How to Get to Machu Picchu from Cusco: Every Route into Aguas Calientes

How to get to Machu Picchu from Cusco, route by route

Every option ends in the same town. Aguas Calientes sits below the ridge and is the last place with beds, ticket counters and a bus stop; from there you either ride the 8 km shuttle road, roughly 13 hairpins in 20 to 25 minutes with the first bus at 5:30 a.m., or walk the Hiram Bingham footpath, about 1,700 steps and 400 m of climb in 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 45. No vehicle road links Cusco to the citadel itself, and nothing you book changes that.

What changes from route to route is how you cover the ground between Cusco and the rail valley, and whether a train, a bus transfer or your own legs takes you the rest of the way. The official routing published by Peru's tourism board is road to Ollantaytambo in about 1 hour 30 minutes, then train in about 2 hours. PeruRail puts the same rail leg at roughly 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours, around 1 hour 45 minutes, and the Poroy leg at about 3 hours 30 minutes. Train times are indicative, so confirm yours on the day.

The table below sets the packaged formats on this site against doing the legs yourself. Independent arrangements mean separate bookings: the entry ticket through www.tuboleto.cultura.pe or an authorised counter, issued in your full name with your ID number, the train, the Consettur shuttle at about US$24 round trip for foreign visitors, and a bed if you sleep in town.

Road to Ollantaytambo, then the train to Aguas Calientes

This is the route almost every packaged day uses, and it has the shortest rail leg. A van takes you down the valley in about 1 hour 30 minutes, you board at Ollantaytambo station, and roughly 1 hour 45 minutes later you are in Aguas Calientes. Boarding closes 30 minutes before departure and Inca Rail asks you to be at the station at least 30 minutes early, which matters because the next train is no help when your entry hour is printed on the ticket.

Baggage is the part people underestimate. The rail allowance is one item per passenger: with PeruRail either a backpack of up to 8 kg within 100 cm of total dimensions or a carry-on of up to 12 kg within 115 cm, and going over costs $15 for a carry-on or $25 for a checked bag on the Machu Picchu route, while Inca Rail counts a single hand item of 8 kg and puts anything bigger into custody. Storage at Ollantaytambo station is offered at no charge from 04:15 to 21:00, and at Machu Picchu station from 05:00 to 22:00. Day-tour operators suggest keeping to 5 kg plus a small backpack.

Build this yourself and you book four things apart: the entry ticket, the train, the shuttle and your bed. PeruRail states plainly that the Machu Picchu entrance is not included in the train ticket. The shuttle has to be bought at the Consettur booth on Avenida Hermanos Ayar or online in advance, and the afternoon before your visit is the moment to do it rather than the morning queue. The advised window for Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley is the dry season, April to October.

• 05:20 hotel pickup on the operator's published timetable
• About 2 hours by van to Ollantaytambo
• 08:29 train, arriving 09:54
• Gate time on the ticket falling in the 11:00 to 14:00 stretch
• Back at the hotel around 20:40, roughly 15 hours after you left

Bimodal bus and train services and the Pachar transfer

Bimodal means one ticket covering a bus out of Cusco and a train onward, with a single change of vehicle. Since 1 September 2025, PeruRail's bimodal services from Cusco use Pachar station as the transfer point on selected schedules, with departures from San Pedro or Poroy. Stay on rails from Poroy instead and you are looking at about 3 hours 30 minutes to Aguas Calientes, against roughly 1 hour 45 minutes from Ollantaytambo.

The trade-off is convenience against clock time: one booking from the city, but a transfer and a longer morning. Inca Rail's All-Inclusive fare goes further and bundles the Machu Picchu entry ticket, the Consettur bus and a guided citadel tour, the only rail product in our sources that removes the separate entrance purchase. On a plain fare you buy the entrance yourself, with your full name and ID document number on it, and names cannot be changed later.

Nothing in the official material closes these services seasonally. Published times are indicative and the Pachar transfer applies only to selected schedules, so check the schedule you are actually booking.

The Hidroeléctrica road and the walk along the railway

The budget road route stays on asphalt and dirt far longer. It leaves Cusco and runs via Santa María and Santa Teresa to the hydroelectric station, where the vehicle stops and you walk a flat 10 km beside the railway line into Aguas Calientes. That walk takes 2 to 3 hours, so a long morning in a van is followed by a long afternoon on foot, and the corridor carries landslide risk in the wet season.

