What is the best time of the year to visit Machu Picchu?

I think the answer depends on your priorities. We just returned from a 10-day trip in Peru last week. The weather was perfect, without a drop of rain, and few clouds at MP. However, June-August is high season so you can expect higher prices and bigger crowds.

We were there in mid-May. The first day it rained in the morning and cleared up after lunch. Gorgeous weather that afternoon. The next day it rained all day. Our guide told us that even in the dry season it rains 50% of the time.

Thank you so much. We didn't have a vacation for 5 years, so it is a challenge for me to choose one. Do you have any advise about travel companies? I searched internet, but it is hard to make a decision. Thank you so much.

A couple of years ago I visited Peru in late May/early June. The weather was beautiful the entire trip - no rain at all.

We were told that it was the start of high season, but I think it was early enough because the crowds at the major sites were not a problem.

We were lucky to be in Cusco during the Corpus Christi festival (we hadn't planned it that way) and seeing all of the children's dance troupes perform was really a highlight. The procession of several saints returning to their home churches went right below our hotel room balcony and we spent a couple hours watching them go by.

We used Kuoda Tours (which I found recommended on this forum) and they were excellent. I normally make all of my arrangements and travel independently, but my father was accompanying me and I figured it would be more comfortable for him going with an agency. We were able to customize an intinerary, mixing together our desires with Kuoda's recommendations given the amount of time we had available. They arranged for everything - our flights (within Peru), hotels, our guide and driver, train reservations, entry tickets, etc. Their services were really personalized and attentive.

Early to mid May is pretty good. It is a lull in travel demand so you can often find good airfares to Lima. As said it is the beginning of the dry season, so it improves odds of good weather but you may catch the odd shower, hopefully not significant rainfall affecting transport. However May is also one of the times when airlines seem to revise their flight schedules and a traditional time for strikes (although they also like to strike in high season!) If you are not hiking the Inca Trail February and March, worst of the rainy season.


Another year I went in January and it was great, low season rates and little rain. Then two years later the train tracks washed out in January.

Kuoda has a reputation for being good, but quite expensive. I made the mistake of recommending them and the poor people decided not to go at all based on Kuoda's quote.

It is an easy trip to self plan if you like to do that. After all 3000 to 4000 tourists visit the site every day.

>Kuoda has a reputation for being good, but quite expensive. I made the mistake of recommending them and the poor people decided not to go at all based on Kuoda's quote.<

Those people did themselves a disservice by not looking into other agencies to see if they could book a less expensive trip - I don't understand why they would let a single quote discourage them from the entire trip.

Anyway, our trip did cost much more than what it would have cost if I had booked everything myself because I probably would have stayed in different hotels, used different transportation and not had a guide with us on most days. Essentially it's a private tour - just your traveling party with your own transportation and guide. That being said, I didn't find the cost to be prohibitively expensive (for what we were getting), and I usually lean towards mid-range/budget travel.

There have been other recommendations of tour agencies on the forum that people have used and seem to have liked. You'll be able to do a search for them if the private tour thing is not what you're looking for. But I figured I'd mention my experience since you didn't specify what kind of agency you were looking for.

Yes, they should have kept looking. But unfortunately they assumed that Kuoda's prices were typical. It is interesting that rarely do any of the folks recommending Kuoda ever state the cost of their packages.


There are private tour companies and individual guides that are recommended and less expensive (by about half) than Kuoda. Another good option is to book your own hotels and just arrange a day or two of guiding. Not everyone needs to be walked to the airport gate at Cusco, for example.

>It is interesting that rarely do any of the folks recommending Kuoda ever state the cost of their packages.<

I would not occur to me to post the price of the package unless someone specifically asked. Not that it's a secret, but I would assume that people who were truly interested would contact the company and get a quote themselves for what they want to do.

I don't see tons of people posting the prices of their packages arranged with other operators unless specifically asked.

I agree it's an easy trip to self-plan. There are some things which are tricky (e.g. sometimes the Machu Picchu ticket website doesn't work, booking domestic flights has some tricks, etc), but for us it was cheaper than going with a tour agency. It'll also give you the flexibility to do what you want when you want.

Just for informational purposes, my husband and I went for 21 days and our trip cost just at $7000 total. Including airfare, souvenirs, etc. I've heard of people doing it for less and for more. All depends on what level hotel you want to stay in, what tours you want to do, etc.

My recent 3 week trip which included Machu Picchu, Huancayo and Huaraz as well as Lima came in at about $2500 including airfare from Los Angeles.

Just for comparison the following were my typical costs for a solo traveler.

Airfare to Peru $650
R/T airfare Lima to Cusco $112 (Star Peru)
Train $97 r/t (InkaRail)
Bus to Huaraz $50 r/t (Cruz del Sur)
Train to Huancayo r/t $73
Machu Picchu entry $49
Partial Boleto Turistico (Sacred Valley)$27
Transfers Cusco to Pisac, Cusco to Ollantaytambo $20 to $30 each way.
I took the bus between Pisac and Olly for less than a few $$.
Transfer to Cusco airport from Cusco city is no more than $6.
Half day tour $40 (Awamaki). I took three pool tours in Huaraz which run $15 for a full day. A private tour runs about $60 to $75 per day plus admissions costs and probably the cost of lunch for the driver or guide.
For meals I spent $25 for a main meal, either dinner or lunch in a nice restaurant, a more casual meal is easy to find at $5 tol $7, Breakfast in nearly always included, Snacks and bottled drinks need a few dollars a day.
Hotels ranged from $20 to $60 in SV/Cusco per night although less in Huancayo where I stayed in a guest house.
In Lima, from $50 to $90 per night for hotels in Barranco.
Airport transfers in Lima $20 (avg) one way.
Taxis within Lima about $5 per trip, usually I took the Metropolitano for about 60 cents per ride, or combis which are even less/
Museums range from free to about $12 at most per entry.

I probably spend more on souvenirs and museums than the average traveler, but don't drink at every meal.

I also understand Spanish fairly well, so don't need to drag a private English speaking guide around with me to museums or sites where there are Spanish guides or displays. Nothing frustrates me more than to have someone loudly whispering poor translations to their tourists over the local site guides who give great tour.

I'm sitting in an internate cafe in Aguas Calientes after a glorious afternoon on Machu Picchu. I found out today that the crowds have been minimal this June-July-August and tomorrow we are going back to the ruins to hike Huayna Picchu and for a guided tour. Our guide found out that only 1100 tickets have been sold for the day.
We´ll have the park to ourselves. (well, almost)
It´s August and we expected many more travelers than are here now.

Jan-Feb are the height of the rainy season. Those months might fall into the category of last favorite. April-May are the best months to see lush green landscapes.
Yes, it depends on when you want to travel. But it´s hard to go wrong any time of year.

That's very interesting Jwhitt who works for Adios Adventures. The official website shows Huayna Picchu sold out through August 18. However there don't seem to be problems buying regular MP tickets about two or three days ahead.

What has happened is that the official website is no longer accessible to overseas purchases due to issues with Visa fraud. So the Peruvian tourist agencies are buying the Huayna Picchu tickets for clients (usually with a fee, but not always). There are rumors that the agencies snap up all the tickets ahead of time but I don't know if that is true. Since there are more MP tickets per day, this little scam doesn't seem to have affected those tickets, at the moment.