Machu Picchu Inca Adventure

Our first day on this epic adventure is dedicated to arrivals. You’ll be received at Cusco Airport and transferred in our private bus to our hotel in the historical city center. Your LHO Team Leader will be waiting at the hotel to receive you, check you in, and make sure you have everything you need for the week ahead. For those of us arriving early, we’ll have the opportunity to wander around the beautiful old town and explore its many restaurants, cafes, shops, and bars. Your LHO Team Leader will provide you with our recommendations closer to the time. Our first event is a traditional dinner hosted by your LHO Team Leader and local lead guide at a nearby restaurant. This is the first opportunity for us to all get to know each other, hear all the details about our upcoming adventure, and also ask any questions we may have. The first round of drinks is on us!

Our first adventure day together starts with a horse ride across the Devil’s Balcony, or Chakán in Quechua, meaning “bridge.” This picturesque location features a sizable rock offering a stunning panoramic vista. Beneath this majestic rock flows the Chakán River, from which the place derived its former Quechua name, “Chakán.”

After breakfast, we’ll hop into our private shuttle for a short drive to Gabriel’s Ranch. Here, we’ll select our horses and receive a detailed briefing on how to ride. Nothing too challenging for first-timers – you can ride alongside the leader who will guide your horse. We’ll then embark on a tour of the incredible Sacsayhuaman National Park, exploring its formations and beautiful trails.

On our way back, we’ll take our time to explore the Inca caves, a quarry temple, Sacsayhuaman fortress, and the Qenqo Archaeological Complex, where our local lead guide will provide insights into these incredible places. Afterward, we’ll jump back onto our shuttle for the short return to Cusco.

Lunch will be served at a selected local restaurant before we head out again to explore Cusco itself. As the former capital of the Incan empire, this city is filled with historical treasures and architectural wonders. Our first stop is Koricancha and the cathedral, where we’ll have the opportunity to be guided through the Inca Empire’s sacred temple and explore spiritual experiences felt in this deeply powerful place. We’ll have time to enjoy it individually without rushing. At the cathedral, we’ll be able to visit artwork from the Cusco School of Art that regularly exhibits there. We’ll also have some free time to roam around the market streets. Your LHO Team Leader will be on hand to make recommendations for cafes, shops, and market streets to visit.

The day concludes with our return to the hotel followed by dinner together. Your LHO Team Leader will let you know when and where the meeting point will be closer to the time.

After breakfast, we’ll hop on our shuttle once more. This time we’re heading to the “Cusipata River Lodge,” where we will be met by our professional river guides. After fitting into our rafting gear and receiving a detailed safety briefing, we’ll jump into our rafts for an epic ride that lasts for a couple of hours. Rafting down rapids looks overwhelming from afar, but there’s hardly an adventure sport out there that could be more fun!

We’ll all have the opportunity to participate as a team in paddling our raft over wild rapids, but we’ll also have the chance to relax on the calmer waters and take in the magical surroundings of this incredible place. Once we’ve reached the last accessible beach, we’ll exit the river and assist in pulling the raft out of the water.

A well-deserved lunch will be served at the Cusipata River Lodge, where we’ll have access to a sauna to unwind and relax. For the adrenaline junkies among us, a zip-line adventure over the Urubamba River with two 100-meter cables will be waiting for you. Most of us say no until one of us says yes. Then we all find ourselves zip-lining in the end! Once we’ve had our fix of saunas and zip-lines, we will return to our hotel where hot showers await. Your LHO Team Leader will let you know where and when dinner will be hosted at one of our selected restaurants.

Having soared in the air and rafted down the river, today is about riding across the mountains! We’ll be checking out of our hotel because we’ll be heading to the Machu Picchu region and spending the night there. Our luggage will be transported with us on the shuttle, but we can also leave items we won’t need at the hotel storage facilities.

After breakfast, we’ll hop into our shuttle for a ride to Moray, deep inside the Sacred Valley. We’ll begin our experience with a safety briefing. For those mountain biking for the first time, we’ll be made familiar with the different aspects of the bike as well as our safety gear. Our trail explores the beautiful regions of Moray and Moras, famous for ancient salt mines. We’ll have the opportunity to stop at the mines and explore them on foot. There are also Inca archaeological sites where we’ll take breaks to visit, explore, and hear more from our local lead guide about the significance of these places.

Our biking tour ends when we arrive in Maras where we’ll bid farewell to our biking guide and hop on our shuttle for a ride to Ollantaytambo. Lunch will be hosted at a selected restaurant on the way. Ollantaytambo, a heritage site that used to be the royal estate of the Inca Emperor Pachacuti in the Sacred Valley, is made up of a series of terraced ruins on top of a vibrant mountain town.

