SanDiego1K

Can anyone recommend a hotel in Agua Caliente near Machu Picchu? I don't want to spend the money for the breathtakingly expensive Sanctuary Lodge, nor do I even want to spend the $400 required by Pueblo Lodge.

My thought is to take the last train of the day to Agua Caliente, overnight, then go to the ruins first thing in the morning before the hordes who come for the day arrive. Is there any downside to this strategy?

sfbarry

I would recommend NOT staying in Agua Calientes.

Stay in Cusco, take the early morning train to MP - it arrives around 11:00am. Take the bus up the hill, have lunch at the Lodge to avoid the massive lines when everyone arrives at the same time. After lunch, stroll through the entrance and find an English speaking guide. The return train gets you back to Cusco around 10:00pm that night.

I did this in July and it made for a nice (albeit long) day trip.

My webpage details the trip. PM me if you're interested.

Darren

What he said. You can stay in the best hotel in Cusco for half that price. There are crowds at MP, but in my experience they are not anything like what most people have seen in places like Europe or the pyramids or whatnot.

martinplas

I have been to MP 3 times (hiked the Inca trail) and the only reason to stay is the Sanctuary Hotel and meet interesting people at the bar there.It also gives very early access to MP as you don't have to ride a bus up from town. There is really nothing worth staying for in my opinion if you don't do that and the previous posters suggestion to make it a day trip from Cusco would be a long day and your next best choice. I have never done it ,but someone also told me a helicopter flew from Cusco to MP.
Another choice would be to spend the day in the Yurabamba Valley(sp?) visiting Pisac ,Chinchero, and Ouyantaytumbo(sp?),overnight there and catch a train from there to MP.There are great markets in the valley on different days of the week.

SanDiego1K

My current thought is do what martinplas has suggested. I would spend a day in the Sacred Valley and go to Machu Picchu from there. It is a 1 1/2 hour train ride rather than 4 hours from Cusco. I could stay in Ollantaytambo on day 1 and take the morning train to MP on Day 2, or I could take the afternoon train to MP on Day 1 and stay in Agua Calientes. In both cases, I would see MP on Day 2, then return to Cusco by train in the afternoon.

I am not considering the Sanctuary Lodge as a place to stay. Somehow I've confused people by even mentioning it; I think $600/night is absurd. Instead, I am hoping that people might know a place in Aguas Calientes for about $100.

By the way, the helicopter ride over MP has been discontinued according to my guidebooks.

craz

I think that the Machu Picchu Inn looked decent. The Pueblo is #1 . I stayed in a so called Hostel ($25) which was next to The President along the tracks in AC. Its all seprate rooms like a Motel. You get what you pay for but there was hot water, and it served its purpose as I took the 7;30am train from Cuzco not the Local but not the top of the line either.

I didnt have a res only the name of a few places in case 1 wasnt available. Not much to do at night after getting down from MP, except I headed over to the mineral baths at the end and top of the main street. It was refreshing but nothing fancy. Then theres eating and hitting the sack, problem is what to do the next day if you dont go back up to MP, not much of anything in the town.

Buy your snacks and water in Cuzco as prices are really expensive in AC, the water was 4x

TraveltheWorld

Is there enough to do in Machu Picchu over 2 full days that one might consider staying in Aguas Calientes or the Sanctuary Lodge for a night?

craz

about the Only thing is to go back into MP, it used to be that either you got in for free the 2nd day or at the time you purchased your tkt if you got a 2 day one that it was just a few cents more for teh 2nd day. when I was there a few yrs ago it changed and you then pay Full Price for each day you go in.

If you stay at the Hotel up there you can enter or at least were able to to beable to experience the SunRise which they say is something nice from a certain place. dont think Id want to walk up there in the Pitch Dark. Our Shuttle stopped a few time sto pick up those who tried to walk up and just ran out of steam I believe they were charged the same as if they started out with us.

An alternative might be to take an early local train and get off and bus it back to Cuzco. there are a couple of places taht one can hike to on top, which we did and it was awesome. all in I was up there for around 4 1/2 hrs and took the last shuttle down (5:30pm), We didnt go on a guided tour and I was happy about that as those that I sort of joined in with for awhile at times got to me.

hauteboy

It's worth staying overnight in Aguas Calientes for nothing else than seeing MP without all the crowds! Most of the tourists are just in for the day, so between 10 AM and two PM, there can be up to 1000 people wandering around. After 3 PM the crowds drop off considerably. The same is true in the mornings, although this is when the hikers are coming off the trail so you won't have the place to yourself. The first bus goes up to the ruins about 6 AM, the last bus leaves at 5 PM. True, you must now pay for two days admission. Spending the night also gives you time to visit the hot springs at the top end of town. Most of the hotels are indeed basic, but bearable for one night.

rl07675

Thanks for all of the information.

