Welcome to Cusco, longest-inhabited city in the Americas and its acknowledged architectural capital, not to mention one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. Our guide will meet you at 1pm for a traditional Peruvian meal at one of our favourite local restaurants, then spend the afternoon with you on a relaxed walking tour around Cusco’s stunning historic centre.

It’s important to take it easy if you’ve arrived from sea level today, as you need to adjust to Cusco’s 3,400m (11,200ft) altitude.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Characterful hotel in central Cusco

Today we’ll take a short drive to Pisac. This charming village is the gateway to the Sacred Valley and was fiercely defended by the Incas, as evidenced by the massive fortress which bristles above the town. We'll spend the morning hiking and exploring its many terraces and fortifications, and enjoying the stunning views.

In the afternoon we'll check out Pisac's other famous attraction - the largest artesania (handicraft) market in the region! This is the perfect place to get all your souvenir and gift shopping taken care of in one fell swoop!

There's also time today to explore Pisac's cobbled, pedestrian backstreets where you can taste local specialty empanadas, and meet guinea pigs who live in elaborate miniature castles!

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in the Sacred Valley

Day 3 Hot springs and bike descent

This morning we’ll head up to local favourite attraction, the Lares hot springs, where naturally occurring medicinal thermal hot pools are surrounded by lovingly landscaped terraces carved out of a rushing river gorge. We’ll relax and soak before lunch, then spend the afternoon biking back down to the Sacred Valley.

As we gently descend, the landscape gradually changes from craggy Andean peaks and austere open pasture, to a verdant, bushy river gorge where traditionally-dressed locals tend flourishing llama flocks and corn crops, and the traditional weavers of Patacancha and Huilloc practise their ancient art.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in the Sacred Valley

Day 3 Lares trek - Ruins, waterfalls and altitude

We’ll pick you up from your accommodation and drive through the Sacred Valley, past Urubamba and into the Pumahuanca valley, where we’ll start to hike – straight up! We’ll gain about 1,100m (3,600 feet) in altitude today, over around six hours of walking, as we head up towards the top of the huge Andean cordillera (range) between the Sacred and Lares valleys.

Along the way we’ll stop to check out a cool, little-visited ruin, and have lunch next to a waterfall, before arriving to our campsite at Cuyoc, a charming spot in a native queuña forest, with incredible views across to Salineras and Maras on the other side of the Sacred Valley.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Camping on the Lares trek

Walking: 9 km (5.6 miles)

Minimum Altitude: 2,960m (9,710ft)

Maximum Altitude: 4,000m (13,120ft)

Altitude of camp: 4,000m (13,120ft)

We’ll spend today high up in the mountains, enjoying some of the best scenery of the whole trip with stunning views across the Sacred Valley, to range after range of the central Andes.

We’ll visit Chinchero, a quiet little town best known for its outdoor weaving studios, terraced Inca ruin, and intricately-frescoed colonial church.

We’ll also explore perhaps the most mysterious Inca site, Moray – three massive amphitheatres of incredible engineering precision and stern, magnificent beauty. Then we’ll check out Salineras – a surreal and beautiful patchwork of pools and paths that still produces salt using Inca technology, and is our favourite sight in the region!

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in the Sacred Valley

This morning we’ll grind and toast beans with coffee processors, and hang out with the chichera - the lady who makes corn beer, a very local beverage whose importance in Andean culture can hardly be overstated.

Along the way we’ll taste these delicious Peruvian products, and experience firsthand how they underpin the local lifestyle and economy.

This afternoon there’s time for a little exploration of Ollantaytambo - perhaps the most perfectly preserved of all Inca towns, a maze of cobbled alleyways and sun-drenched plazas presided over by a spectacular, llama-shaped ruin – before we take the 1.5 hour train ride to Aguas Calientes, our jumping-off point for Machu Picchu tomorrow.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in Aguas Calientes

A spectacular stone city surrounded by incredibly steep, incredibly green mountains, Machu Picchu needs no introduction and is deservedly one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

We’ll be up at sunrise so there’s time for your guide to show you around Machu Picchu’s main citadel, as well as our favourite hidden nooks and crannies, before the crowds arrive. After a delicious lunch in Aguas Calientes we will catch the train and private vehicle back to Cusco.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in Cusco

Today we'll hike Rainbow Mountain. Known locally as Vinicunca, this mountain offers a challenging day hike to view an amazing mountainside where a combination of sedimentary layers and erosion has created a colourful spectacle. It's a challenging 15km hike, to an altitude of 5,200m (17,060ft), over a rough trail... but the amazing views of the Andes, glacial peaks, red mountains, rocky hills, and llamas and alpacas grazing along the valley, make it all worthwhile!

