About us

Cusco Perú is an independent travel guide to Cusco and Machu Picchu, written from Cusco for people planning their own trip. Our goal is simple: give you clear, current and practical information so you can make good decisions about tickets, transportation, timing and routes, without having to piece it together from dozens of forums and sales pages.

Who we are

Every guide on this site is written and reviewed by Paul Pumalloclla, who lives in Cusco and has worked in tourism since 2009. That local, day-to-day perspective matters in a destination where rules change often: visitor caps at Machu Picchu, ticket circuits, train schedules and entry fees are adjusted from one season to the next, and what was true two years ago may no longer apply.

We’re not a travel agency, a tour operator or a booking platform. We’re a guide: we explain how things work so you can choose, book and travel on your own terms, or talk to an agency already knowing what to ask.

What the guide covers

Our content is organized into three sections, all available from the guides page:

• Machu Picchu: tickets, circuits and routes, the optional mountains, and every way to get there, from the train to the Hidroeléctrica route.
• Cusco: what to do in the city, the Cusco Tourist Ticket, local food, nightlife, Inti Raymi and the weather month by month.
• Travel tips: itineraries, budget, altitude sickness, packing and getting from Lima to Cusco.

We also publish destination pages for the places you’re most likely to visit, from Machu Picchu and the city of Cusco to the Sacred Valley, Rainbow Mountain, Humantay Lake and the Inca Trail. Each one explains what you’ll see, how to get there, how long you need and what to watch out for.

How we work

We check prices, opening hours, visitor caps and rules against official sources, and we cite them in each guide. The main ones are:

• Peru’s Ministry of Culture, which manages Machu Picchu, its ticket system and the Inca Trail permits.
• SERNANP, the national protected areas service, for the Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary and other natural areas.
• PromPerú, the national tourism promotion board, for official visitor information.
• SENAMHI, the national weather service, for climate and rainfall data.
• The train operators, PeruRail and Inca Rail, for routes, classes and luggage rules.

Every guide shows the date of its last update so you can see how recent the information is. When an official rule changes, such as a new circuit, a different visitor cap or an updated fare, we review the guides affected and update the date. Where a figure is only a reference, such as an average taxi fare, we say so.

We also write from experience on the ground: we explain the mistakes travelers make most often, the timing that actually works and the trade-offs between options, not just the official version.

Our independence

We’re not a travel agency: we don’t sell tours or take bookings. The recommendations in our guides come from local experience and checked facts. If a guide includes a link to a commercial partner, such as an agency or a hotel, we label it next to the link, and that never changes the facts or the recommendation. When we recommend something, it’s because we think it’s the right choice for a specific kind of traveler, and we explain why.

That independence is what lets us say things a sales page wouldn’t: that a day trip to Machu Picchu means about 16 hours on the move, that a cheaper route has real drawbacks, or that a popular excursion isn’t a good idea on your first day at altitude.

Corrections

Despite our checks, information in a destination like Cusco can go out of date quickly. If you spot an error, a closed business, a fare that has changed or a rule that no longer applies, please let us know through our contact page. Tell us which guide it’s in and, if you can, where you saw the new information. We review every report, correct the guide when it’s confirmed and update the date of the last revision.

Languages

Cusco Perú is published in four languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. Each version is written for its readers, with the same structure, the same sources and the same update policy, so you’ll find the same information whichever language you read it in.

Have a question about one of our guides? Visit the contact page and we’ll get back to you.