Inka Trail 4d/3n
The Inca Trail or Camino Inca is one of the most famous and spectacular hiking routes in the world, taking travelers through ancient Inca paths to the majestic city of Machu Picchu. This tour, which combines nature, history and adventure, passes through impressive Andean landscapes, cloud forests and archaeological sites hidden in the mountains.
There are different versions of the Inca Camino, the most popular being 4 days and 3 nights, which covers approximately 42 km. During the crossing, hikers cross challenging mountain passes, such as Warmiwañusca (at 4,215 m a.s.l.), and discover impressive Inca ruins, such as Wiñay Wayna.
This path is considered sacred and was used by the Incas to reach Machu Picchu in a ceremonial way. Due to its popularity and the need to preserve the surroundings, access is limited and requires reservations months in advance. It is a unique experience for lovers of trekking and history, offering an unforgettable journey to Machu Picchu through the Puerta del Sol (Inti Punku).

Day 1: Cusco - Piskacucho Km 82 - Llactapata- Ayapata
Pick you up from wherever you are staying in Cusco, Urubamba, or Ollantaytambo. Pick-up from Cusco will be from 4 to 4:30 AM, from Urubamba from 5:30 to 6 AM, and if you stay in Ollantaytambo, you get to sleep in a bit with your pick-up from 6:30 to 7 AM. These times will be confirmed at your briefing, as they might fluctuate based on where you are staying. We will take you to the house which is located in Ollantaytambo after a delicious breakfast prepared by your cook, your guide will introduce you to your team of porters.
We will then drive to Km 82, we’ll go through the first Inca Trail checkpoint to begin our trek. Please make sure you have your original passport with you to enter the Inca Trail. The first 2 hours of the trek are relatively easy as we make our way to our first Inca site. Patallacta is an ancient Inca checkpoint for the approach to Machu Picchu.
From Patallacta it’s another 2-hour hike to our lunch stop. After lunch, we will hike for another 2½ hours until we reach the first night’s campsite at Ayapata (3300 meters). On this last stretch, we pass through 2 small communities. If you want to buy any energy drink, snacks, or essential items you may have forgotten such as batteries you can do so here. We’ll arrive at our campsite by 5:00 PM. After settling in for a bit, you can relax and have a hot drink and snack with your team of porters, chefs, and guides. By 7:30 PM, your dinner will be ready, and after you can get some well-deserved rest.
Day 2: Dead Woman´s Pass - Runcuraccay Pass - Chaquiccocha
Your porters will wake you up early with a hot cup of coca tea to get you ready for the day. We will have an early start since it will be our longest day. We’ll hike for roughly 4 hours to the highest pass of the trek, Dead Woman’s Pass (4215 meters/13829 feet). On reaching the pass, we’ll stop for a short break to enjoy the views before setting off again to descend to the next valley (Pacaymayu Valley – Hidden River). It’s another hour and a half down the side of the valley to our lunch spot, where you will have a chance to refill your water bottles. After lunch, we begin ascending again to the second pass of the trek. It’s 2 hours over the pass where we will stop at a small Inca site (Runcu Raccay) and see two huge waterfalls cascading down the opposite side of the valley. After the second pass, it’s another hour downhill hike to reach the magnificent Inca site, Sayacmarca (an otherwise inaccessible village).
We’ll stop here to rest and have a quick tour. Afterward, we will be able to watch the sunset over the Vilcabamba mountain range. It’s then just another 20 minutes until we stop for the night at our second campsite Chaquicocha (Dry Lake, 3600 meters). After dinner, if you’re not too exhausted, we can do some star gazing, and we’ll point out the fascinating Inca constellations. In the magnificent Southern Hemisphere sky, away from all the artificial lighting, this sky is something to behold!

Day 3: Chaquiccocha - Wiñaywayna
Completing Day 2 and beginning Day 3 certainly deserves a pat on the back! We will start early again, waking up at 6:30 am to begin what is commonly felt to be the most beautiful day of the whole Inca Trail. We hike for 2 hours along what we like to call “Inca flat” (gradual inclines) and begin to enter the jungle, known as the Cloud Forest. As we walk, we will have the opportunity to see Salkantay, the second highest snow-capped mountain in the Sacred Valley, and a fantastic panoramic view of the Vilcabamba mountain range. Towards the end of the Inca flats, we begin to make our way up to the last peak at Phuyupatamarka (3600 meters) from where we’ll have great views overlooking the Urubamba River. Down the valley, we get our first view of Machu Picchu Mountain, but the site itself is still hidden. From Phuyupatamarka it´s a 3-hour walk down a flight of steps to our last campsite, close to Wiñay Wayna (Forever Young). Wiñay Wayna is the most spectacular Inca site on the trail after Machu Picchu and the most popular campsite because of its proximity to Machu Picchu. During the descent, we visit 2 Inca ruins, Phuyupatamarka (Town in the Clouds) and Intipata (Terraces of the Sun). We arrive at our campsite around 1:00 PM to have lunch.
