Our trip to Peru was truly amazing. I greatly admired our timetable and believe we executed it flawlessly in terms of our overall preparations. The daunting part of planning any journey is the abundance of resources, conflicting information, and diverse opinions available. I had to navigate through all of it to create our plans. This can be particularly challenging if you’re unfamiliar with the country. However, I’m confident that my Peru Guide this journal can help you get started on planning an extraordinary adventure.
Trip Duration
We booked our trip for nine days over our Thanksgiving break and took full advantage of our time off. Since we only had a week, we prioritized our agenda accordingly.
Travel Planning
If you are interested in seeing what vaccinations may be needed, you can reference this link. You need to have a current passport that is valid for at least six months before travel. For any international travel, it is important to reference the government site to stay current on travel advisories.
Travel Logistics
I used Skyscanner to price airfare and flight schedules to and from Peru. With flew with Delta on the way to Peru and United on the way back based. This also gave us the opportunity to earn miles through each of the airlines. I booked directly through the applicable airline’s website.
We did get the Capital One card that has an annual fee. However, we decided to get this card because of the perks and the use of the lounges. This was extremely helpful when traveling as we had lag time between flights. Utilizing the lounges was a perk.
For our flight to Peru, we fly out on Friday night and went straight to Cusco. We arrived around 9 am on Saturday. On the way back, we flew out of Lima late the following Sunday.
Tip: Several resources will say to spend a night in Lima and then fly to Cusco the following day. The flight from Lima to Cusco is a short. We decided to push through and head to Cusco. However, if you do decide to stay the night in Lima, there is a hotel at the airport.
Arriving in Cusco
Cusco is a charming city and we loved being walking distance to the city center. We stayed at Casa Andina Premium for our first two nights. I will say their complimentary breakfast buffet is one of the best spreads I have ever seen. The hotel is also in a great location in Cusco, and everything we wanted to see was walking distance. We requested an early check in. We also coordinated a driver to pick us up from the airport through the hotel. It was nice to walk outside of the airport and have our driver ready to take us to our hotel.
If you are seeking another hotel option, we did enjoy our stay at Hotel Rumi Punka. We chose this hotel when we returned to Cusco after our trip to Aguas Calientes to visit Machu Picchu. This hotel is also a great location and was very comfortable and had a wonderful complimentary breakfast buffet. Literally, you can’t go wrong with either of these options.
We arrived early on Saturday and were pretty drained from our travels. We settled into our hotel and took a walk to explore the city. The town center is beautiful and the architecture is breathtaking. Here is a city guide for reference.
We had a late afternoon meal at Rucula where we enjoyed our first pisco sour. This was also our introduction to the amazing Peruvian food. At this point, I fell in love with Peru and would soon eat my way through the entire country.
After trying pisco sours at many restaurants, I can tell you that Chull’s in Cusco makes a great one. This restaurant is a short walk from Casa Andina Premium and worth a visit. The food is superb, the atmosphere is quaint, and the dinner was one of my favorite meals!
We had the entire day on Sunday to determine what we wanted to do. I left this open and didn’t prebook an excursion. We wanted to see how we all felt after our travels. The family decided to do a day trip, and we landed on a visit to the Seven Lakes.
Siete Lagunas (Seven Lakes) was gorgeous. However, do pay attention to the departure and return time of the tour. It is an early departure and a long day. We loved this trip but I do, of course, have some suggestions if you are considering this excursion.
- Breakfast and lunch was minimal but included with our excursion. As mentioned, our hotel had an amazing complimentary breakfast. We were not able to enjoy this due to our early departure.
- We ended up doing the extended hike and took an extra amount of time to return to the main area. Even though we took our time, we still made it back 3 hours before the rest of the group. This meant that we had a ton of time to kill before our bus departed back to Cusco.
- We dipped in the local hot spring for several hours just to kill time. I believe it was 5 soles and it’s definitely an option to consider. It’s literally a few square pools with areas to change. It’s very minimal, but I always the option to dip after a long hike. As a heads up, our aggressive tour organizer told us towels would be provided as part of his sales pitch. However, this was not the case. If you go to the hot springs, bring all the things you need. In addition, they sell snacks, beer and drinks.
