The Inca trail or not?

Hey dude,

I'm doing this exact trip on July 14th. Be forwarned that it DOES take a LONG time to get to Machu Picchu, especially if youre coming from Lima. Here's the directions a friend of mine wrote out for me which he mostly got from http://thanksforthefish.net/machu-picchu-alternative-route/, following that is my interary so you can see how long it takes. Best of luck.

first off, in cusco, be forewarned that many street names are written in their quecha phonetics, comparisons with maps should be made with an open mind.
in cusco, i highly recommend staying in the san blas barrio, of which i thoroughly enjoyed the Hospedaje Inka, Suytuccato 848, at the top of the stairs from Plaza San Blas. you can contact the owner to reserve some spots ( americopacheco@hotmail.com ), or probably just show up, it´s about 7 dollars (20 soles) a person, which is quite good by Cusco standards. keep in mind that the altitude is high there, and upon arriving at this hostel, you will have your breath taken away twice, once by the climb up and again by the view of the city. one of my favorite things was watching hail storms roll into the valley sipping mate and playing games.

concerning machu picchu, nearly everyone will tell you that there is only one way to get there, which is by the tourist train (unless you´re trying to hike, in which case the inca trail requires a guide, the others do not). while this is what the peruvian government wants you to think, it is not exactly the truth. the alternate route, while it costs significantly less, is an alternate route for a reason. i, however, highly recommend it.
if you´re going to other places in the sacred valley, this may or may not be convenient, depending on where you want to go. from cusco, here is the basic plan of action:
go to the santiago bus terminal in cusco (this is NOT the main bus terminal, if you´re going by taxi make sure the driver understands that you want to go to quillabamba, not your destination but where the bus goes to)
once there, buy tickets to quillabamba for the next morning at 7 or 8AM or whenever it leaves
show up on time
ride the bus until you arrive in a small town called Santa Maria (you can ask the bus driver to advise you, but just start looking at around 5 or so hours and keep your eyes peeled, there´s a sign when you stop)
in santa maria catch a van to santa teresa (you may have to wait for it to fill up but there will inevitably be others doing the same thing you are). make sure that you agree with the driver that you are going to the Hydroelectric plant, not just santa teresa.
upon arriving at the hydroelectric plant, start walking along the railroad tracks
when you get to the fourth sign ( it´s the one that someone wrote ¨hacia aguas calientes¨on) take the trail up the hill to the right. when you see the tracks again, go left.at one point the tracks cross a small ravine with a river, theres a footbridge on the left.
walk until you get to aguas calientes, the whole thing takes about three hours.

the journey is sketchy, i´ll warn you. also, you arrive at aguas calientes at night, hopefully before 9PM or so. then go find the ticket booth for the entry passes to machu picchu closes (which you´re going to want to buy asap upon arrival that night). in the morning wake up and take a bus (15 minutes) or hike (1.5 hrs) up the mountain to the entrance. it´s worth it.

if you don´t want to do this, take the 140 dollar round trip train, no worries. but my method costs about 25 or 30 roundtrip.

My itinerary:
July 17th
Arr. Lima 11:15PM
Stay in Hostel in Lima

July 18th
Bus @2PM
Sleep on bus

July 19th
Arr. Cuzco @ 11AM
buy next bus ticket immediately
Stay in Cuzco

July 20th
Bus to Santa Maria, van to Hydro electric, walk along railroad tracks.
Arr. Aguas Calientes @ 8PM buy Machu Picchu ticket
Stay in Aguas Calientes

July 21th
Wake around 4AM walk up MP
Stay in Aguas Calientes again

July 22th
Wake early, walk railroad tracks, van to hydro electric, bus from Santa Maria to Cuzco
Stay in Cuzco

July 23th
Take bus back to Lima
Sleep on bus

July 24th
Arr. Lima
Flight leaves @ 6PM

Best of luck dude! contact me anytime! Reply to this

I did the Salkantay trail to Machu Picchu and also the Choquequirao trek and I would highly recommend both. I waited until I arrived in Cusco to do any booking as this was you can get a much better price. Haven't done the Inca trail so I can't really compare it to Salkantay, but the Salkantay trek is fantastic. It's twice as long as Inca trail, the highest point is 4600m, and it's nowhere near as crowded. I've blogs about both treks if you'd liek to read more.
Good luck,Barry Reply to this

Salkantay: 180 USD each. there were 9 in our group and we booked it two days before the trek. It's worth spending a few days in Cusco anyway to acclimatize to the altitude Reply to this

yeah, we wore hiking boots, though some in our group wore trainers. you could probably get away without boots, though there's a steep climb/descent on day 2 where boots are useful. Reply to this

Great thanks Norah Reply to this