Cusco to Machu Picchu
When planning your trip from Cusco to Machu Picchu, you’ll want to make sure everything runs smoothly, especially if you have a tight schedule. In order to get from Cusco to Machu Picchu, you will have to travel through the sacred valley which itself offers many things to do and to see. The first part of the trip will consist on going from Cusco to Ollantaytambo, the second part will be to take the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Caliente. All of this being in the sacred valley. This article will cover this journey.
Another alternative is to actually visit the secret valley and Machu-Picchu from Cusco as day tour. This way you don’t have to change accommodation. If you want to do that, you can check up those tour:
Table of Contents
Where to stay in Cusco
For us, one of the most important part of travelling is where we will be staying at. That’s why we start this Cusco itinerary with that:
Where to stay in Aguas Caliente
For us, one of the most important part of travelling is where we will be staying at. That’s why we start this Cusco itinerary with that:
Organisation: Cusco to Machu Picchu
The day before our departure from Cusco to Machu Picchu, our guesthouse organised a taxi to pick us up at 08:30am. No need to rush for the taxi, in the morning, they are on time and are waiting for you. The reason we opted for the taxi option is that it cost 240 sol and that we would be more flexible and quicker in order to reach our train in Ollantaytambo that we had booked from France. We didn’t want to miss our train to reach Aguas Caliente and the day after Machu Picchu!
We then had two options for our trip:
- Cusco – Chinchero – Maras – Moray – Urubamba – Ollantaytambo
- Cusco – Pisaq – Urubamba – Ollantaytambo
We opted for the option 1, as we had limited time, we thought this would give us more to see and Pisaq was out of reach along with our choice. But if you have time, it could be an option for the return trip. But we personally went straight back to Cusco for the return using the train company.
Mapping the day
Chinchero - Wool factory
Our first stop was Chinchero, where we arrived in a wool factory. There local people showed us how they make the different types of wool (coming from different type of animals) and how they are making clothes, scarfs, sheets and so on.
This spot is only in Spanish but there are showing you, how to get the wool, wash it, color it and store it. Even if you are not a Spanish speaker, you get most of the process.
Feel free to buy something in the end, it is what they expect as they don’t charge you anything or feel free to leave.
Chinchero - Town
From there we went back in the car for 5 min to reach the old city and visit ruins. To access the site, we had to buy tickets. It is called a partial ticket and cost 70 sol each. It gives you right to enter 4 sites: Chinchero, Moray, Pinkuylluna and Pisaq in one day. There are no other options anyway for only one day ticket.
Chinchero old town is made of a main square with a church and some old streets. On the side of the church Inca’s ruins and terraces are located.
After hanging around the old Inca’s trail of Chinchero, we returned to the car. On our way, we came across a wedding ceremony that was heading for the church. That was unexpected but really cool!
Mara & Moray
We kept on our journey to Mara but didn’t stop there, it is basically only a small village with no real history part nor ruins. We didn’t want to lose time and just passed by the plaza de Armas in the car and went straight to Moray.
Moray was an Incas experimental site where they were growing and researching crops. They were looking which crops would grow and under with conditions. This way they could optimised they agriculture. There a multiple trail to do around the Inca’s terraces of Moray, short, medium and long one. We opted for the short one that was around 45min.
Sometimes when we arrived nearby groups with guide, we hanged around for a while, you can always grab what they are saying and learn this way.
Salineras Pound
Our next stop was a bit of a detour, but we decided to do it anyway. The “Salineras”, Salt evaporation ponds which was another 10 sol each. But was totally worth it, especially if you never saw such salt evaporation pond. The only thing was that there was no explanation on site to get to know more about it.
We grab there an empanada (6 sol one) not to lose time having lunch.
The process to get salt from the pounds is quite simple..There are over 3000 pools where salt is extracted by evaporating Salty water from a local subterranean stream directed to the pools using tiny channels.
Urubamba
We then made a quick stop in Urubamba but there was nothing much to see there. Yet we stayed 15/20min because we wanted to check out a shop “da Colektor” that we really liked in Cusco and were expecting to find a bigger one there as it is originated from Urubamba, but it wasn’t.
Anyway, we didn’t lose our time at all, on our way we passed by a local market and a street market. We have a thing for those market and always love them. Also, we got the chance to see there some kind of tuk-tuk and a really old city.
Ollantaytambo
We ended in Ollantaytambo which is a really cute town made of cobble street with a nice “plaza de armas”.
We took some time to stroll around those streets and walked around before going to the famous Inca’s ruin Pinkuylluna and Pumatallis. The ruins are beautiful, and the site is really big. We went around trying to avoid the crowd but ultimately if you want to go on the top of the terraces you have but no other choice that to go where the crowd is. But no worries, you can still move around.
Ollantaytambo is located at 2792m altitude and was a Stronghold for in Inca during the Spanish conquest. There are many ruins remaining there such as teracces, quarries, temples and storehouses.
Train to Aguas Caliente
Finally, we directed ourselves to the train station to catch our 4:36pm Inca rail train. We arrived approximately 30min before in order to get the boarding pass to the train. It was good ride with Inca rail, they even served snack and drinks during the trips.
In order to be sure to have tickets for the train, we bought them 3 months in advance on the INCA Rail website.
Aguas Caliente
When we arrived in Aguas Caliente there was someone from our hotel that picked us up
We directly went to buy the ticket for the bus as the hotel recommended as they said: If you guys go in the morning it will be a long line and you won’t be able to catch the first buses. It is another 24 dollars or 80 sol for the bus go and return ticket that is for one day anytime.
Aguas caliente seem most touristic with lots of bar, restaurant and shops. It is a cute town to stay overnight or for one day, but we wouldn’t stay longer than that.
“To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark
