Peru: Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca

1. Day 1: Arrive in Lima

   Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) to your hotel in Miraflores

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Lima
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) at any time today. A driver meets you in arrivals for the drive to Miraflores, about 20 km and usually under an hour, longer at rush hour. We stay in Miraflores, on the cliffs above the Pacific, because it is easy to walk in the evening and close to good restaurants, and we come back to the same area for the last night. If you land early, follow the Malecón, the clifftop path of parks and gardens, to the Parque del Amor and watch the paragliders ride the sea breeze. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group to talk through the twelve days ahead: why we sleep in the Sacred Valley before Cusco, what to pack for cold nights on Lake Titicaca and how the small train bags work. Then we walk to a welcome dinner for a first taste of Peruvian cooking, such as causa, lomo saltado and a pisco sour for those who want one. To join the briefing, plan to land by about 3 pm; later arrivals are briefed at breakfast.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Lima: the old centre and the Larco Museum

   Miraflores to the historic centre, the Larco Museum in Pueblo Libre and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Lima
   Day 2 details

   After breakfast we drive about 40 minutes into Lima's historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. We walk around the Plaza Mayor, past the Cathedral and the Government Palace, to the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco, with its tiled cloisters, its old library and the catacombs beneath the church, where the city buried its dead until the early 1800s. Late in the morning we cross to Pueblo Libre and the Larco Museum, set in an 18th-century mansion built over a pre-Columbian pyramid. Its galleries of Moche, Nazca, Chimú and Inca pottery, gold and textiles are a clear introduction to the cultures you meet over the next ten days, from the Inca heartland to the shores of Lake Titicaca. Lunch is ceviche, eaten the way Limeños eat it, at midday. We are back in Miraflores by mid-afternoon, and the rest of the day is free: walk to the murals of Barranco and the Puente de los Suspiros, or rest before tomorrow's early flight.

   Included

   • The historic centre of Lima with your guide: the Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral and the Government Palace (outside)
   • The Basilica and Convent of San Francisco and its catacombs
   • The Larco Museum
   • Ceviche lunch

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   

3. Day 3: Fly to Cusco, then down to the Sacred Valley

   Lima to Cusco by air, then by road through Pisac to Urubamba

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sacred Valley (Urubamba)
   Day 3 details

   An early breakfast and one of the few early starts: the flight to Cusco, about 1 hour 20 minutes, over the Andes. Cusco sits at about 3,400 metres, so we do not stay there yet. Our driver meets us at the airport and we head straight out over the hills and down into the Sacred Valley, where the hotel near Urubamba is about 500 metres lower and easier on the body for the first two nights. On the way we stop at the viewpoint above Taray, where the Urubamba River and its patchwork of maize fields open out below. In Pisac we sit down to a late lunch and walk through the town's market square; buying is entirely up to you. We follow the river down the valley and reach the hotel by mid-afternoon. The rest of the day is for resting: drink plenty of water, walk slowly, go easy on alcohol tonight and try the coca tea the hotel offers. Your guide checks in with everyone before dinner.

   Included

   • Flight from Lima to Cusco
   • The Taray viewpoint over the Sacred Valley
   • Lunch in Pisac and time in the market square

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Cusco airport is at about 3,400 metres. Tell your guide if you feel unwell; the valley hotel is lower.

   

4. Day 4: Moray and the Maras salt pans, a free afternoon

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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sacred Valley (Urubamba)
   Day 4 details

   We leave at about 8 am and climb out of the valley onto the high plateau, reaching Moray at about 8:30, ahead of most day tours from Cusco. Moray is a set of rings of Inca terraces built into natural hollows, where many archaeologists believe the Incas tested crops at different temperatures; your guide explains how the bottom ring can be several degrees cooler than the top. From there it is a short drive to the Maras salt pans: thousands of small pools stepped down a hillside, fed by a salty spring and worked by local families for centuries, seen from a path above. We are back on the valley floor for a sit-down lunch by about 1 pm. The afternoon is free, the first real one of the trip: read in the hotel garden, walk by the river into Urubamba, or rest. It is quiet on purpose, because tomorrow we pack for the train and the day after starts early.

