Visit the Cusco Planetarium after hours to explore the southern sky through dome projections, stories of Inca constellations and explanations of Andean astronomy. A reception with a warming drink and appetizers adds to the evening’s atmosphere.

Learn how people in the Andes interpreted patterns in the stars and the dark spaces between them. Observe the night sky through telescopes when conditions allow, connecting those cultural stories to the sky above Cusco.

• 9 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Dinner (D)
• 4 Lunch (L)

• Experience enhanced hygiene protocols to align with the latest guidance following COVID-19.All Travel Directors, Well-Being Directors and Drivers have completed training in enhanced well-being and hygiene protocols.
• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

• 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 Experts 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.

Insight Vacations

• 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

Meet your Travel Director and fellow small-group travellers over dinner and drinks in Lima. The hosted gathering offers a relaxed introduction to the people sharing your journey through Peru.

Conversation turns to the capital’s food culture and the Andean places ahead, while a shared table gives everyone a chance to settle into the group. It is an informal start rather than a formal sightseeing event.

Explore Lima’s historic centre with a Local Expert, taking in the Cathedral of Lima, Government Palace, Archbishop’s Palace and City Hall around its monumental central square. Visit Casa Aliaga, a colonial mansion associated with the same family for 17 generations.

The surrounding streets reveal why Lima became the seat of Spanish power in South America. At Casa Aliaga, the continuity of a family home adds a more personal perspective to the capital’s colonial heritage.

Discover Museo Larco with a Local Expert in Lima’s Pueblo Libre district. Explore its collection of pre-Columbian objects for a closer look at the artistry, beliefs and everyday life of Peru’s ancient cultures.

Enjoy lunch in the museum’s garden, amid the grounds of an 18th-century vice-regal mansion. Bougainvillea and shaded terraces give the meal a distinctive setting, while the guided visit places the objects on display within a wider story of civilisation before the Spanish conquest.

Visit the Maras salt pans with a Local Expert in Peru’s Sacred Valley. See thousands of small, terraced pools descending across a hillside and learn how salt-rich spring water is channelled into them for evaporation.

Salt harvesting here follows a long Andean tradition that remains part of local livelihoods. The pale pools stand out against the earthen slopes, making this both a working landscape and a vivid example of knowledge passed between generations.

Explore the circular terraces of Moray, an Inca site on a high plateau near the Sacred Valley. Look down into its deep, concentric depressions and consider how their differing conditions may have helped people study crops and growing environments.

Moray makes Inca agricultural ingenuity visible in the landscape. Its carefully shaped terraces offer a perspective on how Andean communities adapted cultivation to varied elevations and climates, rather than treating the mountains as a barrier.

Meet a local Quechua weaver near Laguna Piuray for a private textile presentation. Watch traditional techniques and learn how woven patterns, colours and methods carry meaning within Andean communities.

Discover a living cultural practice rather than a craft confined to a museum. The encounter connects the finished textiles to the skill of their maker and to the identities they express; the operator identifies the visit as an experience supporting local people.

Share a traditional pachamanca lunch at Laguna Piuray, where food is cooked in the earth using heated stones. Local musicians bring the sounds of the Andes to the gathering beside the lagoon.

Try playing the zampoña, the Andean panpipe, with guidance from the musicians. Preparing food in the ground and making music together turn this meal into a hands-on introduction to regional traditions, set against the highland scenery near the Sacred Valley.

Explore Ollantaytambo’s Inca ruins with a Local Expert, examining the monumental stonework and stepped terraces above a town that retains much of its historic street plan. The site conveys the scale and precision of Inca building in the Sacred Valley.

Visit a family in the old town for a glimpse of daily life within this enduring settlement. Together, the archaeological site and the home visit connect Ollantaytambo’s celebrated past with the community living among its stone streets today.

Travel aboard IncaRail’s The Prime toward Machu Picchu Pueblo, with an Andean-inspired tasting and live music included on board. Settle into the train’s comfortable surroundings as the route follows the changing scenery of the Sacred Valley.

The tasting draws on local ingredients, while the music gives this rail journey a cultural dimension beyond the journey itself. Views of mountains and river valleys provide a memorable introduction to the landscape surrounding Machu Picchu.

Explore Machu Picchu with a Local Expert in a small group, walking among the terraces and finely fitted stone structures of this 15th-century Inca citadel. Learn about its engineering, ceremonial spaces and dramatic position high in the Andes.

Look for features such as the Temple of the Three Windows and the site’s astronomical alignments while considering how the surrounding mountains shaped its meaning. The visit places one of Peru’s best-known landmarks within its cultural and natural setting.

Walk through Cusco with a Local Expert, exploring its historic centre, Plaza Mayor and the celebrated 12-Angled Stone. Visit Qorikancha, once among the Inca Empire’s most important sacred sites.

In Cusco, precisely cut Inca walls sit alongside colonial buildings, making layers of the city’s history visible at street level. The walk offers a grounded introduction to the former imperial capital and to the architectural traditions that shaped it.

Visit Tambomachay, Puka Pukara and Qenqo in the hills above Cusco, encountering stonework and spaces associated with the Inca capital. Continue to Sacsayhuaman, where immense interlocking blocks form zigzag walls overlooking the city.

Seen together, the sites show different ways the Incas shaped the landscape around Cusco. Their varied settings invite a closer look at construction, ceremony and the relationship between the imperial centre and its surrounding hills.

Explore Cusco’s San Pedro Market with a Local Expert as your included Insight Choice activity. Browse stalls of colourful produce, regional grains and ingredients used in everyday Andean cooking.

Select essential food items for donation to a local community, adding a practical purpose to the market visit. The experience offers a closer view of daily life in Cusco through its food traditions and the conversations surrounding a busy neighbourhood market. This is an alternative to the included Cusco Cathedral visit.

Step inside Cusco Cathedral with a Local Expert as your included Insight Choice activity. On Plaza de Armas, examine its gilded altars, carved woodwork and religious paintings, including works associated with the distinctive Cusco School.

Built between 1560 and 1664 on the site of an Inca palace, the cathedral reflects the meeting of colonial and Andean traditions. Look for a distinctly Peruvian interpretation of The Last Supper. This visit is an alternative to the included San Pedro Market experience.

Gather for a Celebration Dinner at Inka Grill in Cusco with your fellow small-group travellers. The hosted meal brings everyone together around dishes that reflect Peru’s varied culinary traditions.

Flavours may range from ceviche palteado to quinotto and ají de gallina, offering a final shared taste of the country explored on tour. Conversation and familiar faces make this a distinct group occasion, rather than a routine dinner stop.

Visit ChocoMuseo in Cusco to learn about cacao and the chocolate-making process. This optional experience offers a food-focused alternative to exploring the city independently.

Discover how cacao becomes chocolate and gain a closer appreciation of an ingredient with deep roots in the Americas. Available at additional cost and bookable on tour, the experience suits travellers interested in the making and flavours behind a familiar treat.

Explore the high-altitude landscape of Rainbow Mountain on an optional excursion from Cusco. See the mineral-coloured slopes that have made this part of the Andes a distinctive destination for landscape photography.

The exposed bands of colour contrast with the surrounding mountain terrain, offering a very different view of Peru from its cities and archaeological sites. Available at additional cost and bookable on tour, this excursion takes place at significant altitude; ask your Travel Director about the physical demands before booking.