6 Day Machu Picchu Express (Land)

Welcome to our Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour.

As soon as you arrive to the local Cusco airport, a Valencia Cusco representative will take care of you and transfer you to your hotel in the city centre.

At this stage, either you can enjoy the Inca city and colonial heritage on your own and provide you some tips to eat at some local restaurants.  Or you might want to rest and wait until later on in the evening, when Cusco city shows off its night live. At night time, there is several places to have a delightful night and eat too.

You other option for this first part of your Express 6 days tour, is to get onto a half day tour at an additional price of USD 30 per person. The  half day city tour starting at 13:00 hrs and cover the following places:

• The Koricancha: Temple of the sun.
• The Cathedral: Marvel of the religious art.
• Sacsayhuaman: Majestic place with impressive works in stone, some up to 120 tons.
• Q´enqo: (Labyrinth) a religious center dedicated to the adoration of the Earth.
• Puca Pucara: (reddish place) that was used as a military control center.
• Tambomachay: (Temple of the Water) a center of adoration and worship of water.

Included:

• Transportation
• Professional English speaking guide.

Not included:

• Tourist ticket for entrance to attractions (extra USD 33)
• Dinner
• Gratuity

Overnight at: Casa Andina Classic Cusco Plaza or Similar.

As a part of your Machu Picchu Express 6 days trip, we will travel to the Sacred Valley.  As you know The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is one of the most famous routes worldwide and begins at some point within this Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley is one of the most representative and beautiful landscapes of Cusco. We need to leave Cusco during the morning time at around 08:00 am and head towards Pisac village.  We have choose this location as part of our Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour because Pisac offers you a fantastic artisans market and a well preserved Inca architecture of the same name as the village.  The artisans market is worthy to visit as all the hand made products are using organic materials, very well made and designed too.

After been in Pisac market,  the Inca ruins in this valley of Pisac is awaiting our visit.  We will head up on a private transport and to have also a panoramic view of this impressive and beautiful Sacred valley.

If visiting Pisac did charm you, then Ollantaytambo will not be less.  We are leaving Pisac in direccion to Urubamba towards Ollantaytambo but before getting to our final destination, we will have a lunch break (not included) on the way.  

Our Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour, to Ollantaytambo Inca site, shows you the magnificent temple of the sun.  This Inca tour  shows you also the enormous blocks of rock perfectly carved and polished, stone water fountains, stairs and terraces similar in a way to Machu Picchu.

Looking at the people of Ollantaytambo, you will notice, their pride in keeping their traditions reflected in their beautifully wearing of typical dresses.  This village is surrounded by their local sacred mountains and Valleys.

Finished our journey to Ollantaytambo, we will be visiting Chinchero market and then return to Cusco at about 18:30-19:00 hours.

Included:

• Transportation
• Professional English speaking guide.

Not included:

• Tourist ticket (extra USD 25)
• Meals
• Gratuity.

P.S: Tonight we will have a briefing on next day tour at 7:00pm at the hotel lobby.

Due its altitude, Cusco most of the times welcome us with its refreshing mornings so today it will not an exception.  On early morning ( time to be confirmed) we leave Cusco to carry on with the part of our Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour. This time we are heading to the train station, to embark ourselves in an wonderful train journey.  

The train journey will long last three and half of unforgettable hours in which you will surrounded by the panoramic andean valleys views.   Once we have finished our train ride, the Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour will takes us to Aguas Calientes town.  

Aguas Calientes is a town that has grew lately due its proximity to Machu Picchu and it has cafes, restaurants to choose from.  The surroundings of this town are in the middle of a deep and green valley crossed by a river.  If you decide to try the local natural hot springs can do so as you will not visit Machu Picchu until the following day.    

We also suggest to do the following in Aguas Calientes:

Visit the Machu Picchu 'Manuel Chávez Ballón' museum and orchid exhibition. This is open from 9am to 4.30pm, and is a 35 minute walk down the road from Aguas Calientes to Puente Ruinas. It is a very illustrative museum that gives you an interesting introduction to Machu Picchu.

The Inca, the son of 'Inti' (The Sun) was allow to enter to the glory and enjoyment of his royal house, Machu Picchu.  Today you will trace his steps and complete the whole Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour.

