The only route that brings you to the Sun Gate on foot, with Machu Picchu below you before the first train pulls in. Permits are limited and sell out months ahead — we file yours the day sales open.

• Your permit, filed in your name the day sales open
• Satellite phone, oxygen, private toilet tent — included, not upsold
• 5.0 from 3,222 travellers

Reach the citadel by train instead of on foot: one day from Cusco, paired with the Sacred Valley, or over two unhurried days. Entrance circuit, tickets and certified guide are sorted before you arrive.

Vinicunca's striped ridge sits above 5,000 m, so we leave early and climb at a pace that works. Want it quieter? Palccoyo and Pallay Punchu give you the same colours with a fraction of the crowd.

Days circling a 6,384 m apu past turquoise lagoons, alpaca herders and natural hot springs — and almost nobody else on the pass. Two days for a taste, six for the full circuit.

Same destination, a quieter way in. Lares crosses weaving villages, Salkantay passes under a glacier, Choquequirao reaches ruins almost nobody sees — and none of them need an Inca Trail permit.

Ideal for your first days at altitude or the gap before a trek: salt pans, Inca terraces, high lagoons and condor canyons, all a few hours from the city and back in time for dinner.