Then we will relax so that you are ready for your final day at Machu Picchu. At around 4:30 PM your guide will give you a short orientation, and you will visit the Inca ruins of Wiñay Wayna for an hour and a half there. Your guide will explain the significance of the site and combine all the information given during the trek. This way you will be fully prepared for your visit to Machu Picchu the following day. We like to spoil our guests as we enjoy our last feast with the porters and chefs. It’s an Inca Trail tradition to organize a ceremony in the evening to introduce the team to the tourists once again. This is to thank them for the great job done (if you wish to provide tips for them then you can do so at this time). It is advisable to go to bed at a reasonable time to get up in the early hours of the morning to arrive to Machu Picchu at the crack of dawn in the hopes that the weather will give us a beautiful sunrise over the ruins at Machu Picchu.
Day 4: Sun Gate - Machu Picchu - The Lost City Of The Incas
Wake up time is at 3:30 AM. We’ll eat breakfast at 4:00 AM and wait at the checkpoint to be one of the first to start trekking when they open the gates at 5:30 AM. We’ll wave goodbye to our team of porters and chefs and then it’s “Forward On” to the Sun Gate (Inti Punku). From here we have spectacular views of the mountains and Machu Picchu in all its glory. We will reach the Sun Gate by 6:30 am, and then it’s just an hour trek down to reach the Lost City of the Incas. As we hike and get closer to Machu Picchu, the views of the city get better! At about 7:40 AM we’ll reach the final checkpoint and enter Machu Picchu to begin our 2 hours private guided tour. After the tour, you’ll be given your bus tickets to make your way down to Aguas Calientes, and you’ll have plenty of free time to explore the city on your own or climb one of the neighboring mountains – Huaynapicchu (must be arranged ahead of time).
Your guide will offer to meet you down in the village of Aguas Calientes to enjoy your last lunch in a local restaurant. This is optional and not included. At lunch, your guide will hand out train tickets, so if you choose to skip, please arrange to get these before leaving him at Machu Picchu. Unless you arranged for an upgraded train, we will book the Expedition class train departing Aguas Calientes at 2:55 p.m. or 3:20 p.m. Please make sure you are on the platform at least 30 minutes ahead of time. This will be a 2-hour train to Ollantaytambo, where an Alpaca driver will meet you and drive you back to the city on our bus, then drop you off at your hotel.
INCLUDES :
- Transportation from Cusco to Km 82
- Cooking equipment
- Camping equipment
- 03 breakfasts, 03 lunches, 03 dinners
- Guide throughout the trek
- Entrance to the Inca Trail
- Entrance to Machu Picchu
- Bus down to Machu Picchu town
- Return train from Machu Picchu town to Ollantaytambo
- Bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco

NOT INCLUDED :
- First breakfast and last lunch
- Sleeping bag
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- 30-liter backpack
- Mosquito repellent
- Sunscreen
- Rain poncho
- Trekking shoes
- Trekking clothes



testimonial
EXCELENTE A base de 108 reseñas gloomypenguin2019-11-14Verificada Amazing value, very safe trip To get to Macchu Picchu by car, you will be taking a 6-7 hr colectivo van ride around to the other side of MP. Then you will need to walk in 9 km along train tracks - this is a safe, very used route and the trains are used to dealing with walking tourists. There are cheap, good places to eat after you walk past the actual train station if you're buying your own food (the lady with all the hammocks is awesome). There are a lot of different places to stay and camp along the train tracks if that's your thingI highly recommend paying for an extra night in Aguas Calientes or you will need to leave MP hours early (ticket is good for 5 hours entry) to walk out again to the colectivo van ride. If you stay in town longer, you can eat 6-8 soles meals at the mercado de abastos, by the train tracks and first bridge (fruits and veg are on the first floor, prepared comida típica is up the inside stairs). Aguas Calientes is very, very expensive for everything so bring in any alcohol, cigarettes, stuff. You will definitely want to bring bug spray and sunscreen (even if it's cloudy, even if you see no bugs). Only "extra" ticket purchase I made was $12 usd for a bus to the entrance of MP from Aguas Calientes but I did walk the way down... You don't need to do thatThing to note: some people in my van did have issues with their return ticket vouchers for the colectivo. I don't think it had anything to do with this specific company but just remember while traveling around like this, make sure you have contact info and resolve all issues as early and completely as possible. I personally had zero issues, though, and I really didn't understand what was going on with the other group(s) but I sure did feel badly for themSpecial thanks to this company for: the great private room with private bathroom and meeting me after office hours to arrange all this WAGNER-MARSON2019-01-07Verificada Excellent! I'm from São Paulo - Brazil, it was my first trip alone and I recommend the agency. Nancy was always helpful before, during and after the trip. I did all the tours with her: Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Humantay Lagoon, Colorful Mountain, quadricycle to Moray and Salineras. All of the travel guides were great. Nancy