I honestly think that Cusco is one of the best places for adventure travelers to visit. There are so many cool things to do, see and experience, that I had a hard time planning my itinerary and trying to fit everything in.
I spent 6 days in Cusco in May of this year. I used Cusco as the base for all of my excursions and I even explored Cusco a bit for a full day. During this time, I did several day trips from Cusco and each activity that I did was extremely different from each other.
Some tours require you to be acclimated to the extremely high altitude. This will be very different for each person and you might or might not even experience any altitude sickness in Cusco at all if you’re lucky. Luckily, I didn’t experience altitude sickness during my trip, although that doesn’t mean there was no risk in going higher.
I am mainly writing this article so you can decide which are the best day trips from Cusco for you. I know that everyone has a limited amount of time and money on their trip. My guide should answer which day trip is worth one of your limited Cusco days.
All the tours I did in Cusco was booked ahead on viator except my horseback riding tour.
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Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is definitely the most popular tour in Cusco. You should actually try to book tickets 3 months in advance and it’s regulated by the Peruvian government. That’s how serious this activity is. But, I don’t necessarily think that Machu Picchu is an absolute must do when you come to Cusco.
Machu Picchu is one of the longest day trips from Cusco, taking up an entire day. And that’s just for the tour that includes the train ride. People also hike to Machu Picchu for days on the Inca Trail. I also realized that Machu Picchu is the most expensive tour in Cusco. It costs on average about $450 USD. Honestly, that’s a lot of money. All my other tours in Peru combined cost less than Machu Picchu.
Now, you don’t just get on a bus ride and arrive at the ruins. You have to travel from Cusco toward the Sacred Valley, take the train to Aguas Calientes, and then make the final journey up to Machu Picchu itself. It is a long travel day, so make sure you have no other plans besides this one. The bus ride and train both are 2 hours long. The tour might even start as early as 2 a.m.
Once I finally reached Machu Picchu, though, the amount of travel felt worth it. I think I have this sentiment with every tour I did. Seeing the ruins surrounded by steep green mountains is completely different from looking at pictures online obviously.
What I also liked about Machu Picchu is that the day is not physically demanding in the same way as Rainbow Mountain or Humantay Lake. I think this is one of the most comfortable and easiest tours in Cusco. You will still walk quite a bit and deal with stairs and uneven paths, but you are not hiking toward 5,000 meters above sea level.
No matter what, at this altitude, any kind of walking on an incline will mess you up. I felt tingling in my body and like I couldn’t breathe properly at times because of the lack of oxygen. But, just take your time.
Rainbow Mountain
For me, Rainbow Mountain started extremely early at 4 am and ended at around 4 p.m. We stayed in the city center so the tour bus picked us up by our hotel. If you stay on the outskirts of Cusco and not in the city center, then you’ll have to walk to the center to get your bus instead. This means waking up even earlier. My Rainbow Mountain tour cost $48 USD.
The bus ride to Rainbow Mountain and all my tours here in Cusco had the exact same layout. Catch the bus extremely early, head to get breakfast, continue to location, leave location and head back, stop for lunch, then continue back to Cusco.
So, we always stopped at this large food hall area with a lot of tables and food. There would also be every single other tour bus heading to Rainbow Mountain getting breakfast in the same location as well. Breakfast would be regular stuff like pancakes, cereal, oats, eggs, juice, tea, coffee, coca tea. There are bathrooms you can use here if you were holding up a pee or just go before the long bus ride continues.
When you arrive at Rainbow Mountain you’ll be at 5,000 meters high. But honestly, I didn’t feel the difference compared to the other hikes or Cusco itself. Except that it was much windier.
At first, the Rainbow Mountain trail starts off looking like you’re walking on a mountain of rubble. Then when you get to a more advanced section of the journey, you get to see the amazingly beautiful colorful stripes on the mountains.
Before actually starting the hike, the tour guide takes you to the starting area where you can decide if you want to take a horse. I really think that this decision is very important. I took a horse up Rainbow Mountain because I was absolutely gutted from the hike the day before. But if you really want a challenge and you’re feeling fit, then by all means walk it. It costs 80 Soles for a horse ride up. On the way down, you can negotiate the price. But you might not need it.
It’s 5000 meters high up here, so you really have to gauge how you feel and take your time on the way up. This is especially important for people who just arrived in Cusco and who haven’t acclimatized to the elevation yet. The hike was not very physically difficult. It’s just that at 5000 meters, you’re going to struggle a bit because of the oxygen level. i would say its moderately difficult.
I thought that Rainbow Mountain was one of the easier hikes to do. It only took 1 hour each way on foot and about 30 minutes on horseback. When you’re on the horse, it’s being guided by a guy that is on foot walking beside it. So, the horse isn’t running or anything. It’s going just slightly faster than a person walking casually.
If you’re having any altitude sickness symptoms, then you should probably skip this hike. This is because it just takes you even higher than Cusco itself and you’ll end up feeling worse. Other than that, I think everyone should do Rainbow Mountain.
Humantay Lake
For me personally, Humantay Lake was the most difficult hike I’ve ever done. This tour started identical to Rainbow Mountain. Tour bus picks you up in the city center at 4 am, go get breakfast, head to the start of the hike and begin. The tour ended at 5 p.m. and in total this cost me $68 USD.
