Peru trip - tentative itinerary.
 

We are in the early stages of planning a tentative trip to Peru at the end of September into early October next year. I am considering the following for our itinerary:

- 4 nights Ollantaytambo
- 1 night Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes)
- 4 nights Cusco
- 4 nights Amazon (from Puerto Maldonado)
- 2 nights Lima

We are "slow" travellers who don't like packing up and moving every couple of days, so we usually try to spend a minimum of 4 nights per location. For that reason my tentative idea was 4 nights in Ollanta and 4 nights in Cusco. However, is 4 nights in each of those locations too long, or should we consider cutting back a night or two in either place? Any feedback would be appreciated!

It really depends, but FWIW (which is probably very little), 4 nights in Ollantaytambo and 4 nights in Cusco sound like a LOT to me. I had 4 nights in Cusco, counting a day given over to a festival, and much as I loved the city, I could easily have done with a day less. In contrast, 2 nights in Lima sounds like very, very little.

If you haven't already seen it, you might find some useful information in my long, but searchable, trip report:
https://www.fodors.com/community/sou...untry-1655521/

We have spent a month at a time in both Cusco and Ollantaytambo and loved both places but had very specific reasons for being there. In the context of the time you have, I do think 4 days in Ollantaytambo is too much. Exploring the town and ruins can be done in one day ( early morning and late afternoon when the tour buses from Cusco have departed is best) . It is a great place to acclimatise to the altitude, so, depending on your flight times, I would probably want to spend a day there just relaxing and recovering.

Visiting Machu Picchu can be done as a day trip from Ollantaytambo unless you want to climb one of the mountains. Aguas Calientes is not the greatest place to spend a night, it only exists ro service MP.

The major sites of the Sacred Valley like Moray, Maras and Chinchero can be visited on a taxi tour on your way back to Cusco. There is a post on our blog of "one day in the Sacred Valley" which covers that in detail https://accidentalnomads.com/category/peru/

Cusco is the centre of the Inca civilisation so there is a huge amount to see and do. I think 4 nights there is about right, especially as you will want to take a day trip to Pisac.

Given the time it takes to get to and from the jungle, I think 4 days is about right. Any less and you will spend too a high proportion of your time in transit.

Lima is an amazing city. Two nights there would give you a flavour of the city but more would clearly be better. Maybe stay in Barranco for atmosphere and food and spend a day in Centro Historico to see the main sights. Careful time management would allow you to see a reasonable amount.

I am with you re not wanting to move around too much but we do tend to travel for longer periods. If however, you were to change your mind on that and try and see as much as possible, you do just about have enough time to squeeze in Arequipa and the Colca Canyon - just a thought!

I would lay out your likely flight arrival times, etc, figure out what signts you want to see, and then adjust either Ollantaytambo or Cusco to perhaps add another day and night in Lima.

But really, it depends on what you want to do, in particular do you plan to do much hiking or visiting markets or villages in the area.

I'm not sure I would want to visit the selva from Puerto Maldonado, either. Have you done any reasearch on excursions? What could you see by staying in PM, versus going to stay at one of the jungle lodges which are several hours away . I think you may want to pick up a guide book if you haven't already.