Classic Lares Trek

We’ll pick you up from your hotel at 5:00 AM to start our fantastic adventure. As we travel towards the Sacred Valley of the Incas, you’ll be able to witness, so the city of Cusco waking from a night of heavy slumber. After an hour of driving, we’ll stop in Calca to visit the local market. There, you’ll get a great experience of Andean culture and will be able to buy some last-minute things: snacks, fruit, water, etc. We’ll continue our journey for two more hours till we arrive at the Lares hot springs where we’ll be spoiled with an energizing breakfast in full view of the towering mountains. After breakfast, we’ll take a dip in the warm waters of the hot springs. The recreational complex contains various pools of differing sizes and temperatures. The smallest are very hot. Be careful getting in! The local people say that the volcanic water of these pools hold medicinal value and helps in the treatment of bone and muscle illnesses. It also is meant to help with stress and headaches. After spending a few minutes in the water, we’ll get back in the car to go to Punta Carretera (3,300 MASL / 10,827 FASL). Here, we ll have a meeting with our trekking team who will accompany us on the excursion. The porters will transport your luggage on horses and will wait for you at each campsite. The only thing you’ll need to worry about is enjoying the trek! The Lares trail won’t disappoint. Soon, you 'll find yourself in front of the impressive Pacchayocc waterfall. It is the right gift of nature. From here, we’ll continue for about two more hours until we reach an area filled with lakes. There, we’ll enjoy a delicious lunch prepared by our chef.

After lunch, we’ll continue with our trek and arrive at the Willkikasa Pasa, the highest point on the trail for the day, (4,400 MASL / 14,435 FASL). Take it easy; altitude sickness is a serious thing! From here, it’ll be a quick hour and a half trek downhill to the campsite in Quiswarani.

In Quiswarani, you ll have enough time to explore the town and visit some of the houses there. You ll learn about the lifestyle and traditions of the people from this part of the world. We ll also be able to visit the school where boys and girls speak Quechua, their mother tongue. If you d like, you can bring toys, notebooks or other school supplies to share with them.

We ll enjoy hot drinks while the sky darkens and the stars begin to appear. Finally, we ll have dinner prepared in this same place. You ll be able to stargaze and then take refuge in your tent to rest.

Today, we ll wake up around 5:30 AM, being offered hot drinks. At this time, people from the town will already be taking their llamas and alpacas out to graze. Breakfast will be served as soon as we finish getting the luggage ready to go. We ll fill our water bottles and receive snacks to start the day strengthened for the trail. There will be 3-4 hours of ascent toward the highest point of the entire trek: the Pachacútec Pass (4,700 MASL / 15,419 FASL). We ll hike upward in a zigzag to lessen the strain due to the altitude. The landscapes of this place are surprising. You 'll see the beautiful lake of Palcoyo and the impressive Qanchispaccha waterfall. If you feel bad or too tired, don t worry, we 'll always have an emergency horse available. We ll find ourselves above the clouds once we get to the Pachacútec Pass. From there, the 360-degree view is truly astounding. In front of you, you ll see the majestic mountains of Pitusiray and Qolqe Cruz.

Take advantage of this point to take amazing photos because we ll soon start going downhill! We ll begin to a one-hour descent down the slope to a place where we ll enjoy our lunch. Recuperate your energy, and you 'll still need to walk three more hours! Our campsite is found in the town of Cancha Cancha (3,900 MASL / 12,795 FASL). Here, 85% of the houses are made with traditional techniques and materials: stone walls and thatched roofs. Since our support team will be in charge of setting up the tents, you 'll have time to spend with the local people. After that, your guide will take you to one of the community houses to learn about their lifestyle. You 'll be able to see guinea pigs being raised and learn about traditional, hand-made textiles made of alpaca and llama wool. In the afternoon, you 'll enjoy hot drinks and dinner.

