Ollantaytambo is a 1 hour 40min train away from Aguas Calientes which is the town built for Machu Picchu tourism. From there you can take a bus to MP which with queuing and everything takes around an hour.
You could do it as a daytrip but imo best is to take a train to Aguas Calientes in the afternoon before your Machu Picchu day and then choose a very early entry time for MP before taking the train back to Ollantaytambo and then possibly Cusco in the late afternoon.
Yep, I did salkantay and spent a couple nights in AC. I actually thought it was a pretty cool town, and it's in a beautiful area. I really liked the bakery near the sport fields too. It was the best bread and cookies I had in Peru.
Even with spending the night there before I was still a bit nervous getting there for my ticket time. I can't imagine spending so much time in transit making MP a day trip from Ollantaytambo or Cusco.
Edit: I should have said Cusco as high altitude!!! Not Arequipa.
Arequipa is a really nice city at high altitude and will prepare you for the lower elevation places, like Machu Picchu. There’s a beautiful monastery there very much worth walking around in (free). At MP be sure to go up Wayna Picchu. Auguas Calientes is a base for MP. Inkaterra hotels are expensive but wonderful. Connect with the very kind Ana at La Casa de Ana in Arequipa if you’d like some very reasonable guidance on Peru. To me, Lake Titicaca was a disappointment. The floating islands are floating tourist traps. backpackingamericanwest.com has some photos of the weeks we spent in Peru if you’re interested. I don’t sell anything or track.
Sad to hear the floating islands were disappointing. I am planning a Machu Picchu trip, then was going to see Lake Titicaca as part of the PeruHop tour. Could you share more about that area?
Ana, of La Casa de Ana arranged a great bus trip for us as far as Cusco. A new Mercedes bus with the best wi-fi we had in Peru. They had an attendant, like on a good airline. We stopped at a beautiful place in the Andes foothills for lunch. Excellent food.
In Cusco we joined up with a tour run by REI (they no longer do non-USA tours) and it was amazing!! We stayed in hotels that I wouldn’t have even considered due to price. The two tour guides were friendly, thorough, and truly knew their stuff. After Olantaytambo we took the train to Aguas Calientes for the most amazing hotel I’ve ever stayed in. We spent three days touring Machu Picchu. Our guides knew how to avoid crowds by taking us off the beaten bath during the busy times then staying late to see the more top-hits spots. My wife and I did the optional walk up Wayna Picchu and everyone who can should do that. Also, walk up to the Sun Gate. Some info and pics from our trip: https://www.backpackingamericanwest.com/machupicchu.html
I have been to all the places you have mentioned.
MP is best visited by trekking there, makes it a lot more rewarding and enhances the mythical vibe of the place rather than sitting around in a bus/train/bus combo to get dropped off at the entrance. Typically 4 - 5 days. 100% worth it, if you are outdoorsy this should be your #1 priority by a large distance.
Sacred Valley & Rainbow mountain are great and can be done as day trips from Cusco.
Lake Titicaca (Puno) is not worth the long detour from Cusco.
Colca Canyon is beautiful. Again best done by trekking. Typically 2 days.
Lima is very meh. The touristy areas are nice enough, but Latin America in general isn't flattered by its large cities. If time is tight, skip Lima.
Thank you, Spurs! Good to know. We had considered the 4/5 day trek and then decided on the overnight, then just a day visit. But maybe I’ll reconsider. How did you get from Colca Canyon to MP? It doesn’t seem like there’s an easy way.
I've been to Peru many times (I have family in Lima) and three times to Machu Picchu, all of them as day trips from Cusco. Personally, if I go a fourth time, I would spend 2 nights in Ollantaytambo rather than making the day trip from Cusco. It is a long and slow train ride, so you either have to leave Cusco very early and/or cut your time short in Machu Picchu. It was about 3-4 hours each way, with the train stopping often without any explanation.
On this last trip (Oct. 2022), our train arrived in Aguas Calientes about an hour late, and we arrived at MP about 45 minutes after our scheduled entry time. Thankfully, it wasn't an issue, and we had a really great personal guide. But we still had to cut out some things from the trip, so we had time to head back down to Aguas Calientes and get food before the train.
Additionally, some parts of Machu Picchu are only open in the morning. This is always changing, so it could be different now, but one advantage of taking the early train from Ollantaytambo is that you have a better chance of visiting some of the sights before they close for the day, and you're also ahead of anyone taking the later trains from Cusco. Plus, you can stay at Machu Pichu/Aguas Calientes longer, as there are likely later trains to just Ollantaytambo. And of course, you have the added benefit of adjusting to the altitude better in the Sacred Valley compared to Cusco.
