Cusco 7-day itinerary

Arrive in Cusco and take it extremely easy. At 3,400m, altitude sickness affects most visitors in the first 24-48 hours. Check into your accommodation, drink coca tea, and walk slowly around the immediate area. The cobblestone streets and terracotta rooftops are beautiful even from a gentle stroll. Let your body adjust before attempting anything strenuous. Rest is more valuable than sightseeing on this first half-day.

After resting, take a gentle walk to Plaza de Armas. The grand square was the ceremonial centre of the Inca Empire and is now flanked by colonial arcades, the Cathedral, and La Compañía church. Sit on a bench and take in the scene — llama herders pose for photos, vendors sell artisan crafts, and the surrounding mountains frame the colonial buildings. Walk the nearby streets to see the famous Inca stone walls, including the 12-angled stone on Hatunrumiyoc. Keep the pace very slow.

Keep your first evening mellow. Find a quiet restaurant near the plaza for a light dinner — caldo de gallina (chicken soup) is traditional and gentle on the stomach at altitude. Continue drinking coca tea throughout the evening. Many restaurants on the plaza have balcony seating with views over the illuminated Cathedral and the mountain skyline. Early to bed is the best strategy for your first night at altitude.

Spend the morning exploring Mercado San Pedro, Cusco's central market. The market is a sensory overload of colour, smell, and sound — stalls sell everything from fresh tropical fruit and Andean grains to dried llama foetuses used in traditional rituals. Eat breakfast at the market: fresh juice (3 soles), bread with cheese, and caldo de gallina. The juice stalls blend any fruit you point at. The market is where Cusqueños shop and eat — the most authentic food experience in the city.

Climb the steep cobblestone streets to San Blas, Cusco's bohemian artisan neighbourhood. The narrow lanes are lined with galleries, ceramic workshops, and boutique cafes converted from colonial houses. Visit the San Blas church to see the extraordinary carved wooden pulpit, believed to have been crafted from a single cedar trunk. The Plazoleta de San Blas is a charming square for people-watching and the surrounding streets have the best independent shops in Cusco for handmade ceramics, textiles, and silver jewellery.

Return to the plaza area for dinner and a pisco sour at one of the balcony restaurants. Cusco's food scene is one of Peru's best — try lomo saltado (stir-fried beef with fries and rice), ají de gallina (creamy chicken in walnut sauce), or alpaca steak. The Museo del Pisco offers excellent tastings and cocktails. After dinner, stroll the illuminated streets around the plaza, which are safe and atmospheric in the evening.

Walk uphill to Sacsayhuamán, the colossal Inca fortress above Cusco. The zigzag walls contain limestone blocks weighing up to 200 tonnes, fitted with impossible precision using no mortar. The scale is staggering — the walls stretch 600 metres and the engineering defies explanation given the tools available. The panoramic view of Cusco below is one of the finest vistas in Peru. Morning light is best for photographs and the site is quieter before the 10am tour group arrival.

Continue to the trio of Inca sites above the city. Qenqo is a carved limestone outcrop with an underground ceremonial chamber and zigzag channels for chicha offerings. Puka Pukara served as a military checkpoint on the road to the Sacred Valley. Tambomachay is an elegant water temple where natural springs still flow through stone channels as the Inca engineers designed them. The walk between sites passes through eucalyptus forest and grassland with views across the valley.

Tonight, try Cusco's most famous dish — cuy (roast guinea pig). It has been eaten in the Andes for thousands of years and is a genuine delicacy when well prepared, with crispy skin and tender meat. Several traditional restaurants in the centre specialise in cuy al horno. After dinner, explore the nightlife on Calle Procuradores where bars offer happy hour pisco sours, salsa nights, and live Andean music. The backpacker scene here is one of the most social in South America.

Take a colectivo to Pisac in the Sacred Valley (1.5 hours). The Inca ruins above the town are a vast complex of terraces, temples, and a mountainside cemetery with over 1,000 tombs — breathtaking in scale and far less crowded than Machu Picchu. The Sacred Valley sits at 2,900m, noticeably warmer and lower than Cusco. On Sundays, the Pisac market fills the square with textiles, ceramics, and highland produce. The ruins require a steep climb or a taxi to the top entrance.

