Moray and Maras Salt Mines Full Day Tour - Small Groups
Description
Embark on an unforgettable adventure to Moray, home to the breathtaking Inca agricultural terraces that will leave you in awe. These stunning circular terraces are a masterpiece of ancient engineering and offer some of the most incredible views in the Sacred Valley. Next, we’ll take you to the famous Maras Salt Mines, a mesmerizing collection of salt pans carved into the mountainside. Watch in amazement as local artisans harvest salt by hand using centuries-old techniques, preserving a tradition passed down through generations. This is more than just a tour—it’s a chance to connect with history, marvel at nature’s beauty, and experience the magic of the Andes. Don’t miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime journey!
Tour Options
Itinerary
On this day, we will visit beautiful Inca villages with their colonial houses. During this unique and enjoyable journey, we will appreciate the treasures that this sacred land holds. We will start the day by visiting the experimental agricultural terraces of Moray. These are a group of circular terraces that can reach depths of up to 150 meters. According to historians, these constructions served as an important Inca agricultural laboratory since their platforms were built with their respective irrigation canals, each of which had a microclimate. What stands out the most is the difference in average annual temperature between the top and bottom of the depressions, with a difference of up to 15°C.
Next, we will head to the colonial town of Maras, which preserves its Andean traditions and customs. We can admire its beautiful architecture and houses with colonial-style stone doors.
Finally, we will visit the Salinas de Maras. These salt mines continue to be exploited to this day, where farmers work daily, just as they did in Inca times. At the end of the tour, we will return to Cuzco and drop you off at your hotel.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
The pickup for all passengers will take place between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. at hotels located near the historic center of the city of Cusco.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(72)
Great experience. The guide knew many stories, and the conversation was very good.
Wonderful places, but the most impressive is to see the salineers in the middle of the ades a production of salt coming from the sea and understand how it is that they are got there really fantastic.
A paisagem das salineras no meio dos Andes é única, e compreender como a água de uma nascente natural alimenta os poços torna a experiência ainda mais interessante.
We were instructed to be in our hotel lobby at 7:30a for our Moray and Maras Salt Mines tour. And man came in, asked for us by name, looked at your tickets and took us to a bus. The bus made a few more hotel stops and then set off. The guide mentioned going to "Scared Valley" a few times. Once, I stopped her and said "that's not what we are doing." She smiled, and said yes we were on the right tour, and then showed me that her paper had my name on it. The bus continued on and she mentioned going to Ollantaytambo that day. Again, we spoke up. Having already been to Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, we knew this is not what we had planned for. Again, the guide insisted we were on the right bus. Knowing how far away this was, I asked what time this bus was returning to Cusco. She said 8p (we were expecting 230p!) and this time I said stop the bus this is not right. Finally she pulled over, and called the tour company. FINALLY!!! she discovered I was right and they had taken us to the wrong tour (again: not our fault, our names were listed on their papers---definitely the mistake of this tour company). The guide insisted we go to Ollantaytambo to which we said NO we are not doing this, because we already did that. So, she opened the door, and left TWO WOMEN on the side of the road IN THE RAIN in an area where there was no cell service. It had been over an hour since our original pickup. Eventually, we get back to Cusco and over TWO HOURS after being picked up, we were united with the correct tour. We were the only people on the bus who needed to buy and entry ticket to Moray, and the line was very long....so we completely missed that tour guide explaining to the group what Moray was. At Maras - we finally had the same experience as the rest of the group. The tour company finally admitted they completely screwed up. To rectify the problem, the tour company attempted to send two stuffed animals to our hotel, which we declined to accept. We have taken up the matter with Viator and our credit card company (providing PLENTY of pictures and screenshots of the WhatsApp messages with this tour company). BOOK ANOTHER COMPANY!!!
Thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed account of your recent experience. We have read your review with great concern and, first and foremost, we would like to offer our deepest and most genuine apologies. We fully acknowledge that there was a serious breakdown in our logistics and internal communication during your pickup. We are acutely aware that leaving two passengers on the roadside was an unacceptable situation, completely contrary to the standards of safety and hospitality that we strive to uphold. We deeply regret the stress and frustration this caused you both. While we attempted a gesture of reconciliation at the time, we understand it was nowhere near sufficient to compensate for the disruption of your day. Your honesty is invaluable to us; situations like this force us to immediately overhaul our passenger verification protocols and staff training to ensure such an error is never repeated. We respect your decision to pursue this matter through the appropriate institutional channels and are cooperating fully to ensure the process is resolved fairly. Our priority is the satisfaction of those who trust us to show them our country, and we are sincerely pained that we failed to meet your expectations in this instance. We wish you only the best in your future travels. Sincerely, Perú Grand Travel 🇵🇪
It was an unforgettable experience. Everything went as planned. The guide Will showed beyond knowledge, a great commitment to the well-being of all of us in the group
Agradecemos de coração pela avaliação! 💛😊 É uma alegria saber que o passeio foi inesquecível e que a organização funcionou perfeitamente. Vamos repassar seus elogios ao guia Will, especialmente pelo cuidado com o grupo. 🏔️✨
Excellent tour, places and very beautiful culture. Our guide (Will) had a lot of knowledge and helped us a lot to understand the history of this spectacular place!
