Its attractiveness and picturesque town offers an elaborated craft in their fairs of Thursdays and Sundays with a long and colorful tradition. Pisaq is one of the most visited places in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, for its a surprising archaeological monuments only comparable with Machu Picchu. It has an enormous system of Incan andenería that ascends up to the abysses, which resemble enormous hanging gardens. In spite of the step of the centuries, it can still be used for the agriculture. The archaeological place, located in the high part, it is conformed by neighborhoods. The Intiwatana, the biggest pre colombus cemetery in the continent, also its cultivation platforms (andenes) and the masthead turrets of vigilance. Pisaq attends settlers of near towns and thousands of visitors. One of the attractiveness of these fairs is the parade of the authorities or Varayocs who go to the town to listen the mass in Quechua, main language of the region. In the high part they are the Inca ruins of Písaq with a great system of andenerías and with an important solar clock in stone or Intihuatana. Today Pisaq is one of the most important Archaeological Parks in the region and constitutes one of the best tourist destinations; their name possibly derives of a partridge type very common of this well-known area as "p'isaqa". Some specialists suggest that the prehispanic city had the form of a "p'isaqa" that represented the local fauna.
The charming town of Urubamba is enveloped by tall Andean peaks in the heart of the Sacred Valley. Unlike Ollantaytambo and Pisac whose Inca ruins are the main draw, the appeal of Urubamba is the surrounding natural beauty and its laidback vibes. The host of beautiful hotels are the perfect place to disconnect and treat yourself to a luxurious spa treatments. Adventure-packed sports and tours are just a short ride away! We will stop here for lunch.
Ollantaytambo is a lovely village that preserves the designs of Inca buildings located at an altitude of 9160 feet in the province of Urubamba. Among this place's most impressive attractions are the ceremonial temple in worship of water and a fortress that guarded the entrance to the valley to repel any invasions. The temple has a set of terraces lying one atop the other which visitors scale via a steep stairway. The fortress is a stone colossus that was built between two mountains to protect the valley. The area also holds the Temple of Inti (the sun god), Incamisana, the baths of the Ñustas (princesses), the Cachiccata funerary towers, and a group of tiered and very steep terraces on the side of a hill. Ollantaytambo also contains the mountain called Pinculluna or Tunupa, which holds the vestiges of Inca architectural structures which seem to have been a storehouse for various foodstuffs. Ollantaytambo is also a meeting place for nearby communities, such as the Huayruros de Willoc, who can be recognized by their red and black ponchos and hats.
Chinchero is a small Andean Indian village located high up on the windswept plains of Anta at 3765m about 30km from Cusco. There are beautiful views overlooking the Sacred Valley of the Incas, with the Cordillera Vilcabamba and the snow-capped peak of Salkantay dominating the western horizon. Chinchero is believed to be the mythical birthplace of the rainbow. Its major claim to tourism is its colourful Sunday market which is much less tourist-orientated than the market at Pisac. The village mainly comprises mud brick (adobe) houses, and locals still go about their business in traditional dress. The village may have been an important town in Inca times. The most striking remnant of this period is the massive stone wall in the main plaza which has ten trapezoidal niches. The construction of the wall and many other ruins and agricultural terraces (which are still in use) are attributed to Inca Tupac Yupanqui who possibly used Chinchero as a kind of country resort. In the main plaza an adobe colonial church, dating from the early seventeenth century, has been built upon the foundations of an Inca temple or palace. The ceiling and walls are covered in beautiful floral and religious designs. The church is open on Sundays for mass. Half an hour's walk from the village brings you to Lake Piuri which once fed Cusco with water. It takes about 3 hours to walk around the lake passing through small picturesque villages.
Amazing experience, tour guide was excellent and answered any questions I had. I highly recommend doing some research prior to this trip as having some knowledge will make this an even greater tour.
