You can design your own itinerary by adding extensions to our Incas and Conquistadors + Inca Trail holiday. Select the extensions you would like and click the red button to see full details of the holiday you have chosen.
You depart Cusco early in the morning and you are driven to km 82 where you begin the trek. Starting at Piskacucho, you climb up to Llactapata, after about 2km following the Urubamba river. This was an important agricultural site, producing food for the Machu Picchu area. From here the trail gently climbs to Huayllabamba, a small village at 3,000m, where you camp for the night.
This is the toughest day of the trail. From Huayllabamba, you climb for three to four hours, which can be very tiring, especially due to the altitude and the sun beating down on you. The first pass at 4,215m, Warmiwañusqa (dead woman's pass), offers a superb view of the snow-capped Vilcabamba range of mountains. From here, you descend into the valley of the Pacamayo River where the camp is set up.
On the third day, you climb up to the second pass. Halfway to the top are the ruins of Runkurakay. The trail then continues to 3,920m before descending to the fine ruins of Sayacmarca. You pass through an Inca tunnel in the mountain, before coming to the third pass, at 3,700m with a superb view of the cloud forest and the Vilcabamba range. Near here are the ruins of Phuyupatamarca. You then descend the steep Inca steps to the spectacular ruins of Wiñay Wayna. Here, hot showers are available at the visitors’ centre and there is a shop selling snacks and drinks, including beer.
You set out from Wiñay Wayna before dawn in order to get to the Intipunku (sun gate) for sunrise. As you climb the final few steps and arrive at the sun gate you are greeted by your first, spectacular view of Machu Picchu. The trail down to the ruins themselves takes about half an hour. Take a guided tour of the ruins of Machu Picchu before heading down to the town of Aguas Calientes where there is time to have a dip in the hot baths before taking the train back to Cusco in the afternoon.
You wake up early in the morning with the sunrise, and the porters will provide you with a bowl of hot water to wash with. The cooks will prepare a fresh and healthy breakfast, and you will also be given some snacks for the day ahead. After this, you will begin the days hiking usually at around 7.30am. You are able to walk at your pace and, depending on the group size, there will be a guide at the front and the back of the group. The guides will explain and provide information along the hike and you will stop at regularly intervals to catch your breath and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Lunch is usually taken quite early at around 11am-midday, and you will arrive with the communal eating tent already set up.
After lunch, you will be able refill your water bottles as the cooks will have boiled some fresh water. You will then have some time to digest your lunch, before continuing the day’s hiking. You will pass various Inca site along the walk, and the guide will stop to explain these.
After a day’s walking, you will arrive at the camp in the late afternoon with the tents already set up. The porters will provide you with more hot water to wash with, this is especially refreshing at the end of a long days walking. You then have some free time to rest and relax for a couple of hours before dinner. After dinner the guide will then give a briefing to discuss the next day’s route.
Most of the general equipment required for the trail, such as tents, sleeping mats and cooking equipment will be provided and will be carried by the porters. Warm sleeping bags are also provided, or you can bring your own. A porter will carry your personal belongings up to a limit of 5kg per person. All meals and some snacks are provided for the hike. If you want other snacks during the trail, these can be bought in Cusco. Boiled drinking water is provided after the meals. The meals provided on the Inca Trail are very good with 3 courses, and the porters will put up a communal tent to eat in for all meals, including lunch.
There are no hot showers along the trail except at the final campsite, but every morning and night you will be provided with a bowl of hot water to wash with. The porters also carry a portable chemical toilet which they put up in a tent at the lunch and camping stops. There are also a number of basic toilets along the Inca Trail provided by the National Institute of Culture. The guides carry basic first aid supplies, but as you will be in remote mountain areas, more advanced medical facilities are not available. There is a maximum group size of 16 hikers on all Llama Travel Inca Trail holidays.
Llama Travel offers Inca Trail holidays from March to November. The months of May to September are generally drier but the nights are colder. During these months you can expect the temperatures to reach freezing at night. The daytime temperatures are warm all year around with an average of 22 ºC. In February the Inca Trail is closed by the Peruvian National Institute of Culture, in order to maintain and preserve the trail.
The Inca Trail is a four-day trek crossing high mountain passes. Although the distance is not great (less than 30 miles over four days), the high altitude (the highest point is 4,200 metres above sea level) and the steep ascents and descents mean that the Inca Trail is a challenging hike. Therefore, you should have a good level of fitness to walk the trail. Llama Travel holidays include at least 3 days at altitude to acclimatise before starting the Inca Trail.
In order to protect the Inca Trail, Peru's National Institute of Culture has introduced some strict regulations. There is a limit of 500 permits per day to walk the Inca Trail. This 500 permit limit includes the porters, guides and cooks, so there are only around 200 spaces for trekkers. Due to the popularity of the Inca Trail, spaces fill up early, so we recommend booking at least 3 months in advance. For some periods of the year, spaces can fill up even earlier than this. Please contact us to check the latest availability.
If you like the idea of arriving at Machu Picchu on foot, after trekking through the Andes, but do not want to walk for four days to get there, our Short Inca Trail is the perfect option. This one-day hike climbs from the Urubamba River Valley to the Inca site of Wiñay Wayna before arriving in Machu Picchu in the evening. You spend the night in a hotel located in the valley below the ruins, returning to explore Machu Picchu the next day. This optional excursion is available on all our Peru holidays which do not include the full Inca Trail.