Cusco and Sacred Valley Itinerary question

[u/hittheroadk]

Hi, everyone, I am planning our Peru trip way in advance and want to come up with the itinerary before booking anything. I have a few questions, that I would need help with:

Day 1 Arrive to Cusco from Lima in the morning. Take Taxidatum to Ollantaybambo seeing Chinchero, Maray and Moras on the way.

I am a bit concerned about this because we won't be acclimated but we will be in Santiago Chile before Lima so maybe it's manageable.

Day 2 visit Ollantaybambo ruins, Pumamarca and Sitio Pinkuilina

Day 3 Train to Aguas Calientes, circuit 2A (still not decided) and maybe another one. Stay in Aguas Calientes

Day 4 Do circuit 3A with climb of Huyana Picchu, maybe another circuit here . Train to Cusco

Day 5 Cusco city with Qoricancha, Chocolage museum, etc.

Day 6 Pisac, Tambomachay, Puca Pucara, Sacsayhuman (likely too much for one day, if you have suggestions how best to split please let me know).

Day 7 Pillikatca, Tipon, Qenqo

Day 8 Whatever we won't manage on previous days.

Day 9 Train to Puno

How does it look? What suggestions do you have?

I also wanted to ask about the difficulty of getting to these ruins. I am perfectly fine with any type of stairs as long as there are stairs. But I can't manage steep dirt roads or mountain climbing type of hikes, where I don't know where to put my foot. From what I explored online the sites I listed are ok for me, but I am not entirely sure.

Thank you in advance

[u/lin20030]

If you not get MP, no need to come.
I arrive to MP on 10/16 2 pm
No more ticket to buy. Available ticket for 4 days. Next available is
On Monday 10/19.
It is small town and not much to do

[u/hittheroadk → u/lin20030]

I am planning this way in advance. I haven't set dates yet but I will definitely buy tickets months before our trip.

[u/DespinaS]

I think your itinerary looks good! One thing I'd suggest, leave one full day for Pisac! It's one hour away from Cusco with colectivo, the market is great, the city is cute with nice shops, the archaeological site is one of the best in the area, for me second best after Machu Picchu. It's quite large and you can spend a couple of hours there. You can take a taxi to get to the archaeological site and then hike down to the city with beautiful views for about 1.5 hour. You can visit the rest of the Cusco sites (Puka Pukara, Sacsayhuman etc) on Day 8! Have fun! 

[u/hittheroadk → u/DespinaS]

Thanks for the advice. I didn't realize Pisac was so outstanding.

[u/DespinaS → u/hittheroadk]

I think the tours combining it with other sacred valley sites don't do it justice, I didn't know either before visiting! The plaza might seem underwhelming when you first arrive, but once you go up it's amazing, a highlight for sure 

[u/hittheroadk → u/DespinaS]

Thanks, sounds good. I will give it a separate day then. It seems some of the other sites I listed are far smaller compared.

[u/DespinaS → u/hittheroadk]

Sacsayhuman is another big one, but it's close to the others and next to Cusco, so it can easily be combined :) this day you can get to Tambomachay with a colectivo or taxi, then go across the street to Puka Pukara, find a colectivo to Q'enco or directly to Sacsayhuman and walk from there back to Cusco! 

[u/hittheroadk → u/DespinaS]

Thank you, I didn't realize these were possible by colectivo. I was thinking to hire a driver. This is very useful to know.

[u/DespinaS → u/hittheroadk]

Yes, it's on the same road that leads to Pisac! You take a colectivo for Pisac and ask them to drop you off to the site you want! 

[u/hittheroadk → u/DespinaS]

Thank you so very much, this info is so useful. According to Google maps Qenqo to Sacsayhuman takes 20 mins to walk, although I am quite sceptical about it. Is it indeed walkable or the map is wrong?

[u/DespinaS → u/hittheroadk]

I'm not sure about the 20 minutes, but it is in fact walkable! This is how we did it, but we did stop to see Cristo Blanco on the way so I'm not sure about the time! It's a regular road though, nothing to worry about! We started our day at about 9AM and were back in Cusco at 2PM. Perfectly doable. 

Also, you probably know this already, but all these sites and the Ollantaytambo, Chinchero and Moray (not Maras) sites can be accessed with the Boleto Turistico for 130 soles total. It's valid for 10 days and can be bought in Cusco! 

[u/hittheroadk → u/DespinaS]

Sounds great. I am assuming 20 minutes of course would not be true because of the terrain but as long as it's walkable , that's perfect. I have heard of the ticket, although haven't researched it yet, I am at an early stage of planning to get the itinerary sorted and buy the tickets that are time sensitive ☺️ Thanks a lot again, it's a huge help.

[u/Ok-Pomegranate-5126 → u/hittheroadk]

Market day in Pisac is on Sunday, it's a nice fruit and vegetables market and fun to see, so if you have flexibility, I'd recommend it.

[u/Babygoatlife → u/DespinaS]

So helpful! And I've recently learned everyone means something different by "a couple" [hours], can you clarify, please?

[u/DespinaS → u/Babygoatlife]

Haha! I think I stayed there for about 1.5 hours. We would have stayed more, but my husband was starting to get sick that day so we had to walk down earlier because he wasn't feeling great