Cusco Peru Tours & Machu Picchu Travel Experts

Paragliding - Amazing Adventure - We went paragliding and it was fantastic! They gave clear directions and we felt safe the entire time. There was another paragliding tour... read more company operating at the same location while we were waiting to fly, and they had an aborted take off because they misjudged the wind. This company emphasized safety as the priority and take offs were perfect for our group.

Atv tour is breathtakingly beautiful - We drove in a small car with a lovely man who spoke only Spanish for about 40 minutes. The terrain was beautiful and we saw... read more the well-kept Peru rail tracks, later we’d learn this was the Hiram Bingham train to machu piccu from Cusco. We arrived at a gas station and my minimal Spanish translated our host would be there in 3 minutes. He was there a minute later. We loaded our bags into another car, turned off the road starting just slightly up the mountain. Mario, who spoke perfect English, took us to a large building under construction. He explained they were building a new office in Ante province.
There sat 3 awesome Atvs, or quads as they apparently call them in Europe.
Mario gave us a quick explanation how to start, brakes, etc and at 10am we were on our way. our 10yo safely and comfortable was on the back of my husband’s bike, I was alone following Mario. Our three “quads” headed west from the office and first through Rahanqui, all of the towns were different and yet similar. No running water, largely farmers in this area. Our first stop was Zurite, terraces built by the Incas to grow food at different elevations. Corn grows at the lowest level which has higher water content. The higher the terrace, the dryer and it gets cooler. Potatoes like high elevations. The Incas developed 3,000 different kinds of potatoes. The government still plants crops here and has a preservation effort to provide well adapted seeds to sell to the local farmers with engineers working the terraces still.
The valley and the mountains in the distance made it just awe inspiring.
Our next stop was a more common destination, moray- it’s really interesting because when you buy the government tourist ticket there is a circuit or “circuito” that includes Ollaytaytambo, the salt mines, moray and a few others, but you have 2 days to do it. It’s $20 an adult.
Zurite is free, which is interesting because it was one of our biggest draws.
Morray is very similar to Zurite- it was a circular test ground for different elevations for the Incan people. It is no longer used however. it is clearly a tourist site. It’s still beautiful, but I found Zurite more profound.
On the way to Morray I did have to use the bathroom and we stopped in a relatively larger town that did have public bathroom facilities. There is no toilet seat and no toilet paper no soap. Totally worth it, but a different experience. Great lesson in culture for our daughter.
We zigged to zag. Some were roads, some were trails. Most went through towns and farmland. Most people waved and smiled and we did so back.
Most of the trails were packed down and I rode with the shield up on my helmet. It was fun to smell all the things. It reminded me of riding in the back of my dads sportster as a kid. You could tell where you were at by the smell. Here it was almost always eucalyptus and/or pine. Despite passing literally through crops, no poo smell no idea why. It did get dusty a bit and rather than having dust up my nose- i begrudgingly out the shield down:)
As we headed east past our origination, we passed over the mountain to the mountain. We crossed the mountain, moving into arid country. The peak was mountains and a dead volcano with glaciers. Breathless beauty as we wound through the path.
Next up the lake. Lake Huaypo. It was absolutely magical. There are probably seven restaurants along the lake. They also have small boats that will take you out on the lake. The lake is no larger than a normal size lake in Delaware. But as our tour guide Mario pointed out- Cuscoans have to fly to get to water, so it’s very popular with locals as well as tourists. Also, there’s nowhere else in the world where you can find this lake with the backdrop of the Andes and the glaciers. The boats. Amongst the seven different restaurants, most of them are Disney themed. So you can take a paddle boat - mini mouse in the middle of the lake in Peru. We all ordered the fried fish which was caught locally fresh from the lake. It was accompanied by either french fries, rice, potatoes, or a small salad. We got all of it so that we could taste it. The tomatoes taste just like my dads. There was a fun sauce that I drizzled over our rice and it was amazing.
We then hopped back on our ATVs and headed back towards the office around 3pm. Our tour included a car tour of the salt mines. But really, the experience was about the ATVs and the salt mines were minutes from our new hotel so we thankfully asked Mario to just take us straight to our hotel.
Mario is an excellent guide, extremely knowledgeable and inspiring. He takes you to important places that aren’t in the books. He helped us understand nuances and learn. The equipment was perfect and I felt extremely safe at all times. We’ve been all over the world and this was our top tour we’ve ever taken. ❤️

Hidden gem - Amazing, cheap restaurant and coffee/tea bar. This undiscovered gem is worth visiting if you want to enjoy the Peruvian cuisine and good coffee for an... read more excellent price and with excellent service. Definitely take the chocolate Vulcano for dessert!

Unbelievable - I went to one of the many tourist agencies at Av del Sol in Cusco and arranged an ATV trip to Moray. What a great... read more experience it was. Unbelievable how the Inca people have created such places.

Paragliding - We went paragliding with Maras Adventure and had a great time! Flying was awesome and the scenery was beautiful. The pilot was very good, and... read more the tour guide was also very informative. After paragliding, he took us to a textile company as well as introduced us to a local Peruvian drink, all on his own time.

An awesome well-worth trip - We landed in Cusco where we were planning to stay for a week. On the first day, we visited the small but dainty town of... read more Cusco . I was impressed how the Peruvians can be very well-organized, freindly and polite. The best part of our trip was going on the top of Machu Picchu! It took us almost a whole day to do a round-trip to Machu Picchu. Due to the post COVID period, we were surprised to not find a lot of tourists. Surpisingly, we had beautiful weather up to 19C. The rest of the week, we visited the Montanas de 7 colores which was very impressive. It was just cut short due to natives (pobladores) demonstratng against town conflicts.