After taking your breakfast at 05:45 am we leave this town and get the first bus to Machu Picchu. The ride will take us around 20 minutes to get to the top of the hill.  Our aim is to get to the ancient citadele when the sunrise over the city.

The first impression of Macchu Picchu is its fantastic location which mix very well with the whole nature around it.  Very far away at the back the Andean mountains and snow peaks. The whole view it will just take your breath away that is for sure.

Our guide will give you a 2 hour guided over this Inca tour and after this you can explore the mysterious city by yourself.

If you have done the arrangements during your Machu Picchu Express 6 days, you will know that in order to climb the mountain of Huayna Picchu at 2.720m/8,890ft above the sea level, you will need a permit. To climb the Huayna Picchu mountain which is the one facing the ancient city, It takes around 45 minutes to reach the top.

Once you finish exploring the city or part of it,  your guide will meet you in Aguas Calientes to have lunch and to receive your train tickets back to Cusco. The return to Cusco takes about four hours with a bus transfer in Ollantaytambo to Cusco.

Today you have the two options, either stay in Cusco city and carry on exploring it at your own leisure time or have the organised option from this Machu Picchu Express 6 days, to travel to Maras salt Mines and Moray.  (At an additional Price: USD 40 per person).

We will collect you in a private transport or get all together in a meeting point and leave Cusco city at 09:00 am.  To ge on our way to Maras, we need to head in the direction of the Urubamba Valley which is next to the Sacred Valley.   The Urubamba valley has a fantastic landscape and mountain range to admire. During our way to Maras on this Express 6 day tour, we will start noticing the green colours of its valleys, against the blue colours of its sky and reflected on its ground.

Once in Maras, a side of the mountain show us the salt mines and like various lakes decorating the mountain, the salt effect of displaying their white shores and blue colours of the sky transform this mountains in spectacle of real beauty.  The Salt mines are located on a wide-open hill above the Urubamba Valley, a natural salt water stream runs underground.

This salt mines are dated since pre-Inca times and the local people do extract in small amount the salt by evaporating the salty water from its stream.

Our professional guide for this Machu Picchu Express tour, will show you on the stream points over this Maras salt resources.  Basically, the highly salty water emerges at a spring, a natural outlet of the underground stream.  The flow is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds.   The water, which is exposed to the sun, leaves salt on the land. Viewed from the peak, the myriad of rectangles look like an enormous painting designed by nature.

Finished our visit to the salt mines in Maras, we continue on a short distance to the Moray ruins as a part of our Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour,

Moray are composed of three big circles each one different on its size, in appearance is similar to a roman coliseums.   We will be descending to some of this circles which are big in their dimensions. Archaeologist have been based their theories about this circles as a Inca laboratory for crops, this is for the foundings in site but this is not 100% certain.

The incas who built this circles understood very well the effects on the depressions they did purposely.  Once of this effect is the managing of the temperature as there are sides of the terraces hotter than other ones getting as much as 15 °C/27 °F between the top and bottom.

Finished visiting Moray, we will carry on our journey In the afternoon, we return back to Cusco city.

Include:

• Transportation
• Professional English speaking guide.

Not include:

• Tourist ticket (extra PEN 80)
• Dinner

Another option: Half day city tour

On this day also still available the half day city tour option instead of doing the Maras and Moray one.

We will pick you up at 1:00PM from your hotel to start the tour and visiting the following places.

• The Koricancha: Temple of the sun.
• The Cathedral: Marvel of the religious art.
• Sacsayhuaman: Majestic place with impressive works in stone, some up to 120 tons.
• Q´enqo: (Labyrinth) a religious center dedicated to the adoration of the Earth.
• Puca Pucara: (reddish place) that was used as a military control center.
• Tambomachay: (Temple of the Water) a center of adoration and worship of water.

Include:

• Transportation
• Professional English speaking guide.

Not include:

• Tourist ticket (extra cost - Consult Us)
• Dinner

We want to thank you in joining this Machu Picchu Express 6 days tour and now you have become part of our extended Inca family.  Our reward will be to pass now your experiences of this tour to your friends and family.  

Finished your breakfast, you will get transfer to the local airport for you to take your flight back (according to your airline schedule).  Have a safe journey.