Peru in 10 days: Lima, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cusco

Why this order works

Ten days leave no room for three regions: this route keeps two, Lima and the Cusco area, and gives them the time they deserve. The first two days are spent at sea level, to recover from the time difference, pick up your first bearings in Spanish and understand the country’s history in a museum before finding it again on the sites.

On day 3, the plane lands in Cusco, at about 3,400 m. Instead of sleeping there, this programme goes straight down to the Sacred Valley and spends three nights in Urubamba, at about 2,870 m. The valley’s visits take place between that valley floor and the Chinchero plateau (about 3,750 m), then you reach Machu Picchu, lower still (about 2,430 m). Cusco comes last, when the body has already spent four days at altitude. This progression avoids starting with the highest night of the trip; it does not, however, protect against altitude sickness. The signs that require going down or seeing a doctor are detailed in the Altitude guide.

The return to Lima takes place on day 9, not day 10: a delayed or cancelled domestic flight then does not make you miss the international flight.

The two transfer days

This calendar has two transfer days:

• Day 3, Lima → Cusco → Urubamba. The flight takes about 1 hr 25 min; the road from Cusco to Urubamba, about 1 hr by car, 1 hr 30 min by bus, for some 45 km. With the time spent at Lima airport, it is a full day, even if the journeys themselves look short.
• Day 9, Cusco → Lima. A morning flight frees up the afternoon, but the day is still built around the airport.

Day 7 strings together the visit to Machu Picchu, the train and the road: it is the longest day of the trip, without being a transfer.

Where you sleep, and at what altitude

Total: nine nights. The first two are spent at sea level, the next six at altitude, the last one back in Lima.

Day by day: what each stop brings

Days 1 and 2: Lima, to understand before you see

The first evening has only one aim: reaching your accommodation without complications. The Arriving in Lima guide compares the ways of leaving the airport.

Day 2 is a dense day, in two parts. In the morning, the historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site: the Plaza Mayor brings together the cathedral, the government palace and the city hall; a few streets away, the San Francisco convent can be visited with its library and its catacombs. The detailed walk is on the Historic centre page. In the afternoon, the Museo Larco, in Pueblo Libre, presents the cultures that followed one another on Peruvian territory over thousands of years: seeing pre-Hispanic ceramics and textiles the day before leaving for Cusco gives meaning to the Inca sites you will see next. Use a booked taxi between the two: the two neighbourhoods are not next to each other.

Days 3 to 5: the Sacred Valley, sleeping lower than Cusco

On day 3, the plane lands in Cusco. A car or a booked transfer goes straight down to Urubamba, on the floor of the Urubamba valley (the river bears the town’s name). No sightseeing that day: slow walking, a light meal, an early night.

Day 4 is deliberately short. Pisac is both a village by the river, with a market of crafts and farm produce, and a large Inca site perched on the mountain. The farming terraces climbing the slope show how the Incas cultivated very steep hillsides. If you feel a headache or unusual breathlessness, stay in the village and leave the site for another trip.

Day 5 climbs onto the plateau. In Chinchero (about 3,750 m), the colonial church was built on Inca foundations; workshops show spinning, natural dyeing and weaving, sold directly. Moray presents terraces arranged in concentric circles in natural hollows: the most often suggested hypothesis is that of a place for agricultural experiments, but it remains an interpretation. The Maras salt pans, finally, are hundreds of pools fed by a salty spring, worked by families from the community: you look at them from the authorised paths, without walking on the pools. Moray and Pisac are covered by circuit III of the Boleto Turístico (S/ 70); the salt pans have a separate ticket.

Days 6 and 7: Machu Picchu, without a train at dawn

Day 6 begins in Ollantaytambo, downstream from Urubamba, where the train leaves. The village has kept its Inca layout, with its streets and water channels; above, the site combines terraces and a group of large stone blocks. The afternoon train goes down in about 1 hr 30 min to Machu Picchu Pueblo. Take a small bag for the night: PeruRail allows one 8 kg backpack (100 cm, sum of the three sides) or one 12 kg piece of hand luggage (115 cm), Inca Rail one 8 kg piece of hand luggage (118 cm, sum of the three sides). Large suitcases stay at the hotel in Urubamba or in left luggage at the station, and you collect them on the way back up.

On day 7, the shuttle bus climbs to the site (about USD 24 (foreign visitor) return according to the press in January 2026; the service is in a provisional situation). The choice of circuit determines what you will see: circuit 2, recommended for a first visit, combines an overall view and a walk through several sectors of the city, depending on the day’s openings; the view from the upper terraces belongs to circuit 1. The Machu Picchu page describes the three circuits and the ten routes. After the visit, afternoon train to Ollantaytambo, then road to Cusco.

Day 8: Cusco, the Inca city beneath the colonial city

The centre of Cusco keeps the layout and many walls of the former Inca capital. The Santo Domingo convent was built on the Qorikancha, the city’s main temple, whose fitted-stone walls remain visible. Hatun Rumiyuq street has a wall famous for its twelve-angled stone. The San Blas district climbs in steep lanes; the San Pedro market lets you have lunch at a counter and see Andean produce. Note: the Qorikancha temple and the site museum of the same name are not the same visit, nor the same ticket. The Cusco page details this point.

Days 9 and 10: return and spare day

The flight on day 9 brings you back to Lima early in the day. The afternoon is free: the Miraflores malecón, the district of Barranco, or the Museo Larco if you kept it for the end. Day 10 is a spare day: a meal, a last market, nothing that cannot be dropped if a flight has been moved.

Around the Machu Picchu ticket: three scenarios

The Machu Picchu ticket is booked for a date, a circuit and an entry time, with a tolerance of 30 minutes in low season, 45 minutes in high season. It is what fixes days 6 and 7.

Book the ticket before the trains, then the trains before the nights. The other way round often means paying for changes.

Budget: the items to add up

This table lists what this route costs, item by item. The amounts shown are official or published rates, dated; the other items depend on your dates and your quotes.

Enter these items in the budget calculator: it separates nights from days and rooms from travellers.

Variant: a late arrival in Lima

If your international flight lands on the evening of day 1, day 2 cannot hold everything. Keep it for the historic centre, with lunch in the Barrio Chino, and move the Museo Larco to the afternoon of day 9, back from Cusco: the museum is open late and Pueblo Libre can be reached without crossing the whole city from Miraflores. The rest of the calendar does not change.