DAY 1
Fly to Lima, Peru. You will likely arrive in Lima at night or late afternoon. Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru. That being said, there are many different areas/neighborhoods to stay. We stayed in the neighborhood of San Isidro for one night, as I took an early flight to Cusco the next morning. San Isidro is an upscale neighborhood in Lima. There are many restaurants and shops in the area.
DAY 2
Fly to Cusco in the morning. The flight from Lima to Cusco is about an hour long. We arrived in Cusco at around 10 a.m. We stayed at Hotel Cusco Plaza de Armas, which is smack in the middle of Plaza de Armas. Plaza de Armas is one of Cusco's main squares and is surrounded by cathedrals, shops, bars and restaurants. It is a pedestrian zone so the taxi will leave you about a minute walk from the hotel. After checking in, spend the next couple of hours exploring Plaza de Armas before an ATV tour at 1 p.m.
Take an afternoon ATV tour through the scenic mountains to Maras and Moray. This was one of my favorite tours of the trip--the photos speak for themselves. You get plenty of ride time on the ATVs through the Andes (over an hour) and visit the amazing Maras and Moray. Maras is a town in the sacred valley that is known for the salt mines. You will have a chance to visit the salt mines and take photos. Moray is an archeological site with Incan ruins that were primarily used for agriculture. You will also have a chance to walk around the ruins and take photos.
DAY 3
Take a private tour of the Sacred Valley with Inkayni Peru Tours and visit Chincero, Ollantayambo, and Pisq. This is a full day tour where you will explore Incan ruins, pet ALPACAS (take pictures with them ::insert heart eyes::), visit a textile market, shop for souvenirs, and eat!
DAY 4
Visit Rainbow Mountain. This is an EXTENSIVE and EXHAUSTING tour, but it is WORTH all the blood, sweat and tears. The tour begins with a 2:45 a.m. wake up call, as your tour guide will pick you up at your hotel at 3:00-3:30 a.m. Then you embark on a 3 hour bus ride through the rockiest rodes on the universe. It is not comfortable at all even though the tour tries to distract you by giving you blankets. Thankfully, you stop in a small restaurant after an hour and a half for breakfast. The breakfast is light, but tasty. After breakfast, you resume your journey to Rainbow Mountain. Once you arrive at Rainbow Mountain, you have to walk/hike for about an hour and forty-five minutes to two hours before actually seeing Rainbow Mountain. The walk/hike up is not very steep or strenuous, but it is very exhausting since you are about 17,000 feet above sea level. Expect to stop every couple of minutes to catch your breath. Some people experience altitude sickness, which can include headaches, migraines, and nausea. Luckily, I felt great and only experienced shortness of breath. You can rent a horse to take you up for a few soles, but you will still have to walk up the final 20-30 minutes because it becomes too steep for the horses.
The views during the walk/hike are phenomenal!!!! You are literally above the clouds and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Rainbow Mountain is also spectacular! Nature is truly incredible!
On a side note, there are no bathrooms on the walk to and from Rainbow Mountain. There is a tiny hole on the ground covered by blankets where you can pee or you can try hiding behind a rock somewhere. I used the tiny hole on the ground and it was not very fun, so be sure to use the bathroom before you begin trekking.
On your way back to your hotel in Cusco, you stop at a restaurant for a buffet-style lunch.
What to take/wear: Take a backpack with water and Gatorade. Wear several layers. It is hot one minute and cold the next! Wear a waterproof jacket just in case it starts raining. You are dropped off at your hotel in Cusco at approximately 3 pm.
Once we returned to Cusco, I did a free walking tour of Cusco city at 3:30 pm. There is a free walking tour of Cusco daily, 3 times a day, from Plaza de Armas. It is informative, short (about 1-1.5 hours), and includes a chocolate tasting.
DAY 5
Machu Picchu. Finally, the day has arrived! We decided to visit Machu Picchu on the 5th day of the trip because I was afraid that visiting Machu Picchu first would make the other sites seem less amazing. To my surprise, although I loved Machu Picchu and it is definitely a must see, it was not my favorite part of the trip.
In short, getting to Machu Picchu requires several purchases: (1) entrance ticket, (2) train ticket, and (3) bus ticket.
You must purchase an entrance ticket to Machu Picchu. You can purchase purchase your ticket at the entrance or online. I do not recommend purchasing the ticket at the entrance because there are so many people and the lines are very long. I purchased my ticket here about 3 weeks before the trip. There are several versions of tickets depending on what you want to visit in Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. We purchased the original ticket for Machu Picchu only, which is $75.
