Here we go over our trip to Machu Picchu. This includes a guide to Machu Picchu as well as a Machu Picchu Trip Cost Summary.
Welcome to our Machu Picchu trip cost report !
I have already written a detailed report about our trip to Ecuador.
This series of posts will detail our trip to Peru and ultimately one of the new seven wonders of the world – Machu Picchu.
This post (part 10) will cover our costs. Check out our other posts to learn more about our trip to Peru.
Machu Picchu Guide
Part 1: Traveling to Machu Picchu: The Basics
Part 2: Planning travel and lodging
Part 3: Travel from Cusco to Ollantaytambo
Part 4: Things to do in Ollantaytambo, Peru
Part 5: Eating in Ollantaytambo, Peru
Part 6: Cycling down a mountain
Part 7: Hiking on an Inca trail
Part 8: Zip lining and hiking to Aguas Calientes
Part 9: The climb to Machu Picchu
Part 10: How much did our trip to Peru cost?
Trip to Peru and Machu Picchu Cost
Everyone travels differently. Some people like luxury travel and others travel on a budget. I would say we travel on the budget end of the spectrum. Following is a description of our costs for our trip to Peru and Machu Picchu. Note that at the time of our travels, the exchage rate was 3.2 soles per U.S. dollar.
Airfare
I was fortunate to have a good stash of American Airlines miles from a Citibank credit card sign-up bonus. I used aa.com to use my miles (35,000 round trip to Peru).
My only airfare expense was the fees associated with my award ticket, which came to $93.93 round trip.
$93.93 + 35,000 American AAdvantage miles per person
Local Transport
In town taxis are relatively cheap. Between towns, I suggest you travel via colectivo the way the locals do. It’s the cheapest way to get around.
A taxi from Cusco airport into town is about 40 Peruvian soles (we found someone else at the airport and split the cost). The cost back to the airport was only 10 soles (apparently drivers want to get higher fares from the tourists at the airport).
A colectivo to Ollantaytambo was 10 soles per person. We ended up spending a total of140 soles on local transportation.
$20.76 per person
Lodging
We used booking.com and found private rooms at local hotels for under $30 USD.
In Cusco, we wanted to stay as close to Plaza Mayor as possible and we found a room at Hotel Incawasi, which is right in the Plaza, for an average of $26.57 USD per night. It was a very basic room, but met our needs just fine.
In the Sacred Valley, most people stay in either Urumbamba or Ollantaytambo.
In Ollantaytambo, we tried staying at a couple different places. All were pretty cheap and all were in my favorite part of town with extremely old buildings. We stayed at Rumi Wasi and El Tambo both for about $20 USD.
On our return from Machu Picchu, after our Inca Jungle Trek, instead of going all the way back to Cusco, we spent another night in Ollantaytambo and this time stayed at Peru Quechua Lodge for $26 USD. It was a much nicer place, but I liked the location of the other two hotels a little better.
All hotels in Ollantaytambo were booked via booking.com and were rated at least 8.0.
Not counting our three nights on the Jungle Trek, we spent 8 nights in hotels and spent the equivalent of $206.19.
$103.10 per person
Food and Water
Be aware that we do not splurge on food. We ate the menu del dia a couple times per day. At 5 soles, we spent less than $2 USD per meal. We did not buy bottled water because I had a Life-Straw. Yes, that number below is accurate, but be aware that it does not include the four days of food that were included on the jungle trek.
$29.05 per person
Jungle Trek
Probably our biggest expense was our Inca Jungle Trek via Loki Travel (We don’t receive any referral credit; I just had a good experience and wanted to let everyone know who we used.).
Our jungle trek included four nights of food, three nights of lodging, transportation to Machu Picchu Pueblo, admission to the Machu Picchu sanctuary (normally about $40+ USD), and transportation back to Cusco (the initial part on a train that normally costs $70 – $100 USD each way).
We paid $253 USD each for the Jungle Trek, plus an additional $30 to take a train at 14:55 instead of 21:00. The 21:00 train gets you to Ollantaytambo at about 22:30 and then back to Cusco a little before 1:00 the next morning, so we felt it was worth it to spend the extra $30 each.
We also had to spend 10 soles for the cable car across the river and 10 soles for the hot springs in Santa Teresa.
I know the math doesn’t add up, but for some reason, my notes say $606 for the Jungle Trek and I can’t remember why there is a difference to the numbers I explained above.
$303 per person
Optional Activities
Rafting – $30 (we did not do this)
Bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu ($24 round trip but we hiked instead)
Zipline – $30
Boleta touristica (130 soles/$39USD) which got us into
and can get you into a number of other Inca sites like Pisac, Moray and Qenqo.
$69 per person
Summary Per Person: Machu Picchu Trip Cost
| Travel Item | Cost |
Airfare American AAdvantage Points+ Airline Fees | 35,000/per person + $93.93 |
| Local Transit | $20.76/per person |
| Lodging | $103.10/per person |
| Food & Water | $29.05/per person |
| Jungle Trek | $303/per person |
| Optional Activities Rafting ZiplineBoleta Touristica | $30/per person
$30/per person $39 USD |
| Total | $618.84 USD |
Adventure with Scott 