Inca Trail Expedition

1. Day 1 · Lima

   Arrive in Lima

   A late-afternoon landing and a straight run into Miraflores, the district Lima built along the cliff edge above the Pacific. The clifftop is a chain of parks the length of the neighborhood, with paragliders working the updraft off the face. The evening is open on purpose: two nights at sea level make Cusco, two miles higher, much easier.

   Overnight in Lima

2. Day 2 · Lima

   Lima City Exploration, Larco Museum, and Water Circuit

   A guided day through Lima's historic center, laid out by Pizarro in 1535 and run as the capital of Spanish South America for the next two hundred years. Then the Larco Museum and its five thousand years of Peruvian gold, ceramics and textiles. The evening is the Magic Water Circuit, where the fountains in the old city park run to music after dark.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight in Lima

3. Day 3 · Lima to Cusco

   Cusco City Tour and Sacsayhuaman Ruins Discovery

   Cusco sits at 11,150 feet, so the first few hours are yours to settle in and the sightseeing waits until afternoon. It starts at Qoricancha, where the Spanish built a church straight onto the Temple of the Sun, then climbs to Sacsayhuaman, the fortress above the old capital, with the whole city open below. Last is the little lookout fort at Puka Pukara, out where the road turns down toward the Sacred Valley.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight in Cusco

4. Day 4 · Cusco

   Sacred Valley: Pisac Market and Ollantaytambo

   A full day down into the Sacred Valley, which runs lower and warmer than Cusco. The morning is Pisac, market stalls filling the square and Inca terraces curving around the hillside above it. Then the stone stairs at Ollantaytambo, the one place the Inca turned back Spanish cavalry, by flooding the plain below the fortress. Back in Cusco by evening.

   Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

   Overnight in Cusco

5. Day 5 · Cusco to Inca Trail

   Km 82 to Ayapata

   Breakfast in Ollantaytambo comes before dawn, and the porters are loading while you eat. From the checkpoint at Km 82 (9,072 ft) the first miles run easy beside the river. They end at Patallacta, the terraced Inca checkpoint that controlled who came up this valley toward Machu Picchu. The climbing starts after lunch and finishes at Ayapata (10,830 ft).

   Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

   Overnight: Campsite

6. Day 6 · Inca Trail

   Ayapata to Chaquicocha

   Two passes in one day, and the trail never gets higher than the first. Warmiwañusca, Dead Woman's Pass, tops out at 13,829 ft after four hours of climbing, then gives back most of it into the Pacaymayu valley. The second pass drops to Sayacmarca, a village on a rock spur that a single stone staircase still reaches. Camp is twenty minutes further on at Chaquicocha (11,811 ft), the dry lake.

   Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

   Overnight: Campsite

7. Day 7 · Inca Trail

   Chaquicocha to Wiñay Wayna

   An easier day, and all of it losing height. The trail runs level through cloud forest to Phuyupatamarca, where Machu Picchu Mountain shows itself down the valley with the city still hidden behind it. From there it drops by stone staircase past the terraces of Intipata. Camp sits beside Wiñay Wayna, Forever Young, with time in the late afternoon to walk its terraces before the light goes.

   Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

   Overnight: Campsite

8. Day 8 · Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

   Wiñay Wayna to Machu Picchu

   Camp is awake at three. The gate above Wiñay Wayna opens at half past five, the earliest the rangers will let anyone onto a trail this narrow. An hour of walking, the last of it up the near-vertical steps hikers call the Gringo Killer, ends at Inti Punku with the city laid out below. The Inca aligned the gate on the solstice sunrise, so the light comes through it and lands in the window of the Sun Temple. The last hour is downhill into the site, past the last of the terraces, for the guided walk through the ruins.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight in Machu Picchu Town

9. Day 9 · Machu Picchu to Cusco

   Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain hike

   A self-guided climb, on whichever of the two peaks your dates allow. Huayna Picchu is the peak standing behind the ruins in every photograph of them: a steep hour of Inca stairs to 8,920 ft, looking straight down on the city. Machu Picchu Mountain is the longer, steadier climb to 10,111 ft, with the whole valley below. The afternoon is the train back to Cusco, running up the valley beside the river most of the way.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight in Cusco

10. Day 10 · Cusco

    Departure

    If the flight out is late enough, there is a last morning in Cusco: the steep lanes of San Blas, the artisan workshops, the market stalls off the main square. Then the transfer to the airport and the connection onward.

    Meals: Breakfast

End of the adventure. Until the next one, bon voyage!

• ·Lima (2 nights)
• ·Cusco (3 nights)
• ·Inca Trail · Campsite (3 nights)
• ·Machu Picchu Town (1 night)

4-star and 5-star hotel upgrades available on request.

• -Flights into Lima (LIM) and home from Cusco (CUZ)
• -Meals not noted on the itinerary
• -Travel insurance
• -Tips and personal expenses

Season, hotel standard, and train class move the price most. Peak dates (Inti Raymi, Fiestas Patrias, Christmas and New Year) carry supplements.

Prices shown are for 2026. Inquire to check rates for future years.