How to Get to Machu Picchu from Cusco and Lima

Short answer: Fly from Lima to Cusco (about 1 hour 20 minutes), ride 1.5 to 2 hours by road to Ollantaytambo, take the train 1.5 to 2 hours to Aguas Calientes, then the Consettur bus for 25 to 30 minutes up to the gate. No road reaches Machu Picchu. Every other way in is on foot: the Inca Trail, another trek, or the walk from Hidroeléctrica.

That sequence is how most people do it, and it works. The details below are where trips go wrong: the train you pick, the station it leaves from, how much time you leave between the train and your entry slot, and whether you sleep in Aguas Calientes or squeeze it all into one very long day.

Every way in, side by side

There are three practical routes from Cusco to the citadel: the train (from Ollantaytambo, or from Poroy in the dry months), the overland van to Hidroeléctrica followed by a walk or a short train, and the multi-day treks. The table compares them by time, effort and what you have to book before you land in Peru.

Ways to reach Machu Picchu from Cusco

Option	Route	Travel time from Cusco to the gate	Effort	What you book ahead
Train from Ollantaytambo	Road to Ollantaytambo, train to Aguas Calientes, Consettur bus	About 3.5 to 4.5 hours plus waits	Easy	Machu Picchu ticket, train, bus
Train from Poroy (usually May to December)	Train from Poroy to Aguas Calientes, Consettur bus	About 4 to 4.5 hours plus waits	Easy	Machu Picchu ticket, train, bus
PeruRail Bimodal Service (usually January to April)	Bus from Wanchaq station to Ollantaytambo, train, Consettur bus	About 3.5 to 4.5 hours plus waits	Easy	Machu Picchu ticket, Bimodal train ticket, bus
Hidroeléctrica	Van via Santa Teresa, walk 6.2 mi (10 km) or train, bus or stairs	About 9 to 11 hours, usually split over 2 days	Moderate	Machu Picchu ticket, van seat
Classic Inca Trail	KM 82 to the Sun Gate on foot	4 days	Demanding	Permit through a licensed operator, months ahead
Short Inca Trail	From KM 104 (route 5), one hiking day, night in Aguas Calientes	2 days	Moderate	Permit through a licensed operator
Salkantay trek	Over the 15,190 ft (4,630 m) pass to Aguas Calientes	5 days	Demanding	Machu Picchu ticket, train back, no trail permit
Lares trek	Lares valley villages, last leg by train	4 days	Demanding	Machu Picchu ticket, train

Our pick for a first visit is the train from Ollantaytambo with one night in Aguas Calientes. It is the shortest ride, it has the most departures, and the night in town lets you enter at 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. before the day trippers arrive.

Lima to Cusco

Fly. The flight from Lima to Cusco takes about 1 hour 20 minutes, and there are departures all morning. The overland bus takes most of a day and a night on mountain roads, and we only suggest it to travelers with time to spare and a stomach for switchbacks.

The mistake we see most often is booking the Lima flight and the Machu Picchu train on the same morning. Flights into Cusco get delayed by weather often enough that a missed train is a real risk, and the train company does not hold the departure for you. Land the day before, or at least leave a full afternoon between the two.

Think about altitude before you choose where to sleep. Cusco sits at 11,150 ft (3,400 m). Ollantaytambo, in the Sacred Valley, is lower at 9,160 ft (2,792 m), and Machu Picchu lower still at 7,970 ft (2,430 m). Many travelers land in Cusco, drive straight down to the valley for the first nights, and visit Cusco at the end, when their body has adjusted. Our guide to Cusco altitude and how to adjust explains why that order helps.

If you would rather not stitch the flights, trains and hotels together yourself, our Lima and Machu Picchu in 6 days package does it with a Lima stop first.

Cusco to Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo is 1.5 to 2 hours from Cusco by road, depending on the route and traffic. The faster road climbs past Chinchero across the high plain, the other drops through Pisac and follows the Urubamba River. Both end at the train station at the bottom of the town.

