Authentic Inca Route: Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu 2-Day Tour

<p>Richard, our tour guide, met us at our hotel in Cusco and had all the tickets and passes ready for our 2 day tour, including our extra ticket to hike to Huayna Picchu. He was extremely friendly and knowledgeable and spoke excellent English. Day 1 we drove to the Sacred Valley where we stopped at several places as we left Cusco and were able to take photographs along the way. The Alpaca and llama farm was very interesting and we were able to see how the fleece was dyed and spun, then woven into fabric. Lunch was at a beautiful restaurant Tunupa set in gardens on the edge of a river. We spent several hours walking through the sites of Pisac and Ollantaytambo, where Richard put us onto a train to Aguas Calientes town where another guide Edward met us at the station and took us to our motel Andina Luxury. It was very well appointed and rooms were beautiful. Edward then met us early 4:30am the next morning to take us to the bus to Machu Picchu. He gave us an excellent tour of the site for 2 hours, then let us walk around ourselves and we had 3 hours to hike up Huayna Picchu mountain which overlooks the ruins. It was an amazing experience, but very tough climbing the track up the side of the mountain. It was not crowded like the ruins, as only 400 tickets are issued each day. We caught the 2pm bus back down to the town which gave us enough time to enjoy a lovely meal, before catching the 4pm train back to Olllantaytambo. Richard was there waiting for us and drove us back to Cusco to collect our bags that had been left in storage, then also dropped us at the bus terminal for our connecting bus to our next stop at Puno. We felt very safe at all times and had an amazing 2 days.</p>