2-Day Inca Trail Trek to Machu Picchu with Sun Gate arrival

We pick you up from your hotel in Cusco and transfer you on a 2-hour ride to Ollantaytambo railway station. From there, we board the train and continue to Km 104, where the Inca Trail checkpoint is located. After crossing the Vilcanota River by bridge, we begin our Inca Trail trek.

The first archaeological site we visit is Chachabamba, where you will enjoy a guided tour. We then continue through a landscape of cacti vegetation and cloud forest toward another significant Inca site, Wiñay Wayna. Before reaching it, we stop to refresh at a local waterfall, where you will also have lunch and a rest.

Later, we admire the sunset above Machu Picchu as we arrive at the Sun's Gate, Inti Punku, before entering the Inca citadel area. As it is too late in the day for a guided tour of this overwhelming Inca city, we descend slowly to Aguas Calientes Town, enjoying the beautiful surrounding scenery along the way. We spend the night in a comfortable hotel in Aguas Calientes.

After an early morning breakfast, we take the bus up to the mysterious city of Machu Picchu. Our tour guide shows us around the Inca city and explains its history and purposes. After the guided tour, you will have free time, which is the best opportunity to take pictures and walk through the Incas' lost city.

You may also see animals such as llamas and birds. If you would like an even more complete experience, you can pay extra for access to the mountains, with the option to climb for about 45 minutes to Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain, whose peaks rise above Machu Picchu and offer panoramic pictures of the Inca city. You are then given additional time to explore Machu Picchu on your own.

Machu Picchu is both the best-known and least understood site of the Incas. It is not mentioned in any Spanish conquistadors' chronicles, so contemporary archaeologists can do little more than speculate about its functions. Local Quechuan farmers had known about Machu Picchu for centuries before an 11-year-old boy showed the site to the American historian Hiram Bingham, who was searching for Vilcabamba, on 24 July 1911. At that time, the rest of the world became aware of its existence. However, the site was covered with thick vegetation, so Hiram Bingham and his team returned and cleared its surface between 1912 and 1915. Over the years, much work has been done to excavate and study the site. Despite these efforts, many unanswered questions remain.

After exploring Machu Picchu, you return to Aguas Calientes on foot. The 2-day Inca Trail ends with a train ride to Ollantaytambo, or alternatively to Poroy, from where we take a van back to Cusco.