   Included

   • Moray terraces with your guide (Cusco tourist ticket)
   • The Maras salt pans, community entry fee included
   • Sit-down lunch in the Sacred Valley

   Easier option: Watch Moray from the rim instead of walking down to the lower terraces.

   More active option: Walk down from the salt pans to the valley floor on a footpath, about an hour, with the van waiting below.

   Free time: Afternoon free

5. Day 5: Ollantaytambo, then the train to Aguas Calientes

   Urubamba to Ollantaytambo, then the train down the Urubamba gorge to Aguas Calientes

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Aguas Calientes
   Day 5 details

   We pack once and drive about 30 minutes down the valley to Ollantaytambo, reaching the ruins at about 8:30 am, ahead of most day tours from Cusco. Terraces climb steeply to the Temple Hill and its wall of six huge pink stone blocks, hauled from a quarry across the river. In 1537 Manco Inca held off a Spanish force here, one of the few Inca victories in open battle. Below the ruins, families still live on the Inca street grid, with stone water channels running beside the lanes, and we walk it before lunch in town. Your main bag goes on to Cusco in our vehicle, and you take an overnight bag. In the early afternoon we board the train for about an hour and a half down the Urubamba gorge, from dry hills into cloud forest, with windows in the carriage roof. Aguas Calientes is a small town wedged in the gorge below Machu Picchu. The late afternoon is free for the hot springs or the site museum, then we have dinner together.

   Included

   • Ollantaytambo archaeological site with your guide (Cusco tourist ticket)
   • Walk through Ollantaytambo's Inca town
   • Lunch in Ollantaytambo
   • Train to Aguas Calientes
   • Dinner in Aguas Calientes

   Optional experiences

   • The Aguas Calientes hot springs

   Easier option: Stay on the lower terraces and in the old town while the group climbs to the Temple Hill.

   More active option: Climb the path to the Pinkuylluna storehouses on the hill opposite the ruins, about an hour up and back.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

6. Day 6: Machu Picchu at 6 am

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

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Cusco
   Day 6 details

   This is the early start the first week builds to, and the reason we sleep in Aguas Calientes. We take one of the first buses up the zigzag road and walk in at 6 am, when the site is at its quietest and, in the dry season, the cloud lifts off the peaks as the sun reaches them. Built in the mid-1400s, most likely for the Inca ruler Pachacuti, and listed by UNESCO in 1983, Machu Picchu sits at about 2,430 metres on a saddle between two peaks. A licensed Machu Picchu guide, required by the site's rules, leads the visit on a circuit that passes the upper viewpoint for the classic view over the citadel and Huayna Picchu, then down through temples, plazas, houses and terraces. Tickets are sold by circuit and time, each allowing one entry, so the route is fixed before we go. We ride down for lunch in Aguas Calientes, take the mid-afternoon train back to Ollantaytambo and drive about an hour and three quarters to Cusco, arriving early in the evening.

   Included

   • Machu Picchu entry at 6 am with a licensed site guide
   • The buses between Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu
   • Lunch in Aguas Calientes
   • Train to Ollantaytambo, then our vehicle to Cusco

   Easier option: Take an early bus down after the guided visit and rest in Aguas Calientes before lunch.

   More active option: Add a Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain ticket, if you ask when you book; daily numbers are small.

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot inside Machu Picchu, on stone steps without handrails.

