7 Days Classic Peru

Upon your arrival in Lima, a Valencia Travel representative will welcome you at the airport and take you, on private transportation, to your hotel.

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We will start our colonial and contemporary Lima City Tour with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. This tour will take you through the modern districts of Miraflores and San Isidro. On the way there you will see the Huaca Pucllana, a pyramid-shaped pre-Inca ceremonial temple that has survived Lima’s massive urban growth. Colonial Lima You will then visit the Historic Center of Lima, designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. On this tour you will discover a city that was once the center of the Sixteenth Century Spanish Colony.

You will also visit the Convent of Santo Domingo, where the relics of three Peruvian saints are preserved: Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Martín de Porres and Saint Juan Macias.

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A representative of Valencia Travel Cusco will pick you up from the hotel and take you to the airport where you will take your flight to Cusco!

After your arrival to Cusco, your cultural excursion will begin when we pick you up in Cusco and drive you out to the Chinchero One of the Quechua-speaking weavers will tell us (through a translator) about the secrets of the traditional iconography used in their designs and will show you the entire manufacturing process from the shearing of the wool to spinning and the washing of the wool with natural soap. You’ll also learn about the plants and flowers that are collected to use as dyes. You can also have a go at weaving a blanket, a poncho, a chullo hat, or one of the many other items made by the women weavers of Chinchero.

And, of course, you’ll be able to purchase the amazing high-quality textiles on offer, helping to support the community directly. We’ll drop you off at your hotel. Then spend the remainder of the day at leisure.

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We’ll pick you up from your hotel at 8:30 and then set off towards the Sacred Valley. In Pisac, we’ll explore the extensive ruins and enjoy the beautiful views across the valley. You’ll be given a guided tour of the ruins, passing through various structures that once served as homes, storage rooms and temples, and you’ll see Inca altars, carvings, and tunnels. We’ll now head on towards Urubamba, where we’ll stop for about 45 minutes for lunch. After another 30-minute drive, we’ll reach the wonderful Inca town and archaeological site of Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti, who conquered the region and built the town and a ceremonial center.

We’ll see the extent of the water system when we return to the town, where fast flowing water channels built by the Incas are still in use today. Walking to the town square, we’ll have great views of the ruins above us, as well as Inca granaries and store houses built on the sides of the surrounding mountains. Here we can also watch the daily life of Ollantaytambo, where many of the locals still wear traditional dress.

After the visit to Ollantaytambo, return to the hotel in Sacred Valley.

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Our tour begins in Urubamba, where we’ll pick you and then head to the train station to board the train to Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo). The 2-hour train journey is a memorable experience in itself, as we pass through river canyons and rolling hills, then your guide will pick you up from the train station. We’ll then walk to the bus departure point for the short but zigzagging ascent up the road to Machu Picchu.

We’ll then pass through the gates into the Machu Picchu archaeological site. Here you’ll begin your guided walking tour with an experienced and highly knowledgeable guide. Our tour of Machu Picchu will last about two hours, and will take you to all the most famous and most spectacular parts of the extensive archaeological complex. Once we’ve finished our tour of Machu Picchu, we’ll take the bus back down to Aguas Calientes where you can relax and have lunch, before we board the train back to Cusco.

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Our Cusco city tour begins in the morning, when we’ll first head to the wonderful Koricancha, next door to Santo Domingo Church. According to the chroniclers who wrote during the period directly after the Spanish Conquest, the Koricancha was the most sacred and most important temple in the Inca Empire. Its walls were covered with gold, and life-size statues of plants and animals – all made of pure gold and silver – decorated its rooms and hallways. Sadly, this wealth was stripped out by the Spanish conquistadors. It remains a magnificent temple, however, and your guide will take you around the Koricancha, showing you details that you almost certainly miss if you visited without a guide.

After visiting the Koricancha, we’ll head to Cusco Cathedral, located on the Plaza de Armas. Built between 1560 and 1654 on top of the foundations of an existing Inca temple, this spectacular cathedral houses many works of art by the Cusco School of painters, and its main altar and pulpit are covered in gold and silver relief work. Look carefully and you’ll also see elements of indigenous religious symbolism incorporated into the church by the native people who worked on its construction, such as the carved head of a jaguar on the doors.

Our next stop is the imposing Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman, which sits on a hill above Cusco. Here you will see some of the finest examples of Inca stonework and construction, including massive rocks that were carefully cut and perfectly fitted together to form the walls. From here you’ll also have beautiful panoramic views of Cusco.

After exploring Sacsayhuaman we’ll head up the hill to the Tambomachay Archeological Complex. The exact purpose of this site is unknown, but it may have functioned, at least in part, as an Inca spa. Inca hydro-engineering is apparent here, with a series of aqueducts, canals and waterfalls running through the terraced rocks.

Tambomachay is the last attraction on our city tour, after which we’ll head back down into Cusco and drop you off at your hotel.

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After breakfast, enjoy your last day at leisure before transferring to the airport for your return flight home via Lima.

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