From Lima’s markets to stone cities above the clouds
When to go
April-October
Trip length
10 days / 9 nights
Typical investmentPrice
from $7,260 pp
This 9-night journey covers Peru’s classic southern route at an easier pace. Start with two days in Lima, tasting your way through Barranco and the Surquillo market before the flight into the Andes. Spend three nights acclimatizing in the Sacred Valley among Inca terraces and the salt pans of Maras, ride the rail line into Machu Picchu for two full days at the citadel, and finish in Cusco tracing Inca stonework beneath its colonial churches.
Along the way
Two full days to explore ancient Machu Picchu
Visit Chinchero’s weavers and the salt pans of Maras
Taste your way through Lima’s food scene, from Surquillo market to Barranco
Cobblestones & colonial beauty in Cusco
Your route
Market counters, colonial streets & Pacific light
Arrive in Lima and settle in above the Pacific in Miraflores. Spend the afternoon walking the clifftop Malecón or resting after the flight, with the evening free for a first ceviche dinner nearby.
Explore the historic center and the Surquillo market with a private guide, tasting your way through ceviche, causa, and the coastal ingredients that built Peru’s reputation as a food capital. In the evening, walk Barranco’s murals and rooftop bars for a slower night out.
Inca terraces, salt pans & highland villages
Fly to Cusco and descend straight into the Sacred Valley, trading the city’s altitude for the gentler air of Urubamba. Settle into your valley hotel, gardens and mountain views on every side, and spend the afternoon easing in before dinner.
Explore Pisac’s hillside ruins and market with your guide, then continue to Moray’s circular Inca terraces, thought to be an agricultural laboratory for testing crops across different microclimates, and the salt pans of Maras, still worked by local families using channels built centuries ago.
Visit a weaving cooperative in Chinchero, where women demonstrate natural dyeing and backstrap-loom techniques passed down through generations, then continue to Ollantaytambo to climb its Inca terraces and walk the living town below, still laid out on its original Inca street grid.
From citadel stone to colonial courtyards
Board the train through the Urubamba Valley toward Machu Picchu, the canyon narrowing as farmland gives way to cloud forest. Settle into your hotel in Aguas Calientes, then join your guide for a first timed entry to the citadel as the afternoon light softens.
Return with your guide for another circuit, focused on what got rushed the first day: the Temple of the Condor, the agricultural terraces, or a quiet corner away from the main viewpoint. Travel back to Cusco by rail and private transfer in the afternoon.
Explore Cusco with a private guide, tracing Inca foundations beneath colonial churches and courtyards, from the Coricancha’s polished stonework to the narrow lanes of San Blas. Settle into your hotel just off the main plaza.
Spend the morning at San Pedro Market or a hands-on chocolate workshop at ChocoMuseo, then keep the afternoon open for a museum, a nearby ruin like Sacsayhuamán, or a long lunch in the sun.
Transfer to the airport for onward travel.
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Our top picks
Hotel B places 20 art-filled rooms inside a restored 1914 Belle Époque mansion in Barranco. More than 300 works, a destination restaurant, rooftop terrace, and walkable access to galleries and the Pacific clifftops make art and neighborhood life central to the stay.
Atemporal contains only six rooms inside a 1940 Tudor-style house in Miraflores. An honesty bar, house kitchen, garden, and highly personal staff create the feeling of staying in a private Lima residence rather than a conventional hotel.
Miraflores Park is an all-suite Belmond hotel with 87 rooms overlooking Lima’s Pacific coastline. A rooftop pool, spa, two restaurants, broad rooms, and a position between Miraflores and Barranco make it the city’s strongest full-service luxury option.
Palacio Nazarenas places 55 oxygen-enriched suites around seven courtyards in a former palace and convent near Cusco’s Plaza de Armas. Twenty-four-hour butler service, a botanical spa, restaurant by Pía León, and the city’s first heated outdoor pool define the stay.
Monasterio places 97 rooms and 20 suites around a 16th-century seminary courtyard near Cusco’s Plaza de Armas. Religious art, a historic chapel, live opera, oxygen-enriched categories, two restaurants, and a centuries-old cedar tree preserve the character of the former monastery.
Tambo del Inka places 128 rooms and suites beside the Urubamba River in a full-service Sacred Valley resort. A large indoor-outdoor pool, extensive spa, three restaurants, gardens, family facilities, and a private rail station for selected Machu Picchu trains distinguish it from smaller valley hotels.
Sol y Luna spreads 43 freestanding casitas through approximately 25 acres of gardens in the Sacred Valley. Horses, spa, pool, two restaurants, riding, mountain activities, and a foundation supporting local education give the hotel both resort depth and a clear social purpose.
Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba combines 12 rooms in a main hacienda house with 24 standalone casitas across a hillside above the Sacred Valley. Fireplaces, terraces, a working farm, spa, earth-to-table dining, and approximately 100 acres create a quiet residential alternative to larger resorts.
Sanctuary Lodge places 31 rooms and suites only 50 meters from the entrance to Machu Picchu. Two restaurants, a bar, subtropical gardens, Andean treatments, and immediate access to the site make location, not resort scale, the defining luxury.
Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel spreads 83 adobe casitas through cloud forest, waterfalls, gardens, and stone paths at the edge of Machu Picchu Pueblo. Orchid walks, birding, tea, spa, dining, and several room formats create a nature-led alternative to staying beside the citadel.
The first hotel in the Sacred Valley with a solar-heated pool, set at a lower, easier-to-acclimatize altitude directly on the Urubamba River, with extensive gardens where alpacas graze and the PeruRail line runs past the property. On-property train access to Machu Picchu is seasonal rather than guaranteed year-round, there are no in-room televisions, and the lower elevation means less dramatic mountain scenery than higher Sacred Valley properties.
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