If you’re already coming to Peru, chances are you’ve seen or heard of Peru’s colorful Andes Rainbow Mountain.
Rainbow Mountain is just a few hours’ bus ride from Cusco and 5000 meters up in the Andes mountains. This day trip attracts millions of people each year wanting to challenge themselves to hike the famous Vinicunca. A lot of tourists consider this one of the best spots in Peru for pictures and videos.
Should you visit Rainbow Mountain? What makes it so popular?
Rainbow Mountain is one of the most popular activities and tours in Peru and probably one of the most recognizable backgrounds for pictures for tourists here. I certainly got amazing pictures here for my blog and Instagram. Everyone always talks about Machu Picchu, but Rainbow Mountain is right up there and it’s much easier and accessible to get to.
I love hiking and just being outdoors doing adventurous things all the time. But, if you’re experiencing altitude sickness in Cusco or don’t think you can make the hike for any reason, they make it easy for you by offering horse rides up for only 80 Soles. I took a horse up because I was way too tired and exhausted from doing another much harder hike the previous day. It seriously made it 100 times easier.
After spending 3 days in Cusco and doing 2 tours, I went on my 3rd tour in Cusco and visited Rainbow Mountain. Walking up those final flight of stairs to the top of Rainbow Mountain was such an achievement for me because of how exhausted I was from the day before. The colorful minerals in the mountains made it look so vibrant and amazing.
One of the best highlights for me was seeing those 2 alpacas wearing sunglasses at the top of Rainbow Mountain and taking the most awesome pictures with them.
A Mini Guide to Rainbow Mountain Peru
How to get to Rainbow Mountain
We had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready and meet our tour bus for the day. That hour in the morning was freezing cold. I visited in May and it would freeze from morning to about midday and then get very hot until about 8 pm at night.
I really recommend that you stay in a central location in Cusco when you have a lot of tours booked. This is because the tour buses you are assigned when you book your tour online only pass through the Cusco City Center. If you’re located on the outskirts of Cusco, you’ll have to walk to the center to meet the bus. You’ll use this bus for the full duration of the trip and on the way back.
Everyone that’s on the bus also has to pay another 20 Soles for the ticket to enter the Rainbow Mountain. This happened on every single tour we did in Cusco. Even after booking online, when everyone is in the bus and you are just about to leave Cusco, the guide will start his speech. He basically introduces himself and makes people feel calm and easy, then say that everyone needs to pay 20 Soles for tickets. This isn’t mentioned anywhere when booking the tours, but you get a WhatsApp message 24 hours before the actual tour explaining this.
The bus ride to the actual hiking location took about 2 hours. But first, at about 75% of the way there, all the buses stop at a large gathering hall type area to eat breakfast for about 30 minutes. The breakfast and lunch on these tours are included in the price.
There are quite a number of things to choose from for breakfast. There were eggs, pancakes, cereal, fruit, yogurt, bread, oats, juices, coffee and of course coca tea. I swear coca tea is everywhere in Cusco. I’ve never gone a single place without seeing it offered.
It’s a really large food hall with benches and tables with assigned seating. So, your group and everyone that came in your bus, including the guide, will have to eat at that table.
Then, after breakfast everyone gets back into the exact same bus and seat they came in and you continue on toward Rainbow Mountain.
How Was The Actual Hiking Experience at Rainbow Mountain
Honestly, I think this is one of the easier and shorter hikes in Cusco. At first, your group will just follow the tour guide up some stairs to the real starting location of the hike. It’s a large open area where they have all the horse wranglers. Here you will decide if you want to take a horse up or both ways and also pay for using it. It costs 80 Soles to use a horse.
On the way back, I walked about 50% of the way when I was approached by the horse people trying to get me to take a horse. A this point they just want some business and will literally accept any amount of money for the ride back. I offered 20 Soles for ride and they agreed.
At first the mountain range you’re hiking looks barren and like a wasteland with brown dirt and rubble. If you look to your left, you have a huge ice capped mountain and glacier in the distance. It was immense and vast. One of the coolest sceneries here. When you make your way further up the hike, the magic happens. You start to see more and more colors and eventually you see the actual Rainbow Mountain everybody has been anticipating.
There are different sections or levels to the Rainbow Mountain hike. The first section is a large and flat open area with a nice 360 view of everything and some benches to sit and take a break. It’s at this point where everyone has to leave their horse and start walking for themselves.
The next section of the Rainbow Mountain hike is a really long upward stairs built into the mountain with wooden handrails. For me, this was probably the most difficult part of the hike. Going up all these stairs with biting cold wind and a lack of oxygen is a serious combo to make you question your ability here.
Then you’ll finally arrive at the top level area of Rainbow Mountain where you’re really close to the colors and can get some amazing pictures.
What To Do at Rainbow Mountain
Well, when you do Rainbow Mountain or most of the adventurous activities in Peru, the appeal and attraction comes from the whole experience. From the bus ride and hike, to the nature and scenery. Even the struggle and overcoming fatigue and accomplishing something cool and fun.
There is food to eat like alpaca meat and guinea pig as well as snacks and drinks at the top of the mountain. But I hardly saw anybody indulging in those things. Everyone was focused on trying to not collapse and taking pictures.
When to Visit Rainbow Mountain
I visited Rainbow Mountain in May. I honestly think that May is the best time. It’s the dry season so the sky is its clearest. It’s also just outside the peak tourist season so prices are not very high and tourist crowds are smaller. In general, the best time to visit Cusco is when you are able to because any time would be great. But aim for May or September.
