1 Day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

About this tour

The guide will pick you up at the hotel at 4:00 AM in Cusco for the journey with our private transport to the train station in Ollantaytambo. (If you prefer to begin in Ollantaytambo, we will pick you up at the hotel at 5:30 AM).

Before boarding the train in Ollantaytambo, the guide will provide you with a box lunch, which you will carry in your daypack. After an hour and 15 minutes train ride, get off the train at the famous Km104, where your hike begins (2,000 m / 6,560 ft above sea level). After crossing the Urubamba River on a picturesque footbridge, you will show your passport at the checkpoint and visit the first Inca site nearby.

The first hour and a half is a gentle hike upward. Along the way, you will stop at several outlooks where you have an expansive view of the Urubamba River. You also pass through several microclimates, including cloud forests, so be ready for damp or even rain at any time of the year. The next hour and a half are slightly steeper, with a beautiful waterfall as your reward at the end!

When you cross the bridge below the waterfall, be sure to take some time for photos. You will find yourself gazing up at the spectacular Wiñay Wayna! (2,600 m / 8,500 ft above sea level). These amazing Inca ruins have a fascinating history, and some parts are still hidden by the dense jungle.

After lunch, have a mostly flat walk to the Sun Gate. Though the hour-long walk is a gentle up and down path, it does end with a set of steep stairs carved directly into the bedrock by the Inca, known as the Gringo Killers. Once you reach the stairs, you will know that you’re almost at the Sun Gate!

Once you reach Machu Picchu, you will have time to take more photos from the viewing platforms above the site, the “House of the Guardians,” where you can take the famous postcard pictures of Machu Picchu.

In the evening at 6:20 PM, you will take the return Expedition Train to Ollantaytambo and catch our private van to Cusco and your hotel. You will arrive around 10:00 PM. If you upgrade to the Vistadome Train, you will depart Aguas Calientes at 6:10 PM.