The focus is on making the most of the trekking experience and staying in moderately priced accommodation throughout your journey. We have chosen the famous Inca Trail, and the lodge to lodge trek in Ausangate. This combination provides variety: the Inca Trail covers cloud forest and Ausangate is a high altitude trek. The Inca Trail is an archaeological and scenic trek and the Ausangate, while also scenic, is focused on the local communities and weavers. Also, there is the fact that one is a camping based trek while the other is a lodge based trek. By combining both treks you will experience the best of the Peruvian Andes.

Good time to travel: March - December. Absolute best time: March - June

Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

Arrival in Lima from your international flight. You will be met by our English-speaking representative and transferred to the Roosevelt Hotel. Overnight at the Hotel Roosevelt.

You will be collected from the hotel and driven to the airport to take your flight to Cuzco (3400m/11,220 ft). Arrival at Cuzco airport, where you will be met by the Maria del Carmen Vargas, Aracari representative, as well as by your guide. After a short briefing by Mari Carmen you will continue on with your guide for a visit of Pisac Ruins (1 hour away), our favourite site in the Urubamba Valley with stunning terracing hugging the contours of the hills. After this visit, enjoy lunch at a local restaurant and continue towards the Hacienda Marcabamba . Rest of the afternoon at leisure to acclimatize to altitude.
Overnight at Hacienda Marcabamba.

Begin the day with a visit to the fabulous ruins of Ollantaytambo, and its town. The latter is unique in that it still preserves its original Inca architectural layout. Stop for lunch at a local restaurant. In the afternoon you will have the choice of either visiting the colonial village of Chinchero or the Inca site of Moray and the salt pans of Maras. This day is meant to provide lots of walking and acclimatization opportunities.
Overnight at Hacienda Marcabamba.

You will be collected from your hotel and driven 1 ½ hours until you reach your trail head, at Km 82 of the railway line to Machu Picchu. You will meet your porters and begin your trek following the left bank of the Urubamba River. After a couple of hours of gentle hiking you reach and visit the Inca ruins of Llactapata (2,600m/8,580ft). You continue hiking, this time away from the Urubamba River ascending and following the Cusichaca River towards the village of Huayllabamba, a small agricultural settlement, where you will have a picnic lunch. Total trek today: 6 hours (12 km). Please note this is a fully outfitted trek at the highest standard. You will only carry your camera and water bottle. Food is plentiful and made from fresh ingredients. Cooked breakfast and dinner, picnic lunch and morning and afternoon snacks with hot beverages.

After a relaxed breakfast and enjoying the beauty of your campsite, you will register at the Machu Picchu Sanctuary control station to continue on a tough ascending trail with increasingly fantastic views and a clear change of vegetation as you gain altitude. You will pass through an interesting protected cloud forest of native trees before reaching your lunch spot at Llullucchapampa. Continue the tough ascent toward the highest pass of the trail, called “Warmiwañusta” or Dead Woman’s Pass (4200m/13,360ft). Spectacular views lead your way in the afternoon as you descend to your campsite at Pacaymayo. Total trek today: 7 hours (17 km).
Overnight in tents.

Day 6
Pacaymayo (3,600m/11,880ft) – Phuyupatamarca (3,500m/11,550ft)

After breakfast you will start your walk and soon encounter the original cobblestone paved trail left by the Incas. You will be able to appreciate the sudden changes in vegetation and geology as you pass through different ecological zones. Today is a long but very interesting and rewarding day, since you will be encountering both original Inca cobblestone trail as well as magnificent archaeological sites on the way. You will climb up and over the second pass, the Abra de Runrurcakay, (3,950m/13,035ft). Masterful Inca engineering is visible along the trail and the Inca remains of Sayacmarca at 3,640m/13,035ft are a true highlight. Explore the site, have a picnic lunch and continue to the incomparable campsite of Phuyupatamarca, (“the place above the clouds”) at 3,680m/12,144ft. Total trek today: 8 hours (22km).
Overnight in tents.

Sunrise in Phuyupatamarca is considered one of the highlights of the trek. Today you will reach Machu Picchu after approximately 6 hours or 8 km/5mi walk. The highlights today are the beautiful cloudforest scenery, and the visit of the remarkable Inca site of Winay Wayna, ('forever Young" ) and of course the descent toward Machu Picchu, which you will view for the first time from Inti Punku ("Sun Gate) approximately two hours prior to your arrival at the site (at approximately lunch time). Machu Picchu's location is spectacular. It is nestled in the Andean cloud forest on a high ridge straddling between two mountains, with the Urubamba River curling like a snake below it. The site itself is also spectacular, with some of the finest and more complex Inca architecture known. After a brief visit to the site with your guide, you will have the luxury of staying at the beautiful Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, located in Aguas Calientes, 30 minutes away from Machu Picchu by bus.

Enjoy Machu Picchu almost all to yourself, as you will be able to access the site as soon as it opens, and watch the morning unfold. Machu Picchu at this time is pure magic. Perhaps you will choose to hike the Huayna Picchu where you can have fabulous views of Machu Picchu from the top. Afternoon return by Vistadome Train from Machu Picchu to Cuzco, journey time is approximately 3.45 hours. At the train station you will be collected and driven to the Boutique Hotel Casa San Blas where you will overnight.

Enjoy a full day of rest and relaxation in Cuzco. You’ll need to regain your energy for your next trek!
Overnight Boutique Hotel Casa San Blas Quarter Cuzco.

Morning departure from Cuzco on an interesting bus-ride along the Vilcanota Valley, starting on the paved main-road from Cusco to Puno (Lake Titicaca). After a stop at the town of Checacupe and a visit to its beautiful colonial church, you ascend the Japura Valley that leads to the communities of Osefina and Chillca, the final stop of the bus-journey, where you are received by the local people. From here it's only a 20 minutes walk to the first lodge, the Chillca Tambo (4300 m /13,200 ft). Upon arriving you can explore the surroundings or to simply relax.
Overnight at Chillca Tambo.

Walk about five hours, seeing thousands of alpacas and llamas inhabit the glacier valley of Phinaya. Climb by the Pjachaj waterfalls. Right above the waterfalls our cooks and assistants will prepare a picnic lunch. Eat surrounded by moraine walls, glaciers and lagoons. Hike along the glacier moraine until you reach the next lodge (or “tambo”).
Overnight at Machuraccay Tambo.

After a great hike to the highest point in the journey, Palomachayoc pass, (16,590 ft) above the Ausangate Cocha Lake, immerse yourself in the red sandstone sediment formations, heavily eroded by ice. Andean Condors and vicunas can be observed in this area.
Overnight at Anantapata Tambo.

The massive glacier del Inca; the most striking colors in the sediments of Yauricunca; and hundreds of Andean geese nesting in the cliffs of Anta are all part of the extraordinary landscape on our the way to the next lodge. Once at the lodge we’ll have the opportunity to share in a textile art class given by the expert weavers of the local Osafina community.
Overnight at Huampococha Tambo.

On our last day we hike over the final pass following a trading route of the llama and alpaca herders, towards the lower Quechua valleys. Approach more populated areas and after lunch we drive back to Cuzco to enjoy one last night in this charming city. Evening at leisure.

Transfer to the airport to catch your flight to Lima. Connect to your international flight home.