Huayna Picchu Question
 

My brother-in-law is going to clime Huayna Picchu...so we take the early train to Aguas Calientes in mid-September....I believe we arrive around 9am(ish)...then we take the train to the base of Machu Picchu...he bought a ticket for the 10am climb.....do the trains/buses run on time.....he's afraid he won't make it on time...should he buy a ticket for the next day too? Also, do you have to buy a ticket to Machu Picchu in order to climb Huayna Picchu?

Thanks everyone...any insight on how this goes would be appreciated!

Huayna Picchu is inside Machu Picchu, so, yes, you have to have an MP ticket to get to HP. He's cutting it close. You arrive at the train station and disembark from the train (can take a few minutes). Walk to the stop where the shuttle buses are waiting (10 minutes). Take the bus up the mountain (20 minutes). Enter the complex. Walk to the HP hate (15-20 minutes).

I see you mention "the next day too." Are you staying the night? That means when you get off the train, you'll have to make arrangements to check into your hotel. The big lodgings there take care of transporting your bags to the hotel from the train station, so that you can get going to the ruins, but, still, that eats up some time.

The ticket for 10am is actually a window of time from 10 am to 11am so no worries!

There is only a combined ticket, MP & HP. One is needed for each day.

Great, thank you for the info...we'll take his bags to the hotel :-) here is another question...we are going to stay the night because we wanted to go to MP before the day trippers got there..should we go to MP twice..ie. the day we arrive (10am) and then again the next day?

You might want to go twice in the sense that you go the day you arrive. From what locals and guides told us, it rains 50% of the time. We had it rain down on us in the morning on our first day and then most of the second. If it's a nice day when you arrive, definitely go to MP. If it's raining, you can wait until the next day.

If you want to go again the following day then you must purchase your MP ticket in advance as you cannot buy it in Aguas Calientes.

Tickets ARE sold in the town of Aguas Calientes, at the INC office. They are not sold up at the Machu Picchu site.