• 6 Dinner (D)
• 12 Breakfast (B)
• 5 Lunch (L)

• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• 4-star hotel and overnight cruise stays
• Deluxe coach, cruise and train travel, and select flights

• Lima: Take in the highlights of Lima, the ‘City of the Kings,’ including a panoramic view of the ancient districts. Join a local specialist for a visit to the UNESCO-listed Historic Center. Learn how before it was destroyed by earthquakes in the mid-18th century, observing how the historic buildings display a collaboration between local craftspeople and others from the Old World. Then drive along the coastline as you learn more about the fascinating history of Peru’s capital city. 
• Cusco: Visit the mystical Incan stronghold of Ollantaytambo. These famous ruins are a massive Inca fortress made of large stone terraces stretching out across a hillside. Walk among the stone platforms, the sun temple of six monoliths and the Princess Baths fountain ? the Baño de la Nusta at the base of the ruins flowing from carved stone into a pool. Over your exploration, learn how the old town is an Inca-era grid of cobblestoned streets and adobe buildings.
• Machu Picchu: Soak in every moment of your Machu Picchu tour in style as you descend to the Lost City in the clouds aboard the Vistadome train. Traveling the Inca Trail, you’ll traverse dramatic landscapes with a panoramic view of the soaring peaks, river, and ruins. Sit back and relax as you enjoy this multi-sensory journey complete with background music, an informative audio commentary highlighting interesting sites, and an included light snack.
• Machu Picchu: Take a shuttle to the top of the mountain where you’ll meet your local specialist for a guided hike of Machu Picchu. You’ll learn about Machu Picchu’s history and the use of each section of including ceremonial, storage, agriculture, temples, astronomical, and observatory as well as the possible reasons why the Incas left Machu Picchu.
• Cusco: Enjoy the flavors of chicha, a Peruvian corn beer. Hear about how chicha is brewed by the local indigenous women and its history dating back to the time of the Incas as a favorite drink of the Andes. Learn about the two types of chicha, alcoholic sour chicha de jora made from fermented jora corn and the non-alcoholic, sweet chicha morada.
• Machu Picchu: The ruins of Machu Picchu beckon yet again and we enjoy one final opportunity to reconnect with its story. Journey to take in the ruins at sunrise spending some time on your own to explore the hill-top fortress. Soak in every moment at this iconic site, making stops at points of interest while your guide shares their insights on the archaeological sites.
• Cusco: Join your Local Specialist for a guided walk through Cusco’s colonial center, including the nearby 13th-century Incan settlement of Koricancha. Here in Cusco’s Golden Temple of the Sun dedicated to the Sun God Inti, view the trapezoidal and irregular shapes and rounded edges. Note how the stones fit together and were built simply by placing them on top of each other without using any mortar. This staggered placement also enables them to withstand earthquakes.
• Cusco: Begin your day at the ruins of the UNESCO-listed Sacsayhuamán fortress overlooking Cusco. With zig zagging walls and ruins of giant stones, see how the shape and harmony of the landscape is similar to Machu Picchu. Stroll through this Incan architecture of sacred buildings such as residential buildings, towers, shrines, warehouses, roads and aqueducts. And while you may not be able to take in the grand scale, the complex design is based on the shape of the head of a puma, a sacred animal in Inca spirituality.
• Lima: Join a local specialist for a tour of the Rafael Larco Herrera Museum which houses the largest private collection of pre-Columbian Peruvian art in the world. You’ll also explore the extensive collection of Peruvian gold and silver from ancient times. Learn the history of the museum founded by Rafael Larco on July 28th, 1926 in Trujillo followed by in 1958 when Larco moved his collection to Lima to a unique colonial residence built on top of a VIII century pyramid.

• Lima: You’re treated to a lesson on how to pour the perfect sour, Peru’s native drink. In the good hands of professional chef Ignacio, the results are sure to be delicious. Ignacio will explain the history of Pisco – a type pf wine, the typical Pisco Sour, and an internationally less known but locally more popular drink called “Chilcano”. This cocktail of pisco, lime juice, Ginger ale and bitters is a refreshing twist on the pisco sour that will have you eager to share the recipe with your friends.

Step inside the Larco Museum, housed in an 18th-century mansion built atop a pre-Columbian pyramid, to view one of the largest private collections of pre-Columbian art. Gold, textiles, and finely modeled ceramics reveal 5,000 years of Andean creativity.

Conclude in the museum’s flower-filled garden restaurant, where dinner unfolds amid bougainvillea-draped walls. Your guide’s insight connects ceremonial objects to living traditions still felt across Peru today.

Discover the UNESCO-listed Historic Center of Quito, a tapestry of plazas, convents, and ornate churches set against Andean peaks. Stroll past Independence Plaza and grand facades that reflect Spanish baroque blended with Indigenous artistry.

Travel north to the Equatorial line to stand astride the Equator at the Middle of the World monument. Exhibits and demonstrations bring latitude 0° to life, pairing geography with local narratives of exploration and identity.

Trafalgar

Explore Lima’s UNESCO-listed Historic Center on a guided visit that threads past balconied mansions and lively plazas. Take in the stately Cathedral of Lima and civic buildings framing Plaza Mayor before continuing to the San Francisco Monastery and catacombs, where candlelit passages reveal colonial Lima’s layered past.

Hear how the “City of Kings” grew from a Spanish stronghold into Peru’s capital. Architectural flourishes, Moorish latticework, and cloistered courtyards provide rich context for understanding from colonial baroque to modern Lima.

Join a local chef to explore a neighborhood market, pausing among fragrant citrus, just-landed seafood, and Andean grains. Continue to a cooking studio where you’ll learn to prepare lomo saltado and craft a refreshing Chilcano, discovering how pisco, lime, and bitters balance to create Peru’s favorite cocktail.