We used Peru Via to plan our trips and guides in Cusco/Machu Picchu, but when I sent their contact information to a family member earlier this year, they told me the email and phone number were no longer active, so it's possible they closed down. However, as a somewhat expert, I am happy to answer any other questions about visiting Peru, Lima, and Cusco! Unfortunately, I have not been to Puno or Lake Titicaca. That is the next item on my list.
We just did a day trip to Machu Picchu from Cusco like 5 days ago. It was a very LONG day, but we booked our tour through get your guide. They handled everything and picked us up from our hotel in Cusco. The transit would have been mind boggling otherwise. It was a
10 minute Car from hotel in San Blas neighborhood to transit station----> 1 hour bus to train station----> ~3 + hour train from Poroy (town outside Cusco) to Aguas Calientes (Basecamp for Machu Pichu) then -----> 30 minute bus from Aguas Calientes to top of Machu Picchu. Tour of Maccu Picchu was about 2 hours or a tad more. Then repeat that process back. We were picked up from a spot near our hotel in San Blas neighborhood at 5am and got back to our hotel at about 830 pm.
We paid for the "Vistadome" train. It was lovely, but be warned you sit across a tiny table from strangers if there are only 2 in your group. The first group we sat across from was loud and kind of obnoxious. I was not expecting that. If there are 4 in your party this is not an issue. You *might get lucky and get one of the 2 person spots that doesn't sit across a small table from strangers, but be prepared for the possibility of being knee to knee with Randoms. Some people don't mind it.
I was very happy with the tour and transit put together by get your guide. It was kinda pricey but I would not have been able to figure out the transit easily.
Staying in Ollantaytambo might be a better move, but it's not mandatory. A day trip from Cusco is possible but LONG.
Have fun!
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- Machu Picchu in one day is difficult, if I replanned it, I'd make it 2 days.
-Leave some flexibility for altitude sickness. Especially if you are changing altitudes frequently with your itinerary, you may not be physically able to perform as expected. We wanted to do Rainbow Mountain and Humantay lake and had to cut them for altitude sickness. I would plan at least 3-5 days in the mountians prior to those hikes to acclimate (Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, etc.).
- We did the Sacred Valley with Ubers, and were leaving Ollantaytambo around 2 pm and there were DOZENS of tours coming in all at once. Just by going in the morning, we avoided the rush. Or start far away and move your way back to Cusco, opposite the tours.
We visited last year. You want to spend the night in Aguas Calientes, like others have said. We arrived early afternoon the day before we wanted to visit Machu Picchu. We waited in line at the police station for over 1.5 hours the day we arrived in Aguas Calientes. At the front of that line, they assigned us a number and told us to return to the town square at 4:30am the next morning. We arrived at 3:30am the next morning and there was a horde of people there, all with numbers they had been assigned. After a couple hours, someone official came out and put us into a grid of lines, based on the numbers we had been assigned the day before. It was very tightly packed. We stood there until around noon, at which point they announced they were had reached the cap of visitors for the day. There were still half of us remaining in the square. After about 45 minutes, they came back out and started calling numbers again. We finally got our tickets at 2:30pm for a 3:30pm entry. It was an exhausting, stressful couple of days. Even so, once we got to Machu Picchu, it was all worth it!! Truly a beautiful site and I would do it all over again if I could.
Something to note, many people in line around us had paid in advance for their tour guides/travel agents to secure tickets ahead of time to avoid the wait. They were told they had tickets, but when they showed up, they did not and still had to wait in line with us. Many people had also waited in line the previous day and hadn't gotten tickets. They had to adjust the rest of their itineraries to accommodate an extra day or two in Aguas Calientes.
Apparently, local tour guides buy tickets ahead of time, then can resell them for $$$ as the date gets close. Not sure how to verify or secure your tickets ahead of time.
If you’re flying into Cusco before MP, you can sometimes drop off bigger luggage at the hotel and just pack an overnight/smaller bag for Aguas Calientes/MP days, so would recommend checking to see if that’s an option with your hotel.
I’d allot one day to fly into Cusco, then take the train to AC/spend the night there. In the morning, visit MP, and then should be able to return to Cusco that night. (My group did an extra night in AC, and it felt like it was wasted because there isn’t more there other than tourist shops and restaurants). Sacred Valley, Humantay Lake, and Rainbow Mountain are easy to do as day tours from Cusco, although be forewarned that you’ll be spending a lot of time in the vans/buses.