You have three ways to cover that stretch:

• A van or car booked with your tour or hotel, timed to your train.
• A taxi from Cusco, agreed on price before you get in.
• The shared colectivo vans that leave from Cusco when they fill up, the cheapest option and the least predictable.

Whatever you choose, aim to be at the Ollantaytambo station 30 minutes before departure. The platform is small, the boarding is by car number, and the van ride down is slower in the dark than people expect.

Poroy and the Bimodal Service

PeruRail also runs trains from Poroy station, on the edge of Cusco. From Cusco or Poroy the ride to Aguas Calientes takes 3.5 to 4 hours, against 1.5 to 2 hours from Ollantaytambo. Poroy usually closes from January to April because of rain on the line. In those months PeruRail runs its Bimodal Service: a bus from Wanchaq station in Cusco to Ollantaytambo, then the train. Check which one your ticket says before the morning you travel.

We prefer Ollantaytambo even when Poroy is open. The road to the valley is faster than the train between Poroy and the valley, and you get more departures to choose from.

The train to Aguas Calientes

Two companies run passenger trains to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo): PeruRail and Inca Rail. Both use the same single track along the Urubamba gorge, both take 1.5 to 2 hours from Ollantaytambo, and you book both directly on their own websites.

Classes, from simple to splurge

• PeruRail Expedition: the base class, comfortable seats and big windows.
• PeruRail Vistadome: roof windows, a snack and a short onboard show on the way back.
• PeruRail Vistadome Observatory: adds an open-air observation car at the end of the train.
• Belmond Hiram Bingham: the luxury train with meals and drinks, sold by Belmond.
• Inca Rail The Voyager and The 360°: Inca Rail's two main classes, the second with an observation car.
• Inca Rail The First Class: runs in high season only, per incarail.com.

The view is the same canyon from every seat. If the budget is tight, Expedition or The Voyager is the right call, and the money you save pays for the bus and lunch. If you will only do this ride once, Vistadome Observatory is where we would spend extra, mostly for the morning light on the river.

Luggage is the trap

PeruRail allows one backpack of up to 8 kg (17.6 lb) and 100 cm (height plus length plus width), or one carry-on of up to 12 kg (26.5 lb) and 115 cm, per its luggage page. A full suitcase does not fit that rule. Leave the big bag at your Cusco or valley hotel, which almost all of them store for free, and pack two nights of clothes in a daypack. People who skip that step end up paying extra or dragging a suitcase up cobbled streets in Aguas Calientes.

More on schedules and how the classes compare is in our Machu Picchu train guide. Timetables and fares change by season, so always check them on perurail.com and incarail.com before you book.

Aguas Calientes to the gate: bus or stairs

From Aguas Calientes to the entrance you either ride the bus (run for years by Consettur, with San Antonio de Torontoy also running while a new concession is tendered, per Infobae on September 23, 2026), about 25 to 30 minutes up a dirt road of tight switchbacks, or climb the stone stairs in about 1.5 hours. There is no other transport and no taxi up.

Published round-trip fares for foreign adults range from US$24 to US$35 as of October 2026 (check consettur.com). The line forms on the main street by the river well before the first departure, and in the dry months it stretches for blocks around 5:30 a.m. Buy the bus ticket the evening before so you only have to queue once.

The stairs start across the river at Puente Ruinas and climb straight up the forest, crossing the bus road several times. They are steep and humid, and you arrive at the gate soaked. Our advice: take the bus up so you arrive fresh for a 2 to 3 hour visit, and walk down if your knees are good.

Your entry time is fixed

Your ticket names an hour at the main gate, and slots run every hour from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The gate gives 30 minutes of tolerance, or 45 minutes from 1 June to 15 October and on 30 and 31 December, per the Ministerio de Cultura's entry schedule. The checkpoints for Huayna Picchu and the other mountains give no tolerance at all. Build your train around the ticket, never the other way round, and see our guide to buying Machu Picchu tickets for how the slots and circuits work.

