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Cusco: Moray & Maras Salt Mines with Sacred Valley Guide

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Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/14

Duration6h

GroupUp to 16

LanguagesEN · PT +1

PickupAt your hotel

What did the Incas grow in a circular pit? The answer is at Moray.

You're picked up at your Cusco hotel and driven to Moray, where you walk the concentric terraces of an Inca agricultural laboratory. After exploring how ancient farmers tested crops, you travel to Maras to see 3,000 salt ponds still worked by hand. Lunch and all entrance fees are included, and a bilingual guide explains the engineering and history. You're back at your hotel by mid-afternoon.

Step-by-step itinerary

Pick up at hotel in Cusco
Visit Moray agricultural terraces
Travel to Maras village
Explore Maras Salt Mines
Return to Cusco and drop off

The Experience

How do you test 250 crop varieties without modern equipment? You build concentric terraces that drop like a stadium into the earth, each level a few degrees cooler than the one above. That's Moray—an ancient agricultural laboratory where Inca farmers ran experiments that still baffle agronomists. Hotel pickup happens in the morning from your Cusco accommodation, and the drive into the Sacred Valley takes you past eucalyptus and potato fields that look almost unchanged since then. Your guide walks you down into the terraces, pointing out how the design itself was the technology: temperature gradients, water flow, soil composition all engineered into the stone.

After Moray, you head to Maras, a small colonial town that sits between two worlds—Spanish architecture layered over Inca foundations. The real draw is what lies below it: the Salineras, over 3,000 salt ponds that have been worked continuously since before the Spanish arrived. Locals still extract salt the same way their ancestors did, channeling mineral-rich spring water into shallow terraces where the sun does the work. The ponds are dyed rust, cream, and pale green depending on the mineral content and evaporation stage. You walk among them with your bilingual guide (Spanish and Portuguese), who explains the chemistry and the economics—salt farming here is still a living trade, not a museum piece. Lunch is included, and you'll eat it somewhere with a view of the valley.

The whole tour runs half a day, which means you're back in Cusco by early afternoon. You'll need your Cusco Tourist Ticket for entry to Moray—pick it up beforehand or ask your guide about it when you're picked up. The vehicle is air-conditioned, which matters at this altitude. Bottled water is provided. Children under five don't pay if they sit on an adult's lap, and infant seats are available on request.

What’s included

Hotel pickup and drop-off in Cusco, round-trip transportation in an air-conditioned vehicle, entrance fees to Moray and the Maras Salt Mines, a lunch box, bottled water, and a professional bilingual tour guide in Spanish and Portuguese.

Good to know

Easy physical levelInfant seats availableNot for heart conditionsInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Viagens Machu Picchu

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see two of the Sacred Valley's most distinctive sites—an Inca agricultural laboratory and working salt mines—without arranging transport or tickets yourself. The half-day format fits a morning or afternoon slot around other Cusco plans.