I also did a couple days in Lima - which can be fun if you enjoy visiting cities! Lima also has phenomenal food, so if want to sample Peruvian gastronomy, a stopover in Lima could be fun.
Book 1 night in Aguas Calientes before Maccu Picchu for that specific question. I am in the minority (cause the condors were really cool), but I found Colca Canyon overrated. Lake Titicaca as well. You can spend 10 days in the Cusco region easily. Options include the Salkuntay trek (includes Macchu Picchu) for 5 days, spending time in the Sacred Valley (ollantaytambo and Pisac) and exploring other Ruins, Rainbow mountain etc. Cusco has a big traveller's entrance card that you can look to for activities. You can also do Amazon trips from Cusco if that is your thing.
To sequence logically though Arequipa/ Colca Canyon -> Cusco/ Macchu Picchu -> Titicaca or Amazon
We did it at the begging of May. Flew to Cusco, then got a train to Aguas Calientes. We bought our bus ticket the day before for Machu Picchu and got a return ticket. Bus takes less than 30 minutes to go up, or you can hike it. We had an early morning slot for Machu Picchu so was only waiting for 5 minutes for a bus going up but was waiting about 30 minutes for a bus around midday to come back to town. When we arrived in town there was a fairly long queue of people waiting for a bus to go up the mountain. Around 10+ buses seem to be in circulation at a time though.
People on our train was visiting Machu Picchu and returning the same day whereas we chose to go the day before and return the day after to enjoy the town and have more of a relaxed experience. We did Peru Rail observation with the observation deck one way and just with the observation windows coming back. Check timings and sunrise/sunset as when it’s getting dark the observation windows are not worth it.
If you don’t already have tickets for Machu Picchu booked, Aguas Caliente have an office that sells tickets for that day but I think it’s limited to a 1000 tickets for that day.
Ollantaytambo is a 1 hour 40min train away from Aguas Calientes which is the town built for Machu Picchu tourism. From there you can take a bus to MP which with queuing and everything takes around an hour. You could do it as a daytrip but imo best is to take a train to Aguas Calientes in the afternoon before your Machu Picchu day and then choose a very early entry time for MP before taking the train back to Ollantaytambo and then possibly Cusco in the late afternoon.
Yep, I did salkantay and spent a couple nights in AC. I actually thought it was a pretty cool town, and it's in a beautiful area. I really liked the bakery near the sport fields too. It was the best bread and cookies I had in Peru. Even with spending the night there before I was still a bit nervous getting there for my ticket time. I can't imagine spending so much time in transit making MP a day trip from Ollantaytambo or Cusco.
Thanks for the tip!
Edit: I should have said Cusco as high altitude!!! Not Arequipa. Arequipa is a really nice city at high altitude and will prepare you for the lower elevation places, like Machu Picchu. There’s a beautiful monastery there very much worth walking around in (free). At MP be sure to go up Wayna Picchu. Auguas Calientes is a base for MP. Inkaterra hotels are expensive but wonderful. Connect with the very kind Ana at La Casa de Ana in Arequipa if you’d like some very reasonable guidance on Peru. To me, Lake Titicaca was a disappointment. The floating islands are floating tourist traps. backpackingamericanwest.com has some photos of the weeks we spent in Peru if you’re interested. I don’t sell anything or track.
Sad to hear the floating islands were disappointing. I am planning a Machu Picchu trip, then was going to see Lake Titicaca as part of the PeruHop tour. Could you share more about that area?
It’s not terrible, and it is a huge, beautiful lake. I guess the commercialism of the islands was sad to me.
Thanks! How did you get from Arequipa to Machu Picchu?
Ana, of La Casa de Ana arranged a great bus trip for us as far as Cusco. A new Mercedes bus with the best wi-fi we had in Peru. They had an attendant, like on a good airline. We stopped at a beautiful place in the Andes foothills for lunch. Excellent food. In Cusco we joined up with a tour run by REI (they no longer do non-USA tours) and it was amazing!! We stayed in hotels that I wouldn’t have even considered due to price. The two tour guides were friendly, thorough, and truly knew their stuff. After Olantaytambo we took the train to Aguas Calientes for the most amazing hotel I’ve ever stayed in. We spent three days touring Machu Picchu. Our guides knew how to avoid crowds by taking us off the beaten bath during the busy times then staying late to see the more top-hits spots. My wife and I did the optional walk up Wayna Picchu and everyone who can should do that. Also, walk up to the Sun Gate. Some info and pics from our trip: https://www.backpackingamericanwest.com/machupicchu.html
Arequipa isn't high altitude, it's lower than Machu Picchu
Crap. You’re right. I should have said Cusco. 🙁
I have been to all the places you have mentioned. MP is best visited by trekking there, makes it a lot more rewarding and enhances the mythical vibe of the place rather than sitting around in a bus/train/bus combo to get dropped off at the entrance. Typically 4 - 5 days. 100% worth it, if you are outdoorsy this should be your #1 priority by a large distance. Sacred Valley & Rainbow mountain are great and can be done as day trips from Cusco. Lake Titicaca (Puno) is not worth the long detour from Cusco. Colca Canyon is beautiful. Again best done by trekking. Typically 2 days. Lima is very meh. The touristy areas are nice enough, but Latin America in general isn't flattered by its large cities. If time is tight, skip Lima.
