I Spent 4 Days at Machu Picchu and This Is What It Cost

Day 1 – Monday

Total cost: $30.50
Getting to Machu Picchu is a very long journey, even if you’re already in Peru. Because it takes so long, our tour guide recommended that we fly as early as possible. We booked a flight that departed from Lima at 4:55 am and arrived in Cusco at 6:18 am.

Our early flight meant we had to call an Uber at around 2 am to take us to the airport from my Airbnb in Miraflores, a neighborhood in Lima. It cost 28 soles ($7.50) and only took 30 minutes. Traffic in Lima is famously terrible, but there was pretty much no one on the road since we were traveling in the middle of the night. The lounge at the airport didn’t open until 3:30 am, so we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks after making it through security, spending 15 soles ($4). Once the lounge opened up, we grabbed a bite to eat before boarding at 4:15 am.

When we landed in Cusco, a taxi driver was waiting to take us to the train station. This cost was included in our package with the tour guide, so we didn’t have to pay anything extra. We got to the Inca Rail office around 6:50 am, giving us time to charge our phones and rest before departing at 8:30 am. In April, there aren’t any direct trains from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu. As a result, we had to take a bus from Cusco to Ollantaytambo, and then the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. The bus took about two hours, with a short break in the middle to stretch our legs and go to the bathroom.

When we got to Ollantaytambo, we had the option to purchase snacks, but chose not to, since we had packed some snacks the night before. The train left the station at 11:15 am and took about an hour and a half. We each bought a pisco sour on board to celebrate our journey, which cost 30 soles ($8) per person.

After we checked into our hotel, we had lunch at Kusi Paya, a nearby restaurant. This was one of our favorite meals of the entire trip. It consisted of soup, an entree, dessert, and chicha morada and cost just 19 soles ($5), which was a fantastic deal for the quality. You read that correctly: Our entire lunch cost less than one pisco sour on the train.

After lunch, we bought snacks to pack in our bags to bring to Machu Picchu the following morning, spending 22.50 soles ($6). After that, we took a nap, met with our tour guide to go over the next morning’s plans, and then went to sleep early.