Cusco: 2-Day Inca Trail & Machu Picchu with Sun Gate

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Free cancellationExcellent qualityLikely to sell out

1/37

Duration2d

GroupUp to 8

LanguagesEN · PT +1

PickupAt your hotel

Two days on the Inca Trail without the altitude or the tent

You hike the Inca Trail's most famous sections—Wiñay Wayna and the Sun Gate—in two days instead of four, sleeping in a hotel rather than camping and never climbing above 2,650 metres. Your guide handles the ruins tour at Machu Picchu the next morning, and all transport, meals, train tickets and entry are included. You return to Cusco the same evening.

Step-by-step itinerary

Day 1 — Cusco to Aguas Calientes via Inca Trail

Pick up from hotel in Cusco
Drive to Ollantaytambo train station
Board train to Km 104 trailhead
Verify permit at trail control
Hike uphill to Winay Wayna
Tour Winay Wayna complex
Lunch at campsite
Hike to Sun Gate (Inti Punku)
View Machu Picchu from Sun Gate
Bus down to Aguas Calientes
Check in to ensuite hotel

Day 2 — Machu Picchu tour and return to Cusco

Receive snack box at hotel
Bus to Machu Picchu citadel
Two-hour guided Machu Picchu tour
Optional climb to Machu Picchu or Huayna Picchu
Optional hike to Sun Gate viewpoint
Bus back to Aguas Calientes
Train to Ollantaytambo
Transfer to hotel in Cusco

The Experience

Most people think the Inca Trail means four days at 13,000 feet with a sleeping bag. This version doesn't. You hike the same iconic route—Wiñay Wayna, the Sun Gate, the first glimpse of Machu Picchu—but you sleep in a hotel bed in Aguas Calientes and top out at 2,650 metres instead of pushing higher. The trade is real: you get the highlights compressed into two days, which means less time above the clouds but also no camping, no altitude sickness risk, and a route that works for families with kids who'd never survive the full four-day version.

Day one starts early from your Cusco hotel. A driver takes you through the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo, where you board the tourist train to the trailhead at Km 104. Your guide meets you there, checks your permit against your passport, and the hike begins—a gradual climb through changing microclimates, from high grassland down into cloud forest. You'll stop at Wiñay Wayna (the name means "forever young" in Quechua), tour the ruins there, eat lunch at the campsite, then push on to the Sun Gate. That's where it hits you: Machu Picchu, suddenly visible below, the way it's been seen for five hundred years. After that moment, you descend by bus to Aguas Calientes and check into your hotel—a real room with an ensuite bathroom, not a tent.

The second day is gentler. You get a snack box from the hotel, take a 25-minute bus ride up to the citadel, and spend two hours with your guide walking through the main sites. If you want to climb Machu Picchu Mountain or Huayna Picchu (the steep one), your guide will point you to the entrance; if you'd rather not, the Sun Gate hike offers the same view without the scramble. After the tour, you bus back down, catch the train to Ollantaytambo, and a representative meets you for the drive back to Cusco—you'll arrive around 9 PM. The whole thing is fixed: transport, train, hotel, meals, guide, entry fees. You don't arrange any of it.

What’s included

Hotel pickup and drop-off in Cusco.
round-trip Expedition train tickets from Ollantaytambo to Km 104 and back.
one night in an ensuite 3-star hotel in Aguas Calientes.
breakfast and lunch.
entry permits for the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu citadel.
bus transport from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu and back.
professional English-speaking guide for the hike and citadel tour.
all round-trip transfers between your hotel and train stations.

Good to know

Moderate physical levelNot for pregnant travelersNot for heart conditions

Operated by Machu Picchu Tours

Is this one for you?Choose this if you want the iconic Inca Trail experience—Wiñay Wayna, the Sun Gate, Machu Picchu—without four days of high-altitude camping or the logistics of arranging trains, permits, hotels and guides separately. The fixed itinerary and included transport mean you show up at your hotel and the rest is handled.