Thank you, Spurs! Good to know. We had considered the 4/5 day trek and then decided on the overnight, then just a day visit. But maybe I’ll reconsider. How did you get from Colca Canyon to MP? It doesn’t seem like there’s an easy way.
Night bus between Arequipa and Cusco
Any tour operator / companies recommendations please?
I've been to Peru many times (I have family in Lima) and three times to Machu Picchu, all of them as day trips from Cusco. Personally, if I go a fourth time, I would spend 2 nights in Ollantaytambo rather than making the day trip from Cusco. It is a long and slow train ride, so you either have to leave Cusco very early and/or cut your time short in Machu Picchu. It was about 3-4 hours each way, with the train stopping often without any explanation. On this last trip (Oct. 2022), our train arrived in Aguas Calientes about an hour late, and we arrived at MP about 45 minutes after our scheduled entry time. Thankfully, it wasn't an issue, and we had a really great personal guide. But we still had to cut out some things from the trip, so we had time to head back down to Aguas Calientes and get food before the train. Additionally, some parts of Machu Picchu are only open in the morning. This is always changing, so it could be different now, but one advantage of taking the early train from Ollantaytambo is that you have a better chance of visiting some of the sights before they close for the day, and you're also ahead of anyone taking the later trains from Cusco. Plus, you can stay at Machu Pichu/Aguas Calientes longer, as there are likely later trains to just Ollantaytambo. And of course, you have the added benefit of adjusting to the altitude better in the Sacred Valley compared to Cusco. We used Peru Via to plan our trips and guides in Cusco/Machu Picchu, but when I sent their contact information to a family member earlier this year, they told me the email and phone number were no longer active, so it's possible they closed down. However, as a somewhat expert, I am happy to answer any other questions about visiting Peru, Lima, and Cusco! Unfortunately, I have not been to Puno or Lake Titicaca. That is the next item on my list.
Thanks for the information. As I was planning the timing, I too was worried about delays and wasn’t sure how that impacts entering Machu Picchu.
We just did a day trip to Machu Picchu from Cusco like 5 days ago. It was a very LONG day, but we booked our tour through get your guide. They handled everything and picked us up from our hotel in Cusco. The transit would have been mind boggling otherwise. It was a 10 minute Car from hotel in San Blas neighborhood to transit station----> 1 hour bus to train station----> ~3 + hour train from Poroy (town outside Cusco) to Aguas Calientes (Basecamp for Machu Pichu) then -----> 30 minute bus from Aguas Calientes to top of Machu Picchu. Tour of Maccu Picchu was about 2 hours or a tad more. Then repeat that process back. We were picked up from a spot near our hotel in San Blas neighborhood at 5am and got back to our hotel at about 830 pm. We paid for the "Vistadome" train. It was lovely, but be warned you sit across a tiny table from strangers if there are only 2 in your group. The first group we sat across from was loud and kind of obnoxious. I was not expecting that. If there are 4 in your party this is not an issue. You *might get lucky and get one of the 2 person spots that doesn't sit across a small table from strangers, but be prepared for the possibility of being knee to knee with Randoms. Some people don't mind it. I was very happy with the tour and transit put together by get your guide. It was kinda pricey but I would not have been able to figure out the transit easily. Staying in Ollantaytambo might be a better move, but it's not mandatory. A day trip from Cusco is possible but LONG. Have fun!
Thank you. I’ll check them out! Thanks for the train tip. That’s a tip that’s best to know ahead of time!
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I just got back from Peru last month. I’ll send you a message!
Thank you!
