Driving through the Sacred Valley

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
8
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
9
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
6
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
5
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
7
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
8
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
70 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
158th/457
Top 40%
continent
South America
country
Peru
Length of time
1 day or less
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$100 (typically $70 - $130)
Time of year visited
May
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Driving Inca sites Mountains
All Tags
Altitude Ancient ruins Hilltop towns Local villages Market Old town Rice terraces / terraces Temple complex UNESCO world heritage site
Wow Factor
Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100.
⭐⭐⭐

Summary

The Sacred Valley is one of the must do things when visiting this Inca-inspired part of Peru, along with Walking some of the key Inca sites near Cusco, Hiking the 4 day / 3 night Inca Trail, and of course Machu Picchu itself.

And for good reason – the Sacred Valley has a wealth of gorgeous Inca sites such as Pisac, Moray and Ollantaytambo that are worth a visit all on their own.  When you combine this with the stunning surrounding scenery and picturesque Peruvian villages its a world-class travel experience.

Top tip: hire your own driver for the day – whilst a bit more expensive compared to a tour (US$50, with around the same again for a guide who speaks English), it allows you to experience the place at your own pace and check out some of the areas not chockablock full of other tourists.

Table of Contents

Highlights

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#1 Driving through the beautiful valley itself, which often gets overlooked by the famous Inca sites when people think of the area

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#2 Marvelling at the Inca perfection at the likes of Pisac

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#3 Ollantaytambo's ruins, and the small hike up to the Pinkulluna ruins for the best views

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#4 Being in further wonder at the level of sophistication in Moray, where the Inca used the various levels for trialling the different types of plants they used

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#5 Making your way through the various small Peruvian villages

Itinerary

 

The route:

 

Options: our timings meant that we broke the trip into 2 days, whereby we started around midday to drive from Cusco to visit Pisac and Moray; stayed the night in Ollantaytambo and then visited the ruins the following morning.  But you can easily cover the Valley’s highlights in a day, albeit with quite a lot of driving.

 

My suggestion for the order:

  • Early morning start from Cusco, and to meet your driver
  • Drive over to the Pisac ruins, passing over a pass which has spectacular views of the length of the Sacred Valley
  • Visit Moray and enjoy the scenery as you drive through some of the beautiful villages and countryside
  • Have lunch in Ollantaytambo and then visit the ruins
  • Once finished, either head back to Cusco or stay in Ollantaytambo for the evening.  This is the jumping point for visiting Machu Picchu or starting the Inca Trail. If you do head to Cusco, be sure to continue the anti-clockwise route so as to vary the scenery.

Travel Tips

One day is enough – as mentioned above in the itinerary, you can easily manage this in one full day.

Take a driver – I highly recommend hiring a car and a driver for the day, which can be easily arranged by your hotel.  We paid a bit less than US$50 for the day and decided we wanted to explore with the guide book rather than a guide, but a guide would be around US$75 for the day.

For the three main ruins:

  • 🥇 Moray – the highlight for us.  Make sure to have a good walk around to see both the front and back entrance.  Also, the drive up there is one of the mots picturesque we saw in Peru.
  • 🥈 Pisac – beautiful walk and fantastic surrounding views.
  • 🥉 Ollantaytambo – the main ruins are cool, but make sure to also walk up to Pinkulluna which has fewer tourists (because of the steep walk up), but has the best views of the main Ollantaytambo ruins.

Buy the Boleto Touristicothe – for tickets for the sites, its best just to buy the Boleto Touristico which covers all the major sites around Cusco and the Sacred Valley (although not Machu Picchu).  S130 / US$37 and lasts 10 days

For accommodation:

  • For Cusco – we stayed in Casa San Blas Hotel Cusco, which I would recommend based on its great location, nice layout / vibe, and the staff who are only too happy to help you
  • For Ollantaytambo – we stayed in a gorgeous hotel in the valley that leads up to Machu Picchu called Del Pilar Ollantaytambo Hotel, and would really recommend

General Peru travel Tips

 

Altitude – Cusco is 3,300m / 11,150 feet which is high enough to give you altitude sickness (generally feeling a bit like a bad hangover, which isn’t fun).  You can do various things to help, such as take pills (we took Acetazolamide and felt like it helped), drink coca tea, take pain killers to help with the headache etc, but the best way is simply to give your body time to get used to the altitude.