Is it better to spend 1/2 a day in Ollanta in order to spend the night in Aguas Calientes and see more of MP, or should I spend a full day in Ollanta and take the early train to MP? Is there anything else to do in Aguas Calientes aside from the hot springs?

Also, would anyone recommend spending 2 days in Lima and 3 days in Cusco, or 3 days in Lima and 2 days in Cusco? I've heard that Cusco is more interesting than Lima...

Finally, what's the best thing to do with luggage at MP? If I'm visiting MP in-between hotels (Ollanta and Cusco), is there a secure place to store my luggage while at MP?

Darren

My personal opinion is to spend no days in Lima and all in Cusco. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with Lima, but it's a large, South American city. And not a terribly interesting one at that. There are a few museums, a nice beach area, a few casinos. If you were asking whether to to spend 6 days in Cusco and 2 in Lima or similar, my answer would be different. But there is enough to do in Cusco to kill five days with the travel time and with the trip to Macchu Picchu.

Keep in mind because a lot of people don't realize, (unless it changed in the past two years) it's going to take you a minimum of two days to do MP under any circumstance other than a pre organized tour or a pre-reserved ticket. Either you're hoofing it, which is going to take you more than two days, or you're taking the train. You must purchase your ticket for the train at least the day before. If it's sold out, it's sold out. You wait until the next day. But you cannot just show up and hop on board or go to the office the morning of departure. MP is minimum a full day trip since the train goes in the morning and returns in the evening. Obviously it is more than a day if you decide to overnight there or nearby.

As far as Cusco is concerned, there is a surprising lack of good guide books for the area. Lonely Planet is crap and horribly inaccurate. I picked up a good guide book, but I got it somewhere in South America. Quite possibly in Lima or Cusco itself. The only one worth anything is the Footprint guide, which is actually very acceptable. At least its generally accurate, which can't be said for any LP guide I have seen, especially the notoriously bad South American series. In any event, there are a number of things to do in and around Cusco that a good guidebook will mention. Good luck.

FLLUAFlyer

Lima can historically be consider the capital of South America. The Spanish Conquistadors considered it their colonial capital. It is historically THE most interesting city in South America. In fact, no other city even comes close to it. Obviously you are not aware of all it has to offer.

There is the Cathedral of Lima, the Plaza de Armas, the Catacombs of San Francisco Church, the National Museum of History, and the world renowned Museo de Oro (Gold Museum). A few miles south of Lima you have Pachacamac, an archeological site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachacamac
http://www.museoroperu.com.pe/principal.htm

Also, Lima is considered the culinary capital of South America.

You will find that Lima has a lot more to offer than most people realize.

JennyElf

For future hotel reference, I stayed at Gringo Bill's when I was there last winter. Clean, serviceable, and free breakfast. I think rates were in the less than $100USD per night.

They had some sort of bag storage at MP before the entrance due to a bag restriction within the site itself.

Aguas Calientes doesn't have much other than the hot springs as far as I was concerned. Spent 2 days wandering through MP and was glad to have the 2 days rather than just one.

As for Cuzco vs Lima. Lima had excellent seafood if you like seafood. Try the ceviche. Cuzco museums were great too. Personally I love museums more, so I'd spend more days in Cuzco.

acnev

We did this about 2 years ago. We decided to go the backpacker route in getting to MP. We hired a taxi for the day to drive to the sites in the sacred valley (Tambo Machay, Quenko, Pisac) and ended the drive by being dropped off in Ollantaytambo. We overnighted in Ollay and spent the next day exploring the ruins. We then took the backpacker train (leaves at 8 pm, $20 o/w) and arrives in AC at 10 pm. There are lots of folks meeting the train that offer rooms. Choose one and wake up the next morning and catch the first bus up to MP. One piece of advice - purchase your ticket to the ruins in AC - you will pass the office on the way to the bus stop. This way you can enter the ruins quickly without having to queue up for tickets and catch the sunrise.

MP was great and I really enjoyed having the whole day there. Besides MP, my daughter and I climbed up to Huayna Picchu and then took the path on the back side (very steep) to the Temple of the Moon and then completed the circuit back to the entrance. There is no way you can do this if taking the morning train from Cuzco. Also, once the tour groups leave at 2 you will have the place to yourself. When we were there I found less that 70 people in the late afternoon - definitely a great time to enjoy the place without the masses.

While the backpacker train is the cheap way to go, it does force you to spend a second night in AC since the return train to Ollay only leaves at 6 in the morning. That said, my family and I actually didn't mind AC. Once you get back to Ollay there are tons of buses that leave for Cuzco as soon as the train arrives - thus getting you back into Cuzco around 10-10:30 am.