2-Day Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu Tour from Cusco by Train

I would advise anyone reading this to use a different service or book the trip on their own. Primarily, the communication after booking and leading up to the tours was severely lacking. Details/examples are below, but this is not an exhaustive list of my frustrations. These issues along with others introduced stress and frustrations into what should've been a fantastic 2 days. Examples: -The timeline in the ad assumes you pay for add-ons. If you don't upgrade, you will have 6-10 hours to kill in both Ollantaytambo and Aguas Calientes, and you will return to Cusco after midnight on the day you see Machu Picchu. -I made my preferences clear (Machu Picchu route, train time) and for each, the representative then ignored my requests and booked whatever they preferred. -We were provided the incorrect pickup time the first day and had to rush to get ready as the guide waited in the lobby, texting us up hurry up. -The private guide for Machu Picchu was not given the proper information for pickup -Itinerary information provided was clearly copy-pasted with details included not relevant to our trip (ex., mentions of a third day) and instructions were unclear

This trip was the dream of a lifetime for my wife and I. Pam took care of us on the first day, which a tour of the Sacred Valley. She made sure that our group stayed together and on time with all the information you could ever ask for without being boring. All of the locations were amazing I will say there are a TON of stairs at Ollantaytambo and it was a little difficult with kids but so much fun. The train was fun, but you really cant see anything because the sun sets so quickly. I will say upgrade the hotel in Aqua Calinetes, the included room is stuffy and small, they gave us two rooms with three beds, so we pushed the twins together to sleep as a family. Our guide never met us to discuss the Machu Picchu tour, like he was supposed to, he did it eventually over the phone and the restaurant was difficult to find. We took the bus up with a private guide we hired through the agency, he gave us wonderful information and took lots of family pictures for us. We did the second route and it was amazing, i feel like we saw everything the ruins had to offer. We had tickets for 7:00 am and it didn't feel crowded at all, we didn't have to fight for pictures I do regret taking the late train 9:30 pm as we had to find ways to entertain ourselves and kids all day while holding onto everything we took with us.

The tour was very pleasant, the guides were very friendly and knew a lot about the places we visited. Of those I saw, this one had the best price and was worth what I paid. The person who addressed my questions about the tour was very kind, but there was one occasion when it was not so: when I asked why I should hire a private guide for Machu Picchu and if there was any possibility of finding more people to share the cost of the private guide among us, they did not want to explain and even seemed a bit annoyed by the question. One thing that did not go well was that on the return from Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo, the driver who was supposed to take me to Cusco never showed up, and when I tried to contact the agency, no one answered me (partly understandable because it was already 11 PM). I spent an hour figuring out what to do until I decided to take a shared taxi on my own. That said, the agent the next day was very apologetic and refunded me what I spent on the shared taxi, but the unpleasant experience of being completely alone in an unfamiliar town for more than an hour is something no one can take away from you. Aside from those two things, everything else was excellent and I would definitely recommend this tour.

The tour was very good, but it is a naturally complicated destination. It is a very nice tour, by combining Sacred Valley + Machu Picchu. Sacred Valley is beautiful, with unique landscapes, amazing buildings. We were attended by Nixon, who was always very available, attentive and willing to fit things, to solve the problems. The Tour was guided by Pamela, who brought many explanations and culture to the tour. In the end, after worry and a little stress, everything went well and we met Machu Picchu. Beautiful, majestic place of unique architecture.

The 2 day tour of sacred valley and machu picchu was amazing! We saw and experienced sooo much! Great guides, English and Spanish. Help all along the way. Cost very good and great service!

I had a great experience from booking with Nixon to the tour with my guide Paul. Everyone was extremely professional and resourceful.

It was great, I feel like we visited all the cousco and machupicchu in 2 days, we didn't have much time, I think it was the best option we took.

Me and my partner had the best of times on this tour. Knowing we weren't fit enough to do a several day hike, this tour was a great alternative. They pack a lot into the first day bus tour through the Sacred Valley. Visiting Chinchero for a bilingual Inca textile demonstration and the ruins (fifteen minutes free roam after tour guide talk), Moray ruins (ten minutes), a small shop in Maras to taste their special salt chocolate before visiting the salt mines (ten minutes), Urubamba for a delicious Peruvian buffet at Pachay (drinks not included), and finally the ruins at Ollantaytambo to finish the first day (we had longer here as we were getting the Inca Rail train to Aguas Calientes afterwards). Dante the tour guide was knowledgeable and interesting, but told me I didn't have time to go to the toilet at Moray; I had to go anyway because of bladder problems, then found him at the toilets! Despite the short times at the archeological sites, we had a great time, running to the back of the sites to see as much as we could during our short slots. Inca Rail wasn't the best experience and we will leave a separate review, as the train broke down for an hour at Chilca on the way there. However, the tour operator stayed in touch over WhatsApp whilst I had a mild meltdown, and they were brilliant. They updated the tour guide and hostel receptionist at Aguas Calientes, as well as periodically messaging to check on us, which is what I truly rate them highly for. Up early the following morning after staying at Emmanuel Inn (also a separate review, but enjoyed our stay despite the noise), we met Ulises our next tour guide to get the bus to Machu Picchu. We did Circuit 2 and a small part of 3. This was worth it all! Seeing these ruins in person is magical, spiritual, and overwhelming. 60% is underground, including untouched caverns, that are inaccessible for obvious reasons, as well as certain parts of the exposed ruins due to human beings being generally terrible (who takes a poo at ancient ruins, and who chipped the stones to take home? Give your heads a wobble). Ulises was brilliant. Humorous, engrossing, and tolerant that we trailed behind in awe of the ancient engineering involved at the site. He respected our previous knowledge of the Inca and Machu Picchu, trying to do our research before we visited, and we had a lovely chat at the end, thanking him profusely for his knowledge and time. Mega Expeditions were kind enough to rearrange our dinner from the previous day, due to the train delay, to lunch after we returned from Machu Picchu. We walked back down from the site, which was beautiful and made our legs shake, with the cicadas chirping away amongst the forest. Sara's food and service couldn't have been better (of course, another separate review for them has been left), and was a welcome break after we were sweating madly from the hot weather! We were so lucky to have such a clear day to truly take in the view of Machu Picchu - a sublime marvel of human endeavour, standing the test of time. We spent the afternoon roaming Aguas Calientes, buying gifts from the large market, and taking in the sites of the Andean mountain backdrop (which was breathtaking in itself). The train back to Ollantaytambo was better, but I still got shouted at for using the toilet before getting off the train by a very angry female staff member (I'm not allowed to wee!), before transferring to our minibus back to Cusco. It dropped us 25 minutes away from our place, which wasn't ideal, but the walk was welcome after the two hour journey). Overall, despite the speed and sometimes tourist trap-like experience of the first day, Machu Picchu was the biggest jewel in the crown of our time in Peru. Thanks to the great communication and organisation of this tour operator, we got to see so many beautiful places, for which we are eternally grateful. Would use this tour operator again if we return to Peru.

We made a lot of changes for various reasons but the hosts took it all in stride and the people they assigned to guide us were really wonderful. We highly recommend them. We were last minute at high season and because we did not book our tickets to see Machu Picchu ahead of time, the hosts guided us as to where to show up and what lines to get on at what time so that we got the tickets we wanted and didn't have to wait too long. It all worked out great and we ended up spending a 2 extra days in Machu Picchu which is pretty nice if you get a good hotel.

Wonderful tour seeing 5 sights in the sacred Valley which included the Temple of the Sun and Moray salt mines. Good guides at all stages.