Machu Picchu by Train

A Day of Discovery and Wonder

04:20 am – 04:30 am | Pickup at your hotel in Cusco
Very early, while the Imperial City is still asleep, the Machupicchu Glory team will pick you up at your hotel door. You will board a comfortable tourist bus that descends from the Cusco highlands (3,399 m) toward the Sacred Valley of the Incas, on a journey of about an hour and a half.

05:00 am | Sunrise on the road to the Sacred Valley
As you travel, the road winds between mountains and farmland. The sunrise slowly lights up Andean villages while, in the distance, snow-capped peaks watch over the horizon like the ancient apus of the Andean worldview.

06:00 am | Ollantaytambo Station
You will arrive in Ollantaytambo (2,792 m), an imposing Inca fortress that guards the valley. Here you will board the panoramic train to Aguas Calientes, a ride of nearly one hour and forty-five minutes.

06:15 am | Panoramic train along the Urubamba River
From the wide windows you will watch the train follow the course of the Urubamba-Vilcanota River through deep gorges. The arid highland scenery gives way to lush cloud forest: crops, grazing cattle and snowy peaks peeking through the clouds.

08:00 am | Aguas Calientes and the climb to the citadel
In Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo, 2,040 m) your guide will be waiting and will lead you to the bus stop. Along the winding Hiram Bingham road, in about thirty minutes of zigzagging, you will climb the mountainside with views of the canyon until you reach the entrance gate.

09:00 am | Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas
As you cross the threshold, the citadel of Machu Picchu (2,430 m) reveals itself wrapped in the morning mist, just as the world first saw it in 1911. During a guided tour of about two hours you will walk through the Guardian's House —where you will take the classic panoramic photo—, the semicircular stone Temple of the Sun, the Sacred Plaza, the Temple of the Three Windows, the Intihuatana or solar clock that marked the solstices, the agricultural terraces, the Temple of the Condor and the Sacred Rock. Your guide will reveal the history, astronomy and engineering of this wonder of the world, following the official circuit. You will then have free time for photographs.

01:00 pm | Return and journey back to Cusco
You will descend by bus to Aguas Calientes, with time to have lunch (not included) and rest. In the afternoon you will take the return train to Ollantaytambo and transfer there to the bus back to Cusco, arriving in the Imperial City around 08:30 pm, your heart full of wonder.