2024/ 2025 Machu Picchu Day Trip from Cusco
A visit to Machu Picchu by Train is one of the most amazing and unique experiences ways to reach the Inca citadel! Enjoy an unforgettable Day Trip with us!
Description
A visit of Machu Picchu by Train or Machu Picchu Day trip from Cusco is an enigmatic way on how to reach lost city of the Incas!. Machu Picchu is one of the 7 wonders of the world most visited by tourists, has beautiful constructions based on stones, which were carved with much precision and detail, is the most important work for the Incas for having been built on a rugged mountain and Inaccessible.
On the route, you can appreciate the landspaces of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, subtropical flora and fauna as well as lovely sceneries closer to Machu Picchu! Upon arrival to Aguas Calientes (a small town just below Machu Picchu), you get on a tourist shuttle bus taking you just in front of the entrance of this unique Incan citadel! There, you receive a guided tour of the so called "Lost City of the Incas". Afterwards, take some panoramic pictures of the antique Incan citadal with all the splendid landscape that surrounds it!! Then you can return to Machu Picchu and explore this overwhelming citadel on your own!
If you're short on time, the Machu Picchu day trip from Cusco is for you. Although a lot of time is spent on transfers (van and trains), the experience is definitely worth it. In retrospect, you will say that it was worth booking this tour than regretting for a lifetime that the tour turned out differently than expected.
Days: 1 |
Max People : 10 |
All year |
Min Age : 1+ |
Pickup : Hotel |
Language: |
Departure & Return Location
Cusco/Sacred Valley
Departure Time
04:30 AM/ 07:00 AM
Return Time
07:00 PM/10:00 PM
Price Includes
- Confortable Accomodation
- Train
- Entrance Fees
Tierras Vivas Crew
- Tierras Vivas representative
- Guide
- Driver
What to Expect
Machu Picchu Day Trip Overview
Sustainable Tourism: At Tierras Vivas, we are happy to promote and practice sustainable tourism by being eco-friendly and supporting local communities
Service Level: Comfortable private transport, activities and professional guided tour English or Spanish.
Physical Rating: Easy walking and hiking suitable for most fitness levels. Not too challenging
Age requirement: 1+ / All travellers under age 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
Type of Trip: Independent trips are either entire trips you take privately to a group tour. Local staff are available on 24/7
Machu Picchu Operator: Tierras Vivas Travel
Crew: A Tierras Vivas Representative in Cusco and a professional bilingual Tour Guide at Machu Picchu.
Transportation: Transportation by private vehicle, a train round trip.
Quick Itinerary
Tierras Vivas offers two itineraries for a Machu Picchu day trip: from Cusco or Ollantaytambo. These itineraries are planned according to your requests, so it is very important to let us know where you will start your Machu Picchu tour.
Machu Picchu day trip from Cusco
Starting betwen 04:00 am and 05:30 am
- Transfer from Cusco to Poroy or Ollantaytambo train station (1 hr 30 min)
- Train to Aguas Calientes town
- Arrival, where our representative will be waiting at the train station
- Walk to the bus station and take the bus up to the citadel
- Guided tour of Machu Picchu according to your circuit
- Once finished, take the bus down to Aguas Calientes
- Train return to Ollantaytambo or Poroy train station
- Transfer by small private car to Cusco
Machu Picchu Day Trip from Sacred Valley
Starting betwen 06:00 am and 07:00 am
- Transfer from Hotel to train station
- Train to Aguas Calientes town
- Our guide will be waiting in the Aguas Calientes train station
- Bus up to the citadel
- Guided tour of Machu Picchu according your circuit
- Return to Aguas Calientes village
- Train return to Ollantaytambo and transfer your hotel in Ollantaytambo or Cusco.
- Transfer by small private car to Cusco.
Why start from the Sacred Valley? If you start from Ollantaytambo or the Sacred Valley, you don’t need to wake up early. You can take advantage of the extra sleep and also explore this beautiful place a day before your tour.
Highlights of the Machu Picchu Day Trip
- Comfortable and quick way on how to get to Machu Picchu.
- Opportunity to view the Sacred Valley of the Incas as well as subtropical nature on the way to the Inca citadel.
- Guided tour of Machu Picchu.
- Time off to explore and discover Machu Picchu on your own.
- An opportunity to take the panoramic picture
- Explore the lost city of the Incas
- Visit the temple of the Condor.
