THE GREAT ESCAPE
Your Great Adventure
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Introduction part
DAY ONE
Arrive in Cusco, tour the UNESCO city & ruins
This tour begins in Cusco – we recommend arriving before midday to give you enough time for your early afternoon tour of Cusco. When you arrive, one of our friendly representatives will be waiting for you at the airport with your private transfer to your chosen hotel. Depending on when your flight arrives in Cusco, you may then have some time to relax and explore before your first tour begins. Your half day tour of this world famous UNESCO world heritage city includes several highlights within the historical center plus some surrounding Inca ruins, including the huge fortress of Saqsaywaman – the site of a key battle during the Spanish siege of Cusco in the early 16th century. This tour will give you a great overview of Cusco: with your professional, knowledgeable, and fully fluent English speaking guide, and with all your entrance fees included. At the tour’s end you will be dropped off at your hotel and the guide will let you know about tomorrow’s schedule (and any questions you may have – take full advantage of their local expertise!).
Tour includes: Koricancha ‘Temple of the Sun’, Plaza de Armas (main square) incl. Cathedral, ‘La Compañia de Jesus’ Church, Kenko, Puca Pucara (panoramic view), Sacsayhuaman Fortress.
DAY TWO
Explore the Sacred Valley
Today, after your short stop in Cusco the night before, we will descend to the lower altitude of the Sacred Valley to discover the best and most culturally authentic aspects of the ‘Sacred Valley of the Incas’ with this full day tour which begins at the ‘Inca’s Balcony’: a beautiful terrace which gives you an impressive view of Chinchero – where twelve families still preserve their traditional customs, showing you the ancestral way in which they process & dye the wool to obtain those vivid colors for which they are famous. Later we will visit Ollantaytambo, one of the most monumental architectural complexes of the ancient Inca Empire, and one of the few places where the Spanish conquistadors lost a major battle. Very well known for its ‘andenes’ (terraces dug into the slopes of mountains for agriculture), Ollantaytambo was a highly effective fortress that also served as a temple. After exploring the ruins we will continue to the nearby town of Ollantaytambo, the oldest continually inhabited town in the Americas and one of the best surviving examples of Inca city planning, with its narrow cobblestone streets & unique architecture.
Tour includes: Chinchero, ‘Inca Balcony’, traditional weaving families, Ollantaytambo ruins & town.
Lunch is included.
DAY THREE
Machu Picchu
In the morning we will drive to Ollantaytambo station to board your chosen train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo), the small town from which the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu is visited. These breathtakingly spectacular ruins are located on a natural saddle between high mountains with steep terraced slopes falling away on either side down to the Urubamba River, which rushes around the mountain far below. There aren’t enough words to describe the impression these ruins have on you when you first see them up close. Once we get up to the ruins you will go on a full tour of all the main highlights of this New World Wonder, and after the tour you will have some free time to explore. It is possible to see Machu Picchu in just one day, but we don’t recommend it since it involves up to 8 hours of travelling in one day and just half a day at the ruins. Far better to see it over 2 days with an afternoon visit until closing time and then an early start the next day to catch the sunrise when there are fewer people around (and climb the optional Huayna Picchu or Montana trek if you’re feeling adventurous), giving you time to fully take in the surroundings.
Lunch is included at a local restaurant. Selected hotels also include dinner.
DAY FOUR
Machu Picchu: Revisited, with optional trekking
Today you will revisit the Machu Picchu citadel ruins, but this time you’re free to explore without a guide. Your tickets give you full access to the main ruins including Intipunku (the Sun Gate – where the Inca Trail finishes) – we recommend getting up early to be one of the first people at the gates when they open, weather permitting you will be treated to the spectacular site of the sun’s rays beaming in from over the mountains and slowly illuminating the ruins at sunrise. We can also include the permits for the popular Huayna Picchu trek or the longer but just as rewarding Machu Picchu Mountain trek, both treks give you impressive top down views from opposite sides of the ruins, weather permitting. Return bus tickets to the entrance are included and your guide will inform you about the logistics on the day before so that you know when to be at the train station in time for your relaxing & scenic journey back to Cusco. You will also have time to see more of the quirky tourist town of Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) – such as take a stroll near the rapids and take a dip in the thermal baths which gave the town its (original) name.
Your entrances, bus & train tickets are all included
DAY FIVE
Free time in Cusco
For your last day you will have some free time to explore the many interesting & picturesque locations in & around Cusco’s historic UNESCO centre. The time you have will depend on when you will be flying home from Lima. We recommend a later flight from Lima, if possible, to maximise your time – since Cusco is a very interesting city, but you need to ensure you have at least 2.5 hours to check in at Lima. You can use this free time to explore the arts & crafts markets to pick up some unique souvenirs, visit the art galleries, museums, restaurants & cafes, or simply walk through the picturesque streets & admire the fusion of Inca & Spanish Colonial architecture – very often with Spanish architecture built directly on top of impressive Inca foundations. You will already have a rough idea of the layout of the centre thanks to your city tour back on Day 1; feel free to ask us, your guide, or the hotel receptionist for recommended places to visit to help you make the most of your free time. At a pre-arranged time we will ensure your airport transfer is waiting for you at your hotel. Requesting a late checkout is advisable to give you a base for the day & have somewhere to freshen up before your flights, alternatively you can simply leave your luggage at the hotel reception until it’s time to head to the airport.
