Machu Picchu Day Trip from Cusco – Full-Day Tour
Description
We’ll begin with a comfortable transfer from your hotel in Cusco to the bus station. From there, you’ll travel by bus to Ollantaytambo, where you’ll board your scheduled train. Enjoy a scenic train ride through the Sacred Valley, surrounded by breathtaking Andean landscapes, until you arrive at Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Town). Upon arrival, you’ll be greeted by our professional guide or support staff, who will provide all the necessary instructions for your visit. Explore Machu Picchu on a 2.5 to 3-hour guided tour, learning about the fascinating history, engineering, and architecture of this iconic Inca citadel. Guided tours are offered in English or Spanish, with other languages available upon request. After the tour, you’ll have free time to enjoy lunch at one of the local restaurants in Aguas Calientes before returning to Cusco. You’ll take the train back to Ollantaytambo, then board the bus to Cusco. Upon arrival at the bus station, our transportation will take you directly to your hotel in the historic center.
Tour Options
Itinerary
At 4:30 a.m., we will pick you up from your hotel and transfer you to the Ollantaytambo train station to board the train to Machu Picchu.
Around 7:20 a.m., we’ll take the train to Machu Picchu, enjoying the beautiful landscapes along the way to the Inca citadel.
Upon arrival in Machu Picchu, our local representative will be waiting to welcome you and provide important instructions before taking the bus ride to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu. After exploring this World Wonder, you’ll have free time to enjoy a delicious lunch at local restaurants near Machu Picchu before returning.
At the Machu Picchu entrance gate, we will present our tickets to enter the Inca citadel together with our professional guide. Alongside our guide, we’ll enjoy a 2.5-hour guided tour of Machu Picchu, exploring its most iconic sites: the Guardian’s House, offering a breathtaking panoramic view of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu; the stone quarry, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows, as well as the agricultural and urban sectors. After the guided tour, you’ll have about one hour of free time to relax and take in the magic of the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu before boarding the bus back to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Town). By 4:12 p.m., we will meet at the Machu Picchu train station for our return trip to Ollantaytambo. Upon arrival in Ollantaytambo, our private transfer will be waiting to take you back to Cusco City, ending the tour at your hotel in Cusco.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
If your accommodation is located far from the historic center, passengers will be asked to meet at the Plaza de Armas in Cusco. Please check with our sales team to confirm your hotel’s location.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- It is the passenger’s responsibility to verify all travel dates and personal information to avoid unintentional errors in names, identification numbers, or other travel details.
- The travel agency will contact the customer to verify travel details. It is the customer's responsibility to respond and ensure that the information is correct.
- Tour start times are subject to availability. The agency will confirm the tour start time.
- If your hotel is located far from the historic center, additional charges may apply depending on the location. Please consult with the operator.
- The starting times for the first shift are between 3:50 AM and 5:40 AM, and the tours usually finish between 6:30 PM and 10:30 PM. All times are subject to availability.
- The start times for the second shift are from 6:00 to 8:00, and they usually finish between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM. All times are subject to availability.
Reviews(456)
This was an amazing experience from start to finish! There is a lot of transportation involved when doing a day trip from Cusco and the team was really informative and communicated everything we needed to know about our itinerary the day before. We didn’t have to worry about any of the logistics and were able to just fully enjoy the day! Our guide Daniel was AMAZING and super informative throughout the tour, we did Circuit 2 and were able to see both the panoramic top level views & actually go inside the citadel and learn about all the different areas and why they were built! Would recommend this tour to anyone looking to do a day trip from Cusco! Also worth noting we opted for the later time slot which got us to Machu Picchu around 2:30pm and the view was completely sunny and clear and there wasn’t many crowds, it was great!
Considering what a popular tourist destination it is, a Machu Picchu trip is surprisingly tricky to plan — it usually involves trains, buses, AND lengthy transportation to and from Ollantaytambo from Cusco if you’re staying there. It felt much easier to allow an experienced travel agency handle the logistics for us, and we are very glad we chose Aremika Travel for it. The trip was as seamless as possible. Our coordinator, Carina, was extremely detailed in sharing our itinerary and providing all necessary tickets and info in one place. On the day of the tour, she also checked in to make sure everything was going according to plan. (It did!) The guide and taxi drivers Aremika booked for us were all prompt, kind, and professional. Our guide Pavel went the extra mile in ensuring we got the most out of our tour. I hope to do Machu Picchu again someday — it really is that amazing, and pictures can’t do it justice. When I return, another booking with Aremika will be the first thing on my list.
Aremika Travel was incredible, we planned 10 days and all 10 were beautiful, the guides were very attentive, the itineraries were exactly what we wanted, the recommendations and specifications were very clear and made our visit to Peru very unique. Our favorite place: Humantay!
It was amazing from the beginning to the end!!! The guide was extremely informative and professional.
The service was very good and at all times they made sure that we arrived safely, the guide Reyner was fantastic and it was clear that he loved what he was explaining. The truth is we couldn't be happier with everything!
We had a great experience and amazing time.
We had an amazing time. Our transportation and trip timings were well planned by our tour planner Carina.
What an incredible experience. Machu Picchu speaks for itself, it's simply amazing to be there and see for yourself what the Inca's built, and the surrounding mountains are breathtaking. As for the tour, I left the tour absolutely impressed. It was a door to door experience and there were so many logistics between hotel pickup, bus, train and entrance tickets, and the return trip. Everything was explained to me very well and at no time did I not know what to expect. Our tour guide Carlos, we adored. So knowledgeable about Machu Picchu history and significance. I learned a lot and left with great appreciation. Worth every dollar. I would recommend Aremika travel to family and friends without hesitation.
Very well organized from hotel pickup, transfers, guide and return. Communication was very good and our guide was great.
I enjoyed every moment of my visit to Machu Picchu. The tour was very well organized. The guides provided necessary instructions and advice before each transfer. The guide who showed us Machu Picchu was knowledgeable about the place. It was very kind of him to take photos of our group at more iconic sites. I recommend this tour and the agency to everyone who wishes to visit Machu Picchu.