picked me up and took me to the airport when I needed her. Thank you to the staff. Peru has so many beautiful places that you can not get to know it in a few days. I would return and recommend Nancy and her staff. Thank you and see you soon! Zbigniew S2018-12-31Verificada Cheap and interesting way to get to MP Everything was well organized. Walk along railway was nice. Dinner also. Nothing to complain. Better than train as our friends spent there additional two hours for a high price. Andy H2017-08-09Verificada Great value for money, but the final pickup was a horrible and stressful experience We had read great reviews and especially with dealing with Nancy, so got in touch with her via WhatsApp. The experience was great and she answered our questions well. The start of the tour was great and we were picked up on time and even had time to have a coffee at a local shop which was recommend to us. The trip there was comfortable and the mini bus was nice and modern. Our driver was extremely good and didn't overtake other cars where it was dangerous. I did feel sick in the car, but that was due to a lot of corners and not due to the driver. We arrived in Agua Calientes fine and the hike was absolutely stunning. The dinner was extremely basic and for some reason was served at 8.30pm, when we had to be up at 3am the next day. Our tour guide told us we needed to buy our own food for the morning so we spent even more of the evening sorting this out, when we could have been sleeping. It would have been so much better to have dinner as early as 6pm so you could get a decent sleep (especially after how tired you are with the 3 hour hike along the train track).When we finally went to bed we were woken up at 11pm with our lunch for the next day (which we were told we wouldn't get). As you can imagine that was annoying. Machu Picchu is amazing and the hike up is difficult. But well worth doing. Our guide was scheduled for 7am even though we had asked for a 6am tour, so we wasted an hour at the top waiting for the guide and watching hundreds of people go in before us.Getting back to Cusco was a horrible experience. There's 50 different minibuses all in the same location, screaming the name of the tour guide and you're supposed to magically hear and then get in. Out of pure luck we managed to find out minibus and started the absolutely horrendous journey back. Unlike the journey there, the way back was in a minibus that was falling apart. I was sat on a seat that wasn't screwed in properly and meant going around corners almost tipped me over. The other two in the group had a similar experience.We stopped off at a hut in the middle of no where to clean the van. The food options were non existent if you're being careful about what you eat and we didn't understand why we stopped there (where as on the way we stopped off at a really nice hostel).We ended up arriving a few hours late and it ruined what could have been an amazing experience. I can only assume that on the way back they don't really care what you think and therefore you get a terrible experience.Overall I would do it again, as it's such a cheap way to see Machu Picchu and even though the journey back is abysmal, it's the best you can expect in a country that has no organisation generally. Willy L2016-08-23Verificada Great Choice, Nancy is the Best Nancy was a great travel consultant for us. She arranged everything for us at the very last minute. She trusted us that she bought all the train and entrance tickets before seeing us. Everything was thru whatsapp only. The value for money I think is very good. Total package that we paid was much lower than booking thru the various tour operators in Cusco. This is after I googled and browsed that she included a number of things which were add-ons for other operators. She personally picked us up at the airport and even arranged the taxi back to airport post our 4 days stay in Cusco. After every tour, she asked us if everything was okay. We could have leveraged her service as well for accommodation which we didnt do and we regretted because I think we could get better deal thru her. I saw some not so good stories here abt machupicchubycar.com but maybe because they were not handled by Nancy. So if u want to use this tour agency, make sure u choose to work with Nancy. Tina K2014-07-13Verificada Looking back: Go by your own rather than organized tour We booked a tour with one of the many agencies in Cusco to Machu Picchu (MP) because it was a cheaper and faster option since we did not have a lot of time nor money. We paid 125 dollars for the trip, which includes 1 night in Aguas Calientes, entrance fee to MP, train ride back from Aguas Calientes to hydroelectric station, and 1 lunch, 1 dinner and 1 breakfast.The bus picked us up at the agency around 7:15. After 1.30 hours we arrived to Ollantaytambo where we had a rest and the bus driver picked up 5 more people who were not included in the tour. Since there were only 3 seats left 2 people had to sit on the floor. The ride continued for 5 more hours to the hydroelectric station where we would walk for 2 hours to Aguas Calientes. This is a winding ride through mountains and a few people got sick. The driver did not make the ride more comfortable. We stop in a small village of which I don't remember the name for lunch. The lunch was very basic (pasta with tomato sauce or chicken burger) and we found out that it costs 5 soles! After lunch the car ride continued for another 40 minutes on dirt road