Machu Picchu in One Day from Cusco

This was an excellent visit for me and my fiancé. We loved how our guide explained to us the history and the real meaning of the word Machu Picchu. Trust me when you find out you will be amazed as well. Anyway it’s a must visit while in Cusco Peru.

Our trip was great!! Everything went perfect!!! We had enough time in between cities to relax a get food. I would recommend eati g or buying some food to go in Aguas Calientes before heading back to Cusco bc most stores are not open late. Daniel helped us we all the details and paper work. Must DO!

Pros: - our guide Mr Cusmo was awesome and a funny guy. Cracking funny stories every here and then with utmost seriousness which sometimes made us believe that might had happened. : Joel seem to be the nice person but he was with Spanish group. Interaction i had with him left a good impression of him. This was the only good part! Cons: - Entrance and train tickets are booked by operators choice not yours as you wont be asked that what time you would like to visit Machu Picchu. I was in second batch for Machu Picchu which opens at 12 noon. And was given assuming last train out i.e. 9 PM in night. - NO ONE WAS THERE AT 11:30 midnight to pick me up from Ollantaytambo station to Cuzco. After waiting for several mins that someone might come and assuming might be running late but no one showed up. After waiting in-vain i called up the local contact Mr Daniel and he said not to worry and stay there at station entrance as someone will come and pick me up but no one did. ALAS!! Finally as i had to reach hotel because this town Ollantaytambo usually closes down by 5 PM and it was already 10 past midnight, there was a lady who was ferrying travelers local and tourist both. As I shared my ordeal with her she called up my tour operator and then a deal was struck between them and finally i was given a seat for Cuzco. Without knowing who she is and who all are in van travelling with me even to Cuzco or the cab will make some D-Tour as local people were also there not just me Note for all travelers: This seem to be an erratic issue here as i wasnt one the only one who had this issue same night, we were 5 tourist from different part of globe who were left stranded at Ollantaytambo in midnight. One of the stranded ones she was a girl, her operator was so courteous enough that he/she switched off the phone number mentioned on the voucher she was given. Lady who seem to be operating the vans there was in no mood to lend the helping hand so i paid for her as it was just 5 and couldnt leave her in middle of nowhere crying. I frankly dont know how it can be avoided as we are literally at hands of the tour operators booked via the online portals.

LOVED the experience, it was even better than I had anticipated. The tourist company contacted my hotel in Cusco to confirm location and pickup, AND they had the train tickets and Machu Picchu tickets already printed out and ready to go! The bus came on time in the early morning, which took us to the train station. The train was very comfortable and came with complimentary drinks water, tea, coffee and snacks. Once we got to the entrance of Machu Picchu, we found our tour guide. The tour guide was very knowledgeable, friendly, and spoke English well. The tour itself lasted about 2 to 3 hours, with plenty of opportunity to take pictures. Also, you are allowed to re-enter once more after you exit, if you do want to take more pics or just enjoy the beautiful scenery, or hike one of the other shorter trails the shorter trails within the area took about 40-60 min round trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Definitely worth the time and money.

This is not a tour-- this is a very expensive booking service. Despite booking months in advance, the booking service booked the latest and cheapest train ride back for us. As a result, we returned at almost 2am! rather than the advertised 10pm. They also spelled my name wrong on all my reservations. Many of our fellow travelers had their nationalities, genders, and/or names misspelled as well. This was worrisome as they check your passport and ticket at the entrance of Machu Picchu. They could've easily not let us in. Since we hadn't heard anything from the agency, we called them several times the day before the trip until they answered. I am convinced if we didn't repeatedly call, no one would've showed up. Eventually someone came to our hotel an hr after he said he would on the phone, but unfortunately only spoke Spanish. He also asked to take pictures for us in a kind of sketchy manner to prove he actually came. He told us our tour guides would speak English, but unfortunately that wasn't the case either. We are lucky we ran into bilingual fellow travelers, who helped us. We could not have done it without them! The van ride was also miserable--at 3am it was freezing outside and the vans had no heat. It was almost to the point of being painful it was so cold. Overall, this tour is really just a scam. It costs you a couple hundred more than booking the actual services yourself, but provides no additional guidance. You are 100 on your own to figure it out. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND using another tour agency. While we luckily didn't have any major issues, it was extremely stressful to navigate and figure everything out on your own.

The tour was great! The agency is called Esteban Adventure and they went out of their way to send a rep to meet with us the night before to explain the details of our tour. My sister and I felt completely safe and satisfied with the tranaportation. All the planning was done for us. 10/10 experience!