1-Day Moray and Maras Tour in the Sacred Valley

The journey

Trip highlights

• 01 Observe the enigmatic circular terraces of Moray and learn their Inca significance
• 02 Visit Maras and see more than 3,000 salt ponds on the slopes of Cori Pujio Mountain
• 03 Learn the 500-year-old method of producing salt that is still used today
• 04 Walk among the salt pools and touch the crystallized salt at Maras

Explore two of the Sacred Valley's most distinctive sites on this full-day tour from Cusco. Visit Moray to see the enigmatic circular terraces the Incas used to acclimatize plants from warmer climates to higher and colder areas. Then continue to Maras, home to more than 3,000 salt ponds, where you will learn about the 500-year-old method of salt production that is still used today.

You will have free time to explore the area and take pictures.

From the itinerary

At a glance

What this trip includes

Duration 1 Day

Tour type Shared

Activity level Easy

Accommodation Not included

Transport Included

Wheelchair access Yes

Cities Cusco, Moray, Maras

Languages English, Spanish

Day by day

The itinerary

1

Day 01

Moray Terraces and Maras Salt Mines

• Meet your tour guide in Cusco at the main office at 8:30 am and take a 1.5-hour car ride to Moray, where the guide will explain all about the enigmatic circular terraces. You will have free time to explore the area and take pictures. See the terraces of Moray that the Incas used as a laboratory to acclimatize plants that grew in warm places so they could also grow in higher and colder areas.
• Later, visit the salt mines in Maras, which are still in use as a small salt factory where locals extract salt to sell in the local markets. You can walk inside and touch the salt pools. The guide will teach you all about the site, and if you like, you can buy some souvenirs made out of salt.
• Afterwards, return to Cusco on a 1.5-hour car ride, arriving in Cusco at around 3:00 pm.

The route

Where you'll travel

The fine print

Trip details

What's Included

• English and Spanish-speaking tour guide
• Transportation
• Professional support

What's Not Included

• Entrance for Salt Mines = 10 soles
• Entrance for Moray = 70 soles. If you already have the tourist ticket, you can use it.

Know before you go

• At Maras, you will find over 3,000 salt ponds, all connected through an impressive network of underground canals. The water channelled into the ponds comes from a natural underground spring and runs downhill into the pools. A few days after the water fills the pools, it evaporates and leaves behind a thin layer of salt. The process of harvesting the salt has remained, to a large extent, the same as it was 500 years ago - the dry salt is carefully scraped from the sides and bottom of each pond. The Maras Salt Mines are located over the slopes of Cori Pujio Mountain in the Sacred Valley, about 31 mi (50 km) northeast of Cusco. Generally speaking, there are two main ways to get to the salt mines in Maras - as part of a group/private tour or with public transportation.
• If you're up for an adventure, you can take public transport. From Cusco, you'll need to take a bus, combi (public shuttle van), or Colectivo (shared public taxi) towards Urubamba and get off at Maras. Once in Maras, you can walk to the salt ponds for about an hour or take a taxi for approximately 10 minutes.
• Note: If you take public transport, be sure to notify the driver that you are going to Maras before departure. When taking a taxi - just as you would in the rest of Peru - make sure you can see the driver's ID or official document proving their registration with the municipality. In addition, don't be afraid to negotiate the price before getting in.

Logistics

Meeting & route

Meeting point

Maras 08655, Peru

Tour start

Maras 08655, Peru

Tour ends at the same location as the start point.