Guide XV
Sacred Valley of the Incas
- Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu (via Ollantaytambo) From Ollantaytambo the train is 90 minutes; from Cusco you add a 4am start and a two-hour drive. Real timetables, real fares, and which departure actually works with which Machu Picchu entry slot.
- Urubamba, Peru: The Sacred Valley Base Town Guide Urubamba is the least attractive town in the Sacred Valley and the most useful one to sleep in. Here is the honest case for basing here, with real colectivo fares, hotel prices by budget band and who should skip it.
- Sacred Valley vs Cusco: Where Should You Base Yourself? The valley floor really is 500-600 m lower than Cusco, but Chinchero and Moray are higher. Here is what that means for where you sleep, what you pay, and which order to do them in.
- How Many Days in the Sacred Valley? One day is a bus tour with 40 minutes at each site. Two days is the sweet spot. Here is the honest decision tree, with drive times, boleto maths and the altitude claim everyone gets wrong.
- Where to Stay in the Sacred Valley The towns in the Sacred Valley are 10 to 40 minutes apart and genuinely different. Pick the town first and the room second, or you will lose an hour to a taxi every day.
- Chinchero Guide Chinchero gets thirty minutes from most tour buses. It deserves an afternoon: a painted 1600s church standing on an Inca king's palace platform, huge terraces almost nobody walks down, and weaving cooperatives worth telling apart from the commission stops.
- Maras Salt Mines & Moray Guide Moray is on the Boleto Turístico. The Maras salt pans are not, and the gate takes cash only. What the two sites actually are, what you can no longer photograph, and how to get there without paying twice.
- Pisac Ruins & Market Guide There are two Pisacs — the market town and the enormous Inca city on the ridge above it — and most tours do them in the wrong order. Here is how to get the ruins, the Sunday market and the timing right.
- Ollantaytambo Guide Most people give Ollantaytambo ninety minutes and miss the two best things in it: the free hillside opposite, and the abandoned temple stones nobody points out.
- Sacred Valley Tour: Itinerary & Highlights The classic full-day coach tour is a rushed day built around a commission buffet. Here are the three real ways to do the Sacred Valley, what the Boleto Turistico actually covers, and why running the route backwards changes everything.
- Sacred Valley of the Incas, Peru: The Complete Guide (2026) A complete guide to the Sacred Valley, Peru: Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Maras and Moray, how many days you need, where to stay, and how to visit from Cusco and reach Machu Picchu.