A rule of thumb from our guides: leave at least 2 hours between the train's arrival in Aguas Calientes and your entry slot. The walk from the station to the bus stop, the queue and the ride eat most of it.

Machu Picchu on foot: the trek routes

Treks are the only way to arrive at Machu Picchu without the train for at least one leg, and every one of them needs more planning than the train. Here is how they differ:

• Classic Inca Trail, 4 days: KM 82 to the Sun Gate. Permit sold only through licensed operators, sells out months ahead, closed every February.
• Short Inca Trail, 2 days: KM 104 (route 5) to the Sun Gate in one hiking day, a night in Aguas Calientes, the visit next morning. Permit needed.
• Salkantay, 5 days: crosses a pass at 15,190 ft (4,630 m) and drops into cloud forest. No trail permit is needed.
• Lares, 4 days: through weaving villages, with the last leg by train.
• Inca Jungle, 4 days: a mix of road, biking and walking toward Santa Teresa.

Every trek except the Inca Trail routes ends in Aguas Calientes, so you still need a Machu Picchu ticket for the next morning and a train back to Ollantaytambo. People forget the train back and find it full.

The Hidroeléctrica route

The budget way in is a van from Cusco to Hidroeléctrica, a hydroelectric plant at the end of the road beyond Santa Teresa, then a walk of about 10 km (6.2 mi) along the railway to Aguas Calientes. The van takes about 6 to 7 hours over a high pass and a long descent, and the walk takes 2 to 3 hours on flat gravel beside the tracks. A train also runs from Hidroeléctrica to Aguas Calientes if you do not want to walk.

It saves money and costs a full day each way. Walk on the path beside the line, step well clear when a train comes, and finish before dark. In the rainy months the road suffers landslides and the vans run late. We only recommend this route to travelers with spare days and a tight budget.

Sample timelines

Two plans cover almost everyone. A day trip from Cusco fits Machu Picchu into about 18 hours door to door. An overnight in Aguas Calientes turns the same visit into two relaxed days with an early entry. The tables show example times built from the train and entry rules above. Your own times come from the tickets you book.

Example day trip from Cusco

Time	What happens
4:00 a.m.	Pickup at your Cusco hotel, road to Ollantaytambo
6:00 a.m.	Arrive at Ollantaytambo station, board 30 minutes before departure
6:30 a.m.	Train to Aguas Calientes, 1.5 to 2 hours
8:30 a.m.	Walk to the bus stop, queue, 25 to 30 minute ride up
10:00 a.m.	Entry slot at the main gate, 2 to 3 hour visit
1:00 p.m.	Bus down, lunch in Aguas Calientes
3:00 p.m.	Train back to Ollantaytambo
5:00 p.m.	Road back to Cusco
About 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.	Back at your hotel, depending on the train you booked

Example two days with a night in Aguas Calientes

When	What happens
Day 1, late morning	Road from Cusco or your valley hotel to Ollantaytambo
Day 1, early afternoon	Train to Aguas Calientes, check in, buy bus tickets for the morning
Day 1, evening	Dinner in town, early night
Day 2, 5:30 a.m.	Join the bus line
Day 2, 6:00 or 7:00 a.m.	Entry slot, visit before the day trippers arrive
Day 2, late morning	Bus or stairs down, collect your bag at the hotel
Day 2, afternoon	Train to Ollantaytambo and road to Cusco

The day trip is long but doable, and it is the right choice if you have one free day. Our Machu Picchu day trip from Cusco runs on this shape, with ticket, train, bus and guide arranged. With two days, sleep in Aguas Calientes: you see the citadel at its quietest and skip the 4 a.m. start. Compare both styles among our Machu Picchu tours from Cusco.