Quelccaya Day Tour from Cusco
$50 Full Day
Overview
6:00 AM
At the Machu Picchu gate
4 sites
Day one in the valley
7:45 AM
Pickup in Cusco
2 days
One night in Aguas Calientes
There are two ways to see Machu Picchu from Cusco. One is a fifteen hour day with a 3:30 AM start. It puts you at the gate at about eight, with everyone else who did the same. The other is this. You spend the first day in the Sacred Valley and take the evening train down the gorge. You sleep in Aguas Calientes and walk in at six.
The hour matters more than it sounds. The first buses leave the town at half past five and the first tickets open the gate at six. For about two hours after that, the site belongs to the people who slept nearby. The terraces are empty in the photographs and the mist is still lifting off Huayna Picchu. The guide can stop where they like. By eight the day trips arrive and the paths fill.
Day one is not a transfer with stops. It is the valley done properly. Chinchero for the weavers, Maras for the salt, Moray for the rings, and Ollantaytambo for the fortress. Ollantaytambo is the last thing you see before the train and the best preparation for what comes next. Machu Picchu was built by the same hands, a generation later, with the same stone.
The price includes the pieces that are hard to arrange alone. Two train seats and a timed entrance ticket. A licensed guide on each day and a bed at the bottom of the mountain. What it leaves out is dinner, the second lunch and the Cusco tourist ticket, and the page says so below.
Two long days, and an ugly town in between.
Day one runs from 7:45 AM to about eight in the evening. Day two starts at five. Aguas Calientes, where you sleep, is a railway town with good hotels, expensive restaurants and nothing to do after dark. That is fine, because you will be asleep by nine. If you want Pisac as well, this loop does not go there. The full valley day from Cusco does.
Tour Highlights
- ✓ Walk through Machu Picchu at first light. Your guided tour of Machu Picchu starts early, before the crowds fill the site.
- ✓ See the salt pans of Maras. Thousands of white pools step down the mountain. Local families still harvest them by hand.
- ✓ Stand inside the Moray terraces. These circular ruins were an Inca farming lab. They are one of the most curious archaeological sites in the valley.
- ✓ Meet the weavers of Chinchero. Watch wool spun and dyed by hand. It is a real look at living Andean history and culture.
- ✓ Ride the train into the cloud forest. The scenic train ride to Aguas Calientes follows the river through changing scenery.
- ✓ Travel with a local guide. Small groups, honest stories, and a team that lives and works in Cusco.
What to Expect
Day one starts at a civilised hour. The van collects you at a quarter to eight and climbs onto the plain above Cusco. Chinchero comes first, at 3,762 metres, and it is the coldest stop of the trip. Then the road drops to Maras and Moray, where the salt ponds and the terraces are a few kilometres apart. Lunch in Urubamba is at about one.
Ollantaytambo fills the afternoon. The fortress climbs the hill in terraces and you climb with it, slowly. The train leaves from the station at the bottom of the town in the late afternoon. It takes about an hour and a half to reach Aguas Calientes. Stay awake. The valley closes in and the cloud forest starts. Your bag is at the hotel by early evening.
Dinner is your own, and the guide will point you at two or three places that are honest. Sleep early. The alarm is at half past four.
Day two is the reason for the trip. The bus queue at five and the switchbacks in the half dark. The gate at six, with your passport in your hand. The guide takes you up to the terrace by the Guardian's House first, for the photograph. Then down through the temples on Circuit 2.
About three hours, in one direction, with no going back. Then the bus down, lunch in the town at your own pace, and the afternoon train back up the gorge. Your driver meets it at Ollantaytambo and you are in Cusco by about eight.
Choosing between them
Two Days, One Day, or the Valley and the Day Trip Separately
Three ways to get the valley and Machu Picchu from Cusco. The difference is the hour you walk through the gate. Green marks the better option on that row.
This tour, two days
Machu Picchu in a day
Valley day plus the day trip
Machu Picchu entry
About 6:00 AM, first slot
About 8:00 AM
About 8:00 AM
Valley sites
Chinchero, Maras, Moray, Ollantaytambo
Passed through in the dark
Chinchero, Maras, Moray, Ollantaytambo and Pisac
Earliest start
7:45 AM, then 4:30 AM
3:30 AM
7:00 AM, then 3:30 AM
Nights away from Cusco
One
None
None
Huayna Picchu
Possible, with a permit
No
No
Price
$442
$344
$389 for the two days
Best for
The morning at Machu Picchu
One day and no hotel change
Pisac, and a bed in Cusco every night
In short. Choose this if the hour you enter Machu Picchu matters to you, or if you want Huayna Picchu. Only this version makes either possible. Choose the day trip if you cannot spare a night away and can manage a 3:30 AM start. Book the valley day and the day trip separately if Pisac matters and the morning entry does not.
