Machu Picchu Multi Day Hiking Trip
 

I am looking at a 5-7 day hiking trip to Machu Picchu. We are in our 50's and looking at hiking 6-8 miles a day. I know that Back Roads Travel does these types of trips but can you recommend a company that is excellent but more cost effective? This is our first time to South America.

Most hikes along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu take 4 days, not 5-7 so it is unclear as to what you are actually looking for. You also don’t mention in which country you live. This will have a major impact on cost and who you use.

The least expensive way to organise such a trek would be to use a Peru based operator of which there are many based in Cusco. I have not used them but https://www.alpacaexpeditions.com are highly recommended on TripAdvisor.

There are lots of other fantastic treks in Peru and the standard Inca Trail is but one and the busiest and most expensive by far. We have done many treks and hikes in Peru but chose not to do the standard Inca Trail. Instead we did the trek from Lares to Ollantaytambo and then got the train to MP. The last post in our blog at https://accidentalnomads.com/category/peru/ covers that trek. There are several variations of the Lares trek and also the Saltankay trek.

Not sure if you have 5-7 days for the trek alone or whether that is the whole time you have available , but bear in mind that you will need at least two days in Cusco to acclimatise to the altitude before embarking on the trek otherwise you will find it very hard and risk altitude sickness.

other "global operators you may want to take a look at include Intrepid Travel and G Adventures.

If using a Peru based operator, it will be a lot cheaper than say a US or UK based operator but you won’t get the financial/ consumer security so do your due diligence and only pay by credit card.