jbotraveler

Are all these places worth visiting? Or are some of them so similar that it's not worth seeing them all?

Sacsayhuamán
Qenqo
Puca Pucara
Tambomachay
Tipón
salineras de maras
Moray
Maras

qwovadis

If you like Inka ruins culture they are all worth it.

apulodge.com or casa-andina.com SV

ollantaytambo.org my fav base to explore from

driver/guides cheap $25 per half day for me or

bus 1 sole cheapest to get around.

Might add Pisac on Sun largest Inkan market

in the known world.

mlgb

Salineras and Moray are different than the others. Salineras is the salt pans, Moray is the agricultural concentric terraces. They don't take much time to visit when going between Cusco and Ollantaytambo, ask your driver to stop for a quick visit. Maras is just a village near the salt pans, but there is a lady that serves chicha (corn beer) to tourists for a small donation, I think it is a fun stop. You can also try your hand at the sapo game, and I heard that she has a guinea pig compound although we didn't see it. The name of her location is Descanso Bar. Here is a blog with a nice description and few photos. It's on a lot of tours and we went with the driver from El Albergue.

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...9651/tpod.html

After a while you do get ruined out but I'd take an hour or two to visit the three sites I mentioned.

jbotraveler

Thanks so much everybody for the helpful information.


I was planning on staying one day and night in Pisac, which I would see the ruins there and it just so happens I will be there on a Sunday as well. Then I'm planning on staying two days and one night in Ollantaytambo. While in Ollantaytambo I was hoping to see Moray,Salineras de Maras and Chinchero. Is that too much for two full days and one night in Ollantaytambo?

I'm not sure if Chinchero is even worth visiting if it's on a monday? I read some reviews that people feel the market is better than pisac and less tourists? If I'm not going to be there on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday is it worth it? Is it worth rearranging my schedule?

Better deals in Chinchero?

I will also be spending 2 full days in Cusco. I was hoping to tour Cusco in one day and then I was thinking about doing the tours I've seen, which include: sacsayhuaman,qenqo,pucapucara,and tambomachay


Only thing missing seems to be Tipón. I'm not sure how to plan for it or if i should see it or not. I guess I could hire a taxi as I see it on TRD list as what to see.

Thanks in advance and all the help

TRD

Tipon is about a 40 minute drive from Cusco City.

SouthAmDotTravel

Unpaved South America has a good article about treking to Sacsayhuaman and the ruins around Cusco, and whether or not its worth it to purchase a BTQ or to just go to a few ruins. In my opinion, if you have the time, do them all. http://www.unpavedsouthamerica.com/2...ara-and-qenqo/

Chinchero is a bit in the middle of nowhere, so I'd stay in Ollantytambo and use that as the launching point for your Sacred Valley tours. Also might want to try an ATV tour - great way to see some of the sights and get off the gringo trail a bit.

Happy travels!

Kaitlin

mlgb

There is an interesting chapel in Chinchero, we went on an off day and there were still a few vendors out. There is also a weaving coop in Chinchero. So yes, assuming you have already had to purchase the boleto turistico to see Ollantaytambo, I think Chinchero is worth a quick stop. It doesn't take a long time to include it as part of your plan. Pisac is a much larger market and the produce section is great for photos, but you will find a lot of mass produced items (same as in Aguas Calientes).

As far as Tipon I would just make sure to see the water fountains inside Ollantaytambo Ruins (they are to the right as you enter, one of them does a trick so you might go with a guide or ask one of the guards to show you). I wouldn't go far out of my way to see Tipon on a short stay.

jbotraveler

Thanks everyone
While I'm in Cusco, I'm going to try and get a tour as I saw a few that include: Sacsayhuamán ,Qenqo,Puca Pucara and Tambomachay. I've seen some old info on prices, anybody know how much a tour like this should cost me?

While in the sacred valley, I'll be there a few days, so I'll see: Pisac ruins, Chinchero, Ollantaytambo fortress, Moray and Maras

Seems like it's not hard to see a lot of these things while traveling from place to place, but Tipon is the only one that seems out of the way and not included in any tour, so I'm probably going to just skip it.

Set

Last time we were there, we bought a pass that gives free acces to all the inca monuments, including all the ones mentioned above exept moray and Maras. it costs around S70, which is something like $20 US.

Instead of booking a tour to see the ruins above Cusco, you can just as easily ask a taxi to drop you of at Tambo Machay (furthest point from Cusco) and walk your way back down along all the other ruins. This can be done easily in one day.

jbotraveler

Set I believe your talking about the Boleto Turístico, which is $40 dollars unless you have a student idea. I was planning on buying this in Pisac ruins, which I believe I've read they sell the tickets there.

The 4 sites near Cusco I read that the tour only costs $10 dollars, not sure how accurate this is, but I was thinking it's not expensive compared to getting a taxi, but if it's more expensive than that then I'll just get the taxi to drop me off where you suggest.

Your saying if a taxi drops me off at Tambomachay, then I can walk and see Sacsayhuamán ,Qenqo,Puca and Pucara? How long of a walk would this be?

Set

in kilometers: 8 km from Tambo Machay to Cusco and all other sites are along the way back. We spend the whole day visiting Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara, some excavations we stumbled across along the way (maybe this is a new site to visit now, as we went there in 2006), Quenqo and ending in Sacsayhuaman. All these sites are pretty close together and you can cut across fields, so you needn't follow the road. We didn't take a guided tour, because we wanted to spend as much time as we liked in all these places. The guided tours you could get in 2006 were all 1/2 day trips to visit all 4 sites and we decided that was too rushed for us. But maybe they have full daytours now as well, might be worth checking though. From Sacsayhuaman you can descend directly to Cusco, which is maybe a 10-20 minute walk, but check locally if this is still a safe route. We didn't have any problems at the time with just the two of us, but better safe than sorry i'd say.

We also bought a Boleto Tursitico, but it seems they have doubled the price now ;-)