
The Ultimate Lares Trek + Short Inca Trail – 5D/4N
5 Days | Starting From: $ 0.00 per person


Peru Spirit Adventure » Tours » OFF THE BEATEN TRACK » The Ultimate Lares Trek + Short Inca Trail – 5D/4N
5-Day Lares Trek and Short Inca Trail - The Best Alternative Trek to Machu Picchu
The Lares Valley Trek is an off-the-beaten-path journey, approximately 40 miles north of Cusco and is home of many traditional weavers and famous for homemade textiles. The tour of Lares Trek Short Inca trail to Machu Picchu is perfect for hikers that don’t like the crowds. Besides, the trail allows interacting with the local communities and seeing their way of life in the countryside.
This Lares trek short Inca trail to Machu Picchu offers 3 days of trekking on Lares valley trail through the remote communities living in the mountain tops that managed to preserve traditions dating back to the time of the Incas. Afterward, 3 days hike on Lares valley trail, we lodge in a hotel at Ollantaytambo village.
- Name of the tour: Lares Trek Short Inca Trail
- Trek Duration: 5 Days / 4 Nights
- Total Distance: 47 km / 28.2 miles.
- Accommodation: 3-night camping facilities / 1-night Hotel in Aguas Calientes.
- Type of tour: Trekking, hiking, Cultural Adventure, and history.
- Altitude of the trail: Elevation 14,415 feet / Min. Elevation 6,560 feet
- Group Size: (min 2 – max 8 / average 4).
- Level of Difficulty: Moderate & Challenging
- Departure Day: Our Company organize daily departures.
- Weather: Expect changing temperatures and humidity.
- Acclimatization: At least 2 days acclimatization.
Meanwhile, we prepare to continue our trekking of short Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The Short Inca Trail is a very popular hike! It incorporates a significant portion of the Classic Inca Trail but in a shorter time frame! On this short Inca Trail, you will tour an Inca ruins of Chachabamba and Wiñayhuayna (forever young). You will also see a waterfall that is so gorgeous it can’t be described! Finally, reach to Machu Picchu Inca citadel through the Sun Gate witnessing its amazing panoramic views of Machu Picchu.
Our new tour of 5D/4N Lares trek & Short Inca Trail to Machu Picchu includes a lodge in Aguas Calientes and private guided tour of Machu Picchu ruins – Early return trip by train expedition to Ollantaytambo and by vehicle to Cusco. (Optional: Ascent of Huayna Picchu Mountain or Machu Picchu Mountain. we must book in advance).
Day 1: Cusco – Calca – Lares Hot Springs (optional) – Huacawasi Camp
From the city of Cusco, we leave at 5:30 in the morning towards the sacred valley of the Incas, the first stop is in Claca of 25 minutes. To try a local coffee or fresh natural juice “not included” (Calca is the capital of the sacred valley of the Incas). Continuing with the trip we take an alternative route to reach the Lares Valley. The second stop is in the viewpoint of Ancasmarca (Inca citadel that has many houses and stores).
When arriving at the thermal baths of Lares, here you will have some time in the local hot springs, don’t forget your bathing suits (the entrance to hot spring is 10 soles). Then we will begin our hiking on the first day, during the hiking you can find alpacas, llamas, and Andean vegetation. The first-day hiking distance is 9 km / 5 miles. In 4 hours.
Day 2: Wacawasi Camp – Huacawasi or Condor Pass – Mantanay
After waking up with a steaming cup of coca tea, we will eat our breakfast and start hiking. We will walk slowly uphill for approximately 4.5 hours until reaching the Ipsay Qocha pass (4650 meters 15255ft.), which will be the highest point on this trek. The climb will be fairly strenuous, but you will be rewarded with beautiful panoramic views of snow-capped peaks and stunning landscapes the entire way.
Once we reach the pass we will stop to appreciate the scenery, and look around at some of the local animals. You will have a new appreciation of the llamas and alpacas grazing nearby at this high altitude, under the supervision of the local tribesmen. Additionally, if you are lucky, you may be able to see some condors soaring overhead, an important symbol of the Inca people.
