The Inca Trail in Comfort

Enjoy a little more luxury as you hike to Machu Picchu

Take our ever-popular Inca Trail trek but with the added benefit of upgraded hotels, a Sacred Valley tour and a sleeping bag included. On the trek itself, we also offer a more varied range of meals and a higher personal weight limit than on our standard itinerary, allowing you to take more clothes and personal items for extra comfort. This trip is designed to maximise the time spent at Machu Picchu, with an early morning tour of the ruins that arrives before the day trippers and other trekkers descend.

Inca Trail permits: A permit is required to walk the Inca Trail. These are strictly limited and highly sought after; therefore, we strongly recommend booking at least six to eight months in advance to avoid disappointment. On dates where Inca Trail permits have sold out, we can offer either the remote Moonstone Trek or a One-Day Inca Trail Option instead – please enquire for details.

People, Places & Planet

We work hard to create trips that improve life for the people and places we visit and look after the planet we explore. Find out more about our sustainable travel ethos and practice here, and find out about the work of the Exodus Travels Foundation here.

Some sustainable travel highlights of this trip include:

People

How this trip helps improve life for local communities.

• The use of a local guide means our customers will be well informed about local traditions, and cultural and social sensitivities.
• This trip brings income and opportunity to the destination community through the inclusion of locally owned hotels and restaurants, the emphasis on eating locally produced food and support of other local enterprise.
• The porters we work with are not directly employed by our local partner, but we work with the same communities each year; they are fairly paid and we also supply uniforms, walking shoes and provide safe transport and community support for them. Our trek manager is a leading figure and consultant for the Porters' Federation, which campaigns for the fair treatment of porters in the region.
• We’re passionate about the welfare of our punctilious porters. Alongside setting the golden standard for fair treatment, we've taken the next step with our pioneering Porter Project. In Peru, despite trekking the Inca Trail numerous times, most porters never have the opportunity to visit the stunning ancient ruins of Machu Picchu. We’ve taken the initiative to fix this and in 2018 started a project to ensure each of our porters has the opportunity to experience an important part of their own cultural heritage. We can now proudly say that more than 164 porters have been involved this project, and our mini-documentary Carried Away about our porters, has helped raise awareness of the awesome job these porters do.
• The free day in Cuzco is a good chance to visit Café Manos Unidas, the first vocational training site for young adults with disabilities in Cusco, creating employment opportunities for youth in their own community. In 2018, Exodus funded £5,000 where during the first three months of operation has directly benefitted 15 youths as well as 52 other community members indirectly.

• Funded by the Community Kickstart Project, our operator is working with Medlife to deliver emergency food parcels to the households of porters and other staff members who have continuously worked hard to guide our clients along the iconic Inca Trail.

Places

How this trip helps protect and conserve local landscapes and nature.

• By travelling in a small group, led by a local guide, we ‘tread lightly’ to minimise our impact on local resources and the environment.
• Trekking trips have little detrimental impact on the environment and our entry fees to the trail and historic sites contribute directly towards their maintenance and upkeep.
• We work with our partners on the ground to proactively eliminate or reduce waste, for example eliminating all single-use plastic water bottles and instead providing refills for reusable bottles.
• We operate a zero-impact policy on the Inca Trail removing all waste from campsites and separating it so that it can be easily recycled or composted. This ensures no rubbish or plastic is left behind in the places we visit.
• Our local operator has been certified and verified by Rainforest Alliance since 2015.
• Our Animal Welfare Policy ensures all our trips adhere to ABTA’s industry-leading animal welfare guidelines to ensure the best possible practices with regards to working animals and wildlife viewing.

Planet

How we seek to keep the carbon footprint of this trip low.

• Through our Planet Promise, we have pledged to halve the carbon footprint of our trips by 2030 and made rewilding and carbon compensation commitments for every customer who travels.
• Accommodation and restaurants in the itinerary use locally sourced food which has not been transported long distances.
• Vegetarian and vegan options are available at majority of accommodation and restaurants.

Tips for sustainable travel on this trip

• Leave no trace: We do all we can to ensure we leave no rubbish behind in the wild and beautiful places we visit; we ask that you do the same. If there are no recycling facilities in-country, we’d ask you to consider bringing recyclable materials home with you.
• Plastic waste reduction: Please bring your own reusable water bottle on this trip; filtered water will be provided where tap water is not drinkable.