EXTEND?
Where to next?
Homeward bound, or onward with you adventure? This tour package can easily be combined with extensions to Puno and Lake Titicaca, and onwards to Bolivia, Uyuni, the Atacama desert, and beyond! Ask us for more details about trip extensions.
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Day 3
- Day 4
- Day 5
- Day 6
- Day 7
Introduction to the city
The Morning Tour is an introduction to the city. You will learn about how the city was built and how it works today. You will see the gondola boatyard, several interesting churches and palazzos. It passes through Dorsoduro district ending in Campo Santa Margherita.
Main Landmarks
This tour covers St. Mark’s Square and districts of S.Marco and Castello. The tour will last 3 hours and it will take you through 10 centuries of Venetian history and architecture. You will learn about St.Mark’s square buildings, legends, events, conquests and governments.
Aerial View
See our Aerial Venice guide, which is packed with large overhead and close-up aerial views of the city with text descriptions. (Topics include squares and other sights, bridges, waterfront promenades, transportation hubs, and more.)
Piazza San Marco
The Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark's Square, is one of the world's great squares. It's also a honeypot for swarms of daytrippers and other tourists, but don't let that bother you: The square is vast, the crowds are good-natured, and backpackers coexist peacefully with the well-heeled tourists who enjoy overpriced drinks and orchestral music at the café tables. Some Venetians claim that pigeons outnumber the tourists. Certainly there are plenty of them, although their numbers have dwindled since the city began enforcing an ordinance against feeding the birds. (Note: Rick Steves suggests letting pigeon poop dry before brushing it off; this may work on clothing, but it's less effective when the poop is sliding down a balding scalp.)
Basilica di San Marco
The Basilica di San Marco (in English, St. Mark's Basilica) is both a house of worship and a monument to plunder: It was built to house the bones of St. Mark, whose remains had been stolen from Egypt by a pair of Venetian merchants, and the building is filled with sculptures, religious objects, and other booty that was hauled back from Constantinople and other faraway places during the Christian Crusades.
Grand Canal
The Canal Grande, known to English-speaking visitors as the Grand Canal, is the main aquatic thoroughfare in central Venice. The S-shaped waterway follows an ancient riverbed from the Tronchetto parking island, the Piazzale Roma transit center, and the Santa Lucia railroad station station to Piazza San Marco and St. Mark's Basin. The canal is about 4 km or 2.5 miles long, with a width that varies from 30 to 70 meters (98 to 230 feet).
Rialto Bridge
The Ponte di Rialto, a.k.a. the Rialto Bridge, has been the main pedestrian crossing between the two banks of the Grand Canal since 1591. In fact, it was the only bridge across the Canal Grande until a predecessor to today's Accademia Bridge was built in 1854. You might think that, with Venice being a city of traders, the shopping arcade in the center was built to separate tourists and locals from their money. In fact, the shops have a structural purpose: The rows of covered arches that run up the center of the bridge and over the top help to stiffen the bridge, making piers unnecessary and allowing 7.5 meters or 24 feet of clearance for boats (including the galleys that existed in the 16th Century, when the current stone bridge was built).
More about this tour
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Since the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797, the city has held an unrivaled place in the Western imagination and has been endlessly described in prose and verse. The luminous spectacle of ornate marbled and frescoed palaces, bell towers, and domes reflected in the sparkling waters of the lagoon under a blue Adriatic sky has been painted, photographed, and filmed to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish the real city from its romantic representations. The visitor arriving in Venice is still transported into another world, one whose atmosphere and beauty remain incomparable.
Today Venice is recognized as part of the artistic and architectural patrimony of all humanity, a fitting role for a city whose thousand-year economic and political independence was sustained by its role in global trading. The situation of the city on islands has limited modern suburban spread beyond the historic centre; its framework of canals and narrow streets has prevented the intrusion of automobiles; and its unmatched wealth of fine buildings and monuments dating from the period of commercial dominance has ensured a keen and almost universal desire for sensitive conservation. This concern for conservation is now extended not just to the city’s monuments but to the very city itself, as rising water levels and subsidence of the land upon which Venice is built threaten the continued existence of the city in its present form. In 1987 Venice and its lagoon were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Pop. (2009 est.) city, 59,984; (2011 est.) comune, 270,884.
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