Not so long ago up to two thousand people flattened the sacred Inca trail to Machu Picchu peru, in the high season between April and September on Inca Trail Tours causing severe erosions of the paths and ancient ruins now only five hundred permits are accessible per day.
Since these tickets and reservations for Inca trail tours include support staff like tour guides, in reality that’s about two hundred trekkers up the Inca trail in total. So consider yourself extremely lucky if you manage to purchase a ticket to go on one of the few ancient Inca trail tours.
Traditional Inca Trail Tours to the Lost City of the Incas
Traditional Inca trail tours for getting to the Lost city of the Incas is the strenuous Inca Trail, involving three days of hard trekking through an extremely beautiful yet difficult landscape. If however you’re not looking to exert yourself over a period of three days and rather prefer getting to your destination in luxury, then train transport will be the most suitable option for traveling from Cusco to Machu Picchu.
There’s also some Inca trail tours which includes getting to the lost city of the Incas by helicopter, but only a few travelers can afford it and besides, you’ll miss the gorgeous Andean scenery that comes with the journey. Train transport to Machu Picchu is indeed the best alternative for those not looking to walk the distance. The experience is not better nor worse, just a little bit different. The train trip is still enjoyable and an experience you won’t soon forget with the benefit of being much more comfy.
Rail services to Machu Picchu, Peru’s most visited tourist site, are managed by Peru Rail, a company of the Orient Express group who just happens to also run the exclusive Monasterio Hotel in Cusco and Miraflores Park square hotel in Lima. Trains depart from the San Pedro station in Cusco nearby the Huanchac market daily and arrive at Machu Picchu city ( Aguas Calientes ) some 3 hours and forty minutes later.
This amazing journey begins at Cusco with a series of switchbacks, or zig-zags, as they are known by the locals, that last for about half an hour: the trains ascends the Picchu mountains, up to the city’s highest point El Arco or The Arch and out of Cusco into the small village of Poroy.
The train then moves down into the Sacred Valley of the Incas and the foothills of the Andeas, along the Urubamba River, passing through the spectacular Andean crop filled landscape, grasslands, herds of llamas, and colorful villages. Many old Inca buildings and archaeological sites can be seen all along the journey, particularly the wonderful Wiay Wayna ruins and Q’ente ( which translates to hummingbird in Quechua ), amidst a lush vegetation where a close-by waterfall draws oversize hummingbirds and decorative flowers blossom all of the time.
The other transport alternative on Inca Trail Tours.
Another option than making use of the Cusco departure is for visitors to actually embark on a train at Ollaytantambo or Urubamba, in the center of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. This offers the chance of staying longer in Machu Picchu, that is, without having to spend the entire night there, as the last trains arrive before any other at 7 am and again departs from the Lost City of the Incas after every other train at 6.10 pm.
Inca trail tours up the sacred inca trail to Machu Picchu is a must for anyone who’s ever cherished all that was left by civilizations as old as time. Any reputable travel agency will be able to help book your trip or recommend the best way to go about on Inca trail tours as well as recommend a few more mentionable sites to visit. One thing before embarking on your trek, remember that during May to September is the dry season in Peru with April to October being dry during the day with rainfall at night. If you decide on any form of Inca trail tours which includes hiking be sure to allow for at least three days at altitude before starting your trek to acclimatize.