   

7. Day 7: Cusco: Sacsayhuamán, the Cathedral and Qorikancha

   Sacsayhuamán, San Blas, the Plaza de Armas and Qorikancha

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Cusco
   Day 7 details

   A slower start after yesterday. At about 9:30 am we drive ten minutes up to Sacsayhuamán, above the city, where zigzag walls of fitted stone blocks, the largest estimated at well over 100 tonnes, face a wide grassy esplanade. The walk back down through San Blas, the artisans' quarter, is downhill all the way, and we pass the twelve-angled stone on Hatun Rumiyoc street on the way to the Plaza de Armas. Inside the Cathedral, built over an Inca palace, look for the colonial painting of the Last Supper with a roast guinea pig on the table. Across the square stands La Compañía, the Jesuit church with its carved stone front. Late in the morning we visit Qorikancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun, where Dominican friars built their church and monastery on top of the curved Inca walls. Cusco's old centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. Lunch and the afternoon are yours: the counters of the San Pedro market, a museum, or an early night before tomorrow's long road day.

   Included

   • Sacsayhuamán with your guide (Cusco tourist ticket)
   • Walk through San Blas and past the twelve-angled stone
   • Cusco Cathedral, entry included
   • Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun, entry included

   Easier option: Ride the van down from Sacsayhuamán to the Plaza de Armas instead of walking.

   Free time: Lunch and afternoon free

   

8. Day 8: Across the Altiplano to Puno

   Cusco through Andahuaylillas, Raqchi and the La Raya pass, then Pucará to Puno

   • Drive about 7 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Puno
   Day 8 details

   Today is the one long road day of the trip, about 390 km and roughly seven hours of driving, over the 4-hour limit we set ourselves. The scheduled Titicaca train runs only a few days a week, and flying to Juliaca would skip the Altiplano, so we drive in our own vehicle and break the road into short stages, never more than about two hours without a stop. We leave at 7 am, one of the few early starts. First, Andahuaylillas, a village church whose walls and ceilings are covered in colonial paintings. Then Raqchi, where the tall adobe wall of the Inca temple of Wiracocha still stands on its stone base, with rows of round storehouses beside it. We sit down to lunch near Sicuani, then climb to the La Raya pass, about 4,320 metres, for a short stop below snow peaks where herders graze alpacas. Beyond the pass, Pucará's small museum keeps carved stones older than the Incas. We reach Puno, on Lake Titicaca at about 3,830 metres, in the late afternoon.

   Included

   • Drive across the Altiplano with your guide
   • The painted church of Andahuaylillas, entry included
   • The Inca temple of Raqchi, entry included
   • Sit-down lunch on the way
   • The La Raya pass
   • The Pucará museum, entry included

   Easier option: Stay in the warm vehicle at La Raya; the snow peaks are in view from the roadside.

   Free time: Evening free in Puno

   Activity: The longest day: about 7 hours of driving within a day of about 10 hours, broken by four stops and a sit-down lunch. La Raya is about 4,320 metres: walk slowly and stay only a few minutes.

9. Day 9: Lake Titicaca: the Uros and Taquile

   Puno by boat to the Uros floating islands and Taquile, then back to Puno

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Puno
   Day 9 details

   We are at Puno's port by about 7:30 am, ahead of the main wave of boats, for a full day on Lake Titicaca, which lies at about 3,810 metres and is crossed by passenger boats all year. Half an hour out, through channels cut in the reeds, we reach the Uros islands, built by their families from layer on layer of totora reed and topped up with fresh reed as the bottom layers rot. A family shows us how the islands are anchored and how the reed boats are made. Then it is about two hours across open water to Taquile, where the Quechua-speaking islanders' weaving and knitting, the knitting done by the men, is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. We walk up through terraces to the main square, at about 3,950 metres, and sit down to lunch with an island family: quinoa soup and fresh lake trout. Afterwards we walk down the stone stairway to the boat on the far side and are back in Puno around 5 pm.

   Included

   • Boat day on Lake Titicaca with your guide
   • The Uros floating islands, with a visit to a family's island
   • Taquile Island and its main square
   • Lunch with a family on Taquile

   Easier option: Go at your own pace on Taquile; if the climb is too much at this height, stay on the Uros and return to Puno on an earlier boat, arranged on the day.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 1.5 hours on foot on Taquile, including a stone stairway of several hundred steps at almost 4,000 metres.

