Itinerary · 10 days · 41 places
10 Days in Peru
Ten days from Cusco, the heart of the Inca world, through the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu — with two easy days to acclimatise before you head up to the heights and the terraces.
Open in the appThere you can adjust the plan to your dates, your pace and your interests.
Photo: Laura Rudi · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival at 3,400 metres — San Blas
Arrival in Cusco
Hotel check-in
Base yourself in the artists' quarter of San Blas: steep lanes, white walls with blue balconies, a five-minute walk above the Plaza de Armas.
Plaza de Armas
The main square, floodlit in the evening, with the cathedral and the Compañía church, arcades all around and benches where half of Cusco sits.
Day 2Inca walls and colonial baroque
Qorikancha (Temple of the Sun)
The most important Inca temple, whose seamless walls the Spanish used as the foundation for the Santo Domingo monastery — the two buildings are fused together.
Cusco Cathedral
A three-aisled building on the palace of the Inca Wiracocha, with carved cedarwood choir stalls and the Last Supper painting complete with roast guinea pig.
Mercado Central de San Pedro
The market hall from 1925: rows of maize varieties, cherimoya and cheese, plus juice stalls where you can have a glass blended to order.
Museo Inka
In the Casa del Almirante, ceramics, textiles and a collection of painted keros show how the empire was organised before the conquest.
Calle Hatun Rumiyoc with the Twelve-Angled Stone
The palace wall of the Inca Roca, in which a single twelve-cornered block is wedged in without a gap — craftsmanship without mortar.
Evening: Calle Plateros
The bar and music street west of the Plaza de Armas, where live bands play from nine and the venues stay open until late.
Day 3The ruins above the city
Tambomachay
The so-called Inca Baths: three terraces with channels through which spring water still flows steadily today.
Puka Pukara
A reddish fortress on the road into the valley, from whose walls the view stretches across the high plateau to Cusco.
Q'enqo
A sanctuary carved out of the rock, with zigzag channels and an underground chamber with a stone altar.
Sacsayhuamán
The cyclopean zigzag walls above the city, whose largest blocks weigh over a hundred tonnes and interlock without mortar.
Cristo Blanco
The white statue of Christ on Pukamoqo hill, from where you overlook Cusco's entire sea of houses in its valley basin.
Evening: Plaza San Francisco
A square with a monastery and palms, taken over in the evening by street food stalls and families — far less touristy than the Plaza de Armas.
Day 4Into the Sacred Valley to Písac
Onward to Písac
Hotel check-in
Písac ruins
Fans of terraces above the valley, plus the Intihuatana sun observatory and the cliff face with hundreds of looted burial niches.
Písac market
The valley's best-known craft market: alpaca blankets, pottery from the neighbouring village and the clay ovens in which empanadas are baked.
Iglesia San Pedro Apóstol de Písac
The simple village church on the plaza, where the Quechua communities from the mountain villages gather in traditional dress on Sundays.
Awanacancha
A grazing centre on the road to Cusco, where llamas and alpacas graze and weavers show how wool is dyed with plants.
Evening: Plaza de Armas de Písac
The village square beneath old pisonay trees, filled in the evening with the smell of the ovens and a few restaurants with terraces.
Day 5Salt terraces, Moray and Chinchero
Onward to Urubamba
Hotel check-in
Salinas de Maras
Some three thousand evaporation pools on a hillside, fed by a salty spring since Inca times and worked individually by local families.
Moray
Concentric rings of terraces in a hollow, whose levels differ by several degrees depending on their depth — probably an experimental field for seeds.
Chinchero — weaving and colonial church
The weaving village at 3,760 m: demonstrations with natural dyes and the adobe church built on an Inca wall from Túpac Yupanqui's estate.
Evening: Plaza de Armas de Urubamba
A quiet square with a church and street stalls, pleasantly warm — Urubamba lies six hundred metres lower than Cusco.
Day 6Ollantaytambo — the living Inca town
Onward to Ollantaytambo
Hotel check-in
Ollantaytambo Fortress
A steep stairway of terraces up to the unfinished Temple of the Sun, made of six pink porphyry monoliths hauled over from across the river.
Inca old town of Ollantaytambo
The only continuously inhabited Inca town plan: kanchas behind original walls and water channels running down the middle of the lanes.
Pinkuylluna — Inca storehouses
A climb to the granaries on the opposite slope, where the wind kept the stores cool; from up here the fortress opposite looks like a model.
Museo CATCCO
A small local museum in an adobe house explaining irrigation, weaving and the building history of the valley.
Evening: Plaza de Armas de Ollantaytambo
The square framed by Inca walls, populated in the evening by hikers, train passengers and dogs.
Day 7By train into the cloud forest
Onward to Aguas Calientes
Hotel check-in
Museo de Sitio Manuel Chávez Ballón
Finds from the citadel — ceramics, tools, construction sketches — with an adjoining orchid garden at Puente Ruinas.
Jardines de Mandor
A riverside path downstream to a private garden with a waterfall, good for hummingbirds, tanagers and orchids.
Baños Termales de Aguas Calientes
The hot springs on the edge of town that gave the village its name — several pools between 38 and 44 degrees beneath mountain walls.
Evening: Mercado Artesanal in Aguas Calientes
The covered market lane between the station and the bridge, lit up in the evening and open late into the night.
Day 8Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu — the citadel
The circuit through the Temple of the Sun, the main plaza and the Intihuatana stone, with Huayna Picchu as a backdrop above the terraces.
Inti Punku (Sun Gate)
A climb along the old Inca Trail to the gateway through which pilgrims once arrived — from there the whole city lies in view.
Aguas Calientes — Plaza Manco Cápac
Back in town: the village square with its church and Inca statue, surrounded by cafés for a rest after the descent.
Evening: Río Vilcanota riverside path
The promenade along the rapids below the railway tracks, lit up in the evening and loud with rushing water.
Day 9Back to Cusco — art and churches
Onward to Cusco
Hotel check-in
Museo de Arte Precolombino
In the Casa Cabrera on Plaza Nazarenas: gold, wood and ceramics from Nazca to Chimú, lit like sculptures in a gallery.
Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús
The Jesuit church on the plaza, with arguably the finest baroque façade in Peru and a gilded cedarwood high altar.
Barrio de San Cristóbal
A climb to the church of San Cristóbal on the terrace of the Colcampata palace, with the widest view over the rooftops of the old town.
Evening: Plaza Regocijo
The old town's second square, quieter than the Plaza de Armas, with the town hall, benches and restaurants in the arcades.
Day 10Last morning and departure
Museo Histórico Regional (Casa Garcilaso)
The birthplace of the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega, now a collection ranging from pre-Columbian ceramics to the Cusco School of painting.
Iglesia de la Merced
A monastery with a two-storey cloister and the Custodia, a monstrance of gold and pearls more than a metre tall.
Departure from Cusco
Make it your trip
Viatro AI opens this plan in the app — with map, travel times and opening hours. You change the days, pace and places yourself.