We will then hike downhill for an hour to our lunch spot. After lunch, we will hike downhill to Patacancha campsite. The second-day hiking distance 14 km / 9 miles – 6 to 7 hours of hiking.
Day 3: Mantanay – Yanahuara – Ollantaytambo Town
Today, our trekking is through the Patacancha community and Willoc valley. Most of the time trekking is a dirt road, but in many sectors, we will use a shortcut. In the community of Pumamarca. there are two trails, the first is to continue along the path to Ollantaytambo through the platforms of Patapata, the second option is to climb hiking until you reach Pumamarca ruins (after visiting the Inca fortress).
We continue by an Original Inca Trail to Ollantaytambo village. We will overnight there and get ready to hike the short Inca trail to the “Lost City of the Incas” Machu Picchu
Day 4: Ollantaytambo – Km 104 – Short Inca Trail – Machu Picchu – Aguas Calientes
To reach the trailhead of the short Inca trail Km 104 of the railway line. There are many train departure time, we will catch one of the first train services. 1 hour and 20 minutes scenic train ride to 104 km point (elevation 2,100m/6,927ft) will take us to the place where we begin our trek.
At this point, we started a moderate climb for three hours to the remote archaeological site of Wiñayhuana, (2,650m/8,747 ft.). Enjoy the spectacular views of the Urubamba Canyon and the ethnic wonders of the ancient Inca sites, while embracing them with an open mind and the heart of its connection with the ancient Inca Trail.
After being with this beautiful view, we will continue towards the Sun Gate (2.720mts / 9.007ft) following the ancient remote path, we have our first spectacular view of Machu Picchu in all its splendor and majesty. As we approach the citadel of Machu Picchu you will feel its mystical presence. Then we will take our bus to Aguas Calientes, where we will spend the night in a nice hotel.
Day 5: Aguas Calientes – Guided Tour at Machu Picchu – Back to Cusco
Today you can enjoy exploring Machu Picchu and experience its magical presence by taking the first bus at 5:30 AM to the archaeological site of Machu Picchu. If you hurry, you will see the sunrise over Machu Picchu. Take your time, making sure to visit all the corners of this New 7 World Wonder and UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. It is an unforgettable experience.
Your guide will guide you around 2.5 hours through the energetic ruins and its various main streets. Then you will have free time on your own in the citadel of Machu Picchu. And enjoy the pure delight of the moment. Here are some of the alternative activities you might want to indulge in on your own:
- Climb up Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain and appreciate the beauty and magnificence of Machu Picchu (not included in your tour price and must be booked in advance.).
- You will be given some time to walk to the Sun Gate or Inti Punku (free of charge).
After visiting the Machu Picchu ruins, you will descend to Aguas Calientes, have a leisurely lunch on your own, and later on board the train for the return trip to Cusco stopping at the Ollantaytambo train station, where you will take our private van back to Cusco, our service will end at your hotel.
Included on the Lares Trek and Short Inca Trail To Machu Picchu 5 Days
- Pre-Trek briefing the night before the trek to go over the itinerary and answer any questions
- Pick up from your Cusco hotel in the morning of the Lares Trek and Short Inca Trail
- Transfer in a private transport from Cusco to Lares (starting point of the trek)
- Licensed guide fluent in English, Spanish and Quechua
- Duffel bag for your personal gear
- Horses, and muleteers; horses carry your 8-kg / 16-pound personal ítems (Only on Lares Trek section).
- Campsite fees
- High quality camping equipment, 3-person tent for every 2 people
- Sleeping foam mattress and pillows
- Camping equipment along the Lares valley hike
- Other camping equipment, a dining tent with table and chairs, and a kitchen tent, manned by a professional cooking staff.
- A professional Quechua chef.
- Emergency horse (in case we need it!)
