Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Machu Picchu

Location: Sacred Valley, Cusco Region

Time Required: 1 – 2 days

Red Tape/Notes: 

What’s Nearby?: Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley Horseback Riding, Hiram Bingham

If you’re in this area of Peru, you’re probably going to Machu Picchu, so I feel a bit silly writing a post about it because it’s not like this is some secret destination that you can’t get information about. However, there are a couple of helpful things to note about visiting the site if you want to maximize your experience. First, I really would recommend spending two days here. You can see most of the major sites in a day, but you’ll be arriving and leaving along with the other myriad tourists that are there if you take the train in. If you only want to spend a day, I’d recommend coming up the night before and spending the night in the area so you can be at Machu Picchu right when it opens. But spending two days means you’ll have the time to climb either Machu Picchu Montaña or Huayna Picchu and still have lots of time to see the rest of the sites (you might still accomplish all of this in one very busy/frenzied day, we just haven’t tried it). We climbed Machu Picchu Montaña and thought it was fabulous and offered beautiful views (it’s also noticeably taller than Huayna Picchu); having not climbed Huayna Picchu though, we can’t offer an honest comparison between the two. I can say that climbing Machu Picchu Montaña offers the benefit of providing views of the ruins of Machu Picchu with the iconic Huayna Picchu behind it, which is a pretty classic view. Other things that are well-worth doing that a lot of tourists skip (or don’t know are an option): hiking to the Inca Bridge (which is a really cool place and the hike itself is quite scenic) and hiking to the Sun Gate. Most people know about the Sun Gate, but you can actually hike past the Sun Gate (there’s probably a sign there that says it’s the end of the hike, but no one is likely to stop you) to a cool set of ruins that marks the last major climb of the Inca Trail. You may run into some rather exhausted Inca Trail hikers if you take this option. Other than that, I’d recommend touring the main section of the complex either first thing in the morning, or late in the afternoon, to avoid the biggest tourist crush.

Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Machu Picchu