Come discover one of the new seven wonders of the world, Machu Picchu, as known as the “City of Stone”.
Honestly, for this trip I had to do a LOT of research for planning, confirming the latest information, and optimizing a smooth journey. Thus, the goal for this post is to save you time and stress so you can focus more on your Machu Pichu trip than stress about the logistics. My Peru trip was 5 days including flights, so it was a relativity short trip for those short on time.
Itinerary
To get to Machu Picchu you have to:
1. Your home → Lima, Peru
- Take an International flight to Lima, the capital of Peru
- The airport closest to Machu Picchu, Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport, is relatively small so there are only a few international flights
2. Lima → Cusco (1 hour 20 minutes)
- Take a 1 hour and 20 minute domestic flight from Lima to Cusco. Several flights a day are offered by Latam Airways, JetSMART Airline, Sky Airline. (FYI I flew with Latam Airways, and they will charge you an extra $40 USD to get an allowance for a 10kg checked bag. I noticed when the overhead cabin was full and the cabin attendants needed to allocate surplus rollers in the overhead, so the flight attendance chose random passengers to put their backpacks from the overhead to under their seats to make space for the rollers, so if your bringing a backup maybe there isn’t so much incentive to pay the extra checked bagged).
3. Cusco → Aguas Calientes (3 hours to 4 hours 30 minutes)
- There are two rail companies to get from Cusco and Aguas Calientes, Peru Rail and Inca Rail. The following is their homepage:
- Option 1: Bus from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo then switch to rail train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (4 hours 30 minutes)
- Option 2: Direct train ride from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (3 hours)
- What you choose will depend on timing, price, and/or what kind of train model you want to ride (regular or luxury)
4. Bus Aguas Calientes → Machu Picchu (30 Minutes)
(If you really want to tighten your schedule you can fit visiting Machu Picchu on Day 2 but better just be rested to start Day 3 and enjoy Machu Picchu. For your information Machu Picchu hours are 6am to 4:15pm)
- Take a Bus
- Bus hours From Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu: 05:30am-3:30pm
- Bus Hours From Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes: 6:00am-6pm
- You can buy a ticket and get on whenever you want during that day
Things to Prepare Before Traveling
- Purchasing Machu Picchu Tickets
- I would strongly recommend purchasing your Machu Picchu tickets online rather than in person at Cusco. The reasons are to avoid long lines, save time, and guarantee yourself a ticket. Due to UNESCO regulations and to monitor human traffic to preserve the site, they sell 1000 tickets daily in person (as of July 2024). To buy your Machu Pichu tickets online visit the official website of Peru’s Ministry of Culture (https://tuboleto.cultura.pe/llaqta_machupicchu). The website is in Spanish and does not have an English translation option, but you can just translate the webpage to English using the internet feature to navigate more easily. The ticket cost will depend on the route but generally, it’s 152 Sol, 77 Sol for Students, and 70 Sol for minors.
- The ticket will not be sent to your email, but rather under your account on the webpage.
- There are English websites offered by agencies but they will charge a little more for the tickets.
- The types of tickets were confusing to understand at first but there are three main routes: Circuit 1 Panoramic, Circuit 2 Classic, and Circuit 3 Royalty. There are sub-routes from each circuit’s main route if you want to discover certain temples, mountains, caves, and houses. Below are overall photos of the circuit routes from the Official Machu Picchu website. If you visit the website you can even view each map of each sub-route.
- Purchase Bus tickets from Aguas Caliente to Machu Picchu.
- You can buy the bus tickets in advance online or if you prefer you can buy the tickets at Aguas Caliente but please remember to bring your passport and cash for this option.
- Purchase bus tickets from Aguas Caliente for Machu Picchu.
- You can buy the bus tickets in advance online or if you prefer you can buy it at Aguas Caliente but please remember to bring your passport and cash for this option.
- Official Website (Website is in Spanish). Roundtrip Cost = 24 USD https://comprar.consettur.com/
- You can use English websites from other providers. Roundtrip cost $34 USD https://www.ticketmachupicchu.com/buy-bus-tickets-aguas-calientes-machu-picchu/
- Purchase Rail/Bus+Rail tickets from Cusco to Machu Picchu. Better secure your spot before the slot you’re looking at expires or the price increases.
- You can buy the bus tickets in advance online or if you prefer you can buy it at Aguas Caliente but please remember to bring your passport and cash for this option.