- 2 nights of camping in the Mountains
- 1 night hotel accommodation in Ollantaytambo (based on double or triple room occupancy)
- 1 night hotel accommodation in Aguas Calientes (based on double or triple room occupancy)
- Meals: 4 breakfasts, 3 Lunch, 2 Dinner, and snack, with option for Vegetarians
- Expedition train ticket from Ollantaytambo to KM 104
- Admission ticket to the Machu Picchu Archeological Complex (first time slot 6-10am)
- Entrance tickets to the Inca Trail national park
- Expedition Return train from Aguas Calientes to either Ollantaytambo or to Poroy
- Private van transportation from Ollantaytambo or Poroy to your Cusco hotel
- Private guided tour in Machu Picchu
- Bust ticket down from Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes
- Round-trip bus tickets from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu and back
- Private Transport back from Ollantaytambo/Poroy train station to your hotel in Cusco
- Emergency oxygen bottle and medical kit.
Not Included on the Lares Trek and Short Inca Trail To Machu Picchu 5 Days
- Flights
- Hotel before/after trek
- Breakfast on Day 1
- Dinner on Day 4 in Aguas Calientes
- Lunch on Day 5 in Aguas Calientes
- Sleeping bag (can be rented from us)
- Trekking poles (can be rented from us)
- Entrance to hot springs (25 soles)
- Entrance ticket of Huayna Picchu Mountain: $75 USD per person
- Items of a personal nature and souvenirs
- Travel interruption & travel medical/evacuation insurance (required)
- Gratuities for the crew (muleteers, cook, guide).
Lares Trek and Short Inca Trail Tour Packing List
For the Lares Trek, you will have your daypack that you will carry every day and a duffel bag provided by Peru Spirit Adventure during the briefing at your Hotel in Cusco the day before the trip. Your main luggage will remind at your hotel or in our lockers in Cusco, and you will only travel with the duffel bag with a maximum of 8 kg. Our porters will carry the duffel bag, food, and camping equipment.
During the Short Inca Trail, we will not have porters anymore. You will only travel to the IncaTrail with your backpack; the duffle bag must return to Ollantaytambo. On request, we can transfer the duffle bag directly to the hotel in Aguas Calientes. However, we recommend traveling light.
Essentials for the Lares trek and Short Inca Trail
This is the equipment that every hiker should have:
- Original Passport
- Small hiking backpack
- Hiking pants
- Hiking boots
- Trekking poles
- 2 liters of water
- Sunscreen
- Rain gear
- Extra money
What to put in the bag for the Lares Trek
The backpack will always be with you. Your responsibility is to carry it with you when hiking during the day must be as light as possible. Remember that you can only find duffel bags at campsites, and everything you need during the day must be in your backpack.
- Passport: The original passport must always be in a safe and dry place.
- Student card: If you have booked a student ID, you must also bring your student ID.
- Water bottle: Reusable water containers for at least 2 litters must be carried
- Poncho, raincoat: Plastic poncho will be provided to you together with the duffel bag.
- Sunscreen, a hat, and a long-sleeved shirt: You will hike in open spaces without shelters and must always be protected.
- Warm jacket: In the early morning and late afternoons, the weather is freezing.
- First Aid Kit: You must always carry personal medicine, band-aids, painkillers, Cipro, allergy medicine, Diamox, etc.
- Headlights, cameras, mobile phones, sunglasses
- Toilet paper: Must be carried at all times
- Extra cash: Be sure to bring money with you in small denominations.
What to put in the duffle bag during the Lares Trek?
- Sleeping bag: 4 seasons (-10°) sleeping bags are required for hiking; you can bring your own or rent them from us.
- Air mattress: We will provide foam mattresses; however, if you want extra comfort at night, we recommend bringing or renting an air mattress.
- Pillows: During this trip, we will provide you with small camping pillows.
- Shoes: For this hike, we strongly recommend that you wear hiking boots
- Socks: You need about 6 thick wool hiking socks and 4 light socks to walk around at night or after hiking.
- 3 pairs of trousers, hiking pants, or ladies’ leggings are also suitable.
- Thermal underwear: This is very important at night.
