Peru » Cusco | 🏛 Machu Picchu Rail Tours · Cusco Food Tour · Sacred Valley Of The Incas Tours

Cusco & Machu Picchu: Sacred Valley, Pisac & 2-Day Train Tour

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.89 (18 reviews)

Instant confirmation

1/9

Duration2d

GroupUp to 15

LanguagesEN · ES

PickupAt your hotel

Two days from Cusco to Machu Picchu, with the Sacred Valley in between

You get picked up from your Cusco hotel, spend day one seeing Pisac ruins and market, Ollantaytambo fortress, and eating a buffet lunch of regional dishes, then take a train to Aguas Calientes where you sleep. Day two is a sunrise guided tour of Machu Picchu, time to explore on your own, and a train back to Cusco by evening. All transport, meals, entry tickets, and the professional guide are included; you just need to confirm your hotel and passport details after booking.

Step-by-step itinerary

Day 1 — Sacred Valley tour and train to Machu Picchu

Pick up from hotel in Cusco
Visit Pisac ruins and textile market
Tour Ollantaytambo Inca site
Buffet lunch in Urubamba
Train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu
Check in at hotel in Aguas Calientes

Day 2 — Machu Picchu guided tour and return

Bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu
2.5-hour guided Machu Picchu tour
Optional Machu Picchu Mountain hike
Bus back to Aguas Calientes
Train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo
Bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco main plaza

The Experience

Our guide, Marco, was waiting outside the hotel at 7:15 in the morning with a thermos of coffee and a folder of maps. He asked where we were from, made a joke about the altitude that I didn't quite catch, and then we were moving through Cusco toward Taray, the lookout point where you can see the whole Sacred Valley spread out below you like a relief map. The valley itself is what stays with you first — not Machu Picchu yet, but the terraces and the river and the way the light changes as you drop down into it. Marco pointed out which ruins were ceremonial, which were military, which were just where people lived, and it mattered because you stopped seeing it as a postcard and started seeing it as a place where decisions got made.

Day one moves through three sites. Pisac comes first — the ruins sit high above the market, and you walk through both. The market is still working, still loud, still selling potatoes and woven blankets to locals, not just to tourists, which changes how it feels. Then Ollantaytambo, the fortress that guards the valley entrance, where the stonework is so precise you can't fit a knife blade between the blocks. By mid-afternoon you're in Urubamba eating buffet-style Peruvian food — ceviche, lomo saltado, quinoa soup — and then the train leaves Ollantaytambo at either 4:36pm or 7pm depending on availability. The train itself is the transition. You watch the valley narrow into a canyon, the river get louder, the air get warmer. By the time you reach Aguas Calientes, the town at the base, it's dark and you're staying at a 3-star hotel with breakfast included, a private room, a private bathroom. Most people sleep better than they expect.

Day two starts early. A bus takes you up to the Machu Picchu entrance — the road has switchbacks and the bus driver knows every one. You get entry tickets for the morning shift and a 2.5-hour guided tour at sunrise, which is when the site actually looks like the photographs. Marco walked us through the Temple of the Sun, the agricultural terraces, the water channels, explained what each section was for. After the tour ends around noon, you can stay on your own — hike to the Sun Gate, hike to the Inca Bridge, or add the Machu Picchu Mountain hike for $25 extra if there's space. Most people take an hour or two alone, sit somewhere quiet, then head back down. The return train leaves Aguas Calientes in the afternoon, gets you to Ollantaytambo by evening, and a driver meets you there to drive back to Cusco's main plaza.

The whole thing is two nights away from Cusco, three trains, four archaeological sites, one market, one meal that tastes like the region actually cooks. You need to email your hotel address, passport number, and any hotel upgrades right after booking — that's the one piece of admin that matters. If you want to add a mountain hike, ask then too, because availability fills up fast.

What’s included

Hotel pickup in Cusco at 7:15am.
guided tour of the Sacred Valley including Taray lookout, Pisac ruins, Pisac textile market, and Ollantaytambo fortress.
buffet-style Peruvian lunch in Urubamba.
train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (Voyager or Expedition class).
one night accommodation in a 3-star hotel in Aguas Calientes with private room, private bathroom, and breakfast.
bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu entrance and back.
entry tickets to Machu Picchu Citadel.
2.5-hour sunrise guided tour of Machu Picchu with professional English or Spanish-speaking guide.
return train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo.
pickup from Ollantaytambo station and drop-off at Cusco's Plaza San Francisco.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by MachuPicchu.Center

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley without arranging trains, entry tickets, hotels, and timing yourself — the fixed two-day schedule and included transport handle all of that, leaving you to focus on the sites.