A wonderful overview of the Sacred Valley.

This tour offers weavers, Ollantaytambo, Inca ruins, and amazing salt flats.

Highlights include:

• Weavers at Chinchero

• Ollantaytambo visit

• Maras Salt Mines

• Moray Inca ruins

ITINERARY

Classic Chinchero Maras, Moray, Salineras and Ollantaytambo

We pick you up from your hotel around 08:30 am. From Cusco or the Sacred Valley, we enjoy a 45-minute drive through beautiful Andean mountains and farmlands to the town of Chinchero.

Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco

In Chinchero, we visit the women's weaving cooperative where we watch a demonstration of local weavers. They use traditional Inca techniques for dyeing fabric and for weaving traditional patterns. The local community has used its internationally-renown weaving skills to regenerate the village.

There is time to browse in the shop, where the items you’ve seen being made are sold. This is a great place to get a souvenir, from Inca-style purses, colorful tablecloths, wall hangings, and many more exquisitely patterned artisanal goods.

Maras Salt Mines

We hop back in the car and drive to the spectacular Maras site, a collection of salt mines that have been used since pre-Inca times.

Workers channel an underground stream into various salt ponds. There are around 5,000 separate salt ponds, albeit not all of them are in working use at the same time. The local community has to work hard and cooperatively to maintain the balance between salt and sweet water, evaporation, and keeping the pond walls in good order.

The strong Andean sun evaporates the water to leave the highly-prized salt. Some salt is white, some red and some brown and you can find Maras salt for sale in the area.

Moray ruins

Next on our itinerary is a visit to Moray (3,500m/11,500ft). This is an unusual and spectacular set of ruins; concentric circles that are thought to have made up an Inca agricultural laboratory. Some of the terraced circular depressions are 30m/98ft deep, creating a wide variety of temperatures within them.

We walk further down into this archaeological site to see some ruins that may have served as one of the main amphitheaters for the Incas. Rituals and ceremonies may have been performed here.

We get back in our vehicle and head to the Inca ruins at Ollantaytambo (2,792m/9,160ft).

Ollantaytambo is one of the best-preserved Inca towns in all of Peru. Many of the original buildings from the 15th century are still standing. Ollantaytambo was an important town – it was home to the Inca emperor Pachacutec – and was the base for military victories against the Spanish.

Today we explore the exquisite terracing, fountains, aqueducts, and ruins that surround the town. A highlight is Temple Hill with its Sun Temple and the impressive Wall of the Six Monoliths. The Pinkuylluna Inca storehouses are also spectacular.

We drive you back to your hotel in Cusco or the Sacred Valley.

Don’t forget to read our FAQs, covering altitude, money, COVID, and more.

Prices

Minimum 2 people

1 DAY

Groups of 2: $145 per person

Groups of 3-5: $365 total price

Groups of 6-8: $399 total price

Groups of more than 8: Please contact us

-INCLUDED-

Private transport and English-speaking guide & entrance to salt mines

-NO INCLUDED-

Lunch, Entrance to Moray (130 soles/$40 covers entrance to Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Chinchero, Moray, multiple museums in Cusco, and Sacsayhuaman or 70 soles/$23 which covers only some of these sites)