   

10. Day 10: Llachon and the Capachica peninsula

    Puno along the lakeshore to the Capachica peninsula and Llachon, then back to Puno

    • Drive about 3 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Puno
    Day 10 details

    A later start at 8:30 am. We drive north along the lake and out onto the Capachica peninsula, about an hour and a half, through farming villages where barley and potatoes grow on old terraces down to the water. Llachon is a Quechua community at the tip of the peninsula that receives visitors on its own terms: families run the visits, and the money stays in the village. We walk with a local host up the hill behind the village for a wide view over the lake to Amantaní and, on a clear day, the snow peaks of the Bolivian Cordillera Real. Then we sit down to lunch with a family, often a soup, lake fish and potatoes cooked in the earth, and hear how the community farms, fishes and weaves. Early in the afternoon there is time on the small beach below the village. We drive back to Puno by about 5 pm, and the evening is free on Jirón Lima, the pedestrian street.

    Included

    • The Capachica peninsula with your guide
    • Walk above Llachon with a local host
    • Lunch with a family in Llachon

    Easier option: Skip the hill walk and wait by the lake in the village; the view from the shore is wide too.

    More active option: Paddle a kayak along the shore below the village with a local guide, about an hour, if the lake is calm.

    Free time: Evening free

    Activity: About 1.5 hours on foot on farm paths at about 3,850 to 4,000 metres.

    

11. Day 11: Fly back to Lima, a farewell dinner

    Puno to Juliaca airport (JUL), fly to Lima, then Miraflores and Barranco

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Lima
    Day 11 details

    A last breakfast by the lake, then about an hour's drive across the plain to Juliaca's airport, the one serving Puno, for the flight to Lima, about an hour and 40 minutes. We set the flight for late morning so there is no pre-dawn start. Back at sea level, the air feels thick and easy. After checking in again in Miraflores, your guide walks those who want to along the clifftop to Barranco, Lima's old seaside quarter, with its murals, the wooden Puente de los Suspiros and the steps down to the beach. Lunch is your own choice, and there are good places in both neighbourhoods. The late afternoon is free for a rest or last shopping. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner together, a chance to compare photos of Machu Picchu and the lake and to say goodbye properly before the airport tomorrow.

    Included

    • Transfer from Puno to Juliaca airport
    • Flight from Juliaca to Lima
    • Walk from Miraflores to Barranco with your guide
    • Farewell dinner

    Easier option: Take a taxi to Barranco, or rest at the hotel.

    Free time: Lunch and late afternoon free

    Activity: Juliaca to Lima flights are usually nonstop; the flight time is confirmed with your tickets.

12. Day 12: Lima, then home

    Miraflores to Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 12 details

    The last day is free. Walk the Malecón once more, visit the Mercado de Surquillo for fresh fruit you will not find at home, or sit in a café in Miraflores with a last coffee. Your hotel keeps your bags until the transfer. Lima's airport is about 20 km from Miraflores, usually an hour by road but longer at rush hour, and our driver takes you there in good time for your flight, with your guide checking your departure before saying goodbye. Most flights to Canada, the US and Europe leave Lima in the evening or late at night, which suits the day well. Plan to be at the airport three hours before an international departure. We can add extra nights in Lima, or arrange time on the coast, if you want to stay on.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Lima airport (LIM)

    Free time: Day free until your transfer

    Activity: Any flight time works; allow an hour or more for the drive and three hours at the airport.

Wildlife and weather: May to September brings dry, sunny days, clear views of the Andes and frosty nights in Cusco and Puno; it is also the busiest season at Machu Picchu, which is why we go in at 6 am. April and October are quieter, with some showers. From November to March the rains bring cloud over Machu Picchu and the occasional train or road disruption.

• Lima2 nights
• Sacred Valley (Urubamba)2 nights
• Aguas Calientes1 night
• Cusco2 nights
• Puno3 nights
• Lima1 night