Peru Part 4 - Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is one of the great wonders of the world and should be on everyone's bucket list! It is breath taking and awe inspiring. Why the Incas chose such a remote place to build is a mystery, but you can appreciate the beauty and expanse of what they accomplished.
Now all that being said, getting to Machu Picchu is expensive and a hassle.

In the old days, the Incas walked to Machu Picchu and that is one option today. You can walk the Inca trail. With my three kids in tow, we opted to take the train and the bus. So I will be talking about that route. If you want to walk the Inca trail, people ran into said it was amazing, but difficult and you need to book early.
So if you want to take the train, I highly recommend finding a private guide who can book the train, bus and entrance tickets for you. You can do it yourself, but I found that you don't save very much money, you do save yourself a big headache.
I will be posting my itinerary and all of my contacts for Peru in a separate post.
The train leaves from Poroy (near Cuzco) and takes 4 hours to get to Aguas Calientes or from Ollantaytambo and takes 2 hours to get to Aguas Calientes. We tacked on a 1 day tour of the Sacred Valley to the front side and had our private guide drop us off at the train station in Ollantaytambo.
Ollantaytambo is a beautiful old Inca town with an aqueduct water system running through it. It is definitely worth a walk around.
Aguas Caliente gets a bad rap in my opinion. Not that you would want to spend a lot of time in the town, but it's interesting. The train tracks run straight down the middle of the main street. In fact, there are no cars on the main street, just the train tracks. Just watching the garbage train go by was fascinating.

Train tracks right through the main street of Aguas Caliente

Okay, here's where it gets interesting. The buses to Machu Picchu start running at 5:30am and take about 20 minutes to go up the hill. People start lining up for the bus at 3am so you can do the math, we (my husband and I and our guide; we left the kids in the hotel) got in line at 530am and the line was already at least a mile long. Our guide said it was the longest line she had ever seen, but I'm pretty sure the line is long everyday. Only 2500 people are allowed to our Machu Picchu per day. Most of them take the bus. So you get the picture. By the way, the reverse traffic happens around 1pm with people to leave Machu Picchu to get back to Aquas Caliente to catch the 5pm train back to Cuzco.

Crazy bus line at 6am

My recommendation since we did it all wrong in my opinion is to do the trip backwards. Plan to spend 2 nights in Aquas Caliente....arrive by train to Aquas Caliente in the evening, spend the night, catch the 9am bus to Machu Picchu and then you can stay until the park closes and the last bus comes down the hill around 4pm, spend the night in Aquas Caliente and take a morning train to Cuzco. I know it's an extra hotel night, but you have more time at the park so you can a hike or just enjoy the park after the crowds depart in the afternoon and you don't have to deal with the horrible bus line.
By the way, we did not pay extra for the Vistadome train and we could enjoy the view from the train just fine. So if you want to save some money, this is a good place.
Besides logistics, our trip to Machu Picchu (train, bus, entrance tickets for 5 people, guide for the park, Aguas Calientes hotel for 1 night, taxi from Poroy train station to Cuzco) cost us $1465 for 2 adults and 3 kids. Not cheap!
I did book the hotel through booking.com  so I got 10% back.