- Swimsuit: We will visit Lares Thermal baths.
- Sandals: Change after hiking and in the hotel.
- Toiletries: Toothpaste, soap, shampoo, lip balm, moisturizer
- Towel: Small and light towels
- Hand sanitizer and toilet paper
What to pack for the Short Inca Trail?
Remember that we don’t have porters for the Short Inca Trail; you must carry your belongings. Below is a list of recommended items to bring:
- A small day pack or large fanny pack to carry your belongings while trekking
- Original passport
- Walking sticks or a hiking pole
- Comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots
- Sunscreen and hat
- Sunglasses -Bug spray
- Sunhat
- Candy, snacks, and energy bars
- Water bottle or camelback
- First Aid kit, including supplies for blister care
- Jacket or poncho in case of rain
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Why Peru Spirit Adventures!
Peru Spirit Adventure is a family owned travel agency and a local tour operator based in Cusco, Peru, in the Ancient Capital of the Inca Empire! Peru Spirit Adventure was founded by a Peruvian with over many years of guiding experience, and is a 100% Cusqueñian Company without any shareholders.
We are an agency with a great spirit of adventure and passionate about travel, dedicated to offer the best tourist services, to take you to discover the vast riches, natural and archaeological of each corner of the country.
We provide high quality service as well as focusing on having small groups to enhance the travel experience and customize any tour or trek to suit your travel, fitness, budget, and time preferences. This is what makes us stand out from other tour operators.
We create small personalized tours & treks strictly and only operated by local professional staff catering in PERSONALIZED and HIGH QUALITY SERVICE. Our guides in Peru are hand selected by the owners of Peru Spirit Adventure. All guides for our tours and treks are native to Peru and speak fluent English to ensure excellent communication and a positive experience overall.
We pride ourselves on providing 5 star service before, during, and after your trip. Peru Spirit Adventure is dedicated to excellent customer service and adventure experiences. We have been awarded from Trip Advisor the Certificate of Excellence for the last three years. Please check out our reviews and certificates of excellence on, TRIPADVISOR for yourself!
We are direct operators of all the tours and treks we offer, from family trips, honeymoon trips and luxury travel, including adventure tours to Peruvian Andes. Please email us to customize your trip in Peru.
Our tours & treks are operated in private service with a mínimum of 2 people to confirm the departure – Max 8 / Average 4 guests, ensuring a small group feel and specialized attention.
We are a responsible and sustainable tour operator – Our mission is to provide exceptional tours, treks, and adventure trips. During our trips, we make every effort to minimize negative impacts and maximize the benefits to the local people and natural environments we visit. We pay fair, livable wages, ensuring we hire and maintain the absolute best guides and support staff. We are proud of our team without them, we wouldn’t be able to offer the best service and lifetime experiences to our clie
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Explore guest reviews from previous Travel Experiences!
