Everyone comes to Cusco for Machu Picchu, and nearly everyone gets the order wrong. The city sits at 3,400 metres; the citadel, counter-intuitively, is lower, at about 2,430 metres. The route below uses that fact — acclimatising gently downhill through the Sacred Valley — so you arrive at the main event breathing easily rather than nursing a headache.

Key facts

  • Altitude: Cusco 3,400 m; Sacred Valley ~2,800 m; Machu Picchu ~2,430 m
  • Season: May–September is the dry season; June and July are coldest at night and busiest
  • Tickets: Machu Picchu entry is capped and timed — buy weeks ahead on the official site, and book trains early
  • Cost: comfortably mid-range; the train and entry are the big line items

Day 1 — Cusco, slowly

Morning: Land, drop your bags, and do very little. Drink coca tea, walk flat streets, skip the steak lunch — light food helps at altitude. Start in the Plaza de Armas, ringed by colonial arcades built on Inca walls.

Afternoon: Visit Qorikancha, the Inca temple of the sun with the church of Santo Domingo built directly on top of it — the clearest illustration in Peru of conquest in stone. Then browse Mercado de San Pedro for fruit juices and textiles.

Evening: Dinner somewhere gentle. Chicha por Gastón Acurio, just off the plaza, does refined Cusqueñan cooking; go easy on the pisco sours tonight.

Day 2 — into the Sacred Valley

Morning: Take a taxi or tour over the pass to Pisac, whose hillside ruins — terraces pouring down the mountain — rival anything outside Machu Picchu itself. The village market below is good for souvenirs.

Afternoon: Continue down the valley to Ollantaytambo, a living Inca town whose grid of streets and water channels has run continuously since the 15th century. Climb the fortress terraces late in the day when the tour groups have gone.

Evening: Sleep in Ollantaytambo (around 2,800 m — you will sleep noticeably better than in Cusco). The town is also the main railway station for Machu Picchu, which sets up tomorrow perfectly.

Day 3 — the train and Aguas Calientes

Morning: Board the train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) — around 90 minutes tracing the Urubamba River as the highlands turn to cloud forest. PeruRail and Inca Rail both run the route; window seats left side going down.

Afternoon: Aguas Calientes is a transit town, but a pleasant one. Collect your bus ticket for the morning, check your entry time, and rest.

Evening: Early dinner, early night. The first buses up the switchbacks leave before dawn.

Day 4 — Machu Picchu

Morning: Take one of the first buses up and enter on the earliest slot you could book. The classic postcard terrace comes soon after the entrance; mist burning off the peaks is part of the show, not a problem. Circuits are one-way and enforced, so move deliberately. If you booked the Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain climb (separate, limited permits), that is your mid-morning.

Afternoon: Train back to Ollantaytambo and transfer to Cusco by road.

Evening: Now, at last, the celebration dinner in Cusco — you have earned the full menu, pisco included.

Tip: Build in a buffer day in Cusco after Machu Picchu, not before, for the sights you skipped while acclimatising — Sacsayhuamán above the city, the San Blas quarter — and as insurance against rail delays in the rainy months. And carry your passport to the citadel: you cannot enter without it.