Along the way, hear stories of regional produce that define coastal cuisine. Techniques shared by your host bring home Peru’s creative blend of Indigenous, Spanish, African, and Asian influences in the kitchen.

Visit the Manos de la Comunidad weaving center to meet Quechua artisans preserving techniques spun from the four Andean camelids—llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. Learn natural dyeing, warping, and backstrap-loom weaving, and witness the community custom known as “Linderaje”, which celebrates and safeguards local boundaries.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER Experience supports women’s livelihoods and cultural continuity in the Sacred Valley. Your time here helps sustain intergenerational training and strengthens community resilience aligned with UN SDG 11.

Climb the broad stone terraces of Ollantaytambo Fortress, a masterwork of Inca engineering perched above the Urubamba Valley. Inspect precision-cut blocks at the Sun Temple and trace water channels that still course through the ancient town below.

Your guide interprets strategic viewpoints, ritual spaces, and highways of the Inca Empire. The harmony between hillside terraces and granite walls illuminates the Inca vision of landscape as sacred architecture.

Ride the Vistadome train along the Urubamba River gorge, surrounded by steep green peaks and cloud forest. Panoramic windows immerse you in scenery as villages, terraces, and hanging bromeliads glide past, with light snacks served en route.

Commentary and Andean melodies deepen your sense of place while the landscape narrows toward Aguas Calientes. It’s a relaxed, scenic prelude to standing among the high Andes’ mist-brushed citadel later in your journey.

Join a Local Specialist to unravel the design and purpose of Machu Picchu, where finely joined stone walls crown a knife-edge ridge above the Urubamba. Walk past agricultural terraces and ritual precincts that showcase the Incas’ astronomical alignment and stonecraft.

Hear how the site’s rediscovery reshaped Andean archaeology and why its masonry without mortar has withstood centuries of rainfall and tremors. Cloud forest air and orchids add a wild, living frame to the citadel’s serene geometry.

Return to Machu Picchu for unrushed time at classic terraces and lookouts. Linger as morning mists lift off the ridge, framing the citadel’s stairways and plazas for contemplative photos and quiet appreciation.

Use this second entry to revisit favorite angles, refine your images, and pause for photos and reflection amid hummingbirds and mountain silence. The experience complements the guided visit with space to absorb the site’s atmosphere.

Stop at a traditional, often women-run chichería to sample chicha de jora and chicha morada. Learn how germinated maize is fermented into a tart, lightly effervescent brew, while purple corn, pineapple, and spices create a fragrant, non-alcoholic counterpart.

Stories of ancestral rituals and communal gatherings reveal chicha’s enduring role from Inca festivals to village life today. It’s a flavorful window into Andean hospitality and heritage.

Explore Cusco’s colonial heart, stepping into the gilded Cusco Cathedral on Plaza de Armas before visiting Qorikancha (Koricancha), the Inca Temple of the Sun later absorbed by the Church of Santo Domingo. Stone walls of razor-tight joins reveal imperial craftsmanship.

Continue to the hilltop Sacsayhuaman Fortress, whose zigzag ramparts overlook the city. Your guide decodes Inca cosmology, Spanish overlays, and the city’s evolution as capital of Tawantinsuyo to modern cultural hub.

Cruise by panga through Black Turtle Cove, gliding silently among red, black, and white mangroves that shelter marine life. Watch for green sea turtles surfacing between roots, white-tipped reef sharks in the shallows, and pelicans and herons resting above.

This protected sanctuary highlights how mangroves function as nurseries for the archipelago’s fauna. Calm waters and careful navigation maximize wildlife viewing while minimizing disturbance.

Hike up Prince Philip’s Steps from a rocky landing to a plateau of palo santo and open lava fields. Nesting Nazca boobies dot the ground, while storm petrels dance over the basalt and short-eared owls sometimes hunt in daylight.

Your naturalist shares the island’s volcanic origins and why this remote caldera draws vast seabird colonies. Stark geology contrasts with the teeming birdlife that defines Genovesa’s wild character.

Walk the coral sands of Darwin Bay along mangroves and saltbush where frigatebirds display and swallow-tailed gulls nest. Skirting a tidal lagoon, scan the shore for the elusive lava gull, one of the world’s rarest gulls.

The gentle trail offers close views of courtship behaviors and downy chicks, with interpretive guidance on adaptations that inspired Darwin’s insights into evolution. Pause for photos and reflection amid this serenely wild amphitheater.

Traverse South Plaza’s lava-rock path through scarlet sesuvium and towering Opuntia cacti. Encounter robust land iguanas grazing beneath paddles while a raucous sea lion colony basks along turquoise coves.

Clifftop viewpoints reveal swallow-tailed gulls and shearwaters coursing the updrafts. Your guide explains island endemism and how vegetation cycles color the landscape across seasons.

Snorkel clear, protected waters where sea turtles glide and spotted eagle rays flicker over the sand. Ashore, follow a trail through an Opuntia cactus forest seeking the pale-hued Santa Fe land iguana and perching Galápagos hawks.

Santa Fe’s older volcanic platform supports unique species found nowhere else. Naturalist commentary reveals how isolation and aridity shape behavior, from iguanas’ cactus diet to hawks’ commanding patrols.

Walk the lush highlands of Santa Cruz to encounter giant tortoises foraging through pastures and mists. Observe their ponderous gait, dome shapes, and grazing habits at respectful distances guided by your naturalist.

The cool, green uplands contrast starkly with coastal zones, illustrating how microclimates drive species distribution. This unhurried encounter offers ample time to pause for photos and reflection with the archipelago’s most iconic resident.