Machu Picchu is a getaway fit for Incan royals -- a hidden city, concealed in a valley at the top of a cloudscraping, forested Andean peak. Before the Spanish showed up, this was the secret spot where the Incan King Pachacutec entertained and relaxed when the stresses of Cuzco got to be too much. And it's no wonder -- the natural setting and trek there, along the Inca Trail, are as wondrous and restorative as the terraced, Pre-Columbian stone buildings that sprawl for five square miles along a ridge near the peak. You'll pass through rainforest, Andean summits overlooking the plunging canyon of the Urubamba River, Pre-Columbian ruins, and a 20-metre tunnel the Incas dug through solid rock, before the invention of modern tools and machinery.
Machu Picchu is safe again, since Sendero Luminoso insurgents have gone to trial, restoring travelers to Peru's most popular and important destination. Nevertheless, this is one trip all but the most experienced hikers might want to make with a guide. Indeed, most of the best hotel/air packages include an organized hike up the mountain and a tour of the palaces at the summit.
None of these packages are as inexpensive as a trip to South America's great cities, but relatively good bargains are to be had, given the number of transfers and land transporation necessary to make it to the mountaintop. If you're up for a four-day hike and can wait until spring, the best deal comes from Traveland (tel. 800/321-6336; www.traveland.com): $949 for seven nights from Miami ($1,049 from 18 other major cities, including New York, Boston, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.). You'll spend four nights at the three-star Savoy Hotel in the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco and three nights camping on the 27 to 35-mile Inca Trail. The price includes accommodations, airfare and train transport, transfers, one porter for every two travelers, and tours of the Incan ruins and Spanish Colonial architecture of Cuzco, the Inca Trail, and Machu Picchu. Taxes and fees not included amount to $150 a person. The offer is good from April 5 through August 29. Slots are filling up fast, though, and the deal may change without notice, so act fast.
If you care to spend only a day at Machu Picchu, consider the Traveland package that starts in Cuzco and Lima: $899 for six nights from Miami and $999 from a half dozen other major cities (Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York JFK and La Guardia, Newark, Orlando, Tampa, and Washington DC). In Lima, the 16-century colonial capital, eight miles from the Pacific, you'll stay one night at the three-star Miraflores Hotel, two nights in Cuzco, at the three-star Howard Johnson Savoy, and one night in Aguas Calientes -- the funny little town from where the train departs for Machu Picchu. (The single street in Aguas Calientes is the railroad tracks, where most of the town's business is conducted until it's time for the daily train to arrive; when the train departs, businesses set up shop on the tracks again! Another point of interest: The town is engulfed by such high mountains that the sun sets at two o'clock.) The price includes all airfare, transfers, accommodations, tours of Cuzco and the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, and Machu Picchu. Taxes and fees are an additional $170 a person. The deal is good for travel from March 16 to April 27, but act fast; this is a very popular tour and prices fluctuate according to demand.
If you want to travel sooner, check out Fly South Vacations (tel. 800/234-5245; www.flysouthvacations.com) and Go Today (tel. 425/487-9632; www.go-today.com), which have (nearly identical) combined city tours to Machu Picchu, but with an extension that lets you dip into the Amazon basin. From January 4 to March 31, eight nights are $1,599 from New York JFK and Newark. You'll spend two nights in Lima, three nights in Cuzco, one night in Machu Picchu, and two nights in the Amazon basin, in Puerto Maldonado, a jungle port near the Bolivian border. All hotels are three stars save for the Puerto Maldonado digs, Posada Amazonas, an excellent rainforest eco-lodge (read: chic, in its way, but without heat or running water). Price includes all transportation, transfers, daily breakfast, several bilingual tours, and hotel taxes and fees. Airport taxes are not included.
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Prices were accurate at the time of publication and may have changed since then.