We’ll begin with a guided tour of the ruins before breaking off for some free time to enjoy the market and side streets filled with trinkets to buy and little coffee shops to explore. Your LHO Team Leader will set a meeting time for us to board our train to Aguas Calientes. The train ride takes about two hours with scenic views of river canyons and rolling hills.

Upon arrival, we’ll head to our hotel for the evening and enjoy some much-needed rest and dinner while we prepare for the next day’s visit to Machu Picchu.

We’ll get an early start to make the most of our time inside the Machu Picchu citadel. After breakfast, we’ll aim to catch the 6 AM bus that goes up the winding road to the entrance. From there, we’ll join the security line for bag and ticket checks. The tour inside the citadel takes around two hours, and we’ll have lots of photo opportunities throughout our stay.

Our local lead guide will explain in detail the different features of this incredible place and tell you all about its history from ancient times until its rediscovery. Feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

Once we’ve completed our tour, we will stop at a nearby restaurant just outside the gates of Machu Picchu before catching our bus back down to Aguas Calientes. Your LHO Team Leader will let you know what time our train ride back to Cusco will be. If we have free time, it will be possible to roam around the market streets, but make sure you aren’t late for the meeting point. Getting on the train at Aguas Calientes station is something of an experience in itself, and your LHO Team Leader will give you a small briefing on how it works so you won’t be caught off guard. The train ride takes about 2 hours.

Once we arrive in Cusco, we’ll jump on our private bus and be taken to our hotel in the city center. After check-in and showers, we’ll meet up for our dinner hosted by your LHO Team Leader and local lead guide. We’ll let you know where and when the meeting point will be closer to the time.

Distance: 8.2 KM – Ascent: 404 M – Descent 404 M

Our last adventure day is probably the most rewarding and demanding at the same time. It involves an ascent to the highest altitude of the trip at 5,020 meters. Of course, the bus will bring us as close as possible, and there is an option to use mules if any of us are not feeling up to it.

We’ll also benefit from being well acclimatized to high altitude after our week in the Cusco region. We’ll begin the day early at around 5:00 AM. Breakfast arrangements will be made with the hotel, either to provide packed breakfasts or an early breakfast on location. Your LHO Team Leader will let you know about the arrangements closer to the time.

The drive takes roughly three hours and passes through some of the wildest landscapes of the region. Our trailhead is Cusipata, a local settlement perched at 4,600 meters of elevation. Once we arrive, we’ll grab our backpacks and poles to begin our slow but sustained 400-meter trail to the Rainbow Mountain viewpoint. The trail can be a little bit muddy at times, especially if there is melting snow, but normally it should be dry and easy to walk on.

There are no steps like on the Inca Trail, and the path inclination is mild and gradual. That changes as we arrive at the pass between the two summits of the mountain, where the trail becomes somewhat steeper. Although it isn’t much steeper objectively, the high-altitude environment makes even the most marginal difference felt.

Your LHO Team Leader and local lead guide will be with you every step of the way to ensure your safety and help you find a pace at altitude that is sustainable. As we ascend, we’ll get to see wild alpacas and llamas against the backdrop of the majestic Ausangate Mountain. Depending on our pace, we may stop for a picnic lunch either just before or shortly after we reach the high point. Reaching Vinicunca usually takes around 3 hours and is well worth every step as the stunning Rainbow Mountain comes into full view, and the picture-taking begins! If weather is not a concern, we can really take our time here to enjoy the view, grab as many shots as we like, and just appreciate the achievement.

The return trek normally takes around 2 hours and follows the same trail down. When descending in altitude, it’s possible to go at whatever speed we like. Your LHO Team Leader or a member of the LHO Team will remain at the back to ensure that everyone is managing well. The reason why we don’t try to pace the descent is because we generally feel much better the lower we go, so it is for your own well-being that you should be able to descend at a pace that is comfortable for you without being held back. The descending trail is well defined, and our driver will be waiting at the parking just in case you’re the first person to reach.

Once we’ve all regrouped at the bus, we’ll make our way back to Cusco in time for our farewell dinner hosted by your LHO Team Leader and local lead guide. The last round of drinks is on us!

Our last day together is dedicated to airport transfers. Breakfast is included on this day. Your transfer to the airport will be arranged based on your flight times. Those of us with late departures can keep our luggage at the hotel and roam around Cusco. Please make sure to provide the correct flight itinerary when filling out your Team Details Form prior to the adventure start date. If your itinerary has changed, please inform your LHO Team Leader as early as possible for arrangements to be made in good time.