Machu Picchu Travel Experts

OVERVIEW

Insider Access
Our team travels year-round, seeking out the most intriguing insider access experiences, and developing invaluable
Relationships with esteemed scholars, acclaimed artists, Olympic athletes, renowned chefs, and others, as well as with local leaders in politics and business. We can match families with spacious private estates handpicked to provide the perfect mixture of authenticity, luxury, and privacy.

Service
Each travel group is assigned a dedicated team composed of (1) a personal travel concierge in our offices, (2) a
Personal host in each destination, (3) on-site expert guides and scholars. In addition, a “behind the scenes” logistical expert is staffed on each trip in order to monitor every step of the journey. We serve our travelers before, during and after their journey, and are on call 24-hours a day during a trip. This level of coordination ensures that our travelers have a worry-free experience, and the flexibility to change the program while they are traveling if need be.

Duration: 05 days
Arrival: July 1st 2019
Departure: July 5th 2019
Destinations: Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu.
Travel Type: Family
Travel Intensity: Moderate

1 July 1st Arrival to Lima and Flight to Cusco, airport assistance and transfer to the hotel. Afternoon tour to Cusco Cathedral and Qoricancha temple.
2 July 2nd Transfer to misminay community, special weaving and agriculture demonstration,visit Moray terraces, lunch, Maras salt mines, transfer to Sacred Valley and Transfer to Cusco.
3 July 3rd Transfer to Ollantaytambo trains station, train service to Km 104 Inca Trail to Machu Picchu Box Lunch and transfer to the hotel in Machu Picchu town- In Cusco transportation to the airport.
4 July 4th Morning hike to Machu Picchu mountain and private guided tour to Machu Picchu, lunch and transfer to the Machu Picchu trains station, train service to Sacred Valley and transfer to Cusco city.- Cusco - Transfer out from the hotel to the Cusco airport.
5 July 5th Transfer to the Cusco airport.

July 01st 2019 Arrival to Lima and Flight to Cusco, airport assistance and transfer to the hotel. Afternoon tour to Cusco Cathedral and Qoricancha temple.

Welcome to Peru, Arrival into Lima. After clearing the secure area of the airport, you will check in at the national departure counter to take your flight to Cusco.

LA2023              01 JUL  LIM / CUZ  0813  0940

Upon your arrival to Cusco, you will be assisted by our representative, who will introduce you to your private guide to then start your adventure in Cusco, move to the hotel to check in, relax a bit and drink a coca tea, you will have time to have lunch (we recommend something light) At the time agreed with the guide, pick up from the hotel lobby. Today, you will visit the cathedral of Cusco and the Qoricancha temple.

Bordering Cusco’s main plaza (the Plaza de Armas) and built on the site of the palace of the Inca Viracocha, the Cathedral possesses some 400 canvasses of the distinguished Escuela Cusqueña and amazing woodcarvings with a clear display of Andean influence.

Later you will enjoy the visit to the Qoricancha temple, shows the chronological evolution of civilization in Cusco. Shows fragments and Inca period pottery and samples of metallurgy, textiles, painting, sculpture, musical instruments, etc.. It also presents a model of what might have been the Qoricancha. It also notes replicas of the objects found in excavations at the site, samples of pottery, lithic pieces of pre-Inca and Inca periods. It has five rooms didactically explaining the history of our ancestors.

At 07.30 pm, you will have a welcome dinner at Calle del Medio restaurant. ( DINNER INCLUDED)

Overnight at Casa Andina Catedral.

July 02 nd 2019 Transfer to misminay community, special weaving and agriculture demonstration,visit Moray terraces, lunch, Maras salt mines, transfer to Sacred Valley and Transfer to Cusco.

You will be greeted by your personal guide and your host,  you will take the route to the Sacred Valley, the first visit will be to the house of Flora in Misminay community.

The whoile town have organized talented local women into a weaving cooperative, helping them to support their families while dedicating themselves to their culture’s weaving patterns. The women will demonstrate the art of weaving with traditional back strap looms, and you will be able to browse their creations if you care to buy, or donate to the community. 

To continue you will arrive to Moray terraces where you will enjoy a private guided tour.

Moray is famous for its amphitheatre-type ruins formed by circular terraces. The purpose of these depressions is uncertain, but their depth, design, and orientation with respect to wind and sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 15 °C (27 °F) between the top and the bottom. It is possible that this large temperature difference was used by the Inca to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops. Speculation about the site has led to discussion about Moray as an Inca agricultural experiment station. Its microclimatic conditions and other significant characteristics led to the use of the site as a center for the ancient study of domestication, acclimatization, and hybridization of wild vegetable species that were modified or adapted for human consumption.