Visa

Peru

Travellers from the UK, US and EU normally do not need a visa to enter Peru. Please note, visa requirements often change and it is your responsibility to obtain any required visas for this trip. Therefore, we recommend that you check with the nearest embassy or consulate of your chosen destination(s), including any countries you may be transiting or transferring through.

Some local governments provide guidance on what visas their citizens need. To help, we’ve gathered a selection of useful links below.

• Australia: www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/americas/peru
• Canada: www.travel.gc.ca/destinations/peru
• United Kingdom: www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/peru/entry-requirements
• USA: www.travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Peru.html

Vaccination

Peru

There are no required vaccinations. However, recommended vaccinations include tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rabies, typhoid, tuberculosis and yellow fever. Additionally, Zika fever, a mosquito‐borne viral disease, is a known risk in Peru. There is currently no vaccine or prophylaxis available, so you should take the usual precautions to avoid mosquito bites. Please check all vaccination recommendations with your doctor or travel clinic.

Amazon: If you are travelling to the Tambopata reserve in the Amazon rainforest, the risk of malaria is slight, but you may wish to consult your doctor or travel clinic for further advice. We also strongly recommend that you obtain a yellow fever vaccination. Additionally, dengue fever and chikungunya are known risks in the Amazon region. Both are tropical viral diseases spread by daytime biting mosquitoes. There is currently no vaccine or prophylaxis available for either, and therefore the best form of prevention is to take the usual precautions to avoid mosquito bites.

Eating and Drinking

All breakfasts, four lunches and three dinners are included in the tour price (for those doing the Train Option: all breakfasts and three lunches are included).

Peruvian cuisine has a reputation for big flavours and originality. Local dishes include ceviche (seafood or fish marinated in lime juice), lomo saltado (a beef stir-fry) and various hearty soups, such as the delicious quinoa soup. Other dishes include roasted cuy (guinea pig), Alpaca steak, and, to drink, the national beverage: pisco sour.

In the hotels, breakfasts are normally buffet-style.

While on the trek itself, we also offer a more varied range of meals than on our standard Inca Trail itineraries to give that little extra comfort. For instance, substantial breakfasts including a cooked dish, a cooked lunch including soup or a starter followed by a hot main dish (usually with hot drinks), and a hearty three-course cooked dinner, are typical.

Drinking water is provided. The tap water in Peru is not safe to drink; boiled and filtered drinking water is provided on the trek and elsewhere your leader will buy large water containers for you to refill your bottle.

Weather

The diverse geography of Peru results in a very varied climate between different regions.

Cuzco and the Andes

December to March is the rainy season, while April to November is the dry season; characterised by clear skies and strong sunshine in the mornings, sometimes clouding over as the day progresses.

Daytime temperatures are usually pleasant (approximately 20C/68F on average) but nights are only 5C-10C (41F-50F), except for May to August when days are cooler and nights are around freezing point. In the Andes, anything is possible at any time of year, including cloud, rain or even snow, plus rapid and unexpected changes.

Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu

In the cloud forest, they experience large amounts of precipitation all year, as clouds move up from the Amazon Basin. Rain can be heavy, but seldom prolonged. Cold fronts sometimes occur from July to August.

Additionally, Peru is affected by the El Niño weather phenomenon, whereby the warming of Pacific Ocean surface water off South America drives a shift in the atmospheric circulation resulting in abnormally high levels of rainfall over parts of South America. These events occur at irregular intervals of two to seven years, and last nine months to two years. A strong El Niño event occurred in 2018-19.

Is this trip for you?

This trip is rated Activity Level 3 (Moderate) – please refer to our activity level guidelines –with four walking days with full porterage.

This trek is manageable for anyone in good health and fitness. However, it does have tougher stretches (in particular the ascent and descent of Dead Woman’s Pass) and we would not recommend it to anyone with no trekking experience. If you are not a regular walker, you should put in some physical preparation beforehand. The trek is also not suitable for those with bad knees, due to the number of steep and uneven steps, particularly on the third and fourth days of the trek.

You may find our Fitness Training Guide a useful reference.

As this trip spends considerable time at altitude, we ask you to refer to the altitude warning within the Trip Notes. We spend one day in Cuzco (11,155ft/3,400m) and one in Ollantaytambo (9,186ft/2,800m) acclimatising before starting the trek.

Protest action/strikes are not uncommon in Peru, while these are generally peaceful, they can involve roadblocks and cause disruption to travel. Occasionally, your leader may have to adapt your itinerary in response to this.

