Lake Titicaca Tour from Cusco (2 Days)
$180 Two Days
Overview
1 night
In a dome with a clear roof
3,812 m
Thin air, dry air, no light
3 days
Cusco overnight to Puno
$282
Per person, bus included
Most people see Lake Titicaca for six hours and leave. A boat out, a reed island, a crossing to Taquile, and back to a hotel in town. What they miss happens after dark. The wind drops, the water goes flat, and the sky at 3,812 metres loses its blur. This trip exists to put you outside for that, in a bed, under a roof you can see through.
The dome is a real room. Heated and insulated, with proper bedding and a clear upper shell. It stands among the Uros islands rather than behind a hotel wall. On a calm night the lake mirrors the sky exactly. Guests come back describing it as sleeping between two of them. Before that, your hosts read the Andean constellations. Those live in the dark gaps of the Milky Way, not in the stars. The llama, the fox, the serpent.
The clever part is the first night. The bus from Cusco leaves at nine and crosses La Raya while you sleep. You are in Puno by half past five. So the lake costs you no daylight at all. One of your two nights is a seat rather than a room. That is why three days here costs less than you would expect. Our night bus page describes that road on its own.
Day three is the culture rather than the sky. Taquile is about 2,200 Quechua speakers governing themselves without police. A rotating council, and the old rule of ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhella. The men knit, the women weave, and what a person wears still says whether they are married. The tradition went onto the UNESCO list in 2005. Read our post on Taquile and its knitting beforehand. Another walks through a day on the island.
It ends in Puno, and that is on purpose.
Day three finishes at a hotel in Puno at about five in the afternoon. There is no return leg to Cusco built in. That is right for anyone going on to Bolivia, out through Juliaca airport, or down to Arequipa and Colca. It is wrong if your flight home leaves Cusco in two days. Unless you ask us to add the bus back. We will, at cost, and it is far better arranged now than at five o’clock on day three. For the Bolivian option, read what we wrote about the Kasani border crossing.
Tour Highlights
- ✓ A private glamping dome on the shore of Lake Titicaca, heated against the cold and built with a clear ceiling for stargazing at 3,812 metres.
- ✓ The bus from Cusco carries you while you sleep, so you arrive rested at breakfast instead of surrendering a day of daylight to the road.
- ✓ Thin, dry air and almost no light pollution. Your hosts trace the Andean constellations, read in the dark spaces of the Milky Way rather than in the stars themselves.
- ✓ Unhurried time on the floating reed islands of the Uros, and on Taquile, whose weaving UNESCO recognised in 2005. Neither is a photo stop.
- ✓ Fresh lake trout, quinoa soup and muña tea prepared by a Taquile community kitchen, served looking out over the water toward Bolivia.
- ✓ A maximum of 25 travellers, with bilingual guides from Puno who know these communities personally and translate rather than perform.
What to Expect
Night one is the road. A driver collects you from your Cusco hotel at about eight, holding a name board. The bus leaves the terminal at nine. Seats recline to between 140 and 160 degrees. A blanket, a heated cabin and a toilet on board. It is comfortable, and it is still a bus. Your big case goes in the hold until Puno. Keep a small bag with layers, water and your passport.
You reach Puno at about half past five, cold and blinking. Our team meets the bus and takes you to a central hotel for a shower and a full breakfast. That is the most useful hour of the trip. Coca or muna tea, slowly, and more water than you want. Our post on community tourism on the lake explains how the visits ahead are arranged. Anything you will not need on the lake is stored until you come back.
Late morning you board a covered boat at the harbour and head out through the reed channels. Twenty minutes and the town is gone. The afternoon is spent among the Uros. Families show how the totora is cut, laid and anchored. One plant supplies a house, a boat and part of lunch. Background sits in our post on the Uros people. The optional reed ride is described in our piece about totora boats.
You check into the dome in the late afternoon, in time for the light to go. Evening is tea, the offering to Pachamama, and the constellations. Then everyone stops talking. Day three starts before the wind does, with the lake mirrored pink at dawn. Breakfast follows, then a long crossing to Taquile. On a clear day Bolivia's Cordillera Real stands on the eastern horizon. Forty minutes of steps up to the square. Trout and quinoa soup from the community kitchen, and Puno by five. Where that fish comes from is in our post on the trout of Lake Titicaca.
Choosing between them
The Dome, the Homestay, or a Hotel in Town
Three ways to spend a night on or beside Lake Titicaca. They are not the same experience at all. Green marks the better option on that row.
