Transfer Lima Airport / Hotel (Private Service)
Upon arrival into Lima International Airport, you will be met by our representative and private driver and will be transferred to your hotel. Our representative will help you with check-in and will provide you with additional information about organizing your trip to Peru, as well as contact information for our offices for each city and a 24-hour emergency number.
Half day Cultural Lima City tour (Private Service)
Enjoy a half day guided sightseeing tour to the most attractive and important sites in Lima, the "City of Kings". Visit Lima's Historical Center, passing by Plaza San Martin, Plaza Mayor, the Government Palace, the City Hall, the Banco Central de Reserva Museum with a representation of Peruvian Art dating from ancient times to the 21st Century, and the Santo Domingo Convent.
Your visit continues with a stop at Larco Herrera Museum, for an excellent overview of Peru's ancient past as it holds the best private collection of pre-Columbian art in the country. You will have the chance to tour through this old Hacienda House in the Pueblo Libre district, which was built upon a pre-Incan sacred site (huaca), housing the private collection of a great Peruvian scholar: Don Rafael Larco Hoyle.
The museum chronologically exhibits hundreds of ceramics, textile, metal and precious stone pieces and also inside you will find the vault which safeguards precious pieces of gold and silver with semiprecious stones. The Larco Museum is one of the few museums in the world that allows such intimate access to its deposits, in this case around 45,000 pieces. Another attraction of the museum and of great interest to visitors is the exhibition of erotic pre-Colombian art.
Continue with a delicious meal at Café del Museo Restaurant, located within the Museum compound.
Café del Museo Restaurant Offers visitors a taste of the best Peruvian and international cuisine, in a romantic and welcoming atmosphere. With a varied and select homemade menu, we seek to rediscover the flavours, products and customs of the different regions of Peru, confirming that this country is an extraordinary gastronomic and cultural destination.
Transfer Hotel / Lima Airport (private)
At the appropriate time, our representative will meet you at the hotel lobby and transfer you to the Lima Airport to board your next flight. Our representative will assist you with check-in procedures and all departure formalities.
Note: The tour starts at the Cusco Airport
Full day Textile Center, Pisac Market & Pablo Seminario Ceramic Workshop (Private Service)
Today you will have the opportunity to visit an Andean textile center whose key objective is to maintain the wealth of the Inca’s textile art and keep their traditions alive. Here you will learn about the dyeing techniques and instruments used for hundreds of years in the weaving of these famous textiles.
You will walk along a thatched roof path and will watch and learn about the four different kinds of South American camelids: Huanaco, Llama, Alpaca and Vicuña. At the end of the path, you will find weavers from over 12 communities from southern Peru who alternate exhibitions of threading, dying and weaving traditional Andean textiles, thus avoiding their identity loss.
Continuing through the Sacred Valley, head to the Pisac Markets, which was the place of reunion for all artisans of the region to get together and exchange or buy and sell their products. Originally held only on Sundays, but due to the increase of tourism in the area during the XXth century it became increasingly popular to the point that now it is held daily.
It is a favourite destination for visitors from all over the world who don’t want to miss the opportunity of enjoying the colourful ambience in this marketplace. This is an excellent chance to share the peasants’ customs closely with plenty of time to explore and even barter all the goods and crafts typical of the areas around Cusco. Leisurely roam through the textiles and souvenir sections of the market.
Our last stop is at Pablo Seminario’s Ceramic Workshop, where you will observe creations in progress and with luck maybe even meet the own artist Pablo Seminario as he mainly works in his studio year-round. He dedicates his life to the discovery of techniques and designs from ancient Peruvian cultures and every production of his studio presents a new art expression, providing continuity to these cultural inheritances. In his atelier, Pablo Seminario works on the drafts of winged men and magic creatures with crowned heads and round eyes, which resemble traditional pre-Inca pieces.
Inside the working rooms, a group of artisans trained by the family draw and paint cups, vases, and lamps with great accuracy and skill by using long brushes submerged in coloured paints. At the end of your visit, you will have the opportunity to take a look at the exhibition shop and why not maybe even buy one of their unique pieces.
- Box lunch
Sacred Valley /Aguas Calientes (B/L/D)
Full Day visit to Chinchero Village, Maras Saltpans & Ollantaytambo Fortress Private Service)
Today you will set off in the direction of the Sacred Valley to the town of Chinchero, an authentic Andean village with lots of character, where we will find the colonial church that houses a large collection of painting from the Cusqueñan School of Art.