Private transfer  to Maras to the house of a local chef, and enjoy a espectacular lunch with a breathtaking views of the andes.

After lunch, you will be transfer to Maras salt mines.

The Maras salt terraces display a spectacle of unusual beauty. Located on a wide, open hill above the Urubamba Valley, the salt water runs along channels which extend through the flooded lands and follow a more or less rectangular pattern, depending on the variations in the land. The water, which is exposed to the sun, leaves salt on the bed. Viewed from above, the myriad of rectangles look like an enormous painting designed by nature.

The salt mines traditionally have been available to any person from the community wishing to harvest salt. The size of the salt pond assigned to a family depends on the family’s size.

Transfer to the Hotel in Sacred Valley.

Overnight at Casa Andina Premium Sacred Valley

 

 

Mr and Mrs. Bitterman will return to Cusco city in a private transfer to the hotel.

Overnight at Casa Andina Catedral.

July 03rd 2019 Transfer to the Ollantaytambo trains station, trains service to Machu Picchu, lunch and afternoon private tour to Machu PIcchu.

After breakfast you will have a private transfer to Ollantaytambo trains station to board the train to Machu Picchu.
Train departs from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu).
Board the Vistadome train to Machu Picchu with your private guide. You will be let off the train at kilometer 104 to hike the last poron of the Inca Trail (approximately 5 – 6 hour hike). Your hand luggage will go directly to your lodge and porters will be available to assist with personal items, backpacks, food and water on the hike. Picnic lunch will be provided during the hike.

About an hour and half before reaching Aguas Calientes, you will disembark the train at unmarked stop to cross the river and pass through the entrance of the KM 104 trail where you will be met by an Incan ceremonial complex. The km 104 marker is at the Chachabamba Inca Trail, an archeological zone. The hike will cover the final portion of the famous Inca trail and will offer an excellent sample of the trail system, called Qhapaq Ñan (Royal Trail) that once connected the whole Incan Empire. The hike is approximately 11km and lasts about 5 – 6 hours, with medium intensity, and crosses beautiful landscapes, primary forests and impacting archaeological complexes such as the Chachabamba ruins, an important Incan religious center, and Wiñay-Wayna (Forever Young, in Quechua), with its numerous Incan crop benched terraces, houses and ceremonial baths.

During the initial 3 hr ascent to the cloud forest you will notice as the vegetation changes from arid to tropical. Please note that some parts of this initial section of the trail are narrow and exposed. The trail ends at Inti Punku (the Gate of the Sun) which was the original entrance and access checkpoint to the Sacred City of Machu Picchu in Incan times.

Machu Picchu was never revealed to the conquering Spaniards and was virtually forgotten until the early part of the 20 th century when a young American historian Hiram Bingham discovered this lost city in 1911.

Late Afternoon : Check-in on your hotel.

Overnight at Casa Andina Aguas Calientes.

 

For Mr. and Mrs. Bitterman in Cusco.

10:15 am Private Transfer to Cusco airport to take your flight to Lima.

LA2048              03 JUL  CUZ / LIM   1230  1402

July 04th 2019 Morning private guided tour to Machu Picchu, transfer to the train station, train service to Rio Sagrado train station.

After breakfast you will have a private guided tour to Machu Picchu.

It was built by the Inca Pachacutec in the 15 th Century and is perched between two peaks offering incredible views of the Urubamba river valley and the snow-capped mountains in the distance. The architecture is adapted to the natural form of the mountains. Approximately 200 buildings are arranged on wide parallel terraces around a vast central square that is oriented east-west. The temples are part of the upper town, the warehouses the lower. Extensive terraces were used for agriculture and sophisticated channeling systems provided irrigation for the fields. Numerous stone stairways set in the walls allowed access to the different levels across the site. The eastern section of the city was said to be residential. The western, separated by the square, was for religious and ceremonial purposes.

You will take a shuttle bus to the Machu Picchu town to board the train to Ollantaytambo trains station, before boarding the train you willl have lunch at the Chullpi restaurant.

Upon your arrival to Ollantaytambo, your private host and transportation will be waiting for you to transfer you to your hotel in Cusco.

Overnight at Casa Andina Catedral.

July 05th 2019 Morning transfr to Cusco airport .

06:15 am After breakfast you will be transfer to the airport to take your flight to Lima.

LA2052              05 JUL  CUZ / LIM   0813  0945