Itineray Details
Machu Picchu Day Tour from Cusco
In the morning, we pick you up from your hotel and transfer your to a railway station (either at Poroy, which is 30 minutes far away from Cusco or at Ollantaytambo which takes 1 hour and 40 minutes from Cusco). There you board a train and travel for about 1 hour 45 minutes experiencing spectacular changeable landscapes passing through lush fields and colourful villages placed on the foothill of the Andes. The highlight of the way are wonderful views of mountains and the marvellous Urubamba River that runs through the Sacred Valley of the Incas. In the end, you reach Aguas Calientes, a town just below Machu Picchu, where our Representative welcomes you at the railway station to accompany you to a bus stop. There you get on a shuttle bus taking you up to the archaeological complex of Machu Picchu following a zigzag path for about 25 minutes.
Once in Machu Picchu, your Tour Guide introduces you the most important attractions of this antique Incan site such as its main square, the Sun Temple, Intiwatana (Sun Clock), the Royal Rooms, the Temple of the Three Windows and the Royal Incas Cemetery. This guided tour takes about 2 and half an hour and then you are given time off to explore around the complex and to climb Huayna Picchu (or Machu Picchu Mountain) to take some amazing panoramic photos of Machu Picchu. So please do not forget your camera and enjoy the visit of the "One of the New 7 Wonders of the World" !!
When you have enjoy the site enough, you take a shuttle bus down to Aguas Calientes where you can have lunch (not included in the package) in one of many lovely restaurants offering traditional Andean as well as international cuisine. Afterwards, you can visit the thermal baths of Aguas Calientes or the Museum of the Site (neither entrance of these is included in the package).
In the afternoon, we take a train back to Ollantaytambo (alternatively to Poroy) where our driver expects us in front of the railway station to transfer us to Cusco.
Machu Picchu Tour from Sacred Valley
If you start from the Sacred Valley, our staff will contact you via WhatsApp to provide information and confirm the pick-up time. It is very important to download WhatsApp so we can use this app to communicate with you. Once coordinated, our transfer will pick you up from the Sacred Valley and take you to the train station, where you will catch the train. Our guide will be waiting at the Aguas Calientes train station with your name sign.+
Included
What is included in this tour?
- Pre-trek briefing (Our guide will visit your hotel a day before the trek for your briefing)
- Entrance fee to Machu Picchu;
- Professional English Tour Guide;
- A train round trip to Machu Picchu (to choose your class, please check the Prices section);
- Meals: 01 Snack (Organic cotton bag)
- A shuttle bus Aguas Calientes - Machu Picchu - a round trip
- Private transfer to the train station and return your hotel;.
Not Included
- Pre & post tour accommodation,
- Meals nor beverages (excepting refreshment offered on trains),
- Travel insurance Travel insurance (It's not mandatory, but recommended in case you have an emergency during your trip in Peru or need to cancel at the last minute)
- Tips and baggage portage (please note: it is a custom to give tips in Peru; however, it is not obligatory),
- Other extras not mentioned.
Meals budget: Please allow USD 20 - 30 for meals not included.
Local flights: No local flight is included in the cost of the tours.
Entry to Machu Picchu & Guided Tour
This Machu Picchu day trip includes the entry ticket for Machu Picchu Circuit 2, but availability depends on the spaces. For example, if you book a month in advance, our sales department will confirm the Circuit 2 Machu Picchu ticket. However, during the high tourist season, this circuit sells out in advance. In such cases, our sales department will offer alternative circuits, such as Circuit 3 Royalty or Circuit 1 Panoramic. Both tickets cover only part of the citadel, so you may not be able to explore the entire Inca citadel, but you will visit a significant portion. We recommend booking in advance to secure Circuit 2 Machu Picchu.
Essential Information
Tour Guide & A Representative
The Tierras Vivas tour guide will be waiting at the train station with your name. Once you meet, he/she will take you to the bus station.
All Tierras Vivas traveller group tours are accompanied by a Tierras Vivas Tour Guide, a Representative or an expedition team. The aim of our Tour Guides is to take a hassle out of our customers’ trips and to help them to have the best trip possible. The Tour Guides provide information on places visited, offer suggestions of what to see and to do, recommend a good place to eat and introduce to his/her colleagues. The Guides have a broad general knowledge of each country visited during a tour, including historical, cultural, religious and social aspects. We also use local Tour Guides where we think that more specific knowledge could add more enjoyment to visited places.
Perurail and Inca Rail trains
The Machu Picchu day trip is included the train round trip to Machu Picchu. Tierras Vivas work with the two company Perurail and Inca Rail, These companies train offer the best service from Cusco to Machu Picchu and back.
You can get to Machu Picchu and back by train in a very comfortable and environmentally friendly way. You can. read here which trains run, how to book and what else you should consider.
