Peru
Cusco
The Inca empire's capital, still standing underneath the colonial city built on top of it.
Cusco was the capital of the Inca empire, and the Spanish built their colonial city straight onto it rather than clearing it away: baroque churches and arcaded plazas sit on mortarless Inca foundations that have outlasted every earthquake since. The result is a compact centre of cobbled lanes, carved balconies and terracotta roofs at around 3,400 m, ringed by Andean hills. It is also the gateway to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, which makes it Peru's trekking capital as well as its finest colonial city.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Spanish, Quechua
Currency
PEN
Timezone
UTC-5
Why you'll love Cusco
Stonework Inca walls run the length of whole streets, cut so precisely that a colonial city was raised straight onto them and the Inca half is the part still square.
The old centre a steep grid of cobbles, courtyards and carved balconies climbing to San Blas, small enough to cross on foot and sharp enough to remind you of the altitude.
Base camp the Sacred Valley, the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu all begin here, so a single city covers a fortnight of Andean travel.
Living Quechua culture markets traded in Quechua, weavers working in doorways, and highland food from cuy and alpaca to more kinds of potato than anyone can name.
Best time to visit
Apr-Nov
Green, drying · 20-21° days
13.517° S, 71.978° W
UTC-5 · America/Lima
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Weather & when to go to Cusco
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr-Nov
Conditions Jan Wet season · Feb Wettest, trail shut · Mar Wet easing · Apr Green, drying · May Dry & clear · Jun Dry, Inti Raymi · Jul Dry, cold nights · Aug-Sep Dry · Oct Dry shoulder · Nov Showers return · Dec Wet season
Watch for all year altitude risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Cusco
February is the wettest month and the low point of the rainy season: heavy afternoon downpours, mud on the trails and the Inca Trail shut for its annual maintenance month. June to August is dry and clear but the most crowded, and nights are cold at this altitude. Whatever the month, the altitude is the real obstacle - plan a slow first day.
Top things to do in Cusco
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Qorikancha - the Inca sun temple under Santo Domingo
history culture arts 👍 PopularThe empire's holiest building, once sheathed in gold plate and stripped by the conquistadors, who then dropped a Dominican convent on top of it. Earthquakes have twice wrecked the church while the curved Inca wall beneath stood untouched. The two masonries side by side in one room are the clearest lesson in the city.
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Sacsayhuaman - the megalithic walls above the city
history scenic 👍 PopularThree tiers of zigzag rampart built from limestone blocks the size of vans, fitted without mortar and still standing after centuries of being quarried for colonial churches. It is a half-hour climb from the Plaza de Armas, and the ground above it looks straight down over the tiled roofs.
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Cusco Cathedral and La Compania - the Plaza de Armas
history culture arts 👍 PopularThe cathedral went up on the palace of Inca Viracocha using stone hauled down from Sacsayhuaman, and holds a Cusco School Last Supper laid out around a roast guinea pig. Next door the Jesuits built La Compania so grandly the archbishop complained to Rome.
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San Blas - the artisans' quarter above the plaza
culture arts shopping ⭐ Highly recommendedThe steep white lanes behind the cathedral are where Cusco's woodcarvers and weavers have worked for generations, now mixed with small galleries and cafes. The church at the top holds a cedar pulpit carved from a single trunk, and the plaza terrace catches the evening light over the valley.
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Museo Machupicchu Casa Concha - the artefacts Yale sent back
history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedA colonial mansion holding the pieces Hiram Bingham shipped to Connecticut and Peru spent a century getting home: ceramics, bronze tools, silverwork and the human remains from the citadel's burials. Small, well explained, and the best preparation there is for the site itself.
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Hatunrumiyoc - the twelve-angled stone
historyOne block in a palace wall on the lane running up towards San Blas, cut with twelve corners so its neighbours interlock without a gap you could slide paper into. There is usually a small crowd around it; the rest of the wall either side deserves more attention than it gets.
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San Pedro Market - the city's produce hall
food culture artsCusco's central market runs on juice stalls, sacks of dried corn and freeze-dried chuno, wheels of cheese, coca leaf and rows of soup counters where the city eats lunch. Mornings for the produce, midday for the caldo de gallina, and keep a hand on your bag in the crush.
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Qenqo, Puka Pukara and Tambomachay - the ruins above town
history hikingThe road climbing north out of the city strings three more Inca sites within a few kilometres: a carved limestone outcrop with a sacrificial altar, a small red fort watching the road to the jungle, and a shrine of stepped channels still fed by its spring. Walkable between, or a short combi ride.