- In hind site, I may have considered hiring a private driver to take us to and from the 7 Lakes. We would have liked to have gotten back to Cusco when we finished the hike. Our trip with $35 dollars a person so a private driver is likely a similar price. In addition, this would have allowed us to enjoy the delicious breakfast before heading to the lakes. It’s just something to consider if you choose this voyage.
Getting to Aguas Calientes
We caught our train to Aguas Calientes early Monday morning. There are several options to get to Aguas Calientes. I’ve outlined a few choices and will highlight what we chose:
- You can do the Inca Trail or other trekking options
- You can do a day trip and back from Cusco
- You can stay in Ollantaytambo and take the train to and from Aguas Calientes
- You can stay in Aguas Calientes
We decided to stay in Aguas Calientes for our 2 day visit to Machu Picchu. I do have friends that have done the 3 day/2 night Inca Trail through the excursion. They thoroughly enjoyed it so I linked this in my guide. We decided to stay in Aguas Calientes. We wanted to enjoy the town and be close to Machu Picchu. This is easy to do if you are staying in town.
You can take the bus/train combination, the train, a taxi or car service to Ollantaytambo. The other option is to take a scheduled tour through Sacred Valley that ends in Ollantaytambo. You can only take a train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. There is no other way to travel to Aguas Calientes.
We took the bus/train combination from San Pedro Station in Cusco. The bus took us to Ollantaytambo and then we moved to the train that took us to Aguas Calientes. We had booked the direct train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. The train got cancelled due to maintenance and we were rescheduled for the bus/train transportation. If the direct train opens up when you plan to travel, I do feel that is a lovely option. There are limited times for the direct train and more options to do the bus/train transportation. Either way, the train from Ollantaytambo is the scenic views.
As far as the train options, you have two choices: Peru Rail or Inca Rail. We took the Vistadome with Peru Rail from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. Then we took the Inca Rail (based on the schedule that worked best for us) from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo. Since we wanted to get to Ollantaytambo early. We coordinated a private driver to take us to destinations in the Sacred Valley on our way back to Cusco.
We used Inca Rail on this part of the trip. However, now that I have traveled on both trains, I prefer Peru Rail. Their train cars are more spacious and you can bring larger pieces of luggage. They also had luggage storage on Peru Rail. Inca Rail did not offer luggage storage and had smaller bag requirements. This made it quite crowded due to the fact that people had to hold their luggage during the train ride. In addition, the train was not as smooth and rocked quite a bit more then the Peru Rail experience.
We did carry on bags that were within the requirements for both trains. We were able to pack minimally because we took advantage of the laundry services through our hotel in Lima. However, if you have a large suitcase, there are lockers at the train stations. You can also find places throughout the city that will hold your luggage while you are visiting Machu Picchu. If you are returning to the same hotel, there may be an option to have them hold your bags. We did not use any of these options as they were not required for us.
We arrived in Aguas Calientes around noon. Since our rooms weren’t ready, we decided to grab lunch and check out the area. The town is small and quaint. I enjoyed the slow pace and tranquility it afforded us.
You will need to buy entrance tickets to Machu Picchu in advance. I bought our tickets 6 months in advance through the official website. They limit tickets so planning is very important. See my Peru Guide for links and details.
- You can rent a locker at the entrance gate for any items you want to leave.
- There are restrooms outside of the entrance and you must pay to use them. Once you are in the park, there are no restrooms. You are not able to exit the park and reenter the park with the same ticket. For our trip, we purchased two tickets (see my Peru Guide on circuit options). We only showed one ticket. Then we could exit, use the restroom and eat at the cafe, before entering with our second ticket. This worked well.
- The visiting rules and what is allowed is constantly changing so reference this link for the latest updates. There is a lot of conflicting information on blogs and site. For example, we learned that you can use a digital entrance ticket.
- You must have your passport with you upon entrance.
To get to the entrance, you have two options. You can hike up the trail head or take the bus. The hike is estimated to take a little under 3 hours and is 5.9 miles or 9.5 km. We took the bus (which is about 25 minutes). You can buy bus tickets in Aguas Calientes for $25 round trip. See the exchange rate to get the current price. There is also this online source, which we did not use. The bus station was a short walk from our hotel. Purchasing the ticket the night before our visit was not an issue.
