Peru's Machu Picchu and Beyond - Small Group

Welcome to Peru, where you'll arrive high in the Andes with crisp mountain air and Cusco’s stone-built city spreading below the peaks. After flying into Cusco Airport, stop by the Costsaver Welcome Desk at San Agustin Urubamba between 2pm and 4pm. At 4pm, join your group transfer into the Sacred Valley, watching city streets give way to patchwork fields and Andean villages. In Urubamba, the evening is yours to spend as you please, surrounded by the mountains of the Sacred Valley.

After breakfast, you’ll travel to Tambococha for a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience, welcomed by traditional music and the warmth of an herbal infusion in your hands. Spend time with local people as you learn about seasonal agriculture and native medicinal plants before trying your hand at making adobe bricks. Then sit down to a traditional Pachamanca lunch, slow-cooked underground over hot stones, as savoury aromas waft through the air. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. This afternoon, you can choose an Optional Experience to Maras and Moray or spend the rest of the day as you please.

Your journey to Ollantaytambo takes you past cobbled streets winding between old Inca walls and local stalls, with mountain views beyond the town. Spend your free time exploring as you please or choose an Optional Experience to visit the ruins that climb above Ollantaytambo. Then board the PeruRail Expedition Train for the journey to Aguas Calientes, with the river running beside the tracks as you travel through the Sacred Valley. From Aguas Calientes, you'll ride up to Machu Picchu for your included visit, wandering among enormous mortarless stone walls and terraces carved into the mountainside, with steep green peaks enclosing the citadel. Later, return to Aguas Calientes, where the rest of the day is yours.

Travel by train back to Ollantaytambo, with time to choose your own lunch before continuing to Urco and setting out on foot towards Calca. Follow gentle valley paths past working farms, eucalyptus groves and Quechua villages, their fresh, woody scent drifting through the air as wide Andean landscapes unfold beyond the trail. Later, visit Vicuñita, an environmental project restoring traditional plants and trees native to the Cusco region. Meet llamas, vicuñas, guanacos and alpacas, then spend time learning about local weaving traditions before continuing to Cusco, where the evening is yours.

Set out on foot through Cusco, passing immense Inca stones beneath carved balconies and colonial facades. You'll cross the Plaza de Armas and step inside Cusco Cathedral, moving from the open square into shadowed chapels lined with gilded altars and centuries-old paintings. Continue to Korikancha, once the Inca Empire’s Temple of the Sun, and trace the lines of stone walls fitted so tightly that the joins almost disappear. This afternoon, Cusco is yours. Perhaps you'll choose an Optional Experience to nearby Inca sites and colourful San Blas, or spend the evening mixing local cocktails, and wandering Cusco’s streets.

Cusco is yours to explore today, whether you browse handwoven textiles and carved crafts, savour something sweet in a cafe or simply follow the streets and see what catches your eye. If you want to venture further, choose an Optional Experience to Rainbow Mountain, where bands of red, ochre and green stripe the slopes, or visit the Choco Museum to taste Peruvian chocolate and learn more about cacao. You could also join an Off The Beaten Track tour or explore Peru through its flavours on a Flavours of Peru experience.

After breakfast, your time in Peru comes to an end. Leave with memories of the Andes, Cusco’s stone streets and a few favourite flavours gathered along the way. Transfers are not included, so your onward journey is yours to arrange.