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Museo de Arte Precolombino - Andean objects shown as art
culture arts historyMAP takes ceramics, gold and shell work from Nazca, Moche, Chimu and Inca collections and lights them as sculpture rather than archaeology, in a courtyard mansion off Plaza Nazarenas. The captions quote Western artists on what they were looking at. The calmest hour in central Cusco.
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Cusco cooking - alpaca, cuy and the picanteria tradition
foodThe highland table here runs to alpaca steak, cuy roasted whole, chicharron with mint and hominy, and soups thick with quinoa or chuno. Chicherias in the outer barrios still pour maize beer from the barrel, and the centre has an ambitious modern kitchen scene working the same ingredients.
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Cristo Blanco and San Cristobal - look down over the city
scenic hikingThe white Christ on the hill beside Sacsayhuaman, a gift from Palestinian refugees who settled here, is the standard sunset spot. The terrace at San Cristobal church, halfway up the slope, gets much the same view over the roofs and the plaza and is an easy walk from the centre.
Best areas to stay in Cusco
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Centro Historico
First-time visitors $$Colonial arcades on Inca walls
Explore hotels in Centro Historico →
San Blas
Couples and slow travel $$Steep artisan lanes, cafes and viewpoints
Explore hotels in San Blas →
San Pedro and Santa Ana
Budget travellers $Working market district, cheap and busy
Explore hotels in San Pedro and Santa Ana →
Wanchaq
Longer stays $Flat residential grid, ordinary and modern
Explore hotels in Wanchaq →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Cusco
Getting to & around Cusco
Getting there
Fly into Cusco from Lima - the airport sits inside the city, about 15 minutes from the Plaza de Armas.
Flight
Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)
Roughly 5 km southeast of the centre and inside the city itself: taxis and hotel transfers reach the Plaza de Armas in 15-20 minutes, and combis run along the avenue outside the terminal.
Coach
Terminal Terrestre
Long-haul services reach Cusco from Lima in around 20 hr, Arequipa in about 10 hr and Puno in about 7 hr, with sleeper coaches on the main routes.
Train
Wanchaq station
A slow scenic day train crosses the altiplano to Puno on Lake Titicaca, and a luxury sleeper works the same route and on towards Arequipa.
Drive
Sacred Valley
Roads in from Puno and from Abancay climb over high passes; private transfers and hired drivers are the normal way to arrive from the valley towns.
Getting around
Walking
The historic centre is compact but steep and cobbled, and at this altitude a short climb leaves you breathing hard.
Free
Taxi
Everywhere and cheap, but unmetered: agree the fare before getting in, and use a booked or ranked cab at night.
TBC
Combi and colectivo
Minibuses run the main avenues and out to the Sacred Valley towns, with a conductor calling destinations from the door.
TBC
Tour bus to the ruins
Half-day services loop the four Inca sites on the hill above the city, which saves a lot of uphill walking.
TBC
Train to Machu Picchu
Services to Aguas Calientes leave from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, with some seasonal departures from Poroy nearer the city.
TBC
Day trips from Cusco
Sacred Valley: Pisac and Ollantaytambo
Full dayInca valley circuit
The Urubamba runs through a broad, warmer valley of Inca terracing and towns people still live in. Pisac stacks terraces up a ridge above a craft market; Ollantaytambo's unfinished sun temple guards a street grid laid out by the Inca. Most visitors take both in one long day.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About 1 hr each way by road, longer as a loop
Machu Picchu
1-2 daysInca citadel
The trip worth an overnight rather than a dash: road down to Ollantaytambo, train along the gorge to Aguas Calientes, then a shuttle up the switchbacks to the citadel. Entry runs on timed slots and one-way circuits, booked well ahead in the dry months.
Getting there
car | train | bus
2 hr by road to Ollantaytambo, then about 1.5 hr by train
Rainbow Mountain (Vinicunca)
Full dayStriped ridge walk
A long pre-dawn drive south, then an hour or two on foot up to a ridge banded red, ochre and turquoise by its mineral layers. The high point is well above anything else you will stand on here, so it is a poor idea before you have acclimatised.
Getting there
car | tour | walk
About 3 hr each way by road, then a walk
Humantay Lake
Full dayGlacial lake hike
A steep hour up from Soraypampa on the Salkantay trekking road reaches a turquoise lake sitting under the glacier of Nevado Humantay, its shore stacked with trekkers' stone cairns. Cold, exposed, and worth the drive on a clear morning.
