12-Nights Peru with Machu Picchu & the Nazca Lines - Small Group

Insight Vacations

• 12 Breakfast (B)
• 6 Lunch (L)
• 6 Dinner with Wine (DW)

• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Cusco: Explore the bohemian neighborhood of San Blas and visit the prestigious art galleries.
• Cusco: Join a guided hike of the Inca ruins in Puca Pucara.

• Prices include economy air and air-related charges for the flights between Lima - Cusco. This trip experiences high elevations, we recommend guests with preexisting medical conditions talk with a doctor prior to travel.

• Lima: Make your way to Lima's Pueblo Libre District and indulge on a lunch in the Museo Larco's 18th century garden.
• Sacred Valley: Make your way to the small lagoon of Laguna Piuray where you’ll enjoy your lunch of Pachamanca, a traditional Peruvian feast.
• Cusco: Enjoy an immersive slow-cooked Cusquenian lunch at Pacha Papa. Lunch will be served al fresco at the courtyard of a historic mansion in the artsy neighborhood of San Blas.
• Cusco: In the evening, join your fellow travelers for a memorable Celebration Dinner at Calle del Medio, where you'll enjoy innovative interpretations of classic Peruvian Creole dishes while toasting to your new adventures.
• Lima: Unwind at your luxury abode, before meeting your Travel Director and fellow travelers in the evening for a dinner.

• Cusco: Explore the bohemian neighborhood of San Blas and visit the prestigious art galleries.
• Cusco: Join a guided hike of the Inca ruins in Puca Pucara.

• Machu Picchu: Enjoy a guided visit with a Local Expert.
• Cusco: Visit Cusco's planetarium to learn more on how the Incas interpreted the stars. After a reception with hot wine (or tea) and appetizers, local experts will explain and share stories about the influence the stars had on Andean culture. You'll then be led to a room specially accommodated to view the ancient night skies, weather permitting.
• Paracas: Take to the skies on your Peru tour to see the iconic Nazca Lines, archaeological enigmas scratched in the ground 500 B.C. and A.D. 500. Gaze down in awe of these massive designs and patterns you can only view from above. Your private flight will show you many of the lines, complete with their names and a bit of history. From above, you’ll observe the different types: straight, geometric (such as triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, spirals, arrows, zigzags, and wavy lines), and pictorial (including a spider, hummingbird, cactus plant, monkey, whale, llama, duck, flower, tree, lizard, dog, and even a mysterious humanoid figure). Some of the animal geoglyphs are up to 1,200 feet long! You’ll also learn why the Nazca culture created these lines in the desert plains of the Rio Grande de Nazca River basin and how the Nazca people were able to carve out such massive designs.

• Sacred Valley: Visit a local traditional Quechua weaver in the Sacred Valley for a private textile presentation. You'll learn about ancient weaving techniques and the importance these textiles have in shaping personal and regional identities.

• Cathedral of Lima: This morning, explore Peru's buzzing capital with your Local Expert, including the Cathedral of Lima, the Government Palace, the Archbishop’s Palace and City Hall.
• Lima: After lunch, meet a local guide who will take you around the Museo Larco, a private museum located in Lima's Pueblo Libre District and home to the largest collection of Pre-Columbian art.
• Sacred Valley: The Maras Salt Mine will inspire the mind of any curious traveler. Learn how salt once harvested by Incas at this site is now exported to the entire world. Discover how the Incas found a water stream with high salt content and learned - in Pre-Incan times - how to build terraces to extract salt. You’ll be amazed at how, to this day, it is not known where the water actually comes from and has only been measured in the last 20 years during which the flow and intensity has not changed.
• Sacred Valley: Peru’s Incan history and archaeology will inspire the mind of any curious traveler. At the Moray Incan laboratory northwest of Cusco, learn how the Incas determined the ideal altitude to grow crops in the Sacred Valley. You’ll be fascinated by how this ancient culture learned how to build these terraced circular depressions on a high plateau at an altitude of about 11,500 feet and experimented with different kinds of soils and temperatures to grow their crops.
• Machu Picchu: Transfer to the station for your 360° IncaRail train ride. This train ride offers an unforgettable experience journeying through the Andes Mountains in style with large panoramic views allowing guests to enjoy the amazing scenery of the lush mountains and the Urubamba River en route to Machu Piccu Pueblo.
• Sacred Valley: On the way, visit the Ollantaytambo ruins, consisting of a large fortress built in the 1400s, a steppe

  Featured Destinations

  Cuzco Cuzco The Cuzco (Cusco) region of Peru combines Inca legacy with Spanish colonial architecture in an atmosphere at once provincial and sublime. The chaotic marketplaces where campesinos barter grain or potatoes for multi-colored fabric belie the mute spirituality of the Lost Cities, where Inca stonework conveys order and balance. Such diversity enhances this inspiring nine-day adventure. The blue sky radiates with an intensity achieved only at high altitudes (the city of Cuzco lies 11,150 feet above sea level), while the landscape offers its unique pattern of exacting agricultural grids and tangled jungle masses.	Destination Guide
  Machu Picchu Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a fortress city of the ancient Incas, in a high saddle between two peaks 50 miles NW of Cuzco, Peru. The extraordinary pre-Columbian ruin consists of five sq. miles of terraced stonework link by 3,000 steps; it was virtually intact when discovered by Hiram Bibghan in 1911.	Destination Guide
  Sacred Valley Sacred Valley The Urubamba valley is also named the Sacred Valley. It begins in the Urubamba's village and continues to Macchu Picchu.
  Paracas Bay Paracas Bay The Paracas Bay is best known for the area known as "The Galapagos of Peru" or the Ballestas Islands Wildlife Reserve. The sea bird colonies and marine mammals that inhabit these barren and desolate islands are some of the most spectacular in the world, including the Guanay, Red-legged and Neotropic Cormorants, the Peruvian and Blue-footed Boobies, the Peruvian Pelican, several species of tern and gulls, including the Inca Tern, and several species of petrel. There are also breeding grounds of South American fur seals and sea lion as well as a small colony of Humboldt penguins. Other interesting wildlife less frequently seen on trips to the Ballestas includes sea turtles and albