Planned by Flormely,
local expert for Peru
5/5
Starting at USD 1640 per adult / 7 days
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Soak up some Peruvian culture on a whirlwind tour of Peru. See the capital Lima, pretty Cusco and the Sacred Valley before you acclimatise to the high altitude of Machu Picchu, the greatest mountain city on earth and the gateway to the Incan Empire.

This itinerary is just a starting point as all services are 100% customizable to suit your travel wants and needs. Looking for different hotels, other experiences or an alternative route? Get in touch with Flormely today to receive your personalized quote. Just enter your details and receive a quote based on your preferences.

Overview

Lima 2 nights
Sacred Valley of the Incas 2 nights
Cusco 2 nights

Detailed Itinerary

DAY 1-3

Lima

Lima Travel guide

DAY 1

Arrival and Transfer to Lima

Upon arrival into Lima International Airport, you will be met by our representative and private driver and will be transferred to your hotel. Our representative will assist you with check-in procedures and provide you with a detailed itinerary, vouchers covering all the services included in your tour and additional information on the organization of your Peru trip. You will also receive a contact information sheet with all the hotel details as well as our offices contact information for each city and a 24-hour emergency number.

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Accommodation: Libre Hotel

DAY 2

City Tour & Larco Museum (a.m.)

Enjoy a half-day guided sightseeing tour to the most attractive and important sites in Lima, the "City of Kings". The tour includes Lima's Historical Center, passing by Plaza San Martin, Plaza Mayor, the Government Palace, the City Hall, the Cathedral and its Religious Art Museum. Afterwards, visit the residential Districts of San Isidro and Miraflores, passing by the Huaca Pucllana, a ceremonial and administrative center built in the 2nd Century A.C. that the Incas called "Ñaupallaqta" or Sacred Town. You will also visit El Olivar Park with olive trees brought from Spain in the 15th Century, the Central Park of Miraflores and Larcomar, a symbol of modern Lima and a tourist and entertainment center as well as a great site to enjoy amazing views of the Pacific Ocean.  The visit continues with a stop at Larco Herrera Museum, for an excellent overview of Peru's ancient past as it holds the best private collection of pre-Columbian art in the country. You will have the chance to tour through this old Hacienda House in the Pueblo Libre district, which was built upon a pre-Incan sacred site (huaca),  housing the private collection of a great Peruvian scholar: Don Rafael Larco Hoyle. The museum chronologically exhibits hundreds of ceramic, textile, metal and precious stone pieces and also inside you will find the vault which safeguards precious pieces of gold and silver with semiprecious stones.  Another attraction of the museum and of great interest to visitors is the exhibition of erotic pre-Colombian art.

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Accommodation: Libre Hotel

DAY 3


this Transfer: Flight to Cusco  at - 0 h

DAY 3-5

Sacred Valley of the Incas

Sacred Valley of the Incas Travel guide

DAY 3

Sacsayhuaman, Awanacancha & Pisac Market

Today we head to the Sacsayhuaman Archaeological site or Fortress, a ceremonial compound and magnificent example of Inca military power also offering a panoramic view of the City. The next stop is at the Inca Baths of Tambomachay.En route towards the Urubamba Valley, we will visit Awanacancha, an Andean textile center that works to maintain the wealth of Incan textile art alive. Here we will learn about the dyeing techniques and instruments used for hundreds of years in the weaving of these famous textiles and perhaps even take some home.We continue to the Pisac Market, which was the place of reunion for all artisans of the region to get together and exchange or buy and sell their products. Originally held only on Sundays, but due to the increase of tourism in the area during the XXth century it became increasingly popular to the point that now it is held daily.Farm Lunch (shared)Further into the Sacred Valley, reach working Hacienda Sarapampa, a vivid expression of the culture of corn farming from its beginnings in ancient Peru until today.“Sarapampa” is a word from the Quechua language meaning "cornfield." The variety grown is the Giant White Corn, a unique variety in the world due to its exceptional characteristics and size. Domesticated since ancient times, this corn has adapted to the unique conditions of this valley in such way that it only grows here, protected by the mountains and their spirits.In Hacienda Sarapampa, learn how corn influenced the Andeans and those who followed during colonial and recent times. Visit the Giant White Corn fields and learn more about this unique crop, the stages in the process of cultivating corn (fallow, sowing, hilling, harvest) and its importance in the economy of the Sacred Valley of the Incas and its farmers.Then, enjoy a countryside three-course gourmet lunch in the property gardens.

