Peru · The Inca heartland
Cusco is where most Peru journeys truly begin. The old Inca capital wears its layers openly, with colonial arches and red-tiled roofs rising over walls of perfectly fitted Inca stone, and the Plaza de Armas humming with life from early mass to the evening paseo. We love it for the artisan lanes of San Blas, the markets, and the simple pleasure of acclimatizing slowly over a long lunch.
Just beyond the city, the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba unfolds lower, warmer and greener, an unhurried landscape of terraced hillsides, salt pans and craft towns. We base many travelers here rather than in Cusco itself, both for the gentler altitude and for the easy reach to Ollantaytambo, the living Inca town from which the train to Machu Picchu departs.
However many days you have, we shape the route around you: the great fortress-temple at Ollantaytambo, the hilltop ruins and famous Sunday market at Pisac, the cyclopean stonework of Sacsayhuamán above the city, and the weavers and potters who keep these traditions alive. It is the cultural heart of the trip, and the perfect foundation for everything that follows.