On this route the season should change your decision, not just your packing. In the rainy months the hillsides above the line are the problem, and an entry hour printed on a nominal ticket leaves you no margin: lateness is tolerated for 30 minutes in low season and 45 minutes in high season, after which the gate refuses you and the ticket is not refunded or rescheduled.

Everything here is a separate booking: the road transport, a bed in Aguas Calientes, the entry ticket and the shuttle or the footpath up to the gate. The same corridor is how the Salkantay trek finishes, reaching the Hidroeléctrica station on its fourth day before continuing to Aguas Calientes for the citadel visit.

Walking in on the trekking routes

Treks replace the train with days on a trail, and they come with their own paperwork. Daily carrying capacity on the Inca Trail network is fixed at 500 users on routes 01 to 04, 250 on route 05 at km 104 and 100 on the new route 06, and because that count includes porters, cooks and guides, the number of visitor places is well below it. Permits are not sold to individuals. Arrive on foot and your citadel route is settled for you: since 2026 the whole trail network feeds into Route 3-B on a daily quota held for trekkers, which only an authorised agency can book and pay, valid for up to five business days, and walking in keeps the SERNANP conservation amount off the bill. Release of the 2026 permits ran month by month from 27 October to 4 November 2025, each batch opening at 9:00 a.m. local time, which is how far ahead this leg has to be booked. February never appears in that calendar: the network shuts for rain-season maintenance and no reservations are issued for it.

Salkantay has no permit queue, which is why it is the realistic walk-in option once the Inca Trail calendar has closed. Peru's official gazette describes it as about 70 km of highland and Amazonian trails over four days, topping out at the 4,650 m Salkantay pass and dropping to around 2,000 m at Aguas Calientes, with April to November the advisable season and temperatures from -5 °C to 26 °C. Daily distances run roughly 7 km to the Soraypampa camp at 3,500 m, 7 km up to the pass plus about 15 km of descent, then about 16 km down towards Santa Teresa.

The five-day Salkantay tour on this site covers private transport from Cusco to Mollepata, the camps, a hotel room in Aguas Calientes, all main meals, mules for up to 7 kg of personal kit, the Salkantay and Machu Picchu entrance tickets and the train from Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo with the bus on to Cusco. Paid separately on top: the bus from Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes at $12.00, the train from Hidroeléctrica, a sleeping bag at $20.00 if you do not bring one, and the first day's breakfast and last day's lunch at $30.00 each.

Which Cusco to Machu Picchu route fits your trip

With one spare day and no flexibility, take the full day by train and accept the shape of it: pickup before dawn, an entry hour in the middle of the day, back at the hotel around 20:40. With two days, sleep in Aguas Calientes the night before and go in on the earliest hour you can get. Sleeping in town is what puts you on the first shuttle at 5:30 a.m., inside the gate before the daily allocation of 5,600 visitors in high season or 4,500 on other dates has worked its way up the road, and at the bus booth the afternoon before to buy the ticket.

A package earns its price here by removing separate bookings. Against assembling the same chain alone, a one-day package out of Cusco covering private transfers, train, bus, Circuit 2 entry and a guide is reported at US$325 to 429 per person in a group of 2 to 8, and at US$375 to 479 taken private, with train class the variable. Private rates fall with numbers: one Cusco operator quotes US$494 for a single traveller, US$394 each for two and US$308 each for ten.

• Road, rail and shuttle handled without trekking: Machu Picchu Tour Full Day by Train runs 16 hours from $419 and is rated 5.0 ★ (321 reviews), collecting you at your lodging, using the train in both directions and covering the bus up to the gate and back.
• The two-day version of the same trip: 2-Day Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu Tour from Cusco by Train, from $449, rated 4.8 ★ (1294 reviews), breaks the travel with a private room in Aguas Calientes and keeps an English-speaking local guide for both days.
• Walking in without an Inca Trail permit: Classic Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu 5 Days, from $480, rated 4.9 ★ (250 reviews), with mules for 7 kg, oxygen bottle and the entrance ticket included.
• Doing the legs yourself: expect four purchases to line up on one date, the entrance through the official portal or an authorised counter, the train, the shuttle and the room.

Questions people ask

Read also