How many days in Cusco?

The question is less how many sights fit in Cusco than how many long days you can give them. Six of the trips in our Cusco catalog take twelve hours or more, and most of them start before dawn. Between them sit half days, short walks, and evenings, and the city itself at around 3,400 meters asks for a quiet first day. Here is how the days add up.

The long days

Machu Picchu is the day everyone plans around. The train and guided visit in our catalog run about twelve hours. The Sacred Valley day tour also takes twelve, starting in the morning.

The mountain days are longer and start earlier. The Ausangate seven lakes trek runs about fourteen hours, Humantay Lake about thirteen and a half, and Rainbow Mountain and Pallay Punchu about twelve each. All four begin before dawn and are the most demanding days in our catalog.

In Cusco, the first thing a week decides is how many twelve-hour days it can hold.

The shorter days

Not every day has to be a day trip. Maras, Moray, and Chinchero fill about six and a half hours, the South Valley about six, and Sacsayhuamán with the Inca sites above the city about five. A cooking class takes four hours, a horseback ride to the Temple of the Moon three and a half, and each of the two walks through the center three.

Then there are the hours that fit around anything: the alpaca farm and the animal rescue center at about two and a half hours, the ChocoMuseo workshop, the planetarium, and the dinner show at Tunupa at about two, and a café in San Blas at about an hour and a half.

Three days

Three days hold Cusco and Machu Picchu. In our free three-day route, the first day stays deliberately low, the second goes to Machu Picchu, and the third gives the city back. What three days do not give is a mountain day or the full Sacred Valley.

Five days

Five days add a second long day. In our five-day route, after the low first day and Machu Picchu, a day near the city sits between the long ones, then a second long day joins unless you asked for a slow trip, and the last morning stays close. The mountains compete for that second long day, and in our five-day routes the Sacred Valley takes it.

Seven days

A week holds both of the big days in the valley. Every seven-day route in our Cusco catalog includes both Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, at any pace. A mountain day joins when the season and your pace allow, and the last day is a real day, not only a departure.

Even a week rarely takes everything. Humantay Lake, for one, almost always stays outside it, because the mountains compete for the same place in the week.

The rule the altitude sets

Whatever the length, the first day stays light, and the long days do not come one after another. The advice in our catalog is to give the first morning to the altitude, because most trips start early, and the mountain days are the hardest on the body.

The flights are in How to get to Cusco, and the new flight from São Paulo. We wrote about the first days in Why altitude changes the shape of a Cusco trip, about the long days in Machu Picchu from Cusco in one day and The Sacred Valley from Cusco: a full day or a half day?, and about the mountains in Rainbow Mountain or Pallay Punchu? and Humantay Lake or the Ausangate lakes?. The days are laid out in order in our free routes for 3 days, 5 days, and 7 days in Cusco.