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Peru with Machu Picchu – Small Group route map

Arrive in Lima, a capital shaped by history, culture and one of Latin America’s most influential food scenes. Home to a UNESCO-listed historic center, Lima was once the seat of Spanish rule in South America and still carries that significance today. On arrival, transfer to your hotel and settle in before meeting your Travel Director and fellow small group travelers this evening for dinner with drinks, a relaxed first introduction to the journey ahead.

Meals: Dinner

Explore the colorful capital of Peru this morning with your Local Specialist. Discover its colonial heritage, taking in key landmarks such as the Cathedral of Lima, the Government Palace, the Archbishop’s Palace and City Hall. Visit Casa Aliaga, an impressive mansion that’s been home to the Aliaga family for 17 generations. Visit Museo Larco in the Pueblo Libre District, rated as one of South America’s top museums, housing the world’s largest collection of Pre-Columbian art. Enjoy lunch in the museum’s 18th-century garden before a guided visit through the collection.

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

Transfer to the airport and fly to Cusco. Begin your tour of the Sacred Valley with scenic drives and photo stops. Enjoy lunch at Altar Inca, then continue to your hotel. Evening at leisure with time to adjust to the altitude.

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

Visit the Maras Salt Mines and see thousands of terraced pools still used to harvest salt. Continue to Moray to view the circular terraces believed to be an agricultural laboratory. At Laguna Piuray, enjoy a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER weaving demonstration, a traditional Pachamanca lunch with live music, and learn to play the zampoña (Andean panpipe).

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

Begin in Ollantaytambo to visit the ruins and a local home in the old town. Board IncaRail’s The Prime train to Machu Picchu Pueblo with an Andean-inspired tasting and live music on board. On arrival, visit Machu Picchu with a Local Specialist to learn about the citadel’s architecture, engineering and mountain setting.

Meals: Breakfast,Dinner

Enjoy a day at leisure around Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes. Explore at your own pace with your Travel Director on hand to assist, or relax at the hotel.

Meals: Breakfast

Take the IncaRail 360 train to Ollantaytambo and continue to Cusco. Join a Local Specialist for a walking tour including Plaza Mayor, the 12-Angled Stone and Koricancha. Enjoy an after-hours visit to the Cusco Planetarium with dome projections of the southern sky, Inca constellations and, weather permitting, telescope observation.

Meals: Breakfast

Visit the Inca sites above Cusco: Tambomachay, Puka Pukara and Qenqo, then Sacsayhuaman. After lunch, choose to explore San Pedro Market with a Local Specialist and purchase food items to donate to the community, or visit Cusco Cathedral on Plaza de Armas to see its renowned art and altars.

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

Day at leisure in Cusco. Optional experiences include ChocoMuseo or Rainbow Mountain. Explore Plaza de Armas, San Blas or San Pedro Market. In the evening, enjoy dinner at Inka Grill with your group.

Meals: Breakfast,Dinner

Private transfer to Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport as your trip comes to an end.

Meals: Breakfast

Take a scenic cruise to the Ballestas Islands with a Local Specialist to observe blue-footed boobies, Humboldt penguins, Peruvian pelicans, fur seals and sea lions. Visit a pisco distillery in Ica for a tasting, then enrich your understanding at a small museum with mummies, skulls, fossils, ceramics, textiles and artifacts from the Inca and other civilizations.

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

Return to Lima, stopping in Chincha at Hacienda San José, a 17th-century estate with a baroque chapel and underground tunnels that illuminate Peru’s Afro-Peruvian and colonial history. Continue to Lima and transfer to the airport where your journey ends.

