Train Transport to Machu Picchu

Train Transport to Machu Picchu

Ok, so you are the comfortable type and rather not trek the strenuous Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. What's the point in all that fatigue, anyway, if you can take the train, right?

Photo © Orient Express

Well, rail transport to Machu Picchuis indeed a good alternative for the trekking-adverse: not better nor worse, just different. Still charming and attractive, yet much more comfortable.

Train transport to Machu Picchu is managed by Peru Rail, a company of the Orient Express group (which also runs the exclusive Monasterio Hotel in Cusco and Miraflores Park Plaza hotel in Lima).

The spectacular journey begins at Cusco with a series of switchbacks, or zig-zags, as they are know locally, that last for half-hour: the trains ascends the Picchu mountain, up to the city's highest point (El Arco or The Arch) and out of Cusco into the village of Poroy.

The train then descends into the Sacred Valley and the foothills of the Andes, along the Urubamba River, passing through a beautiful landscape packed with typical Andean crops and grasslands, herds of llamas, and colourful villages.

Rail transportation to Machu Picchu features two basic route alternatives and three carriage qualities.

In alternative to the Cusco departures, you can choose to take the train at Ollaytantambo or Urubamba, in the heart of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Regarding carriage qualities, You can choose among the plain Backpacker train, the more upscale VistaDome train, or the luxurious Hiram Bigham train(which departs from the village of Poroy, some 20 minutes from Cusco's city centre).