The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Two nights in the Sacred Valley to acclimatise, four days walking the Inca Trail with three nights at private camps, and a night beside Machu Picchu, going back into the citadel early before the crowds. In Cusco, a Latin Mass with Gregorian chant can be held for you in the hotel's own chapel, and the walk is planned for the dry months from May to October.

Length: Nine nights
Pace: Five stays
Style: Trekking, camping, cultural, walking
Route: Lima to The Sacred Valley to The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu to Cusco

LimaOne night
The Sacred ValleyTwo nights
The Inca TrailThree nights
Machu PicchuOne night
CuscoTwo nights

Days 1 to 2 · one night

Lima

An international arrival and a first night in Lima before the morning flight to Cusco. If the flight lands early, time for a walk along the Miraflores clifftops above the Pacific.

Where you stay

Miraflores Park, A Belmond Hotel

Miraflores Park looks over the Pacific from Lima's six-mile run of clifftop parks and boardwalks. It has 87 rooms and suites, a heated rooftop pool, a spa, Tragaluz for modern Peruvian cooking, Observatory for classic dishes and Belo Bar for cocktails.

Days 2 to 4 · two nights

The Sacred Valley

A flight to Cusco and down into the valley. A ceremony with a local shaman, riding and e-biking, the circular terraces of Moray and the salt pans of Maras, and a picnic lunch. Beside Moray, at 3,568 metres, MIL, Virgilio Martínez's restaurant, runs a morning immersion at 9:30 a.m. from Tuesday to Sunday before its Andean tasting lunch; at the hotel, a half day making chicha de jora, the ancestral maize drink, from harvest to tasting.

Where you stay

Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba

Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba spreads over about 100 acres of countryside at Huayoccari in the Sacred Valley, between Cusco and Machu Picchu, beneath steep green mountains. Its rooms and stand-alone casitas look across the valley, furnished with colonial pieces, Inca masks and handcrafted woodwork.

Stone ruins and green terraces on a forested mountainside.

Days 4 to 7 · three nights

The Inca Trail

From the trailhead at Piscacucho, four days on foot of roughly 5.6 to 7.5 miles a day, past Willkaraccay and Runkurakay, over the Warmiwañusca pass and on to Phuyupatamarca. Each night is at a private camp on the trail.

Where you stay

Private camps on the trail

Nights on the trail are spent at private camps set up for your party alone, moved ahead each day while you walk. The camp team, tents and facilities are confirmed when the journey is booked.

Days 7 to 8 · one night

Machu Picchu

Sunrise from Inti Punku, the Sun Gate, on the last morning of the walk, then a guided visit of the citadel and a night beside it. The next morning the lodge's early access takes you back in before the crowds, and a Payment to the Earth ceremony, an offering to Pachamama, can be arranged. For a couple, a renewal of vows in the Inca manner, the Arac Masin ceremony, can be led by an Andean shaman in a setting laid with flowers, coca leaves and stones.

Where you stay

Sanctuary Lodge, A Belmond Hotel

Sanctuary Lodge stands 50 metres from Machu Picchu, a three-minute walk from the entrance to the citadel. It has 29 rooms and two suites among subtropical gardens, with Tampu for dinner, the Tinkuy buffet, and a bar with a menu built around pisco.

Days 8 to 10 · two nights

Cusco

The train and a drive to Cusco. Sacsayhuamán, a private music demonstration, a museum, a morning at San Pedro market with a local chef, looking at Andean produce such as maca and quinoa, then cooking three courses together, then a farewell lunch before the flight to Lima. At the hotel, a private Latin Mass with Gregorian chant in the San Antonio Abad Chapel, a tour of its 17th-century paintings of the Cusco School, and dinner at El Tupay, where Angela Medina sings classical arias.

Where you stay

Monasterio, A Belmond Hotel

Monasterio stands on the foundations of the Inca Emperor Amaru Qhata's palace, a site that became the San Antonio Abad Monastery in 1595 and a hotel in 1965. Its cloistered courtyards gather around a 300-year-old Andean cedar, and dinner is at Oqre in the courtyard or at El Tupay, beneath stone arches to live opera.

Arranged on request

A Latin Mass in the San Antonio Abad Chapel

At Monasterio, a private Latin Mass with Gregorian chant can be held for one group in the hotel's chapel.

Opera at El Tupay

Dinner at Monasterio's El Tupay with Angela Medina singing classical arias; a pisco tasting can come first.

Machu Picchu before the crowds

Guests of Sanctuary Lodge have early access to the citadel before general admission.

The immersion at MIL

At Moray, 3,568 metres up, Virgilio Martínez's MIL opens its immersion at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday to Sunday, before lunch from its Andean tasting menu.

Chicha de jora

A half day at Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba harvesting, grinding, fermenting and tasting the ancestral maize drink of the Incas.

Vows renewed in the Andean way

Near Machu Picchu, an Andean shaman can lead a couple through the Arac Masin, the Inca-style renewal of vows, among flowers, coca leaves and stones, on request.

Subject to availability.

Ways to make it yours

Two nights on Lake Titicaca after Cusco.
A second morning at Machu Picchu to climb Huayna Picchu.
First Light in Cusco: dawn from San Cristóbal church, then a guided walk through the city as it wakes.

This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.

Made around you

Most travel is bought. This is designed.

Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.

The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.