Chinchero is well known for its continuing tradition as a commercial town and on Sundays the townsfolk gather in the main square to trade their products in a bartering system.
Continue your excursion to the salt fields of Maras and its seemingly never-ending terraces, where salt extracted from springs is stored and once supplied to the southern highlands during the viceroyalty. The use of Maras Salt dates back thousands of years and is inherited from generation to generation and managed communally.
Salt is extracted once a month, as soon as they have reached a height of 10 cm. It is impressive to see the variety of colours created by the reflection of the sun’s rays in this field of salt deposits, and to learn about the Incas striking ability to generate resources.
Then, you will head to the Inca fortress and citadel of Ollantaytambo. This fortress was believed to be constructed to guard the entrance to this part of the valley and protect it from possible invasions of tribes from the jungle lowlands. Later it served as a temporary capital for Manco Inca, leader of the Inca resistance in 1537 during the Spanish conquest of Perú, who fortified the town to stop the advance, as Cusco had fallen under Spanish domination.
The archaeological site includes a series of superimposed terraces and stunning finely carved stone blocks located on the upper terrace or Temple of the Sun. The town of Ollantaytambo is referred to as a "Live Inca Town" because inhabitants still live according to customs and traditions inherited from their ancestors.
Lunch at Belmond Rio Sagrado
Experience a truly unique dining experience and spoil your senses in a mansion and garden restaurant with breath-taking views of the Peruvian Andes in the magical Sacred Valley of the Incas.
PM: Transfer to Ollantaytambo Train station / Vistadome train to Aguas Calientes
Along the way you will enjoy the changing landscape as you travel from Andean highlands to the beginnings of the jungle (“eyebrow of the jungle”), before finally arriving at the town of Aguas Calientes.
Dinner will be served at the hotel.
AM: Explore Machu Picchu, the citadel of the Incas
Morning begins the visit to the famous Inca Citadel of Machu Picchu, the great mountain-top city abandoned by the Inca Empire, reclaimed by the jungle, and lost to humanity until its rediscovery in 1911.
From here, board the bus that will take you on a 20-minute ride up to the citadel of Machu Picchu, or Lost City of the Incas, which sits upon the summit bearing the same name, and is one of the most representative and recognized examples of Incan architecture. A guided tour of the Citadel includes the Main Plaza, the Circular Tower, the Sacred Sun Dial, the Royal Quarters, the Temple of the Three Windows, and various burial grounds.
The legendary 'Lost City' is without a doubt one of the world's most impressive archaeological sites. Built by the Incas on the summit of "Machu Picchu" (old peak), overlooking the deep canyon of the Urubamba River in a semi-tropical area 120 Kms (75 miles) from the city of Cusco at 3,400 m.a.s.l (11,155 f.a.s.l).
It sits on a mountain site of extraordinary beauty, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest; Machu Picchu was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height, with its giant walls, terraces and ramps, which appear as though they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. Machu Picchu is also one of the Inca's best kept secrets, since they did not leave written records and Spanish chronicles make no mention of the citadel, it remains a mystery.
Lunch a la carte at Sumaq Machu Picchu Hotel.
A high quality novoandean-international buffet restaurant situated right at the entrance of Machu Picchu, located in the same building as the luxury Belmond Sanctuary Lodge property.
PM: Return to Cusco (Private Service)
In the afternoon, at the appropriate time, take the shuttle bus to Aguas Calientes and then board your return train. Upon arrival at the train station, you will be met by our representative and a private driver who will transfer you to the hotel.
Half day Cusco City Tour incl San Pedro Market & Sacsayhuaman (private)
During the tour you will be able to admire fine examples of Inca history and architecture found throughout the stone streets of this charming city. First stop is the main square, Plaza de Armas, home to the magnificent Cathedral and Santo Domingo Church which was built upon the foundations of the Inca temple Koricancha dedicated to the worship of the Sun God. The tour continues with a visit to San Pedro Market, a popular place for locals to meet for a hot meal or fresh juice and purchase regional produce. Continue on to the fortress ruins of Sacsayhuamán, a magnificent example of Incan military power with a panoramic view of Cusco city.
Transfer Hotel / Cusco Airport (private)
At the appropriate time, our representative will meet you at the hotel lobby and transfer you to Cusco Airport to board your next flight. Our representative will assist you with check-in procedures and all departure formalities.
Lima Airport assistance (private)
Upon arrival into Lima International Airport, you will be met by our representative who will assist you with check-in procedures and any departure formalities for your next flight.