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in Cusco

The Valle Sur just outside Cusco is one of our favourite places to take our guests, because it offers a oneday snapshot of the incredible variety of this whole region. We’ll meet brujos (witches) who can read your future in coca leaves, and see how bakers create the area’s famous chuta bread. We’ll explore two charming, little-visited ruins: the Inca agricultural laboratory Tipón, with its still-working terraces and panoramic views, and Pikillacta, ‘the flea village’, which was home to 10,000 members of a pre-Inca tribe known for abundant procreation!

We’ll check out the church of Andahuaylillas, so elaborate it’s known as the Sistine Chapel of the Americas, and the deliberately-deformed skulls of departed Inca nobles displayed in the museum next door. After making a stop at the highest point of our journey “Abra La Raya” for taking pictures and admire the beautifull landscape, we will continue our journey to Puno

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in Puno

This morning we take to the waters of Lake Titicaca. We’ll stop briefly at the Uros – the famous floating reed islands of Lake Titicaca – but our main destination is Taquile, one of the most fascinating islands in the world. It was isolated until the 1950s and still follows a very different way of life. Decisions are communal, economic activity is co-operative, and society is based on the fundamental Inca principles: "Ama sua, ama llulla, ama quella" (don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t be lazy). There are no cars, few dogs, and little electricity because the Taquileños want it that way.

Taquile is also the most famous textile centre in the Andes. Its storytelling textiles, designed and woven by Taquile’s women from thread spun by its men, draw aficionados and investigators from all over the world to this amazing island. On top of all this, the scenery is stunning, and the peace and serenity is like nowhere else on Earth. Taquile is just magic!

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in Puno

Today you will have an early departure to Bolivia's border in Desaguadero. Along the way you will be delighted by magnificent views from the Titicaca lake. Once you complete the immigration process, we will continue to Tiahuanaco, where you will discover the history of the pre-Inca civilizations , where we will visit the Pumu Punku, sun gate and Akapana´s pyramid, stone´s museum and Beneth´s Monolith.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in La Paz

This morning your guide will lead a relaxed walking tour around La Paz´s historic centre, after you will make a stop in the Killi killi view point, where you can get panoramic views of the city. Then you will continue out of the city to explore the Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna), named for its lunar-like landscape of pinnacles and canyons, caused by erosion of the mountains. After we will explore the heights of La Paz thanks to the famous Teleférico, a cable system that connects the whole city by air.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in La Paz

Today we will take you to the airport to catch your flight from La Paz to Uyuni, upon arrival you will be transferred to your accommodation with great views of this amazing salt lake.

Upon arrival you will visit the train cemetery, Uyuni, founded in 1890 as a trading post, it prospered, as a railroad junction and mining and market centre. This town lost its importance when mineral prices dropped, but it regained growth through tourism.

Afterwards, you will drive to Colchani in the salt flat area, here you will see the way local people gather salt for processing it. Then you will enter a plant where salt with iodine is processed and packed, followed with a visit to the small market where handcrafts are made on salt.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in Colchani

Today you will discover why the eyes of the Salt Flats are boiling. You will continue your journey on the Salt Flats and have a unique photo session in a great plain of Salt where perspective is only a theory.

Later you will Visit Incahuasi Island where gigantic cacti grow making the landscape even more unique and walk on a petrified coral path and enjoy lunch in the middle of the Salt Flats.

Afterwards we will return to our accommodation in Colchani for a spectacular sunset!

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in Colchani

Today you will wake up to your last sunrise over Salar Uyuni. At coordinated time we will transfer you to the Uyuni´s Airport. Enjoy your last glimpses of these spectacular vistas on route.

Upon arrival in La Paz, our driver will transfer to your hotel. You will have the evening at leisure.

Meals: Breakfast and lunch included

Accommodation: Comfortable hotel in La Paz

Today we will get you to the airport in time for your international flight back home.

Thank you for travelling with us – you will have had a brilliant time exploring Peru and Bolivia with us!

Meals: Breakfast included