gillywalkerVerified Best - Efra was amazing! We loved the trek. Efra was so amazing and patient and knowledgeable. He was fun, funny, supportive, uplifting and someone you totally want to spend the whole day with. An experience you will never forget - he was so lovely!!!!!!!!!We went at our own pace and the trek was fantastic with stunning views! Goutam SVerified Trip to rainbow mountain this was a very difficult trip to rainbow Mountain. However, our guide Erfa made it possible for us. He was kind, supportive, encouraging, helping us with a local medicine to cope up with the altitude sickness. He always helped as maintaining a positive attitude and was friendly. he listened to our concern. He was watching our physical condition very very carefully! Even for the experience climber, this can be challenging at times considering the 18,000 feet above the sea level. Drivers of our car was also very experienced. We rode horses during part of our climbing. Overall, the individuals who help us with the horses , were excellent human being and very kind. Isabel LVerified Fabulous tour in the Sacred Valley Don’t hesitate to book with Peru Spirit, my mum and I had an amazing personalised day tour to the sacred valley, visiting Pisac and the Pisac markets, Ollantaytambo and Moray. Our guide Efra was knowledgeable, friendly and attentive and made sure to go at our own pace. Our driver Roger was very nice and a great and safe driver. The vehicle was very comfortable, clean and in good condition. Our tour was 10/10. Joyce LVerified Sacred Valley Such an unforgettable trip to the Sacred Valley. Tour guide Anthony and driver both were doing great job in leading, I’ve had deep knowledge about this lovely country. Anh CVerified Amazing! We did the one day private tour from Ollantaytambo to Cusco stopping by Moray, Maras, Pisac, and an add on stop to a llama/alpaca farm. Anthony was our guide who was amazing! Very informative and knowledgeable about the area. The tour would not be the same without him. The van itself was spacious and comfortable for the four of us. We are very glad we decided to go with this company. MaMaRiDeVerified An amazing experience!!! We contacted Peru Spirit Adventure for a private tour to visit Cuzco and the surrounding area. We planned with them a four days tour to visit the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and the Rainbow Mountains. We appreciated the expertise of the guide who took us to visit the places at the best times to avoid crowds of tourists. He pointed us to the scenic spots to take pictures or shop. Our only concern was to enjoy the beauty of those places without thinking about tickets, reservations, etc. This was especially appreciated at Machu Picchu where without a guide one cannot appreciate the history of the place. Special thanks to Anthony and the drivers who accompanied us on these magnificent days. We were absolutely satisfied and fulfilled by the highly professional service and highly recommend it. A 5 stars service !!! Mauro and Marco Raving NomadsVerified Highly recommend for trips around Cusco! We (3 women) spent 6 days with Adolfo, our guide and Marco our driver seeing incredible sights in Cusco and around. We visited Machu Pichu, Rainbow Mountain, Sacsaywaman, Pisaq, Moray, maras, Cusco and alpaca farms with them and also did a wonderful train ride from Olyantatumbo to Aguas Calientes. It was a busy trip but we felt incredibly thankful for having Adolfo on our side at all times, catering to all our needs patiently including vegetarian/ vegan food and a LOT of shopping! He was knowledgeable about the area, history and what was where! Overall a great trip and I would highly recommend them for any tours around Cusco and Peru! Swetha RVerified Memorable cousin trip with knowledgable guide I recently had an incredible experience with Peru Spirit Adventure. Adolfo, our guide, was knowledgeable and friendly, making the journey both educational and enjoyable. Marco, our driver, was reliable and made sure we traveled safely and comfortably. They were both very patient with our interests and shopping, allowing us to explore at our own pace. The entire trip was well-organized, and the itinerary covered all the must-see spots without feeling rushed. I highly recommend them for anyone looking to explore Peru! Gundurao RVerified Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cusco & Rainbow Mountain We enjoyed every bit of Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cusco & Rainbow Mountain - 6D/5N tour, Efrain and his team provided a great service. I really appreciate Efrain coming, talking and introducing tour guide to us, which gave lot of comfort to us. Our guide Claudio Cesar was great, his knowledge and service was extraordinary. He helped in every bit of our tour. Over all Efrain and team provided us the excellent service. Lisa SVerified Absolute Best Customized Tour We had an absolutely fabulous time with Anthony and Peru Spirit Adventures. We booked a 4 day personal tour with a day of rest in between day 2 and 3. Unfortunately at the last minute 1 member of our party was unable to attend. Anthony and Peru Spirit Travel were wonderful in making some necessary changes to our schedule. Anthony’s insight and knowledge of the Inkas and Andean Culture Is astounding. We learned so much from him that we found ourselves wanting to learn more once the tour was over. We are already discussing another trip back to see all the things we did not have time for this trip.His love for this area is apparent in his teaching, each place we visited we learned so much, yet Anthony also let us explore on our own. it was perfect balance for us.Anthony had everything running like clockwork( except for the delayed train). Everything ran seamlessly, even with all the last minute changes that we requested.Anthony was a fantastic tour guide and I would recommend him to EVERYONE who wants a truly memorable adventure in the Cusco Region.We will return for another tour, and we will be requesting Anthony.