Getting there
car | tour | walk
About 3 hr each way by road, then a steep walk
Maras and Moray
Half daySalt pans and terraces
Moray's concentric terraces sink into the plateau like an amphitheatre, each ring holding its own microclimate. Nearby, thousands of shallow salt pans step down a hillside, fed by a saline spring and worked by the same families for centuries.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1.5 hr each way by road
South Valley: Tipon, Pikillacta and Andahuaylillas
Full dayAqueducts and a painted church
The quiet side of Cusco. Tipon's Inca water gardens still run through their cut-stone channels, Pikillacta is a pre-Inca Wari city of grid streets and high walls, and Andahuaylillas holds a small adobe church painted floor to ceiling, the Sistine Chapel of the Andes.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About 1 hr each way by road
A little history of Cusco
Cusco was the navel of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca empire's four quarters, and by tradition was founded by Manco Capac where a golden staff sank into the ground. Under Pachacuti in the fifteenth century it was rebuilt as a ceremonial capital, its centre reportedly laid out in the shape of a puma with Sacsayhuaman as the head. Roads ran from its main square to Quito and to the Chilean desert, and the empire's dead rulers kept their palaces and estates inside the city.
Pizarro's men took Cusco in 1533 and divided it between themselves. Manco Inca besieged them from Sacsayhuaman three years later and very nearly won. The Spanish then built churches and mansions directly on the Inca foundations, which is why later earthquakes flattened colonial walls and left Inca ones standing. Cusco spent the colonial centuries as a provincial art centre, home to the Cusco School of painting, then slid into obscurity until Machu Picchu and the railway turned it into the hinge of Peruvian tourism.
Traditional founding of Cusco by Manco Capac, the first Inca, between two Andean streams.
Pachacuti defeats the Chanka and rebuilds Cusco as an imperial capital, beginning the expansion of Tawantinsuyu.
Pizarro's force enters Cusco and installs a puppet Inca; the city's gold and silver are stripped and melted down.
Manco Inca besieges the Spanish from Sacsayhuaman, burning much of the city before withdrawing to Vilcabamba.
A major earthquake destroys most of the colonial city; the Inca walls beneath hold, and the rebuilding produces the baroque centre seen today.
Tupac Amaru II leads a rebellion across the southern Andes and is executed in the Plaza de Armas.
Hiram Bingham passes through Cusco on his way to Machu Picchu, whose publication will remake the city's fortunes.
Another earthquake levels parts of the centre and triggers a restoration that reopens Inca stonework across the city.
UNESCO inscribes the city of Cusco as a World Heritage site.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type A / B / C
230 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+51
Altitude risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
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FAQs about Cusco
▸ When is the best time to visit Cusco?
April to November is the reliable window, and May to September the true dry season: clear days, cold nights and firm trails. June to August is the peak for trekking and the busiest of the year. February is the wettest month, when the Inca Trail shuts for its annual maintenance. Either shoulder gives you good weather with fewer people.
▸ How long should you stay in Cusco?
Three days covers the city itself - the centre and its churches, the ruins on the hill above, a museum or two. Add a day for the Sacred Valley and one or two for Machu Picchu and five or six days is realistic. Trekkers should count at least two acclimatisation days before setting off.
▸ How bad is the altitude in Cusco?
Cusco sits at roughly 3,400 m, high enough that most people arriving from sea level feel headachy, breathless and off their food for a day or two. Take the first day slowly, drink water and go easy on alcohol, or sleep lower in the Sacred Valley first. Coca tea is the local remedy.
▸ Do you need the Cusco tourist ticket?
The boleto turistico is a combined pass covering Sacsayhuaman and the ruins above the city, several museums and the main Sacred Valley sites, and some of those cannot be entered any other way. Partial versions cover one circuit over a shorter window. The cathedral and Qorikancha are ticketed separately.
▸ Is Cusco safe?
Broadly yes, and the centre is heavily policed, but it is a tourist city with the pickpocketing to match. Watch your bag in San Pedro market and in plaza crowds, take booked or ranked taxis at night rather than flagging one down, and avoid the dark lanes above San Blas alone.
▸ How do you get from Cusco to Machu Picchu?
There is no road to the site. The standard route is about two hours by road to Ollantaytambo, then the train down the Urubamba gorge to Aguas Calientes, then a shuttle bus up the switchbacks. Some trains run seasonally from Poroy nearer the city. Trekkers walk in on the Inca Trail or the Salkantay route.