CuscoTravel Guide

The Inca citadel at 2,430m altitude — one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Book tickets online months ahead. Arrive on the first entry bus (5:30am) for the Sun Gate sunrise.

The massive fortress above Cusco with 300-tonne stones fitted so precisely you cannot slide paper between them. Still partially unexplained by archaeologists. The view over Cusco is extraordinary.

The valley the Incas considered sacred — Pisac's hilltop ruins above the best indigenous market, Ollantaytambo's living Inca town, and Moray's mysterious circular agricultural terraces.

Cusco's central market — not the tourist stalls outside, but the actual working market inside where locals buy everything from chicha corn beer to alpaca wool. The best food stalls serve anticuchos (beef heart skewers) for $1.

At 3,400m, Cusco requires 1–2 days of acclimatisation before exerting yourself. Rest, drink coca tea (from every café, restaurant, and hotel for free), and avoid alcohol and heavy food for 48 hours.

The heart of the former Inca capital — Spanish colonial arcades and the imposing 17th-century cathedral built on Inca foundations, housing a famous painting of the Last Supper featuring a guinea pig (cuy).

Once the most important temple in the Inca Empire, its walls lined with sheets of gold — the Spanish built the Santo Domingo convent directly on top, and the original Inca stonework still shows through.

A demanding day trek to 5,200m, to a mountain striped in turquoise, lavender, and red mineral bands — one of Peru's most photographed landscapes, requiring serious altitude acclimatisation beforehand.

Cusco's steep, cobbled artists' neighbourhood — whitewashed walls, workshops of silversmiths and painters, and rooftop cafes with views over the city's terracotta roofs.

A hands-on class at a Cusco chocolate museum tracing cacao from bean to bar — roast, grind, and mould your own chocolate using techniques going back to pre-Inca times.