Best Time to Go
Green is the season we recommend Red is the wet season, when rain arrives after midday and the morning entry matters most
May to September
Best
What to expect
Dry, clear mornings, cold at Chinchero, the busiest months at the gate
Our view
The season. Book the train and the entry early. The first slot sells out weeks ahead from June to August.
April and October
What to expect
Shoulder. Green valley, some cloud, thinner crowds
Our view
Good odds and easier tickets. The mist at six is thicker and lifts by seven, which is its own kind of view.
November to March
What to expect
Rain in the afternoons, mist in the mornings, the site open all year
Our view
Still worth it. The morning entry matters most now, because the rain comes after lunch. February closes the Inca Trail and not the train.
i
Why the first slot
The early gate is the whole point of the night away.
The morning entry is the reason this trip exists, and it earns its keep in every month. In the dry season it gets you ahead of the crowds. In the wet season it gets you ahead of the rain, which arrives after midday more often than not. What the season changes is the tickets. The first entry and the trains fill weeks ahead from June to August. Those are the months to book early. We try to book Circuit 2, depending on availability, because it is the one route that includes the classic viewpoint. The others leave it out.
Tour Itinerary
1
Cusco - Sacred Valley - Aguas Calientes
- 7:45 AM · Pickup in Cusco, 3,400 m. Collected from your hotel in the centre, then out of the city on the Chinchero road. Bring your passport and an overnight bag. The big case stays at your hotel in Cusco.
- 8:45 AM · Chinchero, 3,762 m. Higher and colder than anywhere else on the two days. Weavers demonstrate the dyes and the loom, and the church stands on the walls of an Inca palace. The tourist ticket is bought here, Circuit III, 70 soles in cash.
- 10:15 AM · Maras, about 3,200 m. Thousands of shallow evaporation ponds stepping down a hillside, fed by a single salt spring and worked by local families. The view is from the path above them. The fee here is paid for.
- 11:30 AM · Moray, 3,500 m. Three sets of ringed terraces in natural hollows, the deepest about thirty metres. The guide explains what the Incas were growing here and why the rings hold heat. A tourist ticket gate.
- 1:00 PM · Lunch in Urubamba, 2,870 m. A buffet on the valley floor, in the price. Drinks are extra.
- 2:30 PM · Ollantaytambo, 2,792 m. The fortress and the town. Seventeen terraces up to the Sun Temple, then the streets and water channels the Incas laid. The last tourist ticket gate. About an hour and a half. Late afternoon · The train, down to 2,040 m. Ninety minutes following the river as the gorge narrows and the forest thickens.
2
Machu Picchu - Cusco
i
Good to know
On Huayna Picchu.
The peak behind the classic view needs its own permit. Permits are sold in small numbers and gone weeks ahead in the dry season. It sits on Circuit 3, which trades the terrace by the Guardian's House for the climb. You do not get the postcard and the summit on one ticket. The climb is about an hour up on steep steps with cables. It is not for anyone who dislikes heights. Decide when you book, because we cannot add it on the day.
✓
Inclusions
- ✓ Hotel pickup in Cusco on day one and drop off on day two
- ✓ Transport through the Sacred Valley on day one
- ✓ Licensed bilingual guide on both days
- ✓ The Maras community fee
- ✓ Lunch on day one, a buffet in Urubamba
- ✓ Both trains, Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes on day one and back on day two
- ✓ One night in Aguas Calientes with breakfast
- ✓ Bus from Aguas Calientes to the Machu Picchu gate and back
- ✓ Machu Picchu entrance ticket, Circuit 2, at the first entry of the day
- ✓ Road transfer from Ollantaytambo to your hotel in Cusco
- ✓ Road transfer from Ollantaytambo back to Cusco
X
Not Included
- X The Cusco tourist ticket, 70 soles, for the three valley sites that need it
- X Dinner on day one and lunch on day two
- X Permits for Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain
- X Insurance
- X Tips for your guide and driver
- X Personal expenses such as drinks, snacks, and souvenirs
i
About the exclusions
What you pay for yourself.
Three things. The Cusco tourist ticket, 70 soles in cash at the Chinchero gate, for the three valley sites that need it. Dinner in Aguas Calientes, where a fair meal is 40 to 60 soles and a tourist one is double. And lunch on day two in the same town. Everything else that costs money on these two days is in the price. The ticket post explains the circuits and the prices.
Departure Information
Available: Daily departures
Group Size: Up to 9 people
Start Time: 07:45 AM
Pickup: Cusco Hotel Transfer
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is this Sacred Valley Machu Picchu tour?
Two days and one night. Day one runs from a 7:45 AM pickup to the evening in Aguas Calientes. Day two runs from a five o'clock start to your Cusco hotel between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.
Which Machu Picchu circuit is included?
Do I need the Cusco tourist ticket on this trip?
Can I climb Huayna Picchu?
Where does the tour start and end?
Is the 2-day Inca Trail part of this trip?
Is this better than the Machu Picchu day trip?
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