The Sacred Valley is your start point for the classic Inca Trail, but that’s not the only hiking route leading to Machu Picchu. There are several other options, most involving camping and taking a minimum of three days. There’s even a day-walk option called Short Inca Trail KM 104: ideal if you’re short on time or don’t wish to undertake a multi-day trek.
Above all the business, Písac’s citadel and a sun temple stand on a mountain spur. These ruins display the precise stonework that’s become something of a patent for the Incas. You’ll also see astronomical observation posts and ceremonial baths fed by aqueducts.
Buried deeper into the mountains north of Cuzco, Chinchero is a Spanish colonial settlement that’s also celebrated for its Sunday-morning market. Quechua-speaking women wearing traditional manta shawls and patterned skirts seem to run the place, selling produce and craftwork. Quieter than Písac, Chinchero also bears some Inca remnants, such as a stone throne and terracing.
The town of Ollantaytambo has the valley’s gold-star fortress. It rears up like a granite titan at the end of the paved road between Cuzco and the Sacred Valley, dominating the town, which was once an important administrative hub for the Incas. Today its layout and remaining Inca walls give you the closest approximation of what an Inca town must have looked like five centuries ago.
Moray is made up of three swirls of seven terraces burrowing into the earth like vortexes. They’re thought to have been a latter-day laboratory for growing crops in different microclimates. Our Tour Leaders will explain you more about Moray’s allure and the lesser-known Inca sites of the Sacred Valley.
Nearby, you’ll find the still-in-use salt pans of Maras, and, overlooking Moray, one of the best restaurants in Peru ― Mil. The brainchild of chef Virgilio Martinez, owner of Central in Lima, it relies on purely local ingredients. For a more rustic yet authentic Peruvian dining experience, you can dine on a traditional pachamanca (earth-oven) meal in the Sacred Valley.
With its terrain varying from steep mountain slopes to flat fields of maize, the Sacred Valley is a good spot for mountain biking and horseback riding, no matter your ability. You can, alternatively, go white-water rafting along the surging Urubamba just past Ollantaytambo, or stand-up paddle boarding in calmer stretches of the river.