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch

What’s included

Expert Travel Director and professional Driver throughout the journey.
Audio headsets provided for flexible sightseeing.
Porterage: your luggage is carried and delivered to your hotel room door.
All hotel tips, charges and local taxes are covered.
Occasional local specialty tastings hosted by your Travel Director.
11 breakfasts, 6 lunches and 3 dinners included, featuring special experiences such as a welcome dinner in Lima, lunch in Museo Larco’s 18th-century garden, a traditional Pachamanca feast at Laguna Piuray, and a farewell dinner at Inka Grill in Cusco.
Handpicked 4–5 star stays including MGallery Manto (Lima), Aranwa Sacred Valley (Urubamba), Sumaq Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes), JW Marriott El Convento (Cusco) and Paracas, a Luxury Collection Resort (Paracas).
All on-trip transport including a business-class coach with extended leg room, IncaRail’s The Prime train to Machu Picchu and the 360 train return, a flight from Lima to Cusco, and airport transfers at the start and end of the trip.
Guided sightseeing with Local Specialists: Lima’s historic center and Museo Larco; Maras Salt Mines and Moray; Ollantaytambo ruins with a local home visit; guided tour of Machu Picchu; Cusco walking tour plus Inca sites (Tambomachay, Puka Pukara, Qenqo, Sacsayhuaman); after-hours visit to Cusco Planetarium; Ballestas Islands cruise and pisco tasting in Ica; visit to Hacienda San José in Chincha.
MAKE TRAVEL MATTER experience: private textile presentation with a traditional Quechua weaver in the Sacred Valley and a hands-on zampoña (Andean panpipe) workshop at Laguna Piuray.

What’s not included

International flights to/from Peru are not included.
Entry visas and any associated costs are the traveller’s responsibility (if required).
Travel insurance is not included and should be arranged by the traveller.
Meals and beverages not specified in the itinerary or dining summary are at your own expense.
Optional experiences such as ChocoMuseo or Rainbow Mountain excursions are not included.
Tips for your Driver, Travel Director and Local Specialists (excluding included hotel tips) are not covered.
Personal expenses including laundry, souvenirs and phone calls are not included.

Additional information

  • 11 Breakfast (B)
  • 3 Dinner (D)
  • 6 Lunch (L)
  • Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
  • 4 & 5-star stays
  • Business class coach with extended leg room, train travel and select flights
  • Lima: Unwind at your luxury abode, before meeting your Travel Director and fellow travelers in the evening for a dinner.
  • Lima:  Make your way to Lima’s Pueblo Libre District and indulge on a lunch in the Museo Larco’s 18th century garden.
  • Sacred Valley: Enjoy lunch at Altar Inca with impressive views of the Sacred valley surrounded by the breathtaking Andes Mountains.
  • Sacred Valley: Make your way to the small lagoon of Laguna Piuray where you’ll enjoy your lunch of Pachamanca, a traditional Peruvian feast.
  • Cusco: Enjoy an immersive slow-cooked Cusquenian lunch at Pacha Papa. Lunch will be served al fresco at the courtyard of a historic mansion in the artsy neighborhood of San Blas.
  • Cusco: In the evening, join your fellow travelers for a memorable dinner at Inka Grill, where you’ll embark on a journey of flavors from Ceviche Palteado to Quinotto and Aji de Gallina.
  • Sacred Valley: Learn to play the zampoña at Laguna Piuray, where local musicians introduce one of the Andes’ most recognizable instruments. As you try the panpipe for yourself, the workshop offers a direct connection to the music and traditions still heard across the region.
  • Machu Picchu: Travel to Machu Picchu aboard IncaRail’s The Prime, where spacious seating, attentive service and premium finishes bring added comfort to one of Peru’s most memorable rail journeys. Along the way, enjoy an Andean-inspired tasting made with local ingredients and live music on board as the landscapes of the Sacred Valley begin to unfold.
  • Cusco: Visit Cusco’s planetarium to learn more on how the Incas interpreted the stars. After a reception with hot wine (or tea) and appetizers, Local Specialists will explain and share stories about the influence the stars had on Andean culture. You’ll then be led to a room specially accommodated to view the ancient night skies, weather permitting.
  • Cusco: Explore Cusco’s lively San Pedro Market with your Local Specialist, browsing stalls filled with colorful produce, regional grains and everyday ingredients used in Andean cooking. Select essential food items to donate to a local community, supporting families in need while gaining a more personal insight into daily life in Cusco.
  • Cusco: Visit Cusco’s magnificent Cathedral with your Local Specialist, built between 1560 and 1664 on the site of the Inca Wiracocha’s former palace. Admire its Renaissance facade, intricate colonial goldwork and celebrated religious art, including a distinctly Peruvian interpretation of ‘The Last Supper’ and the revered Lord of the Earthquakes statue.

