1 day

Full Day

Group

Instant confirmation

About this activity

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Sacred Valley of the Incas, 0051 Peru

At 8.30am, we pick you up from your hotel and take you to the start of the tour. We travel from Cusco, past Saqsaywaman over the mountains towards the Sacred Valley. We descend 1500 feet to the valley floor, where we find ourselves by the sacred Urubamba River and the village of Pisac. In Pisac, we stop to visit a traditional market, where you can browse and buy some local souvenirs if desired. We will spend about 30 minutes here.

Then, we drive up to the ruins of Pisac. Here, we explore the extensive ruins whilst enjoying stunning views over the valley. You will be given a guided tour of the Citadel of Pisac, in which we will see temples, homes, altars, carvings, tunnels, caves and the famous Intihuatana, "The hitching post of the sun". We have about 90 minutes to explore the ruins.

For those who would prefer to spend more time in the market instead of visiting the ruins, advise your guide so he can organize a time and place to pick you up when returning through the market.

We continue on towards Urubamba, where we make a stop (45 minutes) for lunch(not include). A 30 minute drive takes us to Ollantaytambo, which is surrounded by the sacred mountains. Here, we will spend about an hour. In Ollantaytambo, we get further exposure to Incan constructions, mainly the amazing temple of the sun, enormous blocks of rock perfectly carved and polished, stone water fountains, stairs and terraces. We also get to see the beauty of the local people in their traditional dress surrounded by the sacred mountains and Valley of Patacancha and Willoq.

On our return, we make a quick (30 minute) visit to the famous church and archaeological site in Chincheros. We return to Cusco at about 6:30-7pm.

Duration: 10 hours

Read more Show less

Included

Hotel pickup and drop-off
Professional tour guide.

Not included

Lunch in Urubamba (30-45 soles)
Entrance to the Sacred Valley sites: You can purchase one of the following: Cusco Tourist Ticket (130 soles or around $45 USD and 50% discount for students with an ISIC card)
Walking sticks ($10 USD)
Gratuities
Entry/Admission - Sacred Valley of the Incas

Additional

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
A minimum of 2 people per booking is required
Note: The Cusco Tourist Ticket is about 130 soles or around $45 USD and there is 50% discount for students with an ISIC card. You can also use this ticket on the city tours OR purchase a partial ticket which allows a one day visit of just the two sites of Pisac and Ollantaytambo. This ticket is recommended if you are not planning to visit any of Cusco's other sites
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 25 travelers

Features

Tourism

90%

Cultural

90%

Reviews

4.4

9

B

Brian S

4 | 2016-10-22

This company was good for the most part, and staff was really friendly. An employee even brought us a nice gift pack to our hotel. Our guide Oscar was also great for the most part, but the tour deviated from the stated itinerary a bit, along with some other issues. First, we ended up having a 30 minute stop in Awana Kancha, which wasn't even listed on the itinerary. But the site was neat, so I am not complaining. However, when we got to Pisac, our guide only gave us 30 min. at the ruins originally wanted to give us 20, but some people in our group negotiated. It was barely enough to climb to the top of the citadel and get back to our meeting point. I almost passed out, because I had to rush like crazy to see everything and get the pictures and video I wanted. The rest of our group was 10 minutes late coming back, and I don't blame them. 30 minutes was NOT enough to see the site. It was originally supposed to be an hour and a half which is the main reason I booked this pricier tour, but it ended up only being 30 minutes, because part of the site was closed due to an accident. Okay, I can't really blame the guide for that, but you still need at least an hour to explore the areas around the citadel. I wish the guide had told us ahead of time that the rest of the site was closed. The tour than had another unlisted stop at a silver shop in Pisac, but only 10 minutes, and we DID end up buying something so not complaining. Than we had 30 minutes to walk around the market. We ended up going to the more authentic market in the town square. The brief stop at the Lamay Cuy village was also neat. Part of my rating is due to the Tunupa buffet we stopped at in Urubamba. There was a bit of a misunderstanding with the guide about the prices, and we also thought it would be a regular restaurant. We ended up getting food poisoning, and spending 12 hours in a Peruvian hospital. I really do hope the guides see this review, and really reconsider taking tourists to this restaurant, as we were not the first ones to get sick here. Ollantaytambo stop was nice. The time of day meant lighting was really bad for pictures, but we had a half hour tour than half hour free time, which was really nice. The guide dropped the rest of our group off in Calca on the way back, so it was just us two left. The guide got a bit lazy and fell asleep in the car. I had to REMIND him to stop in Chincheros, which was supposed to be included in the tour. And he didn't stop in the actual town, but at the overlook, and we ended up having to go back another day. But overall, it was one of the best tours I've ever been on. Had it not been for the food poisoning, and short time at Pisac, it would easily get a 5. However, I did like that the guide gave us free time to walk around on our own, which is the only thing that saved it from getting a 3. Despite some setbacks, I would still recommend this company. It was the best tour I had in Cusco. But I would be REALLY careful eating at the Tunupa buffet. I'd be safe and just pack your own lunch, or eat when you get back to Cusco.

p

philipmcooke

4 | 2016-10-21

This tour makes for a very pleasant day indeed. Lots to see and lots of information from our guide. A couple of downsides were the 45 soles buffet lunch being touted at us clearly on commission this is rather expensive by Peru standards and is located in a busy city area, we declined on this basis and got our own lunch in Pisac which was nice. It would have been a lot better to have been offered lunch in the small village of the first stop - it's very picturesque and has many small restaurants there. We also did not receive the quoted 'hotel pick-up' - we were met at our hotel in the morning by our guide and had to walk for five minutes in the rain to meet our car. At the end of the day we were dumped at the bottom of a huge flight of stairs up to the road on which our hotel was based - I had my 70yr old mother with me and after a full day of climbing and hiking she found this extremely difficult. There was easy access to our hotel door by car or van so I'm not sure why this happened. I would recommend this tour but advise you to clarify lunch arrangements and hotel pick-up arrangements.

D

Danut P

4 | 2016-08-28

Good traveler guide for this tourvery informativ.

E

Emily G

5 | 2016-07-03

Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and took us to some beautiful sights around the Sacred Valley. Oscar let us tour the areas on our own and gave us great information on the site's history.

R

Robert M

4 | 2016-07-03

This tour was amazing!

B

Brian O

4 | 2016-03-10

Excellent day! We were joined by only one other couple, so this was like a private tour. I got my fill of history and culture while my spouse took all the pictures he wanted. We never would have understood all these beautiful sites without the knowledge and excellent communication skills of our guide. Also important: We had time and space to enjoy them as our guide knew how to beat the crowds.

Collections This experience is part of these collections

Collections

Sacred Valley 130 Activities

Sacred Valley of Cusco Full-Day Tour - Group Service

Cusco

Settings