Continue to Ollantaytambo, a living Inca town with original stone water channels running through narrow streets. Climb the fortress terraces to the unfinished Temple of the Sun at the summit — massive pink granite monoliths transported from a quarry 6km away across the valley. The Wall of Six Monoliths is an engineering marvel and the views down over the town and valley are magnificent. Ollantaytambo was the only place the Inca successfully defeated the Spanish in battle.

Eat dinner in Ollantaytambo before catching a colectivo back to Cusco. The town has several good restaurants serving trout from the Urubamba River, quinoa salads, and traditional Andean dishes. The cobblestone streets are charming in the evening and the fortress walls glow in the last light. The drive back to Cusco through the valley as darkness falls passes through agricultural communities with terraced hillsides that have been farmed since Inca times.

Take a tour or taxi to Moray, a remote Inca site with extraordinary concentric circular terraces carved into a natural depression. Archaeologists believe it functioned as an agricultural laboratory — each terrace level creates a different microclimate, allowing the Inca to experiment with crops at various temperature zones. The deepest level is 30 metres below the rim and the temperature difference from top to bottom can reach 15°C. The geometric perfection of the circles against the green highlands is mesmerising.

Drive 7km to the Salineras de Maras, a mountainside covered in over 5,000 salt evaporation ponds fed by a natural saltwater spring. The ponds have been harvested since Inca times and are still worked by local families — each family owns and maintains their own terraces. The cascading white, pink, and brown pools against the red-brown mountain create one of the most photographed landscapes in Peru. You can buy bags of mineral-rich pink salt directly from the workers.

Return to Cusco through the Sacred Valley, stopping for panoramic views of the Urubamba River winding between the mountains. By now you should be well acclimatised and ready for the more demanding activities ahead. Have a relaxed dinner in the San Blas neighbourhood at one of the quiet courtyard restaurants. Try rocoto relleno — a stuffed hot pepper filled with minced meat and topped with melted cheese — or a hearty sopa criolla (spicy noodle soup).

Depart Cusco at 4am for the 3-hour drive south to the trailhead of Vinicunca (Rainbow Mountain). The road climbs through remote Andean communities and alpaca herding land before reaching the starting point at 4,600m. The trek to the summit covers 5km with a gain of 500 metres, reaching 5,100m — one of the highest points most travellers ever stand. The striped mineral layers of the mountain — red, turquoise, yellow, lavender, and gold — were revealed by melting glaciers and are genuinely breathtaking.

Reach the viewpoint at the summit and take in the surreal striped landscape stretching across the high Andes. On clear days, the Ausangate glacier (6,384m) looms behind — one of the most sacred mountains in Andean cosmology. Herds of llamas and alpacas graze the high plains below. The descent is easier but still demanding at altitude. Return to the bus for snacks and hot coca tea before the 3-hour drive back to Cusco, arriving in the late afternoon.

After the physical demands of Rainbow Mountain, spend the evening recovering. Take a hot shower, eat a hearty dinner, and rest. Many restaurants near the plaza serve comfort food — pizza, pasta, and steak alongside Peruvian dishes. The body needs calories and hydration after a day at extreme altitude. This is a good night to skip the nightlife and get an early rest.

Visit Qorikancha, the most important temple in the Inca Empire. Originally covered in gold sheets and filled with golden sculptures, it was stripped by the Spanish who built the Santo Domingo convent directly on top. The remaining Inca stone walls beneath the colonial structure are extraordinary — perfect coursework with no mortar, trapezoidal niches, and channels for gold offerings. The juxtaposition of Inca and colonial architecture in a single building is the most powerful symbol of the Spanish conquest in Peru.

Visit the Museo de Arte Precolombino (MAP), housed in a colonial mansion on a quiet plaza. The collection spans 3,000 years of Peruvian art — ceramics, textiles, gold, and silver from the Nazca, Moche, Chimú, and Inca civilisations. The curation is world-class and the building itself is beautiful. Afterwards, browse the quality artisan shops around the plaza for alpaca scarves, silver jewellery, and ceramics to take home. The shops near MAP are generally better quality than the market stalls.

End your Cusco week with a farewell dinner and pisco sour. By now you are acclimatised, well-fed, and carrying bags of alpaca clothing. The city rewards a slow approach — the deeper you go, the more layers of Inca, colonial, and contemporary culture reveal themselves. Cusco's airport is 15 minutes from the centre by taxi. If continuing overland, night buses to Puno (Lake Titicaca) and Lima depart from the Terminal Terrestre.