Short Inca Trail 6 Days

Welcome to the Andean realm, full of great history!

A day of leisure in the ancient capital of the Incan Empire, entitled a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In the morning, you will explore the stunning fortress-temple Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo, Pukapukara, and Tambomachay.

Around midday, you will enjoy a great lunch at one of the typical restaurants. After lunch, we continue exploring Cusco’s antique streets, arriving on foot at the extraordinary Temple of the Sun, Coricancha. This temple was the most important religious site of the Incas in lower Cusco. Its sumptuous walls and floors were allegedly once covered by sheets of solid gold.

The Temple of the Sun was once one of the most important religious sites of the Incan people in the city of Cusco. On this tour, we also visit the local San Pedro Market where you can taste fresh-baked chuta bread, sample authentic fruits, and see some local bizarre items, articles for different purposes and aims. We then walk to the main square, which you will feel at the heart of the puma (because Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire, was designed in the shape of a puma), and from here you will see the colonial buildings, the cathedral, and the other churches around. Eventually, we return to the hotel.

• Lodging in Cusco city.

At 7:00 am, your private guide comes to your hotel to pick you up. Next, you will drive to the first site to visit, which is Pisac. Here you will see impressive and massive crop terraces, which cover all the hillsides of the mountains. These terraces were built to keep producing products at any time or season of the year as they were fed by an irrigation aqueduct system. Pisac has other smaller neighborhoods which are linked by short Inca trails. On this tour, you will take one of them to have a short walk while enjoying the impressive views around. Once in Pisac, you can also visit its local colorful market, where you may find the perfect souvenirs.

The following site to visit is Maras salt ponds. Maras salt ponds were the main provider of salt in Cusco and are still today for many communities around the Sacred Valley, where locals still farm the salt by hand as the Incas used to do centuries ago.

After this site, we visit Moray, an Incan farming research center. Because of this place, today we are able to have over 3000 sorts of potatoes and other plants. At this place, you will see those spectacular rounded-shape terraces specially designed to create microclimates, which were good for plant adaptation and acclimatization.

Finally, we will drive to Ollantaytambo, an iconic Incan site and historical site from the Spaniards’ colonial time, where the Incans defeated the Spaniards several times during Manco Inca’s rebellion after 1536. Ollantaytambo is also famous for its Temple of the Sun, whose 100 tons of construction rocks were brought from 5 miles away. This tour will end at Ollantaytambo, where we will drop you off at your hotel in this beautiful town.

• Lodging in Ollantaytambo town.

Today, we start early in the morning at 5:30 am with a pick-up from your hotel. We will take the train at 6:10 am to km 104, where the train will stop to let us off. From there, we will walk to the main checkpoint for registration (be sure to bring your original passport for this checkpoint). This place is located at an elevation of 2,150 m/7,052 ft. After registration, we will walk for a couple of minutes and reach the first Incan site called Chachabamba, which has beautiful temples, a main patio, sacred rock, etc. Our guide will provide great information about this site.

Afterward, we will continue walking gradually uphill, enjoying the spectacular scenery until reaching the Winaywayna Incan temple, whose meaning is “forever young.” Here, our guide will explain the significance of this site during Incan times. After exploring this lovely place, we will eat our packed lunch at the Winaywayna checkpoint.

We will then continue hiking to Machu Picchu for two more hours, entering this wonder of the world through the Gate of the Sun, from where we will have the first views of the famed Incan city and take our time to capture great snapshots from this vantage point. Once we arrive at Machu Picchu, we will take our time to capture more snapshots of the Incan city, as the afternoon usually has fewer people.

Eventually, we will take the bus to Machu Picchu town (Aguas Calientes town) where we’ll stay at a cozy hotel such as Intipunku Suites or a similar hotel, and have dinner at a restaurant (this last dinner is not included).

• Hiking distance: 12 km / 7.46 miles.
• Hiking time: 6 – 7 hours.
• Lowest elevation: 2,150 m / 7,052 ft.
• Highest elevation: 2,650 m / 8,692 ft.
• Physical rating: moderate.
• Highlight: original section of the Inca Trail, exploration of two Incan ruins before Machu Picchu, first views of Machu Picchu from the Gate of the Sun, and admiring Machu Picchu in the late afternoon.
• Lodging in Aguas Calientes.

The icing on the cake!

Today, a great breakfast at the hotel makes us ready for a full morning exploration of Machu Picchu on a private tour with your trek leader. We’ll take the bus back to Machu Picchu early in the morning for an amazing tour until 12:00 pm (Machu Picchu permits will be issued for the first group, which is from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm). If you have booked a permit for Wayna Picchu mountain, you’ll climb the mountain after the tour; however, spaces are subject to availability. In the unlikely event that Wayna Picchu permits are not available for your departure date, you will climb Machu Picchu mountain instead.

After a great time at the Incan emperor’s palace, we’ll take the bus down to Machu Picchu town (Aguas Calientes town), where we’ll have lunch (not included). In the afternoon, we’ll take the train back to Ollantaytambo train station and/or Poroy train station. From there, we’ll continue driving to your hotel in Cusco.

• Lodging in Cusco.

Adiós Peru!

Today in the morning, we will have our last Peruvian breakfast at the hotel and say our goodbyes before heading to the airport. From here, it’s, of course, your option to continue exploring Peru on your own or have a flight booked to return home. You can depart Cusco any time on this final day. Service ends after private transportation to the airport. If planning to stay longer in Peru, we have day tours available leaving from Cusco. Thank you for choosing Peru Summit Adventures!

Note on Itinerary:

Although we do our very best to adhere to the schedule above, this itinerary is subject to change for several reasons beyond our control, including strikes, weather, natural disasters, and terrain conditions. On some occasions, these conditions may demand us to deviate from our original schedule, in which case we will provide the best available alternative options. And we’ll make a great experience of it!