Walking hours stated within the itinerary are given as approximates only. Timings stated include lunch and photo stops and will vary depending on the pace of your group.

Inca Trail regulations

There are several important regulations regarding the Inca Trail that we would like to make you aware of:

1. Spaces on the Inca Trail are on a ‘first come, first served’ basis and we urge you to book as early as possible.
2. If you cancel your booking more than eight weeks before departure and wish to transfer your deposit to another departure or another trip, the transfer fee is approximately US$180 as we will lose the permit we have purchased on your behalf. This is an amendment to our Booking Conditions. No transfers are possible within eight weeks of departure.
3. Bookings can only be made if we are supplied with your full name, passport details, date of birth and nationality, exactly as per the passport you will be using to travel to Peru (this information is used to purchase your Inca Trail permit). If your passport details do not match those on your permit, you will be refused entry to the Inca Trail by the local authorities.
4. Should the passport used to purchase your permit be lost, stolen or expire before your Inca Trail start date, you must purchase a new passport and notify Exodus immediately as we will need to apply to amend your Inca Trail permit. To do so, you must supply copies of both your old and new passports to Exodus before travel and pay an administration fee of approximately US$30. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you make a copy of your passport at the time of booking and keep it somewhere safe.
5. These regulations may change at any time, and Exodus is not responsible for decisions made by Peruvian authorities.
6. There is a possibility that the Peruvian authorities may increase the entrance fees to the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu and other major sights at any time. If they do so, we will inform you of this increase and the extra amount will need to be paid locally in cash in Peru.

Please note: While your departure date may be ‘Guaranteed’, your Inca Trail permit itself will initially be ‘On Request’. If travelling within the current year, we will try to purchase your permit immediately upon receiving your booking. If travelling next year, we will apply for your permit as soon as they are released for sale. In either case, if we are unable to get your permit, we will contact you to discuss your options.

Alternative Moonstone Trek

Once Inca Trail permits have sold out for a given date, we can no longer accept bookings for the classic Inca Trail trek. However, we can offer an equally spectacular alternative trek (not requiring a permit) in its place. The remote high-altitude Moonstone Trek takes in several recently discovered Inca and pre-Inca archaeological sites and there are practically no other tourists along the route. (Alternatively, we have a Train Option, which we can also offer in place of the Inca Trail, which includes the One-Day Inca Trail)

If selected, the Moonstone Trek will replace days 3 to 6 of the standard itinerary. The maximum altitude on the Moonstone Trek is 15,174ft (4,625m), higher than that of the classic Inca Trail, and the route is slightly more strenuous. Therefore, we class it as Activity Level 4 (Moderate/Challenging).

Depending on the split of the group between the Inca Trail and Moonstone Trek, you may find small group sizes on the Moonstone Trek. It is even possible that the Moonstone trek will be provided for solo travellers. Please ask your sales representative if you would like to know how many people are booked on each, and/or have any specific questions or concerns.

While the Moonstone Trek can also be booked preferentially while Inca Trail permits are still available, a small group supplement may apply.

Regulations for visiting Machu Picchu:

The main points impacting your visit are the following:

1. Tickets are only valid for one entry, which means you cannot leave the site and re-enter.
2. Once you have done the chosen circuit with your guide, you cannot walk back to view anything already visited and once you finish the circuit, you will have to leave the site.
3. There are two visiting times for the site: 6am-midday and midday-4.30pm.
4. Local authorities have restricted the temples that can be visited at Machu Picchu depending on your visiting time.

These regulations will affect how long you can spend at Machu Picchu and which temples you can visit. In the past, passengers could stay longer after the guided tour to explore the site. This is not possible anymore. To allow you further time, the alternative we are implementing is to explore the upper part of Machu Picchu (Sun Gate and Inca Bridge) before starting the guided tour. The guided tour will be about two hours’ long, after which you will need to exit the site. You can visit the Condor’s Temple, but not the Sun Dial Temple or the Sun Temple on this itinerary.

Schedule of visit to Machu Picchu on this itinerary:

• Early bus to Machu Picchu and explore upper part with the tour leader
• Start the guided tour between 9am and 10am
• Leave Machu Picchu between 11.30am and 12.30pm

Please see our COVID Travel Guide for Peru for more information on current guidelines for travel in Peru.

Following a review of all our trips we have categorised this trip as generally not suitable for persons of reduced mobility. However if you are a regular traveller on such trips, please contact customer services to discuss the trip and your personal condition.