Cusco: Sacred Valley Pisac & Ollantaytambo Private Day Trip

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.67 (3 reviews)

Instant confirmation

1/6

Duration10h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Two Inca fortresses in one day, starting before the market crowds arrive

You're picked up from your Cusco hotel at 8:30 a.m. and driven to Pisac, where you explore the temple ruins and agricultural terraces with a bilingual guide; then visit the artisan market in the town below. After a buffet lunch in Urubamba, you head to Ollantaytambo fortress for a guided walk through its main sectors, with the option to hike to the top. Private transport and guide are included; you return to your hotel by early evening.

10h

Step-by-step itinerary

Sacred Valley Inca Ruins and Market

Pick up from Cusco hotels
Travel to Pisaq ruins
Explore Pisaq agricultural terraces
See intiwatana and Inca buildings
Visit Pisaq artisan market
Enjoy buffet lunch in Sacred Valley
Travel to Ollantaytambo town
Tour Ollantaytambo fortress
Return to Cusco city
Drop off at hotels in Cusco

The Experience

There's something about standing in front of Pisac's agricultural terraces that makes you want to understand how the Incas thought. The ruins climb the mountainside in a pattern that looks almost mathematical — thousands of stepped fields that fed an empire, built 500 years ago without mortar or machinery. Your guide walks you through the temple at the center, where an intiwatana (a solar clock carved from stone) still sits exactly where Inca nobility once stood. It's the kind of detail that stays with you.

After Pisac, you drop into the modern town below, where the artisan market fills the main plaza. Descendants of the Incas still trade here much like their ancestors did — exchanging goods, haggling over alpaca wool and silver jewelry. It's not a tourist trap dressed up as tradition; it's the actual thing, which means it's messier and more real. You'll have time to walk through, buy something if you want, or just watch how the market moves. Then comes lunch in Urubamba, in the heart of the valley itself, before the afternoon push to Ollantaytambo.

Ollantaytambo is the second fortress, and it's steeper. The hike up takes effort — bring water, wear shoes that grip — but the view from the top shows you why the Incas chose this spot. Your private guide explains the construction as you move through the main sectors, and you start to see how these two sites were part of the same system, the same vision. The Sacred Valley wasn't just beautiful; it was engineered. By the time you're back in Cusco around 7 p.m., you've covered the two most important Inca architectural remains in the region without arranging transport, timing yourself, or waiting for a group to move.

What’s included

Hotel pickup and return to Cusco.
private transport throughout the day.
bilingual private guide.
lunch buffet in Urubamba.
entry to Pisac ruins and market.
entry to Ollantaytambo fortress.

Good to know

Moderate physical levelInfant seats availableNot for pregnant travelersNot for heart conditionsNot for back problemsInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Esteban Adventure Agencia de Operadora de Turismo.

Is this one for you?Choose this if you want to see the two most important Inca sites in the Sacred Valley without renting a car, hiring a separate guide, or timing yourself around a group schedule — the private transport and fixed itinerary handle all three.