The Inca Trail

• Four nights hotel in en suite rooms; three nights full-service camping with dining and toilet tents
• Four days point-to-point walking with full porterage
• Group sizes normally from four to 16, plus leader. Minimum age 16 yrs
• Altitude maximum 13,830ft (4,215m), average 10,000ft (3,050m)
• 15lb (7kg) personal weight limit on Inca Trail
• Travel by private bus and by train

All breakfasts, four lunches and three dinners are included Peruvian cuisine is loved for its flavours and originality; it’s well worth digging into the local delicacies. Among these are ceviche (seafood or fish marinated in lime juice), lomo saltado (a Peruvian take on a beef stir-fry), and various hearty soups including the delicious quinoa soup. Other dishes include roasted cuy (guinea pig), alpaca steak. To drink, there’s pisco sour, the national beverage. Drinking water is included throughout the holiday as the tap water in Peru is not safe to drink; boiled and filtered drinking water is provided on the trek; elsewhere your leader will buy large water containers from which you can refill your bottle. Hotel breakfasts are normally simple buffet-style affairs, usually including bread/toast, preserves, cereal, sometimes eggs or cooked dishes, sometimes fruit, tea/coffee and fruit juice. Regrettably, we cannot guarantee that wheat-free or gluten-free products will be available for breakfast in all locations – if you have an intolerance you may wish to bring your own breakfast food. Where lunch and dinner are not included in Cuzco/Aguas Calientes we'll visit a variety of cafes and restaurants. During the Inca Trail hearty breakfasts are served and good-quality cooked lunches and dinners are provided. They usually consist of soup to start, a main course with meat/fish and some carbohydrates; followed by a dessert. Some snacks between meals are also provided. Tea/coffee is brought to your tent each morning and juice or hot drinks are provided with all meals during the trek.

The diverse geography of Peru results in a very varied climate between different regions. Cuzco and the Andes have a temperate climate. December to March is the rainy season in Cuzco/the Andes and 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 (20C/68F on average) but night times are lower (7C/44F), except for May, June, July and August when days are cooler and nights are often close to, or a few degrees below, freezing. In the Andes, however, anything is possible at any time of year, including cloud, rain or even snow, with rapid and unexpected changes.

Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu are in the cloud forest and experience large amounts of precipitation all year as clouds move up from the Amazon Basin. Rain here can be heavy but is seldom prolonged. Cold fronts sometimes occur from July to August.

Peru is affected by El Niño weather phenomenon, where 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 2014-16.

This is a Moderate grade trek (Level 3) – please refer to our Activity Level Guidelines. There are four days point-to-point walking with full porterage, reaching a maximum altitude of 13,830ft (4,215m), average 10,000ft (3,050m). Though not without its difficulties (in particular the ascent and descent of the first pass, known as Dead Woman's Pass) this trek is certainly possible for anyone in a good state of health and fitness, but we would not recommend it as a beginner's trek to anyone with no previous walking experience.

If you are not a regular walker you should put in physical preparation beforehand. The trek is also not particularly 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. The use of trekking poles will help to reduce strain on the knees. 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 two days in Cuzco (11,150ft/3,400m) acclimatising before starting the trek.

Protest action/strikes are not uncommon in Peru, and 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 Inca Trail regulations we would like to make you aware of:

Spaces on the Inca Trail are on a first-come, first-served basis and we urge you to book as early as possible.

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$165 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.

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.

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 in advance of travel and pay an administration fee of 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.

Please be aware that these regulations may change at any time, and Exodus is not responsible for the decisions made by Peruvian authorities.

There is a possibility 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 you’re 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. If we are unable to get your permit, we will contact you to discuss your options.

Regulations for visiting Machu Picchu

The main points impacting your visit are the following:

The tickets are valid only for one entry, which means you cannot leave the site and re-enter

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. You can no longer explore the site further after the guided tour

The site visiting times are 6am-midday or midday-4.30pm

Local authorities have imposed restrictions on visiting the Machu Picchu temples – restrictions are dependent on visiting times

These regulations will affect how long you can spend at Machu Picchu and which temples you can visit. In the past, tour passengers could explore the site more after the guided tour – this is no longer possible. To allow you further time, the alternative we are implementing on our visits 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 Machu Picchu visit on this itinerary:

Early bus to Machu Picchu and explore upper part with the tour leader

Start the guided tour between 9am and 10am

Passengers 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.