Cusco Travel Forum

Hi Guys-
I have a couple of questions regarding Cusco as well as Machu Picchu.

1. I am looking at an arrival into Cusco's airport at 8:55am (i leave Lima at 7:40am) If I were to take a taxi to Ollanta, could I make a 12:36pm train to M.P.? That would give me roughly 3 and a half hours to get to Ollanta from Cusco's airport.

2. Is it easy to get a taxi from Cusco's airport? Roughly how much would it be from Cusco directly to Ollanta's train station?

3. If I purchased my train ticket online couldnt I just pick up the actual tickets at the Ollanta station? That way I could go directly from the airport to the train station without making a bunch of uneccessary stops?

4. Tickets for Machhu Pichhu...there will be 3 of us. We plan to arrive in A.C. in the afternoon and stay overnight and do MP the next morning. Could we buy our entrance tickets to MP the day before? I.E. we arrive at 2pm on Sunday, could we buy or entrance tickets to MP Sunday afternoon and then go to MP first thing monday morning?

5. Also, when we return from Cusco, I would prefer to fly back to Lima later in the day. There is a 3pm flight on LAN that would arrive into Lima at 4:30pm. That would be the ideal flight for us but am worried about all the comments regarding the planes being cancelled etc. Is it common? There are about 6 other flights after the 3pm flight so if they did cancel it we could hopefully get on another one...

Thanks for your help!

Wow, this sounds like a trip who's goal is to just check MP off the "did it" list. Cusco and MP deserve more time. My suggestion is to slow down, take another day or two if you can. Your tight scheduling is assuming a lot.
Gary

i wish we did have more time to spend but unfortunatly due to budget and vacation time limits we only have a week. We are in fact spending more time in Cusco on the way back from M.P. 3.5 days to be exact. However we only have room in our schedule to spend one afternoon and night in AC and the morning/afternoon to spend at MP before we head back to Cusco to spend some more time there. So as much as I would like to "slow down" I want to do as much as possible during my week in Peru.

If I am not mistaken many people try and do the same thing. In fact they do AC and MP in the same day whereas we are spending a day and a half. Not too uncommon from what I gather.

THANKS.

Yes, you are right, MBeks. Many tourists do it that way and if you go up to MP before the tourist train arrives you will have ample time to explore the site on that day in relatively quiteness.

About the flights: I answered that just now in your previous posting (with Marissa) but I would like to add that, although some problems can arise once in a while, you shouldn't worry too much in October.

Again: Enjoy!

I agree that this is a common itinerary. As Noel said, please refer to your other posting for responses!

You can make that trip although the train may fill up quickly. It gets crowded and a bit hectic in the lobby so watch your belongings. Not sure there are places you can purchase your MP ticket around AC. Once you get up to the entrance of MP, you can just pay them the fee. When I was there in Spring '07, we toured it, jumped on a shuttle, and handed over the ticket to enter that was given to us; pretty straight forward. For $5 more, go out and climb Huyna Picchu. You get to the top and the view is amazing, well worth the effort.

As Marissa has said in several earlier postings: tickets to MP are NOT available at the entrance anymore and have to be bought in advance!

Yes, that's right, and the changes were effective in the Spring of 2008. Check my MP "warning" tip regarding where the tickets can be purchased. The info is out there--you just need to read it! And check my MP page "general" tip to find out what's free & what's not! The HP tickets are actually free, people just need to get there as early as possible to get them!!! And it sounds like you've already been given your ticket by an agent, but for others who don't rely on tour agents, they've got to get it on their own. Check out the gazillions of info out there on this topic, it's out there, and that's why they call the internet a repository for info!

in regards to the flight and train logistics you were asking. I wrote that up for people on my tips as we did the same thing, check it out if you wish. Yes you can do so, but we did not buy our tickets online and did it at Olly.

To each their own in regards to timeline.