CUSCO · PERU
Stone, sky, and the long road to Machu Picchu.
Inca ruins above the city. Rainbow ridges and glacier-melt lakes out the back. The Sacred Valley between, and the train to the citadel at the end.
The signature trip
If Cusco was the start, this is the road south.
The most-booked tour in the corpus — the trip everyone heading to Machu Picchu eventually does. Start here and work outwards.
The classics
Cusco’s Most Popular Day Tours
Machu Picchu by train, Rainbow Mountain by van, Sacred Valley by Land Rover. The trips that bring almost everyone.
Three ways up
Choose how you reach the citadel.
Three classic routes from Cusco to Machu Picchu — the four-day Inca Trail on foot, the five-day Salkantay glacier crossing, and the panoramic train ride through the Urubamba Valley. Different paces, different views, same Sun Gate at the end.
Andean colour
Three landscapes nowhere else looks like.
Geology and altitude paint the high Andes. Striped mineral mountains, glacier lakes that glow turquoise, valleys turned rust-red by iron. Photos don’t exaggerate — if anything they undersell it.
Iron, sulphur, chlorite
Vinicunca
Seven stripes painted across a 17,000-foot ridge by oxidised iron, copper and chlorite. The locals call it Montaña de Siete Colores. Only revealed to the outside world in 2013 when the snow line receded. Five hours from Cusco and worth every minute of the altitude headache.
- 1 Excursion to Rainbow Mountain Full Day Optional Red Valley
- 2 Cusco: #1 Rainbow Mountain & Red Valley Day Trip with Meals
- 3 Cusco: Rainbow Mountain & Red Valley Premium Day Trip with Meals
Glacier-melt at 13,800 feet
Humantay
A lake so saturated turquoise it looks colour-corrected. Sits in a cirque below the Humantay glacier, fed entirely by snowmelt. Two-hour climb from the trailhead, but the photograph at the top is one of the great Andean views.
- 1 Excursión to Humantay Lake Full Day from Cusco
- 2 Private Excursion to Humantay Lake from Cusco and Coca Ceremony
- 3 Humantay Lake Full Day Trek from Cusco with Lunch
Iron-oxide hills next door
Red Valley
A separate valley one ridge over from Rainbow Mountain — same mineralogy, painted rust-red instead of striped. Most tour-bus crowds skip it. The extra forty minutes are the whole reason to go.
- 1 Excursion to Rainbow Mountain Full Day Optional Red Valley
- 2 Cusco: #1 Rainbow Mountain & Red Valley Day Trip with Meals
- 3 Cusco: Rainbow Mountain & Red Valley Premium Day Trip with Meals
By place
Pick a corner of the Cusco region.
Machu Picchu for the citadel. Sacred Valley for the salt mines and Ollantaytambo. Rainbow Mountain for the painted ridges. Humantay for the turquoise lake. Moray for the Inca terraces. Cusco itself for cobblestones and the ruins above the city.
By activity
Or choose how you want to spend the day.
Multi-day trek if you want the route. Train if you want the comfort. Cooking class if you want the food. Cycling, quad biking, weaving workshops and the rest.
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