Despite it being a much longer and harder hike, I really loved this tour because of the scenery. There is always a large snow covered mountain in the distance, rivers of glacier water running beside you and nice green trees and bushes all around. This is a 10/10 location for Instagram photos.
If you’re really into the actual hiking experience, then you absolutely have to do this tour. It takes 2.5 hours to hike to the lake and 2 hours back. It’s almost all uphill to the lake, but on the way back it’s much easier and just goes downhill from there.
I’d recommend skipping this hike if you’re really unfit and do not think that you can hike for 2 hours up hill at high altitude. It was a great struggle for me and I would consider myself young and fit. Although, I saw so many old people passing me on this hike.
If I had to choose between Humantay Lake and Rainbow Mountain, I’d choose Humantay Lake. It’s more challenging and gives a greater reward at the end. Also, the scenery and environment was really nice for me.
Sacred Valley
The Sacred Valley was one of the easier day trips I did from Cusco, especially compared with Rainbow Mountain and Humantay Lake. There is still some walking around the ruins, but there isn’t much hiking at all. I mean, not every tour needs to be a hike and a struggle. Sometimes it can be relaxed.
The Sacred Valley tours start later than the others. It starts at around 6 am. Based on your exact tour, you’ll visit different sites. We went to Maras Moray, Complejo Arquelogico, Urubamba for lunch and Ollantaytambo.
This tour is more of a history lesson with great ruins and scenery for pictures. It’s not really about doing something challenging like a hike or climbing steep hills.
There are separate entrance fees for the salt mines which is 20 soles and Sacred Valley for 70 soles. Very similar to all the other tours I did where they collected the entrance fees from every passenger on the bus on the way to the site.
The guide was knowledgeable and kept the day moving without making the stops feel rushed. Our driver also got us between the Inca sites efficiently, and the buffet lunch had plenty of options. One practical tip: bring your own toilet paper, since some of the bathrooms at the archaeological sites did not have any.
I think the Sacred Valley is worth using a day in Cusco for if you enjoy Inca history, archaeological sites and a slower-paced tour. If you’re like me and mainly want adventure and hiking, I would prioritize Rainbow Mountain or Humantay Lake instead. But if you want a chill day while still doing something cool you can do the Sacred Valley tour.
Horseback Riding Through Chacan Mountains Temple of Moon + Local Village
This tour was really strange and we did it randomly on the spot. While my buddy and I were at one of the lookouts in Cusco, a tour operator invited us on this tour. He showed us his flyer and we thought it looked majestic and like something we’d enjoy a lot, especially for a first day activity.
He took us in his car and we rode to a place where they have a lot of horses, a stable and some farming going on. We immediately just began riding the horses and following a tour guide. The guide took us to several ancient sites. We could come off the horse and check them out closer to get pictures and stuff. We visited about 3 of these sites in total.
This was the most relaxing tour of my entire time in Cusco. Just horseback riding through the Andes, with mountains and meadows as far as the eye can see was epic.
The reason why I think this tour is extremely great for value and one of the best tours to do as a first day trip, is because of the many different things we did and places we visited on this one tour.
First you ride through Chacan mountain while visiting ancient sites. Then, after riding for about 2 hours, we got on foot and hiked to an Inca cave system. We walked all through the caves, exploring and looking at cool drawings. Then we were taken to a very local and rural town even higher in the mountains. Here someone educated us on alpaca fur and taught us how to identify fake from the real ones. He taught us about the history of alpaca fur and the entire industry.
After that, we were taken to a very local restaurant for lunch and we had alpaca meat, corn and potatoes. The tour guide then drove us all the way back to our hotel in Cusco City Center. I highly recommend looking for horseback riding in the Chacan mountains tour and do this day trip. Did I mention that this entire tour was a private one? It was just 2 of us and the guides taking only us around to all of these places. It was so worth it.
If you’re wondering is Cusco worth visiting? Then I hope this story helps you understand the day trips better and add these to your to-do list for Cusco.
Which Cusco day trip should you choose?
You should do as many of them as you can if you have the time, fitness level and budget. Don’t just rush and do all back to back. Do a tour, have a chill day, then do another tour, then another chill day. Do it like this so you don’t succumb to the altitude and get ill.
But, if you have to choose, do Machu Picchu for just an overall great experience of one of the most popular sites in the world. Do Humantay Lake if you are really into hiking and want a challenge. If you really love horseback riding with varied activities, then the Chacan mountain horseback riding tour is the best for you.
Cusco day trip tips
I didn’t stop drinking water my whole time in Cusco. I think that helped a lot with me not experiencing any altitude sickness. Bring water with you on all of these tours.
Walk with some cash in soles. You are always having to pay for some little convenience. To use the bathrooms on Rainbow Mountain was a cost, to use the horse, to buy bottled water at the breakfast halls. Make sure to walk with cash because you never know.
Pack a windbreaker to bring on all of your day trips. My windbreaker that I bought back when I did my winter Europe trip came with me to Cusco and I wore it everywhere. It really helped with the high altitude and the strong wind that you get high up in the Andes mountains. I couldn’t imagine how cold I would be without it.
If you think you’ll get altitude sickness, buy altitude pills and drink lots of coca tea. We lived on coca tea for breakfast lunch and dinner. Thank God it was free wherever we went.
Try not to book consecutive tour days. These are extremely exhausting and you might not enjoy it as much. I recommend doing 1 chill activity and then a large tour the day after. Then another chill activity / day and so on.
