1 Day Inca Trail Machu Picchu is the best alternative to the classic Inca Trail. It takes you through the prime sites on the last segment of this legendary hike.
The four days Classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is the most preferred hike for most to visit Machu Picchu. However, the hike involves a lot of challenges and the most of it is obtaining the Inca Trail permit.
In order to protect the authenticity of the trail, local authorities restrict the access to just 500 trekkers a day. This includes porters, chefs and guides. Often the permit tends to sell out six months in advance.
1-day Inca Trail however is the most preferred alternative as it does not require any advance bookings and offers the best of the hike.
You will start to hike the Inca Trail at Km.104. It is named after its distance from Cusco en route to Machu Picchu. You will be hiking through the cloud forest and will reach the iconic ruins of Winay Wayna. It then takes you to the Sun gate (Intipunku).
From here, you will be visiting the iconic Inca Citadel, Machu Picchu.
Happy Gringo Tours is a local tour operating company founded by a local guide who has hiked the Inca Trail over 500 times. All our guides are locals and passionate hikers. We have years of experience in tourism. Our guides have extensive training in providing aid to altitude sickness.
We operate the 1 day Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu both as a private guided tour and in small groups.
Do take a moment to check our reviews on Trip Advisor.
Cusco Hotel Transfer
4:00 am
Early in the morning, we will be picking you up from your hotel in Cusco. Then in our private transport, we will be driving you through the Sacred Valley of Incas to Ollantaytambo train station.
Here we will be boarding an Aguas Calientes bound tourist train at 0610 AM. We will be getting down at Km.104. The trail begins amidst the cloud forest where you will get to see different flora and fauna.
We will be visiting many Inca ruins on this 10 kilometres stretch. Then we will reach Wiñay Wayna. This is one of the prominent Inca sites here. After a guided tour of the complex, we will be visiting Sungate (Intipunku). From here you will get the first sight of Machu Picchu citadel.
Once inside Machu Picchu citadel, we will be giving you a two hours guided tour. After the tour, you will have some free time to explore the citadel on your own. If you have booked to hike Huayna Picchu or hike to Machu Picchu mountains, our guide will be directing you to the trail head.
Alternatively, you can hike to Sun gate or Intipunku. This is the entrance to the citadel for those on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
After exploring Machu Picchu, you will be taking a bus back to Aguas Calientes. Here we will be serving lunch at a local restaurant. At around 04:00 PM, we will be taking a train back to Ollantaytambo.
Our representative will be meeting you on arrival and will be transferring you back to your hotel in Cusco. We will be returning to Cusco by 09:30 PM.
My daughter and I had to find another local operator in a rash after two days waiting for the confirmation of our booking and we we were told our booking could not be confirmed. Then we switched to Happy Gringo Tour, and our booking was confirmed immediately. Mauro contacted me immediately to collect our information required for the trip. It turned out that we had a great experience for our trip with Happy Gringo Tours.
