Most visitors buy the full Cusco tourist ticket and use about a third of it.
That is not a scandal. It is arithmetic. The ticket costs 130 soles, covers sixteen sites and runs for ten days. Very few people spend ten days working through museums in Cusco and ruins in the South Valley. They visit Sacsayhuamán, they visit Pisac and Ollantaytambo, and the other thirteen entries stay unused.
We are going to explain the ticket properly, including the parts that catch people out. We will also tell you something no other page will. None of the day trips we run require it.
What is the Cusco tourist ticket?
The Cusco tourist ticket is a single combined entrance pass covering sixteen archaeological sites and museums in the Cusco region. Locally it is the boleto turístico, and it is administered by COSITUC.
It exists because those sixteen sites do not sell individual tickets. If you want to walk into Sacsayhuamán, the ticket is the only way through the gate. There is no queue where you pay for that one site and leave.
That single fact explains almost everything people find frustrating about it.
Students aged 18 to 25 pay the reduced rate with a valid university card. So do visitors aged 10 to 17 with identification. Bring the physical card. A photograph of it is refused more often than people expect.
Young children enter free.
What does each circuit include?
Circuit I, above the city. Sacsayhuamán, Q’enqo, Puka Pukara and Tambomachay. One day of validity, and all four sit on the same road out of Cusco.
Circuit II, museums and the South Valley. The Museo de Arte Popular, the Museo Histórico Regional, the Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo, the Museo de Sitio de Korikancha, the Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo, the Pachacutec monument, Tipón and Pikillacta. Two days of validity.
Circuit III, the Sacred Valley. Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Chinchero and Moray. Two days of validity.
The full ticket is all sixteen with ten days to use them.
The catch nobody explains: two pairs of names
Two sites on the list share a name with a famous site that is not on the list. This costs people money every single day.
Korikancha. Circuit II includes the Museo de Sitio de Korikancha, an underground museum near the Avenida El Sol gardens. It does not include the Qorikancha temple itself, the sun temple with the Santo Domingo convent on top. That is the one you have seen photographs of. It charges its own entrance.
Moray and Maras. Circuit III includes Moray, the concentric agricultural terraces. It does not include the Maras salt pans, ten minutes down the road. The Maras community collects for those separately, at around S/20. Almost every tour sells the two together, and almost every visitor assumes one ticket covers both.
Machu Picchu has never been on this ticket. It runs on an entirely separate system with its own booking window. Cusco Cathedral sits on the religious circuit, which is also separate.
Why can you not buy a ticket to just one site?
You cannot, because the ticket was designed to fund the small sites using the popular ones.
Sacsayhuamán and Pisac could sell themselves. Pikillacta and the Museo de Arte Popular could not. Bundling them means the whole set stays open, staffed and maintained on one revenue stream instead of sixteen.
Whether you think that is fair depends on whether you wanted to see Pikillacta. The design is deliberate rather than accidental, and that matters. Asking at the gate will not help. The staff at Sacsayhuamán have no mechanism to sell you a single entry even if they want to.
Should you buy the full ticket or a partial one?
Buy the full ticket if you plan to see the Sacred Valley and Sacsayhuamán. Two partial circuits cost 140 soles, which is more than the full ticket at 130.
Buy a partial circuit if you are only doing one of them. Someone in Cusco for two nights who only wants Sacsayhuamán should buy Circuit I for 70 soles.
The maths is unusually simple. Any two circuits and you should have bought the full ticket.
Watch the validity dates rather than the price. Circuit I expires in a single day. If you buy it in the afternoon intending to use it the next morning, you have bought nothing.
Do you need the Cusco tourist ticket for our day trips?
No. The Cusco tourist ticket covers none of the day trips we run, and none of them require it.
The sites we take people to sit outside the COSITUC system entirely. They are on community land, and the communities collect their own fees, in cash, on the day. The amounts are small and the money stays in the district.
Waqrapukara is the outlier. An Inca site of that quality with no ticket booth is remarkable. It says something about how few people still make the walk. We would not assume it stays that way.
Note the Ausangate line. The lagoon fee and the pool fee go to different people at different points in the day. One note for exactly twenty five soles will not work. Bring small notes.
Nothing on any of these routes takes a card. There is no machine, and the nearest one is back in Cusco. Work out what else you will need in cash before you leave the city.
Where do you buy the Cusco tourist ticket?
The COSITUC office at Avenida El Sol 103 in Cusco sells it. So do the ticket desks at most included sites. Buying at the first site you visit works perfectly well and saves a trip.
Take your passport. Take cash. Card acceptance at the site desks is inconsistent enough that we tell every client to assume it will not work.
If you are booked on a Sacred Valley tour, ask whether the ticket is included. Some tours include it and some do not. Paying twice is common and entirely avoidable.
Is the Cusco tourist ticket worth it?
For most visitors, yes, but for a narrower reason than the site count suggests.
Sacsayhuamán, Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Moray are four of the best Inca sites in Peru. See those four and the ticket has earned its 130 soles. The other twelve entries are a bonus you may well ignore.
Judge it on those four. Anyone selling it on the site count is counting things you will not visit.
Frequently asked questions
Is Machu Picchu included in the Cusco tourist ticket?
No. Machu Picchu uses a separate ticketing system with its own booking window and its own prices. The two have never been connected.
How long is the Cusco tourist ticket valid?
The full ticket is valid for ten consecutive days from first use. Circuit I lasts one day. Circuits II and III last two days each.
Can you buy the Cusco tourist ticket online?
Sources disagree, and the COSITUC system has changed more than once. Buying in person at the office on Avenida El Sol or at the first site you visit is reliable.
Does the Cusco tourist ticket cover Rainbow Mountain?
No. Neither Vinicunca nor Palccoyo is part of the COSITUC system. Both charge a separate community fee collected in cash at the trailhead.
Is the Maras salt mine included?
No. Moray is included in Circuit III. The Maras salt pans are not, despite being sold together on almost every Sacred Valley tour.
Do you need the ticket for Waqrapukara or Qeswachaka?
No. Both sit outside the COSITUC system. Waqrapukara charges nothing at all and Qeswachaka charges 20 soles in cash at the bridge.
Planet Odysseys is licensed by GERCETUR and based on Prolongacion Tupac Amaru in Cusco. Entrance fees on community land are set by the communities that collect them and can change without notice. If anything here does not match what you are asked to pay on the day, please tell us.