There are several ways to get to Machu Picchu. You can do the Inca Trail and other trails, which is basically a hike through the mountains for several days until you reach Machu Picchu. You can spend the night in Ollantayambo and take the Peru Rail or Inca Rail from there. The train ride from Ollantayambo to Auguas Clientes (the closest town/train station to Machu Picchu) is about 1.5 hours. You can spend the night in Auguas Caliente, which is just a 30 minute bus ride to Machu Picchu. You can also take the Peru Rail or Inca Rail from Cusco. Whichever option you choose, you need to take a 30 minute bus ride from Aguas Calientes to the entrance of Machu Picchu.
We went with the fourth option--took the train from Cusco to Aguas Caliente. The trip from Cusco to Aguas Caliente is about 3 hours. We booked the train tickets on the Peru Rail website about 3 weeks before the trip. We purchased the 7:30 am ticket to Aguas Caliente and the 4:45 pm ticket back to Cusco. Peru Rail offers different train options, regular to super fancy. We went with the Vistadome, which has panoramic windows, very comfy seats that recline much more than seats on a plane, includes a snack for breakfast and dinner, option to buy alcohol (the Pisco Sour is awesome), and there is a show on the train ride back to Cusco. The views were phenomenal the entire ride. I highly recommend Peru Rail Vistadome.
We did not purchase the bus ticket from Aguas Caliente to Machu Picchu before the trip. We purchased it at the bus station ticket sales store in Aguas Caliente. Once we arrived to Aguas Caliente, we simply followed the crowd for about 5 minutes until I arrived at the store. The bus ticket is $24 round trip.
Once you enter Machu Picchu, start from the top and work your way down. The path is one way, so if you start from the bottom, you will not be able to go to the top and will miss the great views and famous picture spots! I am so grateful that our guide on day 3 gave us this advise or I would have missed the highlight of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu was great and all, but there are soooo many people in your way all of the time. It is kind of annoying. Everyone must go to Machu Picchu, but do not neglect the other amazing places that Peru has to offer!!!
DAY 6
Fly back to Lima. We flew back to Lima at 4:30 pm so I had the entire morning and afternoon to relax, shop, and continue exploring Cusco. I got a one hour massage for about $20 dollars, had lunch, shopped, visited San Blas neighborhood, and explored the cathedrals before leaving to the airport.
In Lima, we stayed in Miraflores, which is a neighborhood near the beach with plenty of shops, restaurants, and nightlife nearby. We explored the area and had dinner before bed, as we had an early wake up call the next day for Paracas & Huacachina.
DAY 7
Huacachina Overnight tour from Peru Hop. This tour includes hotel pick up, trip to Paracas, trip to Huacachina, dune buggying and sand boarding in Huacachina, overnight stay in Huacachina, Pisco tasting, and drop off in Lima hotel the following day. You can book this tour here. We booked the tour about two weeks before the trip. Although the tour includes overnight stay in Huacachina, we did not like the hostel that was included so we booked a different hotel--Hotel Huacachinera.
As for the dynamics of the tour, you are picked up from your Lima hotel very early in the morning. You drive about 4 hours in a greyhound type bus with AC to Paracas. Paracas is a town in Peru known for its beaches. In Paracas, you will go on a boat trip to the Ballastas Islands. The Ballastas islands are known as the Poor Man's Galapagos Islands, as its a smaller version of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. Here you will see penguins and sea lions (not seals! there are no seals in Peru, but sea lions and seals are basically identical besides their little ears).
After Paracas, the tour continues to Huacachina. The drive to Huacachina from Paracas is about two hours. Huacachina is the only natural desert oasis in South America. It is literally small town on a little lake and is surrounded by desert mountains. The tiny town has a bunch of small hotels/hostels, bars, clubs, and restaurants. The highlight of this tour is Huacachina because you will go sand boarding and dune buggying. I suck at snowboarding/skiing and figured that I would not be any better at sand boarding so I sat my butt on the board and slid all the way down the desert mountain. It is pretty fast and super fun. After dune buggying and sand boarding, you can watch the beautiful sunset from the top of the mountain.
DAY 8
The Peru Hop Tour we chose (link above) included a Pisco vineyard and tasting tour. Peru hop offers other overnight tours where you can choose to see the Nazca lines on the second day. They also offer one day tours, where you visit paracas and Huacachina in one day and return to Lima on the same day.
Peru hop tour drove us back to Lima at night. Stay in Lima for one night (stayed at the same hotel in Miraflores).
DAY 9
Fly back home.
