Circuits, timed tickets, trains, buses, permits — visiting the Inca citadel takes more planning than it used to. Here is how it all fits together, with the tours and tickets worth booking.
Machu Picchu sits on a ridge at about 2,430 m above the Urubamba river, built for the Inca emperor Pachacuti around 1450 and never found by the Spanish. No road reaches it: you arrive by train to Aguas Calientes and a bus up the mountain, or on foot along the Inca Trail.
Since 2024 visits follow fixed one-way circuits with timed entry and a daily limit on visitors, and the ticket you buy decides what you see — the classic postcard terrace, the lower temples, or a mountain such as Huayna Picchu. This guide explains the choices in plain language, and tells you honestly which you can book yourself and when a tour saves you trouble.
Entry tickets, guided visits, all-in day trips by train from Cusco and the classic treks — booked through GetYourGuide. Tap any card for live prices and availability.
Entry ticket An official Machu Picchu ticket bought for you by a local agency, with a choice of Circuit 1, 2 or 3. You pay a service fee over the government price in exchange for simple payment and support. Train, bus and guide are not included.
Guided visit Entry ticket and a guided walk of the citadel, meeting in Aguas Calientes. A tidy solution when you have organised your own train and hotel and want the ticket and guide handled together. Check the listing for which circuit is offered on your date.
Day trip The best-selling way to see Machu Picchu in a single day: pickup in Cusco before dawn, transfer to the station, train to Aguas Calientes, bus up, a guided visit and the same in reverse. Long but efficient, with more than two thousand reviews.
2-day tour Day one tours the Sacred Valley and ends with the train to Aguas Calientes; day two is Machu Picchu, before returning to Cusco. The pace we recommend for most travellers — you sleep low, enter early and avoid a single exhausting day.
Trek The classic four-day trail from Km 82: Dead Woman’s Pass, a chain of Inca sites and the Sun Gate at dawn on the last day. Permits are limited and issued by name, so book months ahead for May to September. Closed in February.
Trek The last and loveliest section of the Inca Trail in a single day’s walking, then a night in a hotel and a full visit to the citadel the next morning. It needs a permit, so book ahead.
Trek The leading alternative to the Inca Trail: over a pass of about 4,630 m under the Salkantay glacier, then down through cloud forest to Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu. No Inca Trail permit required.
Day trip The whole Sacred Valley in a day, with thousands of reviews. A good way to acclimatise and to see the valley’s main sites before the train. Entrance fees are usually extra — check the listing.
Real-time prices and availability, straight from GetYourGuide. Free cancellation on many experiences.
The Inca city is the goal, but Huayna Picchu, the Sun Gate, Aguas Calientes and Ollantaytambo are all part of the journey.
Machu Picchu sanctuary The Inca city itself
Around 200 stone buildings and hundreds of terraces on a ridge at about 2,430 m: temples, plazas, fountains and houses built for the emperor Pachacuti in the fifteenth century and visited today on three fixed circuits.
Machu Picchu sanctuary The peak in every photograph
The sugarloaf mountain that rises behind the city. A steep Inca staircase climbs to terraces and buildings near the summit, about 290 m above the citadel, for a bird’s-eye view of the whole site.
Machu Picchu sanctuary The highest viewpoint
The broad mountain on the opposite side of the site from Huayna Picchu. A long stone stairway leads to the 3,082 m summit, with the citadel, the river loop and the surrounding ranges laid out below.
Machu Picchu sanctuary Two walks out along the Inca roads
Inti Punku, the Sun Gate, is where the Inca Trail first looks down on Machu Picchu; the Inca Bridge is a gap in a cliff path once closed by removable logs. Both are side routes of Circuit 1, usually open in high season.
Machu Picchu sanctuary The town below the ruins
Officially Machu Picchu Pueblo: a small, car-free town wedged into the gorge of the Urubamba, reached only by train or on foot. Every visitor passes through, and it is the best place to sleep before an early entry.
Sacred Valley A living Inca town
A town still laid out on its Inca street plan, beneath a steep terraced temple-fortress where the Inca Manco defeated a Spanish force in 1537. It is also the main railway station for Machu Picchu.
Aguas Calientes for an early start, Ollantaytambo for the train, Cusco before and after — our picks, with live rates.
Whitewashed casitas scattered through private cloud-forest gardens beside the railway, with orchid trails and birdwatching on the grounds. The classic splurge in town.
A long-established inn right on the platform of Ollantaytambo station, with gardens, an organic farm and a restaurant supplied by it.
A comfortable mid-range hotel in the San Blas artisan quarter, with excellent guest scores for its price.
Circuit 1, 2 or 3? Which route has the classic photo, and how to buy before they sell out.
Trains from Ollantaytambo and Cusco, the bus up from Aguas Calientes and the budget route.
The Inca Trail in four days or two, Salkantay, Lares and the Inca Jungle route compared.
Entry is timed and capped every day, and trains fill up in high season. Compare tickets, guided visits and all-in day trips from Cusco, and book in a couple of taps.
Yes, in practice. Entry is timed and capped each day, and the most popular routes — especially Circuit 2 and Huayna Picchu — can sell out weeks or months ahead in the dry season. A limited number of next-day tickets is usually sold in person in Aguas Calientes, but you should not rely on it. See our ticket guide.
For a first visit most travellers want Circuit 2, the classic route: it includes the famous view from the upper terraces and a walk through the main urban sector. Circuit 1 is mostly the panoramic terraces; Circuit 3 covers the lower temples and is the base for Huayna Picchu.
Most people travel by road to Ollantaytambo (about two hours), take the train to Aguas Calientes (roughly an hour and a half to two hours) and then the 25–30 minute bus up to the entrance. It can be done as a long day trip, but a night in Aguas Calientes is far more relaxed. Details in getting here.
Yes. You can buy the entry ticket, train and bus yourself. Regulations ask visitors to enter with a licensed guide, and how strictly that is applied has varied over the years — guides are easy to hire in Aguas Calientes or at the gate. A package simply saves you matching four separate bookings to the same time slot.
Allow at least two days from Cusco for Machu Picchu itself, and ideally two days in Cusco or the Sacred Valley first to adjust to the altitude. Our travel guide has sample 2-, 3- and 5-day plans.