Sky glamping dome
Amantani homestay
A Puno hotel and day tours
What the night is
A heated dome with a clear roof, on the water
A family's spare room on an island
A normal room in town
Getting there from Cusco
Overnight bus included
Arrange it yourself
Arrange it yourself
Uros
A full afternoon and the next morning
About an hour
About an hour
Taquile
Crossing, village and community lunch
A morning walk
Lunch and the village
Meals
Two breakfasts and one lunch
Lunch, dinner, breakfast and lunch
Lunch on Taquile
The night sky
The reason the tour exists
Good, from a courtyard
Streetlights
Ends
In Puno
In Puno
In Puno
Price
$282, with the bus from Cusco
$67, tour only
$68, tour only
Best for
People who want the lake at night, not just at noon
People who want the family, not the view
People with their own hotel and a tight budget
In short. Book the dome if the night is the point and you are coming from Cusco anyway. Book the Amantani homestay if you would rather sleep in a family's house than under a clear roof. Already have a room in Puno and want the towers too? Book our two day Titicaca and Sillustani tour. With a spare day, the two day trip down from Cusco takes the daylight road and skips the night bus.
Timing
Best Time to Go
Green is the season we recommend Red is December to March, when cloud after dark takes away the reason to book
May to August
Best
What to expect
The clearest skies of the year, and nights below freezing
Our view
The best months for the roof. This is what the dome is for. Pack as though you were camping, because the walk from the door is cold.
September to November
What to expect
Milder nights, mostly clear, quieter on the water
Our view
A good compromise. Slightly less sharp overhead, considerably kinder at four in the morning.
December to March
What to expect
Cloud and rain after dark, nights near zero, green shores
Our view
The one to think about. The dome still works and the lake is beautiful, but a clouded sky is a clouded sky. Book these months for the lake rather than the stars.
i
The sky decides the month
May to August is clearest and coldest. December to March is cloudy overhead.
The sky decides this one, which is unusual for a tour on this lake. From May to August the air is at its driest and the Milky Way at its most absurd. Those same nights are the coldest of the year. September to November is the sensible middle. The wet months from December to March bring cloud after dark, which takes away the reason people book. The islands and Taquile are lovely all year regardless. If the stars are not the priority, the season matters far less. There is a month by month picture in our Puno weather guide. The hour before all this begins is in our post on sunset over the lake.
Tour Itinerary
1
Cusco, and the road south by night
- 8:00 PM · Hotel pickup in Cusco. A driver with a name board. Pickups cover the historic centre, San Blas and San Sebastian.
- 9:00 PM · Departure from the terminal. Seats recline to 140 or 160 degrees, with a blanket, heating and a toilet on board. Big case in the hold, small bag with you.
- 2:00 AM · La Raya, 4,335 m. The summit of this road, and the watershed splitting the Amazon basin from the lake basin. You sleep through it.
Meals: Not Included
Transportation: The bus is heated, has an onboard toilet and seats recline upto 160°
2
Puno, the Uros and your dome
3
Sunrise, Taquile and Puno
i
Good to know
On the cold.
This is the thing guests underestimate. Nights sit between zero and five degrees in the wet season and drop below freezing from May to August. Those are also the clearest months overhead. The dome is heated and the bedding is thick, so nobody is uncomfortable in bed. Getting out of it at three in the morning to look up is another matter. Thermal base layers, warm socks, a fleece and a hat are the four things to pack. All four get used.
✓
Inclusions
- ✓ Hotel pickup and transfer to the bus terminal in Cusco
- ✓ Overnight tourist bus, Cusco → Puno (reclining seat, heated, onboard toilet)
- ✓ Reception and transfer on arrival in Puno
- ✓ One night's sky glamping accommodation on Lake Titicaca
- ✓ Two breakfasts and one lunch
- ✓ All boat transfers on the lake
- ✓ Professional bilingual (Spanish/English) local guide
- ✓ Guided visits to the Uros Floating Islands and Taquile Island
- ✓ All embarkation taxes and island entrance fees
- ✓ Drop-off at centrally located Puno hotels
X
Not Included
- X Dinners throughout the tour
- X Return transport from Puno to Cusco
- X Flights and airport transfers (Juliaca)
- X Accommodation in Cusco before departure
- X Optional reed boat ride on the Uros islands
- X Travel insurance (strongly recommended)
- X Personal expenses, snacks and bottled drinks
- X Tips for guides, drivers and host communities
i
About the exclusions
On what the $282 buys.
One night on a bus, one night in a dome, two breakfasts, a lunch, every boat and every island fee. That is the whole of it. It is also why the number is lower than three days here usually costs. The bus is doing double duty as your first night’s room. What it does not buy is dinner, the ride back to Cusco, or your hotel the night before you leave. The reed boat at Uros is optional and the fare goes straight to the family rowing it, which is deliberate. Bring small notes in soles, because nothing on the islands takes a card.
Departure Information
Available: Daily departures
Group Size: Up to 4 people
Start Time: 09:00 PM
Pickup: Your hotel in Cusco
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this tour return to Cusco?
No, the itinerary ends in Puno on the afternoon of day three. This suits travellers continuing to Bolivia, flying out of Juliaca, or heading toward Arequipa and Colca Canyon. If you need to return to Cusco we can add a night bus or a daytime Sun Route bus at cost; just ask when you book
How cold does it get in the glamping dome at night?
Will the altitude affect me?
What is the overnight bus actually like?
What should I pack?
Is the visit to the Uros community respectful?
Can you arrange onward travel to Bolivia?
Gallery