Just like every morning, our trekking team will wake you up with a hot drink to start the day in the best way. Once you re prepared, you 'll begin to the last leg of the trek. We 'll walk 4 hours downhill along a gorgeous path where you 'll see herds of llamas and alpacas again. We 'll pass by fields of potatoes, fava beans, and other products. This is a fabulous opportunity to learn more about Andean agricultural techniques. We 'll start descending to a warmer area: the Sacred Valley. You 'll feel the changes between micro-climates and will see different crops than you saw in the higher altitude areas. The Sacred Valley cultivates corn, quinoa, kiwi, peaches, avocados, and other types of fruits. Of course, this area is full of history and Inca culture. We 'll finish the tour in a small town called Huarán (2,700 MASL / 8,858 FASL), where you 'll say goodbye to the trekking team and the horses. Here, you 'll enjoy a delicious, nutritional lunch.

In Huarán, transportation will be waiting for us to go through the Sacred Valley to the salt mines of the town of Maras. Here, at 3,380 MASL / 11,089 FASL, a salty spring of water flows and spills out over the slope of the mountain. You 'll be able to see 3,000 small evaporation chambers that have been used since pre-Inca times. This salt has curative properties due to the minerals it contains and which turn it a beautiful pink color. Local families possess every one of these chambers and support themselves by supplying salt to the towns in this zone. There s a small shop there where you can buy some of the pink salt if you re interested.

After visiting the salt mines, the van will take us 45 minutes away to Ollantaytambo, the last intact, living Inca town that exists. There, you 'll see water canals, as well as houses and walls more than five centuries old. Your guide will drive around so you can see more of this small city until dinner time in a local restaurant. We ll board the train at 7:00 PM for Aguas Calientes, the town found at the base of Machu Picchu. Remember that train schedules can vary depending on availability. When we arrive at Aguas Calientes, you 'll be registered at a hotel. Now relax and prepare yourself for the most astounding day of the whole trip.

Today we reach the finale of our trek, one of the New 7 Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site – Machu Picchu! We will wake up early after a refreshing night to enjoy the serenity of soft morning light as we hike for 2 hours from Wiñay Wayna to the Sun Gate or “Inti Punku.” Here, the Inca Trail officially ends. From this place, we will be able to look out onto the great beauty of the Inca citadel Machu Picchu! This is the same view the grand Inca would have seen as he traveled, like you, from Cusco to Machu Picchu. The Machu Picchu entrance checkpoint is open from 06:00 AM until 17:00 PM, so entrance to the site is extremely flexible and gives us lots of time to enjoy ourselves. After passing through the gate, we will walk downhill for about an hour and enter the hidden Royal Citadel of the Incas! Here, we will have a 2-hour guided tour through this incredible ancient city to visit temples, terraces, palaces, priest’s houses, the sundial, the industrial sector, and the agricultural sector. You will be amazed at the engineering ingenuity of the Incas, which was so far ahead of its time and still partially a mystery today! Without having modern tools or even steel and iron to work with, the people who built this city were genius in organizing their community in a sustainable and beautiful way on the side of a mountain. They even brought water in canals through the streets for their people to use! When a Peruvian guide showed this site to Hiram Bingham, it was almost unrecognizable, covered in thick vegetation, and in a state of disrepair. It has since been cleaned and restored to its former glory and is now protected and treasured by the world at large!

After this tour, feel free to climb up to Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain (Be sure to book these tickets in advance). Each mountain takes approximately 3 hours to hike up and down. Another, lower-impact option for which you do not need an extra ticket is to trek to the Sun Gate, the main entrance from the Inca Trail (this takes about 2 or 2.5 hours round-trip). Another option is walking to see the Incan Bridge. You will be able to stay and enjoy this magical city for more than 7 hours before hiking back down to Aguas Calientes to catch the train at 16:22 hrs (subject to availability) to Ollantaytambo. A private bus will pick up our group and drop you off at your hotel in Cusco at about 20:00 hrs. Rest your feet and your body now, because we can assure you your heart will still be soaring for weeks and years to come!