The Wanderlust Guide to the best of Machu Picchu
It’s the travel icon on every traveller’s bucket list. Here’s your guide to making the most of your visit to the Incan world’s greatest treasure
A trek along an ancient path between soaring mountains to get to a secret city – the Inca Trail is the stuff of travel legend.
Located in southern Peru, not far from Cusco, the Inca Trail is the awesome Andean walk with the ultimate payoff: a path that runs along a sacred valley, via a raging river, intriguing ruins and soaring condors, to pass through a regal gateway from which the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu unfurls before you.
With the Peruvian government implementing restrictions on the number of visitors to the ancient site – and banning independent trekking – it has become vital to plan your trip well in advance.
With that in mind, we present our ultimate guide to Machu Picchu, everything you need to know about one of the world’s great travel icons.
Looking for inspiration?
Look no further than Will Gray’s account of hiking the Inca Trail. With the great Incan citadel within easy reach of day-trippers from Cuzco, he reflects on the pros and cons of doing the four-day trek.
“As the first buses disgorged their passengers into the ancient streets of Machu Picchu it suddenly struck me that, for all the spiritual beauty and inspiring architecture of the Inca city, they were only going to see part of the story – the dramatic finale, if you like, that accompanies the individual movements of a long, engrossing symphony,” he says. “During the past four days we’d witnessed the entire master-piece, from the breathless highs to the grumbling lows – and every Inca-paved step in between.”
The Wanderlust team, meanwhile, have put together a list of eight unmissable sites around Machu Picchu, and Alan Murphy argues the case for a number of lesser-known destinations in the region you should also take time to visit.
If you’re looking for something a little more epic, check out John Pilkington’s account of walking the Royal Road of the Incas, following the spine of the Andes from Quito to Cuzco.
More information
Hiking the Inca Trail – Will Gray
Top 8 unmissables at Machu Picchu – The Wanderlust Team
Peru: The Road to ruins – Alan Murphy
Royal Road of the Incas – John Pilkington
