Sacred Valley Full-Day Private Tour: Four Incan Sites

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/5

Duration9h–10h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Four Incan sites in one day: fortress, agricultural laboratory, salt mines, weaving town

A full-day private tour of the Sacred Valley with a local guide, starting from Urubamba or Ollantaytambo and visiting Ollantaytambo Ruins, Moray Agricultural Terraces, Maras Salt Pools and Chinchero. The guide sets the pace, answers questions as you go, and skips the commission-driven stops that eat into standard group tours. Pickup from your accommodation is included; lunch you choose and pay for separately at a local restaurant.

9h–10h

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Sacred Valley highlights

Visit Ollantaytambo ruins
Drive to Moray terraces
Explore Moray agricultural terraces
Drive to Maras salt pools
Visit Maras salt mines
Lunch at local restaurant
Drive to Chinchero
Visit Chinchero ruins and weaving centers
Return to hotel

The Experience

The day starts at Ollantaytambo, one of the grandest Inca sites in the Sacred Valley. You walk the terraces, see the Temple of the Sun and the Water Temple with its ceremonial fountains—a guide who knows the place explains what you're standing in front of instead of reading from a script. From there it's about an hour to Moray, where the Inca built circular agricultural terraces in a natural bowl, each ring a different microclimate for experimenting with crops. It's unlike anything else in the valley and the guide can answer the questions that come up as you walk it.

After Moray, a 30-minute drive takes you to Maras, where locals have been harvesting salt from a subterranean stream since before the Inca arrived. The salt pools cascade down the mountainside in geometric ponds, each one evaporating the mineral water at a different rate. You have time to walk through them and watch the process. Then you stop for lunch at a local restaurant in the area—you choose what to eat and pay for it yourself—before heading to Chinchero, a small town set high in the mountains with views across the valley, traditional textile weaving centers where you can see how the locals work, and well-preserved Incan ruins. The drive back to your hotel takes about an hour.

The tour runs 9 to 10 hours total, though about 5 and a half of that is actual time at the sites; the rest is travel between them. Because it's private, you move at your own pace and the guide adjusts to what interests you. There are no stops at shops that pay commission to the operator—you see the real Sacred Valley instead of the sales pitch version.

What’s included

Pickup from your accommodation.
private transportation in a vehicle with the guide.
a local English-speaking guide for the full day.
entry to all four sites (Ollantaytambo Ruins, Moray Agricultural Terraces, Maras Salt Pools and Chinchero).
taxes.

Good to know

Easy physical levelNot for heart conditions

Operated by Cusco Local Friend

Is this one for you?Spend one full day seeing four distinctive Incan sites—Ollantaytambo, Moray, Maras Salt Pools, and Chinchero—with a private guide who moves at your pace and skips the souvenir shop stops that slow down group tours.