Discover the honeycomb of the Maras Salt Mines where thousands of terraced pools shimmer pink and white under Andean light. Learn how a salty mountain spring has fed these ponds for centuries and still sustains traditional salt-harvesting families today.

Continue to the enigmatic Moray agricultural amphitheaters. Your Local Specialist explains how concentric terraces engineered distinct Inca microclimates, a living laboratory where altitude, sun and soil helped ancient agronomists adapt crops for the Sacred Valley.

Visit a traditional Quechua artisan for a private textile presentation beside serene Laguna Piuray. Hear how patterns encode community identity and why ancestral techniques continue to matter for livelihoods—an encounter that directly supports local makers and culture.

Share a Pachamanca earth-oven feast cooked with hot stones, accompanied by musicians. Afterwards, learn to play the zampoña, the Andean panpipe, discovering breath, rhythm and melody that still echo across highland festivals.

Climb the monumental terraces of the Ollantaytambo Fortress, reading a stony record of Inca strategy and ritual in the Sacred Valley. Your Local Specialist points out the precision of the masonry and the waters of the Princess Baths, where ceremonial ablutions once took place.

Step inside a neighborhood courtyard to visit a local home. Meet the family, see traditional kitchens and storerooms, and learn how Inca urban planning still shapes daily life in this living town.

Travel aboard IncaRail’s The Prime through the Sacred Valley with panoramic windows framing rushing rivers and cloud-forest peaks. Settle into comfortable seating as an Andean-inspired tasting and live music on board bring local flavor to the journey.

The route follows the Urubamba River past terraced hillsides and tiny hamlets, building anticipation as you approach Aguas Calientes—the gateway to the citadel high above the valley floor.

Enter Machu Picchu with a Local Specialist and trace the footsteps of Inca engineers through temples, terraces and ritual spaces suspended between ridge and sky. The setting—mist, orchids and steep granite—reveals why this sanctuary still feels otherworldly.

Uncover the astronomical precision of the solar observatory, the sweeping vistas from the Temple of the Three Windows and the ingenuity of ritual baths. Marvel at dry-stone walls that have shrugged off earthquakes and the citadel’s survival, unseen by conquistadors.

Walk the historic heart of Cusco with a Local Specialist, from arcades and fountains on the Plaza de Armas to the famed 12-Angled Stone along Hatun Rumiyoc Street—an elegant lesson in Inca stonecraft.

Continue to Qorikancha (Koricancha), once sheathed in gold as the Inca Temple of the Sun. Here, the precision of Inca walls meets the cloisters of Santo Domingo, revealing centuries of cultural layering in a single sacred space.

Join an after-hours planetarium visit to explore the southern sky through immersive dome projections. Warm up with hot wine or tea as specialists decode Inca constellations—from dark-cloud animals to guiding stars for planting and harvest.

Weather permitting, step outside for telescope observation of the Southern Cross and more. Stories of astronomy and agriculture illuminate how the cosmos still shapes Andean belief and timekeeping.

Survey Inca power and ceremony above the city at Sacsayhuaman’s zigzag walls, megaliths fitted like puzzle pieces across a hillside. The scale and precision hint at both military might and ritual importance.

Continue to Tambomachay, where spring-fed fountains honor water; Puka Pukara, the “red fort” guarding approaches to Cusco; and Qenqo, a carved limestone labyrinth linked to rites of passage. Together they frame an intimate portrait of empire, landscape and belief.

Cruise the Ballestas Islands by speedboat to a natural sanctuary teeming with life. Watch Humboldt penguins shuffle along lava arches as Peruvian boobies and sea lions crowd ledges and coves carved by Pacific swells.