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DAY 4

Maras Saltpans, Moray Terraces & Ollantaytambo

Enjoy a journey through the Sacred Valley of the Incas, to the salt fields of Maras and its seemingly never-ending terraces, where salt extracted from springs is stored. Although these waters have been used for centuries, even before the time of the Incas, Maras were founded by the Spanish in 1556. It supplied salt to the southern highlands during the viceroyalty, so it was an important town. The use of Maras Salt dates back thousands of years and is inherited from generation to generation and managed communally.It is produced naturally in about 5,000 pools of approximately 5 square meters each forming different levels of terraces, nourished by salty water from a creek that permeates the pools and then evaporated by the intense sun, forming thick crystals. They are extracted once a month, as soon as they have reached a height of 10 cm. It is impressive to see the variety of colours created by the reflection of the sun’s rays in this field of salt deposits and to learn about the Incas striking ability to generate resources.Continue your excursion to admire the Moray terraces, believed to be a former gigantic agricultural laboratory, an astronomical observatory or a place of worship, or maybe all three. It is thought that Moray was used for plant adaptation to new climatic environments thanks to its circular terraces in immense cone-shaped depressions of 47 to 84 m that resemble giant fingerprints or contour lines. These create a series of microclimates at the different heights of the terraces, which enabled the Incas to experimentally to improve a great variety of crops. Today, it is evidence of the high level of agricultural knowledge they reached.Then, you will head to the Inca fortress and citadel of Ollantaytambo. This site was built just as the Spaniards arrived and evidence of how it was constructed is still visible. This fortress was believed to be constructed in order to guard the entrance to this part of the valley and protect it from possible invasions of tribes from the jungle lowlands. Later it served as a temporary capital for Manco Inca, leader of the Inca resistance in 1537 during the Spanish conquest of Perú, who fortified the town to stop the advance, as Cusco had fallen under Spanish domination.Ollantaytambo also features the vestiges of the town built by orders of Inca Pachacutec and thought to be not only a strategic military place to control the Sacred Valley of the Incas but also for agricultural and religious purposes. Additionally, this place is a ceremonial centre dedicated to the purification and worship of water with 150 steps built with perfectly carved stones. The archaeological site includes a series of superimposed terraces and stunning finely carved stone blocks located on the upper terrace or Temple of the Sun. The main settlement has an orthogonal layout with four streets crossed by other seven parallel streets and at the centre, the Incas built a large plaza about the size of four blocks.Lunch will be served today in a local restaurant

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DAY 5

Excursion to Machu Picchu via roundtrip train

We begin with a morning transfer to the train station for an amazing train journey to the famous Inca Citadel of Machu Picchu, the great mountain-top city abandoned by the Inca Empire, reclaimed by the jungle and lost to humanity until its rediscovery in 1911.Along the way, we will enjoy the changing landscape as we travel from Andean highlands to the beginnings of the jungle (“eyebrow of the jungle”), before finally arriving at the town of Aguas Calientes.From here, we board the bus that will take us on a 20-minute ride up to the citadel of Machu Picchu (3,400masl/11,15ft), or Lost City of the Incas. Here, we take a guided tour of the Citadel, probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire, with its giant walls, terraces and ramps, which appear as though they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments.In the afternoon, we return to Cusco by train and upon arrival at the train station are met by our representative and driver for the transfer to the hotel.

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Accommodation: Abittare Hotel

DAY 5-7

Cusco

Cusco Travel guide

DAY 6

Half day Cusco City tour & main surrounding ruins (private)

Today you will enjoy a guided tour of Cusco, the Imperial City, where you will admire the finest examples of Inca history and architecture. What a better way to discover the archaeological capital of South America, a city of stone streets, than walking!Visit the city's most important historical monuments that reveal the influence of different cultures: the Plaza de Armas, the Cathedral dating from Spanish viceroyalty times, built with great slabs of red granite renaissance style in contrast with the baroque style silverwork of its interior and, the Santo Domingo church built upon the foundations of the Inca Temple Koricancha, dedicated to worship the Sun God.Continue to Cusco City’s main surrounding ruins: the Sacsayhuaman Fortress, a ceremonial compound and magnificent example of Inca military power; the Qenqo Amphitheater, a ritualistic site with subterranean galleries that form an underground maze; Puca Pucara or red fortress; and the Inca Baths of Tambomachay.

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Accommodation: Abittare Hotel

DAY 7

Departure

At the appropriate time, our representative will meet you at the hotel lobby and transfer you to Cusco Airport to board your next flight. Our representative will assist you with check-in procedures and all departure formalities.

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