodge

Above the canopy and into the forest

Tambopata: the canopy, a medicinal plant trail and a Brazil nut forest

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tambopata

Après-midi

In the late afternoon there is a choice: a longer walk deeper into the forest with the guide, or a quiet hour at the lodge watching the river.

Soir

The last lodge dinner comes with a talk from the naturalists on what the group has seen.

Compris

• Canopy tower or walkway with your naturalist guide
• Medicinal plant trail
• Brazil nut forest walk
• All meals at the lodge

Back down the river and fly to Lima

Tambopata river to Puerto Maldonado, then by air to Lima

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Lima
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

After a last breakfast at the lodge we take the boat back down the Tambopata river to Puerto Maldonado, one more chance to spot a capybara or a heron on the banks. We collect the large bags from storage and fly to Lima, about an hour and forty minutes on a direct flight, or a little longer via Cusco on days without one. The change is sudden: from the rainforest to the cool, grey air of the Pacific coast.

Après-midi

We drive to your hotel in Miraflores or Barranco and the afternoon is free to rest, swim if the hotel has a pool, or walk the clifftop malecón.

Soir

In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner at a Lima restaurant, a good place to try a pisco sour and Peruvian-Japanese or Peruvian-Chinese dishes, and to swap photos from the forest.

Compris

• Motorised canoe back to Puerto Maldonado
• Flight from Puerto Maldonado to Lima
• Transfer to your hotel
• Farewell dinner in Lima

Lima's historic centre and home

Miraflores to the historic centre, then Jorge Chávez International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

On the last morning we drive into Lima's historic centre, listed by UNESCO, before the midday traffic. Your guide walks you round the Plaza Mayor, with the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace and its carved wooden balconies, and on to the Monastery of San Francisco. Beneath its church lie the catacombs, where bones from colonial-era burials are laid out in patterns in the vaults, and above them a library of old books under a carved ceiling. There is time for a coffee or an early lunch on your own nearby before we drive you to Jorge Chávez International Airport, about 45 minutes to an hour from the centre depending on traffic.

Soir

Flights from Lima to North America mostly leave in the evening or late at night, so book one leaving after about 6 pm to see the centre without hurrying.

Compris

• Lima historic centre walk with your guide: the Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace
• Monastery of San Francisco and its catacombs
• Drop-off at Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)