ANCIENT PERU

Your adventure starts upon arrival at Cusco airport (CUZ), where you’ll meet one of our representatives before being transferred to your hotel. Get to know your fellow travellers over a welcome dinner at a local restaurant before hitting the hay before a big day tomorrow.

After breakfast, head out for a unique culinary experience: a guided visit to the traditional San Pedro market and a Peruvian cooking class. You’ll have the opportunity to make a classic pisco sour, an appetizer and a main course – and then taste test your creations, of course. In the afternoon, explore Cusco on a guided walking tour, stopping in for a Peruvian coffee tasting at Three Monkeys Coffee. The rest of the evening is yours to enjoy how you like.

After breakfast at your hotel, you’ll start your day with a splash – you have the choice between kayaking or a stand-up paddleboard session at Piuray Lagoon. Enjoy your time on the water, with the jagged peaks of the Andes mountain range as your backdrop. After lunch as a group, you’ll visit Parwa Cultural Center and take part in a weaving session. The rest of the afternoon is spent en route to your hotel in the Sacred Valley, where you have free time to explore in the evening.

This morning is an earlier start, as after breakfast you have a full day of exploring Maras, Moray and Ollantaytambo. The first stop is Raqchi viewpoint, where you’ll want your camera ready to snap a few shots of the magnificent Urubamba (Sacred) Valley. Next, visit Moray – a fascinating archeological site full of Inca ruins. Stop for lunch at Chuncho, a restaurant and bar in Ollantaytambo that specialises in using traditional Peruvian ingredients. Visit Mayu Coffee to learn how to make out-of-this-world coffee at home (it’s all in the beans and grinding technique). In the evening, journey on the Vistadome train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, where you’ll have dinner together before heading to bed.

This is it: today you finally visit the most iconic site in Peru, the epic ruins of Machu Picchu. As one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, there’s a lot to see here – so you’ll have all day to explore. After breakfast at the hotel, you’ll head out to learn about this epic attraction with a local guide. Break for lunch together at Cafe Inkaterra, and then spend the rest of the day exploring on your own. Take the Vistadome train from Aguas Calientes back to Ollantaytambo, then transfer back to Cusco. The evening is yours to spend as you wish.

There’s a lot of ground to cover today, so you’ll bring a box breakfast along as you hit the road. The transfer from Cusco to Colca will take most of the day, but the extraordinary landscapes make the journey worthwhile – you’ll pass small native settlements, forests, lagoons and snow-capped mountains. The route travels through the traditional villages of Pitumarca, Combapata, Tinta, San Pedro and San Pablo, Sicuani, Condorma and Imata. Lunch is provided; you’ll have a free evening once you reach the hotel in Colca.

Fuel up with another early breakfast this morning, as we’ll be heading off to trek to La Cruz del Condor viewpoint – a rarely visited spot, where you’ll hopefully be able to spot Andean condors gliding through the air. At 1,200m (3,937ft) deep and a height of 3,000m (9,842ft) above sea level, Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world. After lunch at a local restaurant, you’ll stop at Chivay for a chance to browse for souvenirs at the market. On the way to Arequipa, you’ll stop at the Abra de Patapampa viewpoint – where you’ll look out towards the ridge of volcanoes, including El Misti, rising into the crisp blue sky.

You’ll probably want to stick to a light breakfast today, as it’s best to show up hungry for today’s main excursion: a tour of Arequipa’s picanterias. You’ll visit four picanterias, local lunchtime restaurants featuring regional dishes, and see how they cook typical dishes – many meals here are cooked over a fire in clay pots. Sample the speciality dishes from each one to fuel up before your walking tour of Arequipa. As the second most populated city in Peru (after Lima), there’s lots to see here – including Santa Catalina Convent, which was originally built in 1579. In the evening, there’s the option to come together for a final group dinner.

After one last breakfast at the hotel, you have the choice to join an optional morning tour to the quarries at Añashuayco. Here, you’ll learn about the process of extraction and carving the famous “sillar” stone – the main building material used in Arequipa. You'll then be transferred to Arequipa airport (AQP), where the tour ends.