When gifted a three-day layover in South America, visit Peru’s most famous landmark – QUICKLY!
Andrew and I met doing a show called OH WHAT A NIGHT! It’s a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons tribute band that tours all over the world. Shiny suits, lots o’ hair product, outstanding music glued together with comedy and shenanigans. You get the idea. Well, some of the other guys in the group and I had just finished a week guest entertaining on a cruise ship with a South American itinerary. The day we disembarked, we got stuck waiting on the pier in Lima for our ride as the ship pulled away into the deep blue yonder. It wasn’t the best feeling.
But what WAS a fantastic feeling was the chat I had with our producers before we even left for the boat. “We heard you wanted to see more of Peru, so we booked you an extra three days in a hotel and scheduled your flight home a little later. Is that OK?”
Heh. “Is that OK” they said. I love this job.
The game was afoot. I had three days—I was gonna USE ‘em.
The view from my seat en route to Cuzco: a snowy island paradise nestled in a sea of clouds.
GETTING THERE
I flew from Lima to Cuzco for about $300 round trip. Cuzco is where the Machu Picchu adventure begins. It may be easier and more cost-effective to schedule your flights separately—one to get you to Lima, another to get you from there to Cuzco. JetBlue has a very reasonable flight to Lima, as well as LAN and Peruvian Airlines. I’m a big fan of discount travel sites like Travelocity, CheapoAir, and Kayak to do a lot of bargain flight shopping. They’re great with showing you loads of options for travel including flexible dates and departure from neighboring cities—anything to save some money while still getting excellent service and punctual departure and arrival times to fit your itinerary.
GETTING AROUND
Once in Cuzco, you want to find your way to the Poroy train station. You’ll want to take PeruRail to get to Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu. The ride from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes is BREATHTAKING. Make sure to keep your camera handy. It’s about 3.5 hours and it’s chock FULL of beautiful scenery. Oh, and the train itself is about 78% window, including the train car roofs. It makes for beautiful viewing, but often clouds photos or mars them with reflections. Bringing a hat for the ride and/or apply a liberal slather of sunscreen before boarding is a great idea.
ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD
While in Aguas Calientes, I stayed in a place called the Hostal La Payacha in the heart of town. SUPER price, close to everything, and the Urubamba River runs right behind it with a beautiful lullaby of rushing water. They serve a traditional Peruvian breakfast (included in the price–I paid $40 for the room for the night) and the service was pretty good. I got a towel from the front desk and my room was HUGE – four beds and gigantic windows. It was #18, if you want to request it. It may be more expensive because it’s meant to sleep four–I think I got a special deal because she couldn’t find my reservation, but it’s still very clean and it’s directly behind the train station. Location, location, location. If they’re booked, you can also find great stays on the sites I mentioned earlier for competitive pricing for flights to find a great hotel on a budget.
GETTING UP THE MOUNTAIN
The bus station to take you the Machu Picchu site is less than a minute’s walk from the hostel. For about $24, you can get a round-trip ticket to take you up the mountain. You can also walk the path to the mountain, but I’d recommend the bus if you’re on a tight schedule like I was. But they only take cash—soles or dollars—so be sure you’ve got that on you.
CURRENCY
While we’re on that topic–I’d recommend keeping about $50 worth of Soles on you pretty much all the time. Most places take dollars, but not all. I almost got myself into a tight with the minibus back to Cuzco because refused my payment in USD. I had to rely on the kindness of strangers for 8 Soles. Though there were several there that offered to help, it was a little embarrassing. Be sure to have and keep local tender in your wallet.
TOURING THE SITE
I highly recommend pre-buying your ticket to Machu Picchu itself online BEFORE you go. Reserve your spot and print those before you go because they only let so many people into the park each day. Don’t wanna go all that way to be refused at the gate. The site I used to buy individual tickets only offers tour packages now, but ticketmachupicchu.com is a site where you can check the calendar and reserve your spot for your dates.
Though I paid extra to climb her while pre-booking, I didn’t get there quite early enough to make it up the mountain. I hope you’ll have more time for your adventure. I recommend making lists of what you “must” do and what you’d “like” to do if time permits.
BOOKING A GUIDE
Unlike booking your ticket for admission to the actual site, I don’t recommend scheduling a guide in advance. If you book on-site with an English-speaking guide, you can save yourself a ton of money and still get a stellar experience. It’ll be with a group and it’ll be very informative. I enjoyed our guide, Edison. I took the tour in Spanish, which was a bit of a challenge, but the crowd was smaller and I gleaned a LOT of good stuff from his instruction.
THE RETURN
On my way back to Cuzco, I was in a bit of a time crunch, so the only destination on the train that fit my schedule stopped in Ollantaytambo. From there, I knew I’d have to take a car to get to my flight on time.
There are crowds of folks offering taxi rides to the passengers leaving the train, which leads me to my next point: don’t accept the first offer you hear. It’s just like being at the airport. If someone meets you at the gate of the train station trying to get you in their taxi, say “gracias” and keep going. If you walk a little further from the station, you can get the same ride for much less. Taxis at the front of the gate were offering $20-$40 cab rides to Cuzco. I got a ride on a minibus for 8 SOLES ($3, give or take). If you don’t mind shouldering up with folks, and I don’t, it’s a much more culturally rich experience in getting where you’re going. I loved it.
SHOPPING AND SOUVENIRS
When you take a trip, there are folks at home who thrill at the thought of a gift from your travels. I have FIVE nieces and nephews, so I’m always on the lookout for weird and wonderful trinketry to take home to them.
I approach souvenir shopping much like taxi selection. Someone will offer you something at a shop or stand and you may think it’s priced a little (or a lot) on the high side. I always advise haggling a bit. And you should be willing to walk away if they’re not willing to deal. I wanted an alpaca hat—lady offered to sell it to me for 70 Nuevo Soles (about 20 USD) and I offered her 35 (close to $10). She wouldn’t budge, so I thanked her and moved on. She chased me down in the market and I got my hat for $10. But I was READY to walk away without it at all. Figure out what it is you want and how much you’re willing to pay for it. If you can’t meet in the middle, ease on down the road.
LANGUAGE
I’d recommend getting some Spanish under your belt if you don’t know some already. It’s just useful—everything is written in Spanish, and the more you know and understand, the more you can get from your trip. I’m a big proponent of DuoLingo. It’s an app I keep on my phone. It’s free, but the for-pay version has no ads and makes it easier to skip past some of the more elementary lessons if you already have a foundation in the language.
THE TAKEAWAY
Do I wish I’d had more time in Peru to enjoy Machu Picchu, the people, the food, the language, and culture? Well, yeah. Were three days enough to cultivate an experience I’ll never forget? ALSO YEAH. Whether three days or three weeks, the chance to enjoy something new and different will always leave me richer, smarter, and more grateful for the world in which we live.
Love y’all.
