A half-day ride across the plateau above Urubamba to the circular terraces of Moray and the salt pans of Maras, finishing with a long descent to the river.
Every 24 June Cusco re-enacts the Inca festival of the sun at Qorikancha, the Plaza de Armas and Sacsayhuamán. How to see it and how to combine it with a trek.
Lower, warmer and greener than Cusco, the Urubamba valley is where we start every Peru trip: two nights among terraces, markets and Inca towns before the trail.
Glaciers, cloud forest and coffee farms: the five-day Salkantay trek is wilder than the Inca Trail and needs no permit, which makes it our favourite last-minute option.
Machu Picchu Logistics: Tickets, Trains and Circuits
Timed entry, fixed one-way circuits, trains from Ollantaytambo and the bus from Aguas Calientes: the practical side of visiting Machu Picchu, updated for this season.
Everything we have learned from more than two hundred departures on the 43 km Inca Trail: permits, camps, passes and how to arrive at Machu Picchu before the buses.