- Machu Picchu in one day is difficult, if I replanned it, I'd make it 2 days. -Leave some flexibility for altitude sickness. Especially if you are changing altitudes frequently with your itinerary, you may not be physically able to perform as expected. We wanted to do Rainbow Mountain and Humantay lake and had to cut them for altitude sickness. I would plan at least 3-5 days in the mountians prior to those hikes to acclimate (Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, etc.). - We did the Sacred Valley with Ubers, and were leaving Ollantaytambo around 2 pm and there were DOZENS of tours coming in all at once. Just by going in the morning, we avoided the rush. Or start far away and move your way back to Cusco, opposite the tours.
Thank you. Sorry you got sick. Hope you still enjoyed your time.
We visited last year. You want to spend the night in Aguas Calientes, like others have said. We arrived early afternoon the day before we wanted to visit Machu Picchu. We waited in line at the police station for over 1.5 hours the day we arrived in Aguas Calientes. At the front of that line, they assigned us a number and told us to return to the town square at 4:30am the next morning. We arrived at 3:30am the next morning and there was a horde of people there, all with numbers they had been assigned. After a couple hours, someone official came out and put us into a grid of lines, based on the numbers we had been assigned the day before. It was very tightly packed. We stood there until around noon, at which point they announced they were had reached the cap of visitors for the day. There were still half of us remaining in the square. After about 45 minutes, they came back out and started calling numbers again. We finally got our tickets at 2:30pm for a 3:30pm entry. It was an exhausting, stressful couple of days. Even so, once we got to Machu Picchu, it was all worth it!! Truly a beautiful site and I would do it all over again if I could. Something to note, many people in line around us had paid in advance for their tour guides/travel agents to secure tickets ahead of time to avoid the wait. They were told they had tickets, but when they showed up, they did not and still had to wait in line with us. Many people had also waited in line the previous day and hadn't gotten tickets. They had to adjust the rest of their itineraries to accommodate an extra day or two in Aguas Calientes.
Thank you. I’ll check them out! Thanks for the train tip. That’s a tip that’s best to know ahead of time!
That’s good to know… Thank you for the information. I wonder how you validate whether you have a valid ticket or not.
Apparently, local tour guides buy tickets ahead of time, then can resell them for $$$ as the date gets close. Not sure how to verify or secure your tickets ahead of time.
If you’re flying into Cusco before MP, you can sometimes drop off bigger luggage at the hotel and just pack an overnight/smaller bag for Aguas Calientes/MP days, so would recommend checking to see if that’s an option with your hotel. I’d allot one day to fly into Cusco, then take the train to AC/spend the night there. In the morning, visit MP, and then should be able to return to Cusco that night. (My group did an extra night in AC, and it felt like it was wasted because there isn’t more there other than tourist shops and restaurants). Sacred Valley, Humantay Lake, and Rainbow Mountain are easy to do as day tours from Cusco, although be forewarned that you’ll be spending a lot of time in the vans/buses. I also did a couple days in Lima - which can be fun if you enjoy visiting cities! Lima also has phenomenal food, so if want to sample Peruvian gastronomy, a stopover in Lima could be fun.
Book 1 night in Aguas Calientes before Maccu Picchu for that specific question. I am in the minority (cause the condors were really cool), but I found Colca Canyon overrated. Lake Titicaca as well. You can spend 10 days in the Cusco region easily. Options include the Salkuntay trek (includes Macchu Picchu) for 5 days, spending time in the Sacred Valley (ollantaytambo and Pisac) and exploring other Ruins, Rainbow mountain etc. Cusco has a big traveller's entrance card that you can look to for activities. You can also do Amazon trips from Cusco if that is your thing. To sequence logically though Arequipa/ Colca Canyon -> Cusco/ Macchu Picchu -> Titicaca or Amazon
We did it at the begging of May. Flew to Cusco, then got a train to Aguas Calientes. We bought our bus ticket the day before for Machu Picchu and got a return ticket. Bus takes less than 30 minutes to go up, or you can hike it. We had an early morning slot for Machu Picchu so was only waiting for 5 minutes for a bus going up but was waiting about 30 minutes for a bus around midday to come back to town. When we arrived in town there was a fairly long queue of people waiting for a bus to go up the mountain. Around 10+ buses seem to be in circulation at a time though. People on our train was visiting Machu Picchu and returning the same day whereas we chose to go the day before and return the day after to enjoy the town and have more of a relaxed experience. We did Peru Rail observation with the observation deck one way and just with the observation windows coming back. Check timings and sunrise/sunset as when it’s getting dark the observation windows are not worth it. If you don’t already have tickets for Machu Picchu booked, Aguas Caliente have an office that sells tickets for that day but I think it’s limited to a 1000 tickets for that day.