Day Trips Near Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Most people spend at least a few days in Cusco before or after heading to Machu Picchu. There are a number of daytrips that can be taken using the city as a starting point. While most people head to the Sacred Valley, there are also some sites worth visiting to the south of Cusco as well.

You can either take a guided tour with a travel agency or you can just take a taxi yourself to the sites. If you go with an agency, they will normally offer a half or full day tour that includes Tipon, Pikillacta and Andahuaylillas. Entrance to Tipon and Pikallacta is included if you’ve purchased the 10-Day Boleto Turistico to visit the sites in Cusco and the Sacred Valley. You can also pay separate entrance fees just for these locations. If you hire a taxi for the day, you can typically find local guides at the sites.

Tipon is around 20 km from Cusco and takes about 45 minutes to reach from the city. It is an Inca archaelogical site where one can really get a feel for the terracing that the Inca civilization was known for. There are twelve agricultural terraces that are believed to have been royal gardens. The site shows the advanced hydraulic engineering of the Incas with aqueducts, canals and waterfalls. If you’re feeling adventurous, the nearby town is famous for its cuy al horno or roasted guinea pig.

Continuing on the road toward Puno, one can reach Pikillacta, a pre-Inca site of the Huari civilization. It’s a sprawling complex composed of more than seven hundred buildings, including dwellings and storage areas. Although the architecture doesn’t seem like much compared to the Inca stonework at Tipon and other sites, it’s impressive for its sheer size. The area is believed to have been large enough to support a community of 10,000 people. Nearby is found the Huacarpay lagoon where one can view a large variety of wildlife including flamingos.

When you’re done touring Pikillacta and the surrounding landscape, it’s worth heading just a bit further to reach Andahuaylillas if you’re not planning on taking a tourist bus from Cusco to Puno later on, as it’s one of the stops on that route. Here you will find a church that is commonly referred to as the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas” due to the quality of the murals within. On either side of the entranceway, the murals clearly depict the paths to heaven and to hell along with their representative temptations and hardships. There is a separate entrance fee to enter the church.

Many tours include a stop for lunch on the way back to Cusco, either in Tipon for the cuy or in Saylla, which is known for its chicharrones (fried pork rinds). While neither one of these local delicacies may make it on your list of favorite foods, it’s worth trying them where they’re said to be the best.

These trips and many others are all available as extensions to the regular Machu Picchu and Galapagos tours and are available from any Galapagos and Peru travel specialist.

By Maureen Santucci