before we finally arrived at hydroelectric station. From there 2 hours easy walk to Aguas Calientes where we would meet our guide at the main square. At the main square we waited for 1.5 hours before the guide showed up! And then it took another 30min to find everybody on the list before we could check-in at the hostel. Everybody was very annoyed and tired. Two girls on the tour got a dirty, damp and moldy private room so they wanted to change. The guide couldn't find another room for the girls so they got 15soles each back! Fortunately, our room was Ok. Dinner that was included was very basic, cost around 15 soles. At the restaurant we saw many cockroaches. Aguas Calientes is a small village pretty much built for tourism. There are only restaurants and hostels/hotels there. No cars allowed.We got up at 04:00 to eat breakfast (bread and jam). The bridge opens at 05:00, there they check your ticket and ID. Be there early, the queue gets very long! Then we hiked in the dark to MP. The flashlights were annoying and blinding because you could see fine without. MP opens at 06:00. We were there around 05:45. The hike took around 1h 20min from our hostel. The hike uphill is very steep and sweaty so don't wear too much clothes!MP is spectacular but very touristy. Around 10 a lot of people start showing up and it is crowded! I don't like the ways things are organized so going once to MP is enough for me. Because we were at MP so early we could take some photos without people in it. As I have written before, train tickets back to hydroelectric station were included in our tickets but because our guide is incompetent he brought our tickets too late so we had to walk back to the hydroelectric station. Because of this we arrived late at the station and missed our ride. We waited for 30min before another ride was available. Very annoying since our guide promised to tell the driver to wait for us. Overall, it is very easy to do MP on your own. The entrance fee costs 126soles and there are knowledgable guides waiting outside if you are interested in hiring one. If you don't want to hike you can take a bus up MP for 19 dollars return tickets. The train tickets are expensive, 26dollars one way to hydroelectric station. Don't take the organized tour. They are usually unreliable and you don't get what you paid for. Plus you are more flexible to choose your own hostel and food instead of feeling like you are on a school trip. Franniecliff M2013-05-24Verificada Machupicchu and Huaynapicchu with kids Exhilirating beauty ! I have to put in a good word for Guillermo our guide who was prompt ,knowledgable , organized and catered to what we wanted and at our pace.Traveled with 6 athletic kids ages 8,11,13,15,18 &21. We climbed Huaynapicchu.I was a little concerned with safety which you should (pictures below). My 8 year old and I climbed leisurely up to about 90% of Huaynapicchu stopping to rest after steep segments. The hike up to this point was not too concerning and good enough for us.( I did not want my 8 year old to get too tired to hike Machupichu ruins after) The rest went to the top at a faster pace with our guide. I felt better that my kids were with an expirienced guide that has hiked Huaynapicchu many many times and left the ultimate decision to my oldest daughter to turn back if she felt it was too dangerous. Well they conquered Huaynapicchu! She said the last 10% of the hike was the scariest she's ever done. At the top they pretty much stayed low to the ground and moved about on their "butt".Hope this review helps you decide if you would like to hike the optional Huaynapicchu. Machupicchu alone was quite the hike and spectacular. Lastly, I recommend guillermo If you need a guide in Cusco or Machupicchu email: guillerlavilla@hotmail.com yflavio2012-06-25Verificada Yay! Made it by car! This is the summary of my trip from Lima to Cuzco by car. Total of 7 days.First day: Arrived Lima by plane from Brazil, a driver welcomed us at the airport and drove us to the office rental. I got a unlimited mileague rental of a Grand Vitara 4x4 (both needed) at the National Rent a Car, local office by email. We left toward Nazca, good road, about 6-7 hours.Second day: After a good breakfast, we left at 08:30 am toward Cuzco and started the real adventure. Scenic, breathtaken views, montains, valleys, vicunhas, alpacas, lhamas, ice, many trucks and curves... 14 hours till Urubamba (our final destination). The road is a little dangerous but nothing impossible if you like to drive, the views worth for all. Better with a good car, I wouldn t do it with a compact, GPS is not mandatory but I had one in my iPhone and I used it a lot. Puquio, the first city, has nothing, Abancay doesn t have anything at all, keep the tank full as you can and have snacks and beverages cos there isn t any place I would stop for eatting. I barely felt the altitude effects, we have reached 4.436 meters. I think I would feel more if I had travelled by air, I definitely have no regrets of doing it by car.Be aware cos I am sure the things are worse in the rainy season, some pavement are lost near Limatambo but anything to worry about if you are on a SUV.If you want a safer drive, make it in 3 parts. There are some fair hotels in Abancay, but there isn t anything interesting there, the advantage is you are not losing the views cos your will be driving only during daylight.Not a good trip who feels sick in the car or with small children; The roads have tolls, have local money; There is no ice on roads.