Day 1
My trip started in Los Angeles, USA where I flew with United Airlines and my first flight flew me to Houston, USA, and then from there, I had a second flight which flew me to Lima, Peru. There is a direct flight from Los Angeles to Lima with Latam Airlines, but I just personally chose United Airlines because I wanted to earn United Miles. When I arrived in Lima, it was past 11 pm, so I stayed the night in Lima and then took a domestic flight the next day from Lima to Cusco.
Although you can stay near the airport, I was adventurous and decided to take an Uber to spend the night at Miraflores to check out the area. Depending on the timing you can pay anywhere from 50 to 70 Sol. (Tip is not necessary, but I read a 10% tip would be nice). You can also use the taxi service provided at the airport such as Taxi Green.
Day 2
From Miraflores, you can take a shuttle bus or Uber/taxi to Lima Airport. Alternatively, you can take a shuttle which would cost you 20 Sol, which you can book online or pay in person when getting on the shuttle.
From Lima Airport you will take a 1 hour 20 minutes domestic flight to Cusco. For me, 1 hour was enough to go through Lima Airport security and immigration with online check-in. I would recommend packing light, carry-on only, and checking online as the check-in counter and luggage drop-off line were very long, as you see from the photo below.
Once you arrived at Cusco airport you will need to find transportation to take you to the Inca Rail or Peru Rail meeting point in the city. You probably need to take a taxi or call Uber, since I couldn’t find any public transportation. Since I had time I decided to check out the city of Cusco, but please be warned Cusco’s elevation is high (11,152 ft/ 3400ft above sea level) so it will take time to adjust. I was feeling a bit dizzy and breathing heavily.
Please be warned Cusco’s elevation is high (11,152 ft/ 3400ft above sea level) so it will take time to adjust. I was feeling a bit dizzy and breathing heavily.
3:45 pm I went to the Inca Rail bus departure meetup point. The waiting area had free wifi, tea, seats, and a washroom if you need it. From 4:15 pm to 6:15 pm the Inca Rail bus took us from Cusco to Ollantaytambo. At Ollantaytambo, there is a rest area while you wait for the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Caliente. A little past 9 pm I arrived at Aguas Caliente and check-in at my hotel and grabbed dinner along Avenue Pachacutec.
Day 3
The day of Machu Picchu is finally here!! But please Bring your passport!! You will need it to enter Machu Picchu.
The Bus from Aguas Caliente to Machu Picchu takes roughly 30 minutes. When you go lineup you can see a signboard where the current Machu Picchu Ticket timeslots start lining up in case you arrive early or late. The line was long but it moved fast as there was a bus leaving about every 10 minutes, so it took me 20 minutes to clear the line. Alternatively, you can walk/climb to Machu Picchu from Aguas Caliente, which would be about 1.5 hours but please take note if you’re climbing up the step you will need to be careful of the bus crossing, and might get a bit dirty.
Once you arrive at the Machu Picchu entrance, the entrance going up is meant for Circuit 1 and 2 ticket holders. On the other hand, Circuit 3 entrance is downstairs. I purchased both Circuit 1 and Circuit 3 tickets and I roughly spent 2.5 hours on the Circuit 3 Temple only trip and 1 hour on the Circuit 1 Photo Classic trip. In the useful tips portion, I elaborate on why I purchased both Circuit 1 and 3 tickets.
Once you enter enjoy the sacred religious site by Inca Empire. It amazes me how civilizations back in the 15th and 16th centuries were able to engineer masonry techniques and agricultural systems to make this citadel.
Additional information around the entrance is there is a bathroom which will cost you 2 Sol to use, a storage facility which costs 5 Sol, a café, and a gift store. There are staff inside checking your ticket during your walk of Machu Picchu so don’t think you can just change your route inside. After you are back in the city get your Machu Picchu stamp on your passport back in Aguas Caliente near the Ministry of Culture. There is an “i Peru” sign nearby with a passport stamp stand outside
The rest of the day I checked out Manco Capac Square (Luckily I visited in July and got to see some of the Virgen del Carmen Festival), ate local food (Lomo Saltado & Pollo a la Brasa), and visited the Hot spring. For those who are daring enough, you can try eating Cuy, a guinea pig.
