Georgie’s Wanderlust

Magical Machu Picchu.. one of the new seven wonders of the world, as voted for in a 2017 internet poll.

And with good reason! This place is absolutely breathtaking, quite literally because you will be hiking around at high altitude exploring this ancient citadel.

If you are chaotic like me and like to book things on the fly, then I will gladly share with you here how to buy last minute tickets to Machu Picchu!

I hiked the Salkantay trek, a five day journey on foot to reach the ancient wonder of Machu Picchu.

Keep reading to learn about the five day Salkantay trek or click here to jump ahead to buying your Machu Picchu tickets last minute!

What is the Salkantay?

The Salkantay trek is named after the Salkantay mountain that you will hike beside on your journey to Machu Picchu. The more well known and popular Inca trail is another route you can also trek to reach your goal of Machu Picchu. I opted for Salkantay as it is known to be slightly less travelled (still busy as this Machu Picchu is so famous!) and also a tad more challenging. It is 65-75kms, depending on your starting and ending point.

How to book your Salkantay trek

If you are here to find out about getting last minute tickets to Machu Picchu I’m going to assume you also don’t have your trek booked. This can be easily done by visiting one of the many tour operators in the town of Cusco.

I went with Round Trip Travel who were fantastic! Their office is located in the main square in Cusco.

The tour included pick up from my hostel the day the trek started (very early at 4.40am), four breakfast, four lunches and four dinners and all of your accommodation. It also included our tour guide Raoul, who was so passionate and knowledgeable about the region! He had been trekking in the region for 20 years and shared some beautiful information along the way.

You will also have mules and a muleteer walking with you, who take 5kg of your belongings for you so you only need to walk with a day pack filled with your water, extra snacks, and warm clothing for the high mountains.

I paid $200USD for the 4 night/5 day tour.

I had my own sleeping bag with me so I brought this along, it’s very easy to rent one and I recommend doing this through your tour company as you pick it up at the trail head and then leave it with them on your last night as you’ll stay in a hotel in Aguas Calientes and won’t need it. If you rent it by yourself in Cusco you’ll be responsible for it the whole way and need to carry it back to Cusco with you! No thanks.

Sleeping bag rental is around $10-15USD for the whole trip.

You can book your Salkantay trek online, however a lot of online tour operators charge a much higher price. The tours leave everyday and if you have flexibility with dates I highly recommend booking when you arrive to Cusco! You’ll need a few days to adjust to the altitude as well, depending on where you are arriving from. Cusco is 3500m above sea level!

How hard is the Salkantay?

This will absolutely depend on you and your trekking experience as well as fitness level!

I have spent a lot of time trekking in my life so I found it to be comfortable with a dash of challenge.

You will cross the Salkantay mountain pass on day two, reaching your highest point of 4600m above sea level.

Day four is also challenging as you hike for 10 hours, starting the day with a 3 hour climb to a most beautiful lookout point.

Days 1 and 3 are have less elevation gain and loss, and a smaller amount of kilometres covered.

What is the Salkantay itinerary?

Day 1

The tour started with an early morning pick up from Cusco, and breakfast in the town of Mollepata. The bus then drove us up the road to meet the trail around kilometre 11. Yes, you skip the first 11km of the official trail, this seemed pretty standard as many other tour groups started where we did.

After hiking for 9 or so kilometres we arrived to our first accommodation in Soraypampa (3900m) by lunchtime. Our accomodation here was small huts with glass roofs. Here we ate our lunch and relaxed in the sunshine for a few hours. There is an optional side quest to Humantay Lake (4250m) after lunch. This is very close to camp, you cover 250m of elevation gain in 1.5km. Well worth the heavy breathing!

Day 2

The Salkantay pass! We woke up early to start hiking up and over the Salkantay pass (4600m). Make sure you pack your warm clothes and don’t give them to the mules, you’ll need them at the top! We had light snow flurries at the pass.

We then hiked down to Collpapampa (2830m) to our rustic dome tent accommodation. The weather will changed a lot on the way down, becoming increasingly warmer. This is where the bugs came out! We were greeted by midgies and black flies in camp, I like to wear long loose pants and socks with sandals in camp to avoid scratching my skin off.

We hiked around 22nd this day.

Day 3

Today was mild as we hiked along the side of Rio Santa Teresa. With minimal elevation gain and loss, it is a relatively easy hiking day. We covered around 10kms on foot along the river, then we were met by a mini bus to pick us up and drive us further along to a coffee plantation. I thought this was a little odd, and after I learnt that to continue hiking you must walk along the road as there is not really a defined trail between Sahuayaco and the next camp spot of Lucmabamba. This was fine with me as hiking next to min buses on the road isn’t ideal.

After learning about coffee and having a taste (for those who want, I’ve stopped drinking coffee), we continued in the bus to Lucmabamba (2000m) for our lunch. Our accommodation was newer, staying in bungalows.

There is an optional extra to go to the hotsprings in Cocalmayo, a short 50minute bus ride away. It was an additional 55soles for the return trip and hotsprings entry. Very relaxing after three days of hiking, and you can enjoy a pisco sour at one of the many restaurants out the front after as well!

