Inca Trail permits for 2027: how they are sold and what to know first

The Inca Trail is not one path but a network. Peru's Ministry of Culture calls it the Red de Caminos Inka, and it authorizes six routes for visitors, all of them inside the Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary. The best known is the classic trail, which starts at Piscacucho, at kilometer 82 of the railway, and walks to Machu Picchu in up to four days and three nights. Every route needs a permit, and permits are limited.

What a permit is

A permit is an entry ticket to one route of the network, for one date, issued in the name of the walker. It is not a ticket you can move. The rules for the trail allow a change of guide up to 24 hours before entry, but they do not allow a new date, except in cases of force majeure that can be documented. Plan the date first, then everything around it.

The daily limits

The limits are set by regulation. Routes 01, 02, 03, and 04, the classic trail among them, share a limit of 500 users a day. Route 05, the short way in from kilometer 104, has its own limit of 250 a day. Route 06, the newest, has 100. Because the first four routes share one limit, a busy day on any of them is a busy day for the classic trail too.

The regulation counts users and does not say whether guides, cooks, and porters are inside these numbers. Operators often split the 500 into walkers and staff, but that split is theirs, not the ministry's. What is official is the total for each route.

Who sells them

You cannot buy an Inca Trail permit on your own. Since September 2026, the rules say that permits are sold only through direct purchase on the official TuBoleto platform, and only by travel agencies registered with the Ministry of Culture's office in Cusco for the current year. The agency buys for you, in your name. Because the registration runs for the current year, ask your agency to confirm that it is registered for 2027 before you pay anything.

The same month, the ministry ended the old three-hour hold. A permit is now tied to confirmed payment and to the identity of the visitor, and it is issued only once it is paid in full. In practice this means the agency needs the details of the passport you will travel with before it buys, and a place you were promised is not yours until the agency has paid for it. Ask your agency to confirm the purchase, not only the booking.

When 2027 permits go on sale

As of October 28, 2026, the Ministry of Culture had not announced when sales for 2027 will open. For 2026, sales opened on November 17, 2025, on the TuBoleto platform. That date is a guide, not a promise for this year.

If you already know your dates, choose your agency now and give it your passport details early. When the ministry announces the 2027 calendar, we will add it here.

A permit is a named place on one day. The date comes before everything else.

The February closure

The trail normally closes every February for maintenance. In 2026 the network closed from January 31 and reopened on March 1. The head of the Machu Picchu archaeological park said the closure is applied every year in February. No date for the 2027 closure had been announced as of October 2026, so if you are flexible, plan the trail outside February.

Machu Picchu at the end of the trail

The trail ends at Machu Picchu, and the citadel has its own rules. Since November 2025, walkers who arrive by the trail enter the Llaqta, the Inca city, by route 3-B, with their own daily capacity. Those entries are reserved and paid through the same authorized agencies, so ask your agency whether your package includes the visit to the citadel and which day it falls on.

The circuits of the citadel and how ordinary tickets are sold are a separate system. An ordinary Machu Picchu ticket does not let you walk the trail, and a trail permit is never sold to walkers directly. For both systems, read How to buy Machu Picchu tickets in 2026 and 2027 and Which Machu Picchu circuit should you choose?.

Before you walk

The days before the trail are usually spent in Cusco, at about 3,400 meters. Give yourself time there first. Read Why altitude changes the shape of a Cusco trip for how the first days in Cusco feel and how to plan around them.

If the trail is not for you

The Inca Trail is not part of our routes, which plan each day from a base in Cusco and reach Machu Picchu by train. If the permits for your dates are gone, or four days of walking is not the trip you want, the train still reaches the same citadel in a single day. Read The train to Machu Picchu: what to know before you ride and Machu Picchu from Cusco in one day.