6 Days Extraordinary Peru from Lima

On arrival in Lima, receive assistance at the airport and transfer to your selected hotel. Rest of the day is free at leisure to get to know the city. Lima is a modern metropolis full of history, with approximately 10 million inhabitants and is going through an exciting process of cultural and economic changes.

Breakfast at the hotel. Explore Lima´s old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site packed with fascinating historic buildings. Start with the Larco Museum, located in the traditional Pueblo Libre district, which is housed in a beautifully restored vice regal mansion built on a pre-Columbian pyramid from the VII century. The museum boasts the most complete pre-Hispanic collection of gold and silver objects, as well as pieces of erotic art. Then visit Casa Aliaga, a colonial mansion granted in 1535 by chief conquistador Francisco Pizarro to Jerónimo de Aliaga, one of his captains. This is the only house from that time that is still owned by the same family through the centuries. Continue to a scenic tour in the colonial downtown, which originates and spreads out from the Main Square, where you can appreciate the grandiose architecture of the Spanish Empire. Be amazed by Lima´s Cathedral, built during the 16th century and took over 80 years to complete. Finally, you are transferred back to the hotel.

Pick-up after breakfast and transfer from your hotel to Lima Airport to catch a flight to Cuzco (flight not included). A meet and greet service on arrival is followed by transfer to your selected hotel. In the afternoon, enjoy a guided tour of this charming city, which was the capital of the Inca Empire. The tour starts with a visit to Santo Domingo Convent, a large Renaissance-baroque complex, which was built over the Inca Qoricancha temple. It was one of the most important temples dedicated to the worship of the sun and its foundations are still prominent at the base of the convent. Ancient chronicles say the temple was covered in gold leaf and filled with golden representations of nature. Then, visit the Cathedral, the most imposing monument of the Main Square. Continue to the Plaza de Armas to visit the cathedral. It features an elaborate Renaissance façade and, like other important monuments in the city, was built over a demolished Inca temple. Head to the hills above Cuzco to visit the remains of the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, whose imposing ramparts offer a stunning panoramic view of Cuzco, and the ruins of the temple and amphitheatre of Qenqo, where it is believed the Incas practised agricultural rituals. Finally, visit Puka Pukara (‘Red fortress’ in Quechua) an Inca military complex located on a prominent hill. Its dwellings squares, bathrooms, aqueducts, walls and towers can still be appreciated. Return to and drop off at your hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. During the morning, you are picked up from your hotel in Cuzco to visit the town of Chinchero, a traditional Cuzco urban centre located at an elevated point with a beautiful view of the valley. The inhabitants of this area preserve the artisan traditions and the inherited knowledge of the Incas and display them in their clothes and customs. In Chinchero there are also archaeological remains and a beautiful seventeenth-century church, one of the first Catholic buildings in Peru. Then, you are transferred to the Living Museum of Yucay, a centre Andean traditions interpretations, where demonstrations of the elaboration of textile work, adobe, pottery and silverware are carried out in the same way in which they used to in antiquity; an original recreation of Inca traditions. Also, residents of the museum include llamas, sheep and alpacas, and they can be fed!. Later, have lunch in Ollantaytambo and live a superior Andean gastronomy experience in a restaurant, where the true spirit of the Sacred Valley is transmitted in a cosy atmosphere. Upon arriving in Ollantaytambo visit its town, inhabited uninterruptedly since Inca times, and climb the iconic fortress, built next to a mountain. At the end of this activity, you are transferred back to your hotel. *On Sundays, also visit the local market. After your visit, return to your hotel in Cuzco.

After breakfast at the hotel, head to Ollanta Station to board the train to Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to Machu Picchu. Following a scenic journey through dramatic Andean landscapes, arrive at the station in Aguas Calientes. Here you board a coach for a 25-minute ride to Machu Picchu itself. The ‘Lost City of the Incas’ had lain abandoned in the heavens for four centuries until American explorer Hiram Bingham happened upon it in 1911. Machu Picchu is believed to have been built in the 1450s by Inca emperor Pachacuti as a holiday retreat yet within a century the city would be abandoned following the Spanish conquest. The Spaniards never found it so it was spared the destruction they wrought on other Inca sites. Instead, it was slowly swallowed up by the jungle and hidden from harm. A guided tour explains the origins behind this awe-inspiring citadel and the most prominent landmarks among the 200 or so buildings such as the monumental Main Square, the Royal Quarters, and the Temple of the Three Windows, the Circular Towers, the Sacred Sun Dial and the Burial Grounds. Return to Aguas Calientes for lunch at the famous Café Inkaterra, a beautiful thatched-roof restaurant hemmed in between the railway and a mountain. Return to Cuzco in the afternoon.

A transportation service and guide will pick you up from your hotel at the established time and transfer you to the airport.