History of the Inca – this part of Peru is all about the Inca as the real master builder civilisation so it adds a lot to the trip to know a bit about them.   I’d recommend Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams – an easy read as the author re-creates the rediscovery of Machu Picchu and gives enough detail that any first time visitor would need.  For the broader context on the Incas and the other pre-Columbus American civilisations, I’d highly recommend 1491 by Charles Mann which will, I think, open your eyes to just how sophisticated these civilisations were before the arrival, in particular, of Eurasian diseases.

Dogs! – when walking around on your own, just keep an eye out for local dogs.  We had a few run at us from a local farm just outside Cusco, which can be a little unnerving if not used to dogs.  Just remember not to panic, face them and back away slowly.  If they get super close and you feel like you need to defend yourself, give them a kick or see if you can pick up something nearby like a stick or rocks to scare them off.  I know, not fun – but unlikely they’ll be vicious and better to be prepared.

For tips on other great experiences in Peru and for an itinerary for a trip there, see 2/3 weeks for the highlights of Peru.

What to prioritise in Peru

Peru is an amazing country to travel around, but can be a little overwhelming as to what to prioritise. As a first time traveller, I would be thinking about the 3 main clusters of Lima, Cusco and Arequipa (in blue):

 

 

And I would prioritise the key activities this way:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hiking the 4 day / 3 night Inca Trail
43km hike that snakes its way majestically through a combination of dramatic Andes mountains and peaceful Peruvian countryside.  You’ll see perfectly maintained Inca ruins, thick misty cloud forest and end at the Sun Gate, the mountain entrance to the world famous ruins of Machu Picchu.  It is one of those rare travel experiences that really lives up to the hype and should be the focal point of your Peru trip. Hiking the 4 day / 3 night Inca Trail.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lima
The food is world-class and the coastal neighbourhoods beautiful.  You’ll be passing through Lima on any Peru trip, so make sure to give yourself 2 days.  Lima – a weekend of world class restaurants, super cool neighbourhoods and rapid paragliding.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hiking the Colca Canyon 
A great 3/4 day trip from Arequipa.  Stunning scenery as the canyon is the second deepest in the world (twice the depth of the Grand Canyon) with majestic condors flying overhead, plenty of traces of the old Inca construction and a fraction of the tourists of the Inca Trail.  Hiking and zip-lining in the Colca Canyon.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Driving through the Sacred Valley 
Gorgeous Inca sites such as Pisac, Moray and Ollantaytambo, stunning surrounding scenery and picturesque Peruvian villages.  Driving this is a beautiful thing to do before hitting Machu Pichu and the Inca Trail, but hire a driver rather than doing a tour.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Machu Pichu 
A Wonder of the World and it lives up to the hype.  Wow views, constant gawping and easy to get to from Cusco. Its downside is the crowds, which are intense.  This is why the approach from the Inca Trail makes sense as you have the higher points largely to yourself and your fellow hikers. Machu Picchu.

 

⭐️⭐️ Arequipa 
Super pretty UNESCO World Heritage listed old town with beautifully maintained streets and white stone Baroque buildings.  Entry point for the Colca Canyon and surrounded by three majestic, dramatic, perfectly coned volcanoes.  Arequipa old town.

⭐️⭐️ Cusco 
Great sites abound as you walk around the Plaza de Armas, the grand Christian Churches and generally walking through the narrow cobbled streets.  Plus some of the smaller sites just to the north, which come as a really pleasant surprise for more Inca ruins.  You’ll pass through here on the way to Machu Pichu, the Inca Trail and the Sacred Valley, and its worth a day or so. A walk around some of the key Inca sites near Cusco.

Experiences nearby

Wow Factor Score Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100. LowHigh
  • Elite, unmissable
  • World-class, downsides
  • Meets the Wow Factor
  • Worth it
  • Meh
  • Gash

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences - from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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