Agradecemos de coração pela avaliação! 💛😊 É uma alegria saber que Moray e Maras foram espetaculares para vocês. Vamos repassar seus elogios ao guia Will, que com certeza ficará feliz em saber que suas explicações ajudaram a compreender a história do lugar. Obrigada por escolher a Peru Grand Travel! 🏔️✨
I loved meeting! A thank you to our guide for taking us to a great establishment to buy chocolates with salt. But a tip: there are great chocolates also on the market in Cusco! And the price there is better!
É muito gratificante saber que você curtiu Moray e Maras. Obrigada por mencionar a nossa guia e por deixar essa dica tão útil: chocolates ótimos também podem ser encontrados no mercado de Cusco, muitas vezes com melhor custo-benefício. 🏔️✨
We made the tour by the agency Grand Peru Travel, everything perfect. Morai is impressive, it is worth seeing how the Incas used the site as a food research laboratory. Ja Marai where the salines are staying is very cool, don't miss buying the salad of maras, it's very good.
Ficamos felizes que vocês gostaram tanto do tour e acharam Moray impressionante, especialmente ao conhecer como os Incas pesquisavam e cultivavam alimentos ali. E que bom que Maras também foi “muito legal”! Obrigada pela recomendação do sal de Maras — realmente vale muito. 🏔️✨
Incredible to know and absorb a bit of the history of civilizations here in Cusco and surroundings, very impressive the expansion, administration, astrology and engineering of the time. And to close the tour with a golden key, we had a wonderful lunch contemplating the mountains and with the right to paint the view to eternalize the memory. I especially thank our guide Juan who passed on his knowledge in Portuguese.
Moray e Maras são mesmo impressionantes, e ficamos contentes que você tenha sentido toda essa grandeza histórica e cultural. E que especial ter esse encerramento com um almoço delicioso. Vamos compartilhar seus elogios com o guia Juan — obrigada por destacar o atendimento em português. 💛🏔️
Our guide was wonderful. Peru Grand Travel has amazing guides who speak Portuguese. Often this was essential for us to understand some explanations. Always punctual and super attentive. We like it too much! It's super worth closing the tour with them.
Muito obrigada por compartilhar o último comentário da sua jornada com a gente! 💛😊 Ficamos felizes demais em saber que vocês gostaram tanto de Moray e Maras e que a guia foi maravilhosa. Ter guias em português realmente faz toda a diferença, e é ótimo saber que isso foi essencial para vocês entenderem cada detalhe. Obrigada por destacar nossa pontualidade e atenção. Foi um prazer acompanhar vocês — obrigada por confiar na Peru Grand Travel e esperamos recebê-los novamente no Peru! 🏔️✨
The guide was super attentive and the Tour Service, overall, was well organized. However, this was the tour that we liked least during the trip. In the Sal Minas de Maras is not allowed to enter, so the visit resumed to stop at the mirante, take a few photos and follow the journey — which ended up being frustrating. In addition, we made two stops at local stores and found that the sellers were quite insistent, which made the experience a little uncomfortable. We felt that the tour was not worth it compared to the others.
Muito obrigada por compartilhar seu feedback com tanta sinceridade. 💛😊 Ficamos felizes que você achou a guia super atenciosa e o passeio bem organizado, e sentimos muito que este tenha sido o tour de que vocês menos gostaram. Sobre as Salineras de Maras, você tem toda razão: por regras do local, a visita acontece pelos mirantes autorizados, e não é permitido entrar nas minas. Além disso, vale comentar que, em períodos de chuva, as salineras podem limitar algumas atividades produtivas e turísticas, pois a água da chuva dilui o sal, interrompe o processo natural de evaporação e pode até dificultar o acesso a alguns poços. Por isso, a experiência pode ficar mais restrita dependendo das condições do dia. Vamos reforçar essas informações com mais clareza antes do passeio para alinhar expectativas. Quanto às paradas em comércios/artesanato, elas existem para apoiar famílias locais, mas entendemos que a abordagem insistente pode ser desconfortável. Vamos ajustar o tempo dessas paradas e orientar melhor nossos parceiros para que a experiência seja mais agradável. Obrigada por nos ajudar a melhorar! 🏔️✨