Day 4
I keep the morning open as option B of visiting Machu Picchu, in case the previous day the weather was bad. Luckily, everything went as planned the day before so never had to exercise option B, so I slept in. After checking out of the hotel I took the train and bus from Aguas Calientes to Cusco starting from10:02am and arriving at 2:30pm. My flight from Cusco to Lima was at 7:35pm so I couple of hours to enjoy the city so I did the following:
I never got to get up close to an Alpaca so I found you can encounter them at the clothing store “Campo de Artesanos”. The person in charge will ask you 5 Sol if you want to take photos of the Alpaca.
Visit Cristo Blanco and enjoy seeing the Christ statue and the view of the city. If you take Uber most likely the driver will drop you off short of the hill (photo). You can walk uphill for about 20 to 25 minutes or try to negotiate with the driver there. Due to time restraints I just paid 20 Sol without negotiating for the driver to take me uphill.
After checking out the city for a little, it was time to go to Cusco airport to catch my domestic flight from Cusco to Lima, 7:35pm departure – 8:55pm Arrival. At Lima Airport I exchanged my remaining SOL to USD and grabbed dinner.
Day 5
Although my flight departure from Lima to the USA was 00:55 am, I considered it as Day 5 cause it was past midnight, and maybe for others their flight could be at a later time. Alternatively you could stay the night at Lima and enjoy the city.
Useful Tips
- Circuit 2 ticket is the most popular and best ticket because you get to both the classic panoramic view of Machu Pichu and visit most of the citadel. If you want to do Circuit 2, you will need to book 2 to 3 months in advance travelers from around the world plan early and sell out quickly. You can try your luck and line up and buy a ticket, but in my opinion, you are wasting valuable time on your trip to Peru, so don’t be like me who planned the trip 2 weeks in advance. If you book an online tour I am sure they have spare circuit 2 tours but it is more expensive. Alternatively, you can try to purchase a ticket the day before at the Aguas Calientes Office at Av. Hermanos Ayar S/N, Office hours 5am-9pm. However, the line is super long from what I saw in videos and you may not get it so it seems like a high-risk move.
- I could not secure a Circuit 2 ticket since I had only planned my trip 2 weeks before, so what I did was buy a ticket for Circuit 1 and Circuit 3. Circuit 1 would give me access to the classic famous panoramic viewpoint of the citadel, which you have probably seen on the internet or social media. On the other hand, Circuit 3 would give me access to the Citadel. I know I would be paying double the price of Circuit 2 but I travelled all the way to Machu Picchu and it would be costly coming again so I thought it was worth the extra 40 USD.
- I can only elaborate only on one day of visiting Machu Picchu but I noticed the Alpaca were on the Citadel Central Plaza after 10 am when I was walking in Circuit 1, which was bad luck because I was down there from 7 am to 10 am with my Circuit 3 ticket but never saw those cuties.
- Download Uber app, as you can use the ride-hailing service in Peru.
- Lima Airport you have to show security at the door your Itinerary and Identification card to enter the check-in area, so have it ready on your phone or in hand
- • For what it’s worth the driver at Cusco recommends exchanging money at Cusco rather than Aguas Caliente since the rate is better at Cusco.
Cost
Following is the cost based on Planning 2 weeks ahead of time.
- Transportation = $1713 USD
- Flights
- International Flight Roundtrip: USA to Peru = $1255 USD (Partial Premium Economy Seat)
- Domestic Flight Roundtrip: Lima to Cusco = $267 USD
- Train Roundtrip: Cusco to Agusa Caliente = $119 USD
- Bus Roundtrip: Aguas Caliente to Machu Picchu = $24 USD
- Uber/Taxi = $47 USD
- Flights
- Machu Picchu Entrance Tickets = $80 USD
- Circuit 1 = $40 USD
- Circuit 3 = $40 USD
- Accommodation = $177 USD
- I used a $50 annual cash rebate with Chase Preferred Credit card. Sign up now to get an additional $750 USD worth of free points
- Food and drink = $83 USD
- Souvenir = $8 USD
Conclusion
I hope I could help clarify any questions you have or at least show that visiting Machu Picchu is more feasible than you think. It is a monument you should definitely visit in your lifetime while you can still walk. If you enjoyed the content and looking for more content like this please subscribe or comment on what you want to see next. Don’t forget to follow my social media for current updates.
After every trip, I like to buy a souvenir that is a major landmark of the country or an item that reminds me of that trip to add to my trophy collection.
