Meet Andean artisans at the Chinchero Sunday Market, where handwoven textiles, potatoes in countless varieties, and seasonal fruit crowd the stalls. Share a moment with local families, greeting llamas and alpacas and learning about dyeing and spinning techniques passed down for generations.

Discover the role of chicha de jora in highland life during a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER Experience. Hear how ancestral customs endure in this lofty village and how community enterprises support cultural continuity and sustainable livelihoods.

Board the valley railway from Ollantaytambo through the Sacred Valley and ride beside the Urubamba River to Aguas Calientes. Ascend by shuttle to step into Machu Picchu, the fabled Inca sanctuary poised on a cloud-forest ridge.

Join your specialist for a guided exploration of temples, terraces, and water channels, from the Temple of the Sun to agricultural sectors shaped by Andean engineering. Pause to absorb sweeping Andean vistas and the silence that still lingers among the granite walls.

Step inside a family home where centuries-old Incan stonework forms the foundations of everyday life. In the courtyard, learn how traditional cuy keeping fits into household rhythms and how customs are preserved across seven generations.

Hear personal stories of feast days, harvests, and home altars that illuminate living heritage. This intimate visit offers a respectful window into Andean culture beyond monuments and museums.

Browse the artisans’ market of Pisac, where Quechua vendors display hand-loomed textiles, silverwork, and produce scented with mountain herbs. Continue to a women-run kitchen for a hands-on empanada class using seven regional flours.

Shape pastries, slide them into a horno de barro (clay oven), and enjoy a tasting fresh from the fire. Learn family recipes and community stories that celebrate culinary resilience in the Sacred Valley.

Visit mighty Sacsayhuaman, the Inca stronghold whose cyclopean stonework and zigzag walls crown the ridge above Cusco. Trace the precision joins of boulders that weigh many tons yet lock together without mortar.

Hear how this ceremonial and defensive complex framed imperial rituals, then pause for panoramic views over Cusco and the red-tiled roofs that spill down to the Plaza de Armas.

Join a guided walk through Cusco’s historic heart, tracing narrow streets to the famed Twelve-Angled Stone on Hatun Rumiyoc. Continue to Qorikancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun, later absorbed into the Santo Domingo convent.

Study masterful ashlar masonry where angled blocks withstand earthquakes, and learn how Inca engineering underpins the city’s colonial facades and lively plazas.

Experience the Magic Water Circuit at Parque de la Reserva, where dancing fountains rise to music and light. Wander illuminated paths as mist and color create playful tunnels and photo moments with skyline backdrops.

Watch laser-lit shows and projections that delight local families and visitors alike. This optional experience is at additional cost and can be booked with your Travel Director.

Uncover the experimental genius of the Incas at the Moray agricultural terraces, concentric bowls that create distinct microclimates. Continue to the shimmering Maras salt pans, a honeycomb of pools fed by a mineral spring since pre-Inca times.

Frame snowcapped Andes backdrops as you learn about traditional harvesting methods still practiced today. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore the Piquillacta Wari ruins, a pre-Inca city laid out in an early example of planned urban design. Walk long avenues flanked by adobe ramparts that once housed a thriving highland civilization.

Survey the serene basin and wetlands below, spotting condors on clear days. This optional archaeological visit is at additional cost and can be arranged locally.

Join a bean-to-bar workshop that traces cacao from pod to truffle. Roast and grind cacao, blend spices, and pour your own bars while learning about native varieties from Cusco and the Amazon.

Enjoy hands-on chocolate making and tastings that reveal Peru’s growing craft scene. This optional culinary session is at additional cost and bookable with your Travel Director.

Set out on an off-the-beaten-track walk into backstreets where tiny tiendas, cobblers, and herbalists keep traditions alive. Hear intimate stories of family trades and everyday rituals rarely covered on standard routes.

Visit neighborhood cemeteries with niche-lined walls that reveal personal histories, and glimpse everyday Cusco beyond the plazas. This optional walking tour is at additional cost and arranged on tour.

Tackle a rewarding hike to Rainbow Mountain where minerals tint slopes in bands of ochre, rose, and turquoise. Embrace the high-altitude challenge as vicuñas graze and glaciers gleam on distant peaks.

Celebrate at the summit with views over the striated slopes of Vinicunca and sweeping Andean vistas. This full-day optional excursion is at additional cost and suited to fit, acclimatized hikers.

• 6 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)
• 1 Dinner (D)

• Visit the famous Pisac Market where local indigenous communities sell their wares and produce. Visit the workshop at Mrs. Ernestina’s Empanada Shop, a family business since 4 generations and learn how to make empanadas before getting a taste.
• Machu Picchu: Visit Coricancha, or the ‘Temple of the Sun’, the most important temple in the Incan Empire.  
• Explore the “City of the Kings” and see the Cathedral, Government Palace, Archbishop’s Palace, City Hall and visit San Francisco Monastery, famous for its catacombs
• Visit Coricancha, or the ‘Temple of the Sun’, the most important temple in the Incan Empire
•  Visit the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

• Selected hotel dinners, with optional meals to purchase
• 3-star stays
• Deluxe coach, 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. 
• Sacred Valley: Join a Make Travel Matter® Experience at Chinchero Sunday Market, where fruit, vegetables and handwoven goods fill the stalls. Your Local Specialist will introduce you to local produce such as potatoes, with the chance to taste seasonal fruit and learn about chicha, the traditional corn-based drink.
• 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.
• Step inside the family home of Mrs Rosa, where Incan stonework has stood for generations. You’ll learn how guinea pigs are traditionally raised within the household and hear about customs that have been passed down through the family, offering a personal look at traditions still practised today.
• 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.
• At a women-owned empanada workshop in Pisaq, you’ll join Mrs Ernestina to learn how her family makes traditional empanadas using seven varieties of flour. Follow techniques passed down through four generations, then bite into a freshly made empanada and taste the results for yourself.

Explore Lima’s UNESCO-listed core on a guided panoramic tour taking in the Plaza Mayor and Lima Cathedral, the stately Government and Archbishop’s Palaces, and elegant colonial arcades. Walk shaded courtyards before descending into the San Francisco Monastery to view its library and haunting catacombs.

Gain a sense of the ‘City of Kings’ where Spanish baroque facades meet republican plazas and modern life. Hear how earthquakes reshaped the capital and admire carved balconies and Moorish-influenced details that reveal Lima’s layered past.

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