Cuzco: How to Visit and Get Around
Cuzco rewards travelers who nail the logistics and makes the trip harder for anyone who doesn’t. Fly into Cuzco’s own airport via Lima, give yourself a day or two at 3,400m before pushing hard, and lock your Machu Picchu ticket and train seat weeks, ideally months, ahead of a June to August date. Skip any one of those steps and you’re looking at a soroche headache on day one, a sold-out entry slot, or a scramble for transport you can’t verify. Get them right, and moving through Cuzco is refreshingly simple: a walkable historic centre, one short flight, and a single train ride to the country’s biggest draw.
| What to know | Detail |
|---|---|
| Getting there | Fly into Cuzco (CUZ), almost always via a connecting flight from Lima |
| Altitude | City sits at roughly 3,400m; Machu Picchu is lower, at 2,430m |
| Machu Picchu entry | Timed slots only, 6am to 3pm, booked through tuboleto.cultura.pe |
| Booking lead time | 1-2 months for shoulder season, 3+ months for June to August |
| Boleto Turistico | Roughly S/130 for 10 days, covers around 16 sites |
How do I get there?
You fly into Cuzco’s Alejandro Velasco Astete Airport (CUZ), almost always on a connecting flight through Lima. There’s no meaningful direct long-haul service, and the overland bus from Lima runs 20-plus hours, so the flight is the only practical option for nearly everyone.
A long-planned second airport at Chinchero, in the Sacred Valley, is still not open (its runway and control tower work keeps slipping toward 2027-2028), so ignore anything suggesting you can fly straight into the valley. From the CUZ terminal, take a registered taxi or your hotel’s own pickup into the historic centre; it’s a short ride. Arriving from outside Peru, most US, UK, EU, Australian and Canadian passport holders travel in visa-free for tourism, typically up to 90 days, though it’s worth confirming the current figure for your passport on peru.travel before you book flights.
How do I get around?
Cuzco’s historic centre is compact enough to walk end to end, and walking is genuinely the best way to see it, Plaza de Armas as your anchor, San Blas rising steeply to the northeast. The catch is altitude: even gentle uphill stretches feel harder than they should on your first day or two, so budget more time than a flat city would need, and book a hotel in the historic centre on Booking.com so you’re not adding unnecessary distance on top of thin air.
For the ruins ringing the city, Sacsayhuaman and Qenqo among them, plus the Sacred Valley towns further out (Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Chinchero), the Boleto Turistico (Cusco Tourist Ticket) covers around 16 sites for roughly S/130 over 10 days, with a student ticket around S/70. Buy it in person at a major site or the airport rather than trusting an old link online; the ticket’s official web presence has decayed and prices move. Beyond the Boleto sites, colectivos (shared minivans) are the cheap way to reach Sacred Valley towns, and taxis cover everything in town. Stick to a hotel-booked or app-based taxi rather than hailing one off the street at night: UK government safety advice specifically flags unmarked taxis as a risk in Cuzco.
How do I reach Machu Picchu?
By train, always. Fly to Cuzco, ride a PeruRail or IncaRail train from Ollantaytambo (the shorter, more common departure point) or Poroy to Aguas Calientes, then take the short shuttle bus up the mountain to the entrance. No road reaches the ruins directly.
The part visitors get wrong is the ticket itself. Machu Picchu is advance, timed entry only, sold through the government’s own portal, tuboleto.cultura.pe , with entry slots running 6am to 3pm and a roughly two-and-a-half-hour visit window once you’re inside. There is no walk-up gate purchase at any price, and daily capacity is capped at up to 4,500 visitors, rising to 5,600 in high season, which is exactly why popular June to August dates sell out weeks to months ahead. A Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu tour on GetYourGuide or a Machu Picchu tour on Viator will handle the train, bus and entry booking together if you’d rather not piece it together yourself.
Want to hike in instead of riding the rails? The classic Inca Trail requires a licensed tour operator, permits are capped at 500 a day (only 200 for trekkers), released each October, and gone within weeks for dry-season dates. The trail also closes entirely every February for maintenance, no exceptions, so plan around that if you’re set on the four-day route. Salkantay and Lares are the standard permit-free alternatives when the Inca Trail is sold out or shut.
Best months to visit
Cuzco’s dry season runs roughly April through October, with June to August the busiest and driest stretch, and the one where Machu Picchu and Sacred Valley bookings tighten hardest. Mark 24 June too: Inti Raymi, the city’s biggest festival, lands that day at Sacsayhuaman and pushes hotel and ticket demand higher than the regular June peak. November through March brings regular rain and occasional rail disruption on the Machu Picchu line, but noticeably thinner crowds and easier last-minute bookings, if you can tolerate the weather.
Money, language and altitude essentials
Peru uses the Peruvian Sol (PEN, S/), not the US dollar; cards work at hotels and bigger restaurants, but carry cash for colectivos, markets and the Boleto Turistico itself. Tap water isn’t safe to drink, so stick to bottled or treated water throughout. Spanish covers almost every interaction, and Quechua, the language of the Inca Empire, is still spoken day to day outside the tourist core, not preserved as a museum piece.
Give your first day or two in Cuzco genuine rest before any high-exertion add-on: Rainbow Mountain’s 5,036m summit and the Inca Trail’s Dead Woman’s Pass at 4,215m both sit well above the city itself, and altitude sickness (soroche) is named directly by UK health advice as a real risk here, not a minor inconvenience. Both the City of Cuzco and the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu carry their own UNESCO World Heritage inscriptions from 1983 , Machu Picchu uniquely as a rare mixed cultural and natural site, so this trip covers two separate listings, not one site with an add-on.
For the full rundown of what to do once you’re here, see our Cuzco travel guide ; for a day-by-day plan, the 3-day itinerary covers the city and Machu Picchu on a tight schedule, and the 5-day itinerary adds proper Sacred Valley time. Book your Machu Picchu entry and train the same day you book flights; everything else can wait.