She saved us. We hired her the first day and it was amazing. I planned my trip from the US. Through the website Viator, which I don't recommend it because the send you randomly to any tour company. I had the Sacred Valley with another tour company. We were like 15 people in the bus. I requested English Tour. When were in the middle of the tour we decided to jump off the tour and I called Heidi and told her what happened. She was very understanding, and wanted to solve a problem that was not even hers. She sent us from her company (I didn't hire her company for this tour) a tour guide, only English! It was amazing, my first day tour, 4 ruins and the Sacred Valley with Heidi tours were EXCELLENT. The guides new their job, not to mention their knowledge about what they were talking about. They could expand the conversation to your interest. Some guides they only explain the necessary and try to finish the tour soon, but Jose and Albert were amazing guides. We are the type of people that do all the research before going to a place. Well, they knew all the answers. I highly recommend her!!!!
We took the tour early February, mother-daughter trip. Pick up was right on time and at the hotel, very easy to communicate with the tour company. Walter was our tour guide, Elvis the driver - very safe driver. We had an amazing tour, the tour guide is very knowledgable and answered all our questions. Beautiful and very interesting stops (except the jewelry store in Pisac... tourist trap). When we had to climb or do physical effort, the guide gave us enough time and always waited for the group. Very comfy bus. We had a wonderful time, we totally recommend to visit and use this tour company!!
Found this tour to be informative and fun. Learnt a lot about Incan ways of life and their invention. The guide was a ntive a person born and raised in the region and had plenty of knowledge about the place and culture and he also spoke good English.
We were overall very disappointed by this tour. We were picked up at our hotel and taken to a bus where dozens of others were on the tour. Our tour guide spoke mostly in Spanish during the tour and his English was quite difficult to understand. Nothing followed the itinerary.. Instead of having 2 hours at each stop, we only had one. At Pisac, we were the first to return in 1 hour as instructed by the tour guide but he and the rest of the group didn't come back until an hour and 20 mins later. We were sitting and waiting in the bus all of that time when we could have been exploring more. We didn't even stop at Iglesia de Urubamba! It was completely skipped from the tour. The archaeological park in Ollantaytambo was the most enjoyable part of the tour. We actually stayed for the time posted-- 1 hour and the guide gave us a lot of history about the place. It was beautiful. The last part of the trip in Chinchero would have been the second most enjoyable if it hadn't been for us being scammed there! We were taken to a market where a native demonstrated the ancient techniques of spinning alpaca yarn and all the natural methods of dying the yarn. After the demonstration, we were given time to shop there. We bought an alpaca sweater and some yarn. When we got back from our tour, we tested the yarn by burning the end of a strand. We discovered that it was fake--synthetic yarn!! Instead of smearing, the burnt strand stayed hard. We were completely scammed and ripped off. I'm so disappointed that this tour company took us to scammers. Please don't spend your money on this tour! It really ruined the whole experience for us. Only buy alpaca products from official Alpaca wool stores like Sol Alpaca and Kuna. Lesson learned.
The guide, Carlos, was knowledgeable and could be understood. Except for the lunch stop (which was really awful — so I’m glad I brought snacks) I enjoyed the tour. One warning, when trying to do so many things in one day, you get only a taste. This was fine for me, but if you want to explore the archeological sites and commune with nature, find a different mode of transportation. Oh, and bring rain gear if it’s rainy season...even if there’s no rain in Cusco, it may be rainy in the mountains.
We took this tour and it was better than expected. The tour guide was very nice and our tour was in english only, what was a suprise to us. The lunch was in a buffet Restaurant, which we really enjoyed. A good variety and fresh food. The explanations at the sights were sufficient. The sights itself were crowded, but thats not the issue of the tour. We think this tour was fully worth it.
We loved all the sites we visited during this packed day of the Sacred Valley tour. Unfortunately we were the only English speaking guests on this tour. That resulted in extensive talks about everything we visited in Spanish, followed by a quick summary in English. The guide did his best, but his English language skills led to us being underwhelmed, and in the end we did get less attention than Spanish speaking guests.
It is a beautiful place. You will find artesanies of all colours and shapes. You can get good prices
This was below our expectations since we did not visit all sites as outlined in the tour. Also, the guide was not friendly or helpful.
