Peru » Cusco

Sacred Valley Cusco: Pisac Ruins & Ollantaytambo with Lunch

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Free cancellation

1/9

Duration10h

GroupUp to 15

LanguagesEN · ES

PickupAt your hotel

Three Incan Sites in One Day: Pisac Market to Ollantaytambo's Temple

You're picked up from your Cusco hotel at 8:30am and driven through the Sacred Valley to visit Pisac's working market and ruins, then Ollantaytambo's Temple of the Sun with its precisely carved stone blocks, and finally Chinchero's colonial-era church. Lunch and a professional guide are included; the return to Cusco happens in the late afternoon.

10h

Step-by-step itinerary

Pick up from hotel at 8:30am
Travel from Cusco to Pisac
Visit Pisac traditional market
Explore Pisac ruins and views
Visit Ollantaytambo Incan constructions
See temple of the sun and terraces
Visit church and archaeological site in Chinchero

The Experience

You'll meet your guide at your hotel in Cusco at 8:30am, and from there the drive into the Sacred Valley takes about an hour. The first stop is Pisac's market — and this is where things get real. Your guide will probably point out which stalls sell actual goods for locals and which ones are angled toward tourists, and if you ask the right questions, you'll hear stories about how the market has changed in the last decade. Thirty minutes there gives you time to walk through without rushing, pick up some woven textiles or alpaca goods if you want them, and get a sense of how the valley still works as a place where people live and trade, not just a museum.

After the market, you climb up to the Pisac ruins themselves. The site spreads across the mountainside — agricultural terraces, ceremonial platforms, and stone structures that still stand after five centuries. Your guide will walk you through the layout and explain why the Incas built here: the climate, the water access, the defensible position. The views down the valley are the kind that make you understand why this place mattered. You're not rushed through; the pace lets you absorb the scale of it. From Pisac, you drive to Ollantaytambo, where the Temple of the Sun dominates the site. The blocks of stone are enormous and fitted so precisely that you can't slide a knife blade between them. Your guide will show you the water fountains carved into the rock, the staircases, the way the whole thing was engineered. It's the kind of craftsmanship that stops you mid-sentence.

Lunch happens during the tour — included, so you don't have to find a restaurant or negotiate prices. After Ollantaytambo, you visit Chinchero, a smaller archaeological site with a colonial church built on top of Incan foundations. It's the kind of layered history that tells you something about how the Spanish conquest actually worked on the ground. The drive back to Cusco takes you through the valley as the light changes, and you're dropped at your hotel in the late afternoon. The whole day is structured around the Sacred Valley's three main stops, which means you see the progression of Incan construction and settlement without having to piece together your own route.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup at 8:30am, private transportation throughout the Sacred Valley, a professional guide who explains the Incan history and construction at each site, 30 minutes at Pisac's traditional market, time to explore the Pisac and Ollantaytambo ruins and the Temple of the Sun, a visit to Chinchero's archaeological site and colonial church, lunch during the tour, and return transport to your Cusco hotel in the late afternoon.

Good to know

Easy physical levelInfant seats availableNot for pregnant travelersInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Dream Adventure Life

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see the Sacred Valley's three main Incan sites in a single day without arranging your own transport, hiring a separate guide, or figuring out the timing between stops — the fixed itinerary and included lunch mean you show up at your hotel and the logistics are handled.