Day 4

Another early morning start saw us hiking for three hours up to a phenomenal lookout point. This is your first glimpse of Machu Picchu! You see part of the citadel from across the valley, absolutely stunning.

Today was long, we covered 24kms over 9-10 hours to reach Aguas Calientes (2050m).

Once we reached Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu town) we went straight to the ticket office to try our luck for tickets the next day! We stayed in a hotel this evening.

Day 5

Machu Picchu! With luck on our side, we received our tickets the night before for circuit 3! Circuit 3 includes entry to Machu Picchu to wander around the citadel, and also a hike up to the top of Wayna Picchu, the iconic mountain you see in the background of most photos of Machu Picchu. We had a 9am ticket that allowed us entry to Machu Picchu at this time, and entry to the Wayna Picchu hike between 10-11am.

A bit of a whirlwind visit as we wandered around and hiked quickly to make sure we made it back to Aguas Calientes to take our 1.37pm train back to Cusco.

Stunning, magical, inspiring, Machu Picchu was such a highlight to my second trip to Peru!

Buying Machu Picchu tickets last minute

The information you are here for!

I did not organise anything in advance, so I had to figure it out and learn along the way, let me share with you all that I know..

Upon booking my Salkantay trek once I had arrived to Cusco, I discovered that all of the presale Machu Picchu tickets were sold out for two weeks!

But I wanted to go sooner than that due to time constraints, so this is how I learnt you still can:

When you arrive to Aguas Calientes on day four of your Salkantay trek (it is also possible to take the train to Aguas Calientes directly if you don’t want to hike) you can go to the ticketing office in the centre of town to essentially try your luck. They release 1000 tickets everyday, up to 24 hours before your desired entry time (so purchasing the ticket when you arrive for the following day).

When you get to the ticketing office, you will show your passport (MAKE SURE YOU BRING YOUR PASSPORT!) and receive a ticket with a number between 1-1000. They will then give you a time to come back later that day to line up and purchase the actual Machu Picchu ticket.

We arrived to Aguas Calientes at 2.30pm, and my ticket number was 542! There is obviously a risk with this, if another 458 people arrived before me I would have missed out. But walking fast and with luck on our side, we were now set up to buy our tickets.

We were asked to come back at 6pm and get in the queue, they call your number and once you are called you enter the building and snake through a long (yet fast moving) line to purchase your ticket! Of the 1000 tickets, they only sell a certain number of each circuit, with circuit 2 being the most popular. We wanted to hike Wayna Picchu, and luckily for us we got tickets to this circuit!

Our back up plan for if we had of arrived to Aguas Calientes and missed out on that days ticket sales, was to stay an extra night in Aguas Calientes and try again very early the following morning. The ticket office opens at 5am (check this with them as times can vary apparently?), and we were told people line up even earlier than this! It seemed like a good enough back up option though, and that we were still able to get tickets upon arriving at 2.30pm in high season says something too! Maybe a bit of luck thrown in there too..

So my suggestion to you is try your luck too, and it’s a good idea to have an extra day in see you need to stay an additional night to try early in the morning.

Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu

But wait there’s more..

The town of Aguas Calientes sits next to Rio Urubamba in the base of the valley. While Machu Picchu is perched high on top of the mountain above. You therefore need to either hike or take a bus up to the top.

We opted for the bus which cost $24USD for a round trip. BUY THIS THE DAY BEFORE. It is ideal to purchase the ticket the day before your Machu Picchu entrance, as the lines can get big.

And speaking of big lines, once you line your in the morning for your bus the queue is massive. I recommend arriving 45minutes to an hour before your bus departure time as this is about how long you will need to wait.

It was a little shorter of a wait coming back from Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes, but I would still recommend allowing lots of time, especially if you are catching a train back.

Travelling back to Cusco

We waited to book our transport back to Cusco until we knew we had our Machu Picchu tickets. You have two options, the train + bus combo which takes about 4-5 hours, or a two hour hike and then an 8 hour bus.

We opted for the train + bus.. it cost us $70USD for a train ticket from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo. We then took our own taxi (there were four of us) for 80soles from Ollantaytambo to Cusco.

When you book your train ticket, you have the option to add in a bus service from Ollantaytambo to Cusco for around an additional $30USD. It worked out much cheaper for us to do it out on our own once we arrived to Ollantaytambo.

If you opt for the walk and bus combination, it will be much cheaper, but you will have to walk two hours along the railroad to the town of Hidro eléctrica, where you will meet your bus that will take around 8 hours to return you to Cusco.

The trains run frequently through the day, and leave on time so make sure you’re early!

Thank you

As always, thank you for reading. Your support on my blog means the world to me, and if you have any questions on how to achieve your Machu Picchu adventure feel free to reach out!

If you are in Peru and interested in more incredible hiking experiences, check out the 8 day Huayhuash trek or the 4 day Santa Cruz trek, both accessible from Huaraz.

Much love,

Georgie ✨