From Cusco to Machu Picchu
Wake early and you will catch the train to Machu Picchu, you decided on a worthwhile journey. The leisurely train ride takes you through the Sacred Valley. Overwhelming mountains rise up to the left and right, while you pass small villages again and again. The destination station is called Aguas Calientes
PeruRail - Expedition Train
Ollantaytambo - Machu Picchu
|
Departure |
Arrival to Machu Picchu |
Expedition 71 |
05:05 |
06:35 |
Expedition 81 |
06:10 |
07:40 |
Machu Picchu to Cusco
|
Departure |
Arrival to Ollantaytambo |
Arrival to Cusco |
Expedition 74 |
14:55 |
16:31 |
18:30 |
Expedition 84 |
18:20 |
20:05 |
22:00 |
Expedition 86 |
20:50 |
22:50 |
23:50 |
IncaRail - The Voyager Train
Ollantaytambo - Machu Picchu
|
Departure |
Arrival to Machu Picchu |
The Voyager |
06:40 |
08:10 |
Machu Picchu to Cusco
|
Departure |
Arrival to Ollantaytambo |
Arrival to Cusco |
The Voyager |
14:30 |
15:56 |
18:40 |
The Voyager |
19:00 |
20:41 |
22:30 |
The Voyager |
20:20 |
21:59 |
23:00 |
Peru Rail from Cusco to Machu Picchu
Peru Rail is the only one that runs the route Cusco (Poroy) - Ollantaytambo - Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) and back. So book your trip to Machu Picchu as early as possible. It's best to do this as soon as you know when you want to go, because the train tickets are getting more and more expensive or towards the end only the expensive categories are available. There are 3 different booking classes, which differ in price and service:
- The Expedition Train
- The Vistadome Train
- Hiram Bingham - The luxury train to Machu Picchu
Inca Rail from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu
You could choose Inca Rail for the Machu Picchu Day Trip. Inca Rail only runs the route between Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, not to Cusco. You can booking also online here via our website. Inca Rail also offers several ticket categories:
- Voyager Machu Picchu Train with normal windows
- 360° Inca Rail train with panoramic windows
- Voyager Machu Picchu Premiun rain
If you want more information about the panoramic train, please click on Vistadome train or 360 train Machu Picchu
Suggest Items
A kind of luggage you need to take with depends on a kind of tour you plan to undertake, a part of the country you like to visit, a year season and a length of your trip. In general, you should pack as lightly as possible because you carry your own luggage during most of our tours (however, there are not long walking distances – up to 30 minutes). We recommend you to keep weight of your luggage under 7 kg (20 lb.).
Most of travelers use a suitcase. However, a big backpack would be more suitable. In any case, please do not forget a small rucksack that you will need for daily travels (to carry your bottled water, camera, snacks, etc.). It is better to avoid a wheeled luggage and use luggage with shoulder straps.
What Kind of Clothing to Pack to Machu Picchu
Clothing to take with you depends on a year season in Peru and a part of country you plan to visit.
If you plan to visit Cusco and Machu Picchu (Andean mountain range or Altiplano), then we recommend you to take some trousers suitable for hiking, shorts, T-shirts and trekking shoes for the days; and sweaters, fleeces, hats, scarves and warm jackets for the nights. You also should take a sun protection cream, sun glasses and in some cases, mosquito repellent (depending on a route chosen). It is very convenient to have a light rain-gear available in a daypack (e.g. a waterproof poncho or jacket and/or waterproof trousers) as weather changes quickly and rains can suddenly occur. For more details, please check the below link of “What to Bring on the Inca Trail Expedition Tour”.
What to take on the Machu Picchu Day Tour
- Passport Original and copies
- Travel insurance(+ copies for a case of lost),
- Cash in USD or credit cards,
- Day pack (to carry your personal items during daily travels),
- Rain gear (a rain-jacket and a waterproof trousers or a rain poncho - this can be purchased in Cusco),
- Resistible footwear, waterproof trekking shoes are recommended,
- Sandals (for a higher comfort while at a hotspring in Aguas Calientes),
- Hat or a cap (to protect you against the Sun, rain as well as cold),
- Sun cream or sun block,
- After-sun cream or hydrating cream for face and body,
- Insect repellent– recommended minimum is 20% DEET (please note that no malaria has been reported during this trip!),
- Camera and its charger/batteries (please note that batteries are consumed quickly under cold conditions),
- Small towel and toiletries,
- Sufficient reserve of underwear,
- Swimsuit (to visit the thermal baths of Aguas Calientes),
- Snacks (biscuits, energy bars, chocolate, raw fruits, muesli, etc.)
Please note: we do provide a daily morning snack and our meal service is very complete and well supplied. The recommendation of taken own snack applies only for customers who like a specific snack that might not be in our menu.
- Bottled water for the first morning and a water bottle.
Machu Picchu Day Trip Video
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