Visiting Machu Picchu in 2023

After nearly 20 years, I finally made it back to Machu Picchu and I was not disappointed. This Inca center was largely ignored by the Spanish conquistadors and in fact only "re-"discovered in the early 20th century. The actual purpose of this citadel is disputed to this day.

Visiting Machu Picchu has changed a lot in recent times. While before you also had to buy an entry ticket, you only had to buy it for a given day and could then enter and walk around as you please.

This changed a lot, as now everything is divided into different sections and tickets need to be bought for specific, pre-defined circuits. Once entered one is allowed to stay for four hours for most of the ticket types. Also, the tickets need to be bought around one month in advance as they are constantly sold out. So definitely one should already plan and buy this BEFORE traveling to Peru (unless you plan to stay in Cusco for 2.5 months like me).

We decided to buy two entry tickets for two subsequent days and stay one night in Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu village). I also highly recommend to take a day or two to visit the Sacred Valley before or after your Machu Picchu visit. 

One can also visit Machu Picchu as a big one day trip from Cusco but it's quite stressful, as you first need to take the train or car from Cusco to Ollantaytambo (around 2-3 hours), then take another train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (around 2 hours) and lastly take a bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu itself (around 30 min). The train tickets are cheaper if bought in advance, so I would book it together with your Machu Picchu tickets. The bus tickets do not sell out but rather than buying them in person I recommend to buy them online and save some time queuing up when you arrive.

One can also reach Machu Picchu from Quillabamba through the train station Hidroelectrica.

For day one we decided to go for the general "Llaqta de Machu Picchu" ticket, which gives access to the main area and allows to take all the typical tourist pictures. We opted for the 1 pm entry, so we didn't have to get up too early and could drop off our stuff in our hotel in Aguas Calientes first.

We were very lucky with the weather and there were not too many people around (as October / November is also not peak tourist season). The walk around the citadel is not too tough but I would recommend good shoes when going during the rainy season, as the stone stairs get very slippery when wet.

For day two we decided to buy a ticket to climb up the mountain Machu Picchu. Now, this might be a bit confusing, as the citadel itself is referred to as Machu Picchu. But actually it has been named after the mountain where Hiram Bingham (the guy who re-discovered Machu Picchu in the early 20th century) was standing when seeing the citadel. 

Once we made our way up again from Aguas Calientes to the citadel the weather unfortunately was not comparable to the day before and at the beginning we were only able to see fog. As we already had taken lots of pictures the day before and had a steep two hour hike in front of us we were not too bothered by it. Hiking with some clouds is definitely more comfortable than with the burning sun in your neck.

Hiking up to the mountain Machu Picchu is a 1.5 to 2 hour undertaking and there are entries at 7 and 8 am in the morning. There are different viewpoints on the way to the top that also make great spots for pictures.

The path up the mountain was basically only stairs, some of them were very steep and some of them a bit less. However, the hike is – even though longer – less tricky than the one to Huayna Picchu. Nevertheless, hiking shoes are definitely a must when going up there.

Once you reach the top there is a small shelter where you can sit and enjoy the view. :)

This was the view from the top of the mountain. It was very foggy that day and the fog changed every couple of seconds which made it hard to capture. However, I still enjoyed the experience of hiking up this rather unknown mountain and having a different angle at the citadel of Machu Picchu.