Tip: There were many blogs and references to get to the bus stop early due to long lines. We were not traveling during peak season. However, there are several buses lined up to take people and the line moved quickly. They were very efficient and we had no issue getting on and meeting the entrance time on our ticket. You do have an hour grace period and that wasn’t an issue for us. I am not sure what would happen if you were late. However, the experience was pretty laid back, contrary to several blog comments I read.
We ended up hiring an English speaking guide that we found right outside of the bus station. WhatsApp is used frequently in this country to connect. Our guide used WhatsApp and spoke excellent English. She was fantastic and I highly recommend getting a guide to see Machu Picchu.
Our Trip To Machu Picchu
On Tuesday, we headed to Machu Picchu for sunrise with our 7am tickets. We were early risers and at the entrance with few guests. This worked out ok because we stayed in Aguas Calientes so getting up early was ok. We literally had tourist free photos throughout our tour. It was easy to move around and see the sites without getting bogged behind large tour groups.
Some blogs and posts say not to get up early and be the first to the park. There were many references that indicated being first was overrated. We went early and were the first people to enter the park. I highly recommend getting their early.
Our Two Day Agenda
Day 1
We got on the 5:30 am bus from Aguas Calientes. We got to Machu Picchu for the sunrise (aka. 6-7 am) with our general admission tickets that covered circuits 1-4.
We decided to exit the park for breakfast at the snack bar and to use the facilities. Since we purchased two tickets, you can show one and then exit. When reentering, you can show the second ticket. We took a break outside of the park before reentering for our 9 am mountain hike ticket.
Day 2
We took the 7:30 am but to get to our 8 am Machu Pichu Mountain hike. After the hike, we exited the park. We used our second ticket to reenter and see the Inca Bridge at 12 pm. The Inca bridge allows you access to circuit 2 in order to get to the bridge entrance gate. There is a person checking tickets to ensure you have the necessary pass to see the bridge. Circuit 2 covers a lot of the views that people are looking for when coming to Machu Picchu. To visit the Inca Bridge, you need to buy a ticket that includes the bridge and circuit 2.
Last Day In Town
After our final tour day, we headed back to Aguas Calientes for our last night. We did enjoy our stay in this little town. We did a lot of the activities in town. It is completely up to you as there are so many ways to visit this magical site of Machu Picchu. You can’t go wrong with whatever option you choose.
Sacred Valley Tour To Cusco
We took an early train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo. This is also a darling town and many people stay here and take the train to Machu Picchu and back. Either way, we got to this town around 10:30 and found a driver to take us through the Sacred Valley.
We had outlined about 5 stops to historical sites on our way back to Cusco. This was truly an amazing experience. We didn’t get guides at each of the historical sites. You can decide if you choose an English speaking driver or hire a guide at the entrance of the sites. We did extra stops like the Alpaca open air market where they demonstrated how they die the yarn. We stopped at a salt and chocolate shop where they told us all about the variety of products. Our driver stopped at Don Angel Inka Casona restaurant for their lunch buffet and this was enjoyable.
To determine what you want to see and outline your stops along the way, consider referencing this travel agenda. It worked well for us and we did 5 destinations, lunch and the highlights mentioned above.
Lima
Lima is a busy and robust city. However, I am really glad we added a few days on our agenda to see Lima and the surrounding areas. We loved it. You can use Uber all over Lima. The cars and drivers were great. Be careful not to jump into any car indicating they are a taxi. There are signs at the airport about this safety issue. I would seriously consider getting a car service through your hotel or using Uber. Here are a few tips if you plan to add on some days to enjoy Lima.
- We loved staying in Miraflores and our hotel was perfect. See my Peru guide for the hotel.
- At the hotel, we booked a private tour through In Peru Expeditions. They were professional, punctual and we had a great tour guide and driver. We chose to tour Pachacamac Temple (see picture) and really enjoyed the trip.
- We did a city and catacomb tour through a travel agency near our hotel. It was a great day and a fun way to see the city highlights.
All in all, we just loved our trip. It was such an amazing experience. I hope you get the chance to make a trip like this in your future.