Quick answer
Of our luxury Peru tours, this is the guided route from Lima through the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu to Cusco. It includes four 5-star hotels, two entries to Machu Picchu and return flights from the UK. Prices are on request: we quote for your dates. ATOL 10713 protected.
The route runs in one direction, so you never double back: Lima first, then the Sacred Valley at Urubamba, Aguas Calientes below Machu Picchu, and Cusco last, before flying home via Lima.
Five days include guided sightseeing. Most outings take a morning, and the Pisac and Ollantaytambo day is the longest. Guides are licensed and English-speaking. The rest of the time is travel and free time, so you are not on a coach schedule from dawn to dusk.
It is a fixed route rather than a build-your-own trip, which keeps the Machu Picchu tickets, trains and hotels lined up. The departure date is yours.
Why You'll Love It
Included
Not included
Day by Day
You land at Jorge Chávez International Airport after the overnight connection and are met by our representative. A private driver takes you to Hotel B in Barranco, the old seaside district south of the centre. The rest of the day is free. The cliff-top walk above the Pacific and the galleries around the hotel are close enough to wander without planning.
A private guide takes you through Lima’s UNESCO-listed centre: Plaza Mayor, the Government Palace and the cathedral. In the afternoon you return to Barranco for its street art and the Bridge of Sighs, the old wooden footbridge over the ravine. The evening is free, and Lima’s restaurants are the main reason to stay out.
After breakfast you take the short flight to Cusco. Your driver is waiting, and rather than stopping in the city you head down into the Sacred Valley to Sol y Luna, outside Urubamba. The road drops through farmland and adobe villages, and the afternoon is free at the hotel.
A guided morning on the high plateau above the valley. Moray is a set of circular Inca terraces, probably used to test crops at different temperatures. A short drive on, the Maras salt pans step down the hillside in thousands of small pools, still worked by local families. Back at the hotel by mid-afternoon.
A full day with your guide. Pisac’s market sells textiles and pottery, and the morning is the best time to browse before the tour groups arrive. Later you reach Ollantaytambo, a town that still follows its Inca street plan, and climb the stone terraces of the fortress above it for the view back down the valley.
An early transfer to the station for the Vistadome train, which follows the Urubamba river down to Aguas Calientes through a steep forested gorge. The windows run up into the roof. A bus climbs the switchback road to the site, and your guide takes you round. You then check in to Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo.
Back up to the site on your own, at your own timed slot and with no guide setting the pace. Find a quiet terrace, or simply look again at what you saw yesterday with fresh legs. The afternoon is free at the hotel, and the town is small enough to walk end to end.
A free morning in Aguas Calientes, then the Vistadome back up the valley to Ollantaytambo. Your driver meets the train for the drive up to Cusco. You check in to Palacio del Inka, and the evening is yours.
A guided walking tour of the old Inca capital. You start on the Plaza de Armas and visit the cathedral, then the Koricancha, where a Spanish convent was built on top of the Inca Temple of the Sun. The walk finishes uphill in San Blas, the artisans’ quarter of narrow lanes and workshops.
No plans. Cusco has enough to fill it: the San Pedro market, the Pre-Columbian Art Museum, or a long lunch overlooking the plaza. Or do very little, which is no bad idea before the long journey home.
After breakfast your driver takes you to Cusco airport for the flight to Lima, where you connect to your flight back to the UK. With the connection and time difference, you land in the UK the following day.
Where You'll Stay
5-star hotel
A restored Belle Époque mansion a short walk from the cliff-top promenade over the Pacific. The house is hung with contemporary Peruvian art, and there is a library bar for an evening drink. It is a small hotel, with the feel of a private house rather than a city-centre tower, which makes it a quiet first stop after the long flight in.
5-star hotel
A Relais & Châteaux hotel outside Urubamba, in the middle of the Sacred Valley. Rooms are individual casitas set in landscaped gardens, each decorated with Peruvian folk art, so you have your own front door rather than a corridor. There is a spa, and the hotel puts on equestrian shows. It also funds social projects in the surrounding community.
5-star hotel
Adobe casitas spread over 12 acres of cloud forest on the edge of Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu. Inkaterra has recorded 372 native orchid species in the grounds, and over 200 bird species have been seen there. There is a spa for tired legs after the site, and the station is a short walk away.
5-star hotel
A Luxury Collection hotel in a centuries-old mansion directly opposite the Koricancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun, a few minutes' walk from the Plaza de Armas. Colonial courtyards sit on original Inca stonework, and there is a spa. Being this central means you can walk everywhere in the old city without a taxi.
| ✈ Flights | Return flights from UK included |
| 🧳 Baggage | 23kg checked baggage |
| 🏛 Hotel | 11 nights accommodation |
| 🚌 Transfers | Private airport transfers |
| ✈ Airport Taxes | All airport taxes included |
| 💳 Deposit | 30% per person to secure booking |
Cusco airport sits at 3,399m, and the FCDO calls altitude sickness a serious risk there. So you don't sleep in the city when you land. Your driver takes you straight down to Urubamba, in the Sacred Valley, at 2,870m.
Then you drop again, to about 2,000m at Aguas Calientes. Machu Picchu itself is 2,430m. Cusco comes last, once your body has had several nights lower down. Some itineraries do it the other way round and start in Cusco. This order is gentler.
Walk slowly on the first afternoon, drink plenty of water and keep alcohol light. Anyone with a heart or lung condition should read the TravelHealthPro advice for Peru and speak to their GP before booking.
Since June 2024, every Machu Picchu ticket has been for a set date, an hourly entry slot and one of ten routes, grouped into three circuits. Panoramic routes take the upper terraces and, in high season, the Sun Gate. Classic routes go through the heart of the citadel. Royalty routes include Huayna Picchu.
You must stay on your route, and the name and date on a ticket cannot be changed. That is the reason for the unguided return visit: on a different route, you see a different part of the site. Ask us which routes are open for your dates.
Daily visitors are capped at 4,500, or 5,600 on peak dates, which in 2026 run from 19 June to 2 November. Tickets are sold only through Peru's Ministry of Culture.
The Andes are dry from May to September, with sunny days, near-freezing Cusco nights and Machu Picchu at its busiest. The rains run from November to March, although the FCDO's advice puts the end of the rainy season in May.
Prices are currently loaded for October to December 2026, the run-up to the wet season: greener hills, quieter terraces, more showers as the weeks go on. The FCDO also expects El Niño to bring heavy rain, flooding and landslides from late 2026 to April 2027. Rockslides and protests can occasionally stop the trains to Aguas Calientes, so check that your insurance covers disruption.
Lima runs the other way: grey and cool, around 12–18°C, from about June to October, and clear from December. For 2027 dry-season dates, ask us. If Peru is one of several long-haul options, our guide to exotic holidays from the UK compares the seasons.
Flights leave from Heathrow or Gatwick. Most routings to Lima connect once, in Europe or North America, and take around 17 to 18 hours from London. Direct services from London have come and gone in recent years, so we quote whatever is flying on your dates.
Peru does not change its clocks, so Lima is five hours behind the UK in winter and six in summer. Starting in Lima, at sea level, lets you get over the jet lag before the altitude.
It suits a first visit to Peru. You get Machu Picchu done properly and Cusco without a rush, with a driver waiting at every stop.
It is the wrong trip if you want to trek the Inca Trail, or if the rainforest matters more than Cusco. For that, our Lima, Sacred Valley and Amazon tour adds a lodge in Tambopata. To change a hotel, add a stop or upgrade the flights, ask us.
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