Lima & Machu Picchu

Welcome to Lima! Get a lay of the land and streets by bike on a guided tour, followed by a hands-on cooking class and walking tour of the hip laid-back Barranco neighborhood, Lima’s cultural epicenter. Explore the art and artistry of the city on street art tour led by local artists. And dinner? We’ll book your table at Astrid y Gastón, one of the world’s Top 50 restaurants and a reflection of Peru’s natural bounty.

Explore more of Lima if you wish, or move into the Andes! We’ll fly you to Cusco, where you’ll ride into Sacred Valley to visit the indigenous Huayllafara community. Here, you’ll be invited to harvest your own Andean ingredients to use in this afternoon’s traditional meal, pachamanca, where you’re the guest of honor to feast and celebrate—casual, fun, authentic, delicious.

Today gets you deeper into Peru’s Incan roots. Start at Maras salt flats and the Moray terraces, hosted by a local expert from MIL Centro restaurant, owned by rockstar Peruvian chef Virgilio Martínez. Then, experience the surrounding agriculture first-hand with an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind meal at MIL Centro representing an ecosystem of elevation and Peruvian authenticity.

Ride the scenic, comfortable train all the way to Aguas Calientes. Or venture there on an awe-inspiring, 11-kilometer (6.8-mile) hike on the Inca Trail. If you opt for the hike, you’ll pass over suspension bridges, through jungle, and by amazing archaeological sites like Chachabamba and Winaywayna before reaching the last climb: up steep, narrow stone steps that lead to our first look at Machu Picchu, spilling down almost impossibly over a mountainside. Walking through the Sun Gate, Intipunku, is the absolute best way to see this marvel for the first time. Either way you go, you’ll be able to put your feet up and relax in luxury this evening.

If you opted to train, don’t feel like you missed out on Machu Picchu! After breakfast and a leisurely morning, you’ll head back to Machu Picchu to see the clouds lift, revealing the scale and sheer audacity of a ridge-top site built between towering peaks. Spend the next few hours diving deeper on an expert-led walk through terraces and ancient terrain. In the afternoon, head back to Aguas Calientes to shop or relax back at the hotel—whether that’s enjoying the spa, soaking in the pools or wandering the well-kept gardens and cozy reading rooms to relax with a drink.

Cusco is the ancient capital of the Incan empire. Here, sleek and modern eateries fit neatly into weathered Spanish-colonial buildings, while locals in indigenous clothing sell traditional crafts and produce. It’s a lively place, where past and present lives in harmony (except for when a llama holds up traffic). After a traditional lunch, walk the streets of the San Blas neighborhood and down the famed Hatunrumiyoc, lined in stone and draped in vibrant textiles. Then it’s a walk through Incan history right in the city: Coricancha, spiritual center of the Inca Empire, and Cusco Cathedral.

Before looping back to Lima, there’s time for another adventure to visit nearby Saqsayhuaman, a hillside fortress built by the Inca. Grab your hiking boots, and return to Cusco following the fabled Qhapaq Ñan (the ‘Royal Road’ in Quechua) network of Incan roads, all of which radiate out from the former imperial Incan capital of Cusco.