I didn’t really know what to expect on this tour but am glad I took it. We did this tour before Machu Picchu & I’m glad we did. One note: Admission to the parks is not included so expect to spend some money on that. You can get the ticket during the tour. Ask the operator about the cost before you book. The price of the booking includes lunch & transport & guide. For a full day this is incredibly cheap. It would have been more than worth it even if we didn’t get into any parks to see ruins for the views and lunch alone. Lunch was in a very nice, modern, clean restaurant with nice views & great choice of food. Many vegetarian options if that’s what you’d like. The drive is beautiful & the places you stop are all unforgettable view amazing mountain & valley views as well as interesting Inca Ruins. The stop in Pisac is your typical “see how jewelry is made but really just buy our stuff” stop. It seems like the standard tourist bait you get in any country you visit. Just walk out of the store & explore the town’s Main Street. The tour is on a small bus (max 19 people). It seems that multiple agencies sell spots on one bus to fill it. This agency offered the best price & the tour operator was extremely quick at communicating when we had questions via WhatsApp. I highly recommend this if you’re staying in Cusco. The sacred valley cannot be missed.
This is a very well packaged tour that includes 3 incredible inca ruins relativeley near Cusco. The trip go along the Sacred Valley and includes 3 amazing inca sites. Althought it takes some hours travelling in the van, the longest trip takes less than one hour, as the tour ls properly scheduled. We enjoyed the explanations or guide José Luis, in particular during our visit to the amazing ruins of Ollantaytambo, for sure the most incredible inca spot after Machu Picchu. We had lunch at a good free buffet restaurant on the road. The duration of the tour (from 9 am to 7 pm aprx) is quite convenient for a one-day tour. The only negative opinion that I have is probably the inclussion of 3 “tourists shoping” stops that are not mentioned on the agenda. When I say “tourists” shoping I mean that there’s no local people buying there. We visited the hand-made market in Pisac where you just find exactly the same souvenirs that you find in any other shop or even the same stuff that street sellers are ofering at the entrance of esch touristic spot. We also visited a shop of argent manufactures and finally a textile cooperative specialiced in Alpaca. In both cases we enjoyed a short and kind explanation of the manufacturing process, but in my opinion this shoulf be noticed in the program and ideally those who are not intersted in shoping shoulf be offered with an alternative. For instance near Pisco while driving on the road we saw a genuine local street market just for local people, meaning without dozens of tourist vans like ours parked in front. Having said that, the true thing is that many of my tour mates spent some time and money in shoping during these stops, which is something that I personaly do not understand, to waste your time in shoping regular souvenirs (most if then supposed fake) during a short payed tour in these incredible valley. Many of the souvenirs being offered there can be bought everywhere else, even at the airport. But, despite this, I strongly recommend this tour.
Well organized. Our guide (Angela) was very informative, patient and nice. They contacted us through WhatsApp the day before to organize pickup at our hotel and, afterward, to make sure we were satisfied. Great service. Sacred Valley is worth seeing!
A couple of the stops were a bit unnecessary and clearly just added in the hopes of drumming up some tourist sales, but the archaeological and cultural stops were really quite cool. My tour guide was kind enough to translate most of the tour into English, but occasionally it seemed to be a bit of an afterthought. It was still incredible, definitely worth doing, and in my opinion ideal as introduction before doing Machu Picchu!
1st friendly contact while being professional of our guide Luis and the driver of the company who were at our disposal, throughout this day. Thanks to Luis’ knowledge we have enriched ourselves intellectually, discovered an Inca culture not described in the manuals! Day rich in emotions, sharing in a good mood.
It was an interesting tour with many legal discoveries about the Inca culture. But after a while it became a little repetitive.
Great city, ideal for day trips to countless sacred sites. Great markets and shops invite you to linger and shop. From simple eateries to expensive restaurants, you can really find a lot of variety.
Good guide, moderate driver. The roads around Cusco can be bad, but nevertheless there was strong driving. Try not to sit in the back. Explanation of the spots is nice. Guide can answer good English and questions extensively. Lunch was fine, but a tourist buffet. Other fellow travelers had a better place. Unfortunately mandatory tourist stops with commission for guide/driver. Didn't expect otherwise for the money... Rather walk around longer in the places you do want to go.
I loved! It exceeded my expectations! Mystic! Pretty! I only recommend good physical shape, as it is a "paulera"! Go in comfortable shoes and take a bottle of water! Enjoy it!
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