As the bay opens, your skipper points to the Paracas Candelabra geoglyph etched into a sandy hillside—a mysterious coastal marker that sets the stage for the region’s blend of desert, ocean and ancient cultures.

Visit Hacienda La Caravedo in Ica, founded in 1684 and celebrated as the oldest continuously operating distillery in the Americas. Stroll vineyards and copper stills to learn the craft behind Peru’s iconic spirit, from grape selection to single-varietal and acholado styles.

Conclude with a guided pisco tasting, exploring aromas from floral to citrus. Hear about sustainability measures, including rooftop plantings that help offset CO2 emissions, linking tradition with forward-looking stewardship.

Explore the Ica Regional Museum, where desert preservation has safeguarded an intimate record of coastal civilizations. Exhibits showcase Paracas mummies and textiles alongside Nazca ceramics and everyday tools.

Curated galleries connect ritual, trade and environment across millennia, deepening understanding of how ingenuity—and scarcity—shaped life between ocean and dunes long before Inca expansion.

Walk the arcaded courtyards and baroque chapel of Hacienda San José, a 17th-century estate on Peru’s south coast. Architectural details and antique furnishings evoke the opulence and hierarchies of the colonial era.

Descend into the underground tunnels to confront the history of enslaved Africans on these lands. Narratives of resistance, music and identity illuminate enduring Afro-Peruvian heritage and invite reflection on the legacies of labor and land.

Meet your Travel Director and traveling companions over a convivial welcome dinner with drinks. Contemporary Peruvian flavors set the tone for a journey defined by Andean ingredients, coastal seafood and creative culinary heritage.

Guided introductions and local tips help orient you to the city’s neighborhoods and rhythms, shaping expectations for cultural encounters ahead during your time in Peru.

Explore San Pedro Market with a Local Specialist, weaving among stalls stacked with quinoa, native potatoes and fragrant herbs. Meet vendors and learn how Andean staples anchor daily cooking in the highlands.

Select essential food items to donate to a local community, gaining a personal window into household needs while contributing tangible support. This choice experience is included during your time in Cusco.

Visit Cusco Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas, admiring its Renaissance facade, gilded altars and masterful carving. Your Local Specialist highlights Cuzco School paintings, where European technique meets Andean symbolism—including the famous Last Supper with cuy.

Pause before the revered Lord of the Earthquakes statue, credited with protecting the city. This included choice experience deepens insight into how faith, art and identity intertwined in the colonial Andes.

Return to Machu Picchu for a fresh perspective on a different circuit, capturing new angles on temples, terraces and cloud-forest panoramas. Photographers and history-seekers alike value the quieter corners and shifting morning light.

This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour and subject to site regulations and availability. Your Travel Director can advise on timing and recommended routes.

Hike to Rainbow Mountain across windswept puna grasslands where alpacas graze beneath enormous skies. The summit reveals layered mineral colors—reds, ochres and greens—banding the slopes in striking natural stripes.

Expect a challenging walk at high elevation in the high-altitude Andes, with rewarding panoramas of glaciated peaks. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour; fitness and acclimatization are essential.

Join a hands-on bean-to-bar chocolate workshop at ChocoMuseo. Roast cacao, crack and winnow nibs, then grind and temper before molding your own flavored bars to take away.

Along the way, taste regional varieties and learn how cacao cultivation intersects with Andean and Amazonian lifeways. This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Explore Lima’s UNESCO-listed heart with a Local Specialist, pausing at the Cathedral of Lima, Government and Archbishop’s Palaces and the arcaded Plaza Mayor. Step across carved balconies and courtyards inside Casa Aliaga, a 16th-century mansion still held by the same family since the city’s founding.

Continue to Museo Larco, set in an 18th-century vice-royal mansion draped in bougainvillea. A guided visit reveals exquisite pre-Columbian goldwork, textiles and ceramics, adding vivid context to Peru’s ancient cultures and the beliefs that shaped life along the desert coast.

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