Cusco · Peru

How many days you need in Cusco

Itineraries built from the tours in our catalogue, ordered from lower to higher altitude so that acclimatisation works in your favour. They can be mixed: this is a starting point, not a sealed package.

3 days

The essentials

For travellers passing through Cusco as part of a longer trip around Peru.

Day 1
Cusco City Tour
In the afternoon. The morning goes on arriving and doing nothing, which is part of the plan.
Day 2
Sacred Valley of the Incas
The valley sits lower than Cusco and helps you acclimatise.
Day 3
Machu Picchu Full Day

Three days leaves no room for a high mountain: Rainbow Mountain and the glacial lakes are above 4,200 m and without acclimatisation they are miserable. Do not book your outbound flight for day 3 either — the tour gets back to Cusco around 21:30.

5 days

The classic

What most people choose. Machu Picchu without the pre-dawn start, plus one high mountain.

Day 1
Cusco City Tour
Day 2
Sacred Valley of the Incas
Days 3-4
Machu Picchu — 2 Days
Night in Aguas Calientes and entry to the citadel on the first slots.
Day 5
Rainbow Mountain — Vinicunca
Not before now: it is 5,036 m and it needs the preceding days of acclimatisation.

7 days

The whole region

To see the whole region without sleeping in a tent or walking several days in a row.

Day 1
Cusco City Tour
Day 2
Sacred Valley of the Incas
Day 3
Maras, Moray and the Salt Pans
Days 4-5
Machu Picchu — 2 Days
Day 6
Rainbow Mountain — Vinicunca
Day 7
Waqrapukara
Or the Seven Lakes of Ausangate, if you would rather have mountains than ruins.

If day 6 sounds like too much, Palccoyo reaches similar scenery with 45 minutes of walking instead of two hours.

Four rules that hold for any itinerary

Day one does not count

Cusco is at 3,400 m. The afternoon you land goes on breathing and walking slowly, and adding a full tour on top usually backfires. That is why every itinerary opens with half a day.

Altitude goes low to high

Sacred Valley before Rainbow Mountain, and Rainbow Mountain no earlier than day three. This is not a routing preference: it genuinely reduces the headaches and the broken sleep of the first nights.

Never fly out on the last tour day

Machu Picchu returns to Cusco around 21:30 and the train sets the timings on any multi-day route. A spare day between the end of the programme and your flight avoids the one problem that has no fix.

February changes the plan

It is the wettest month of the year. Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and the city run normally, but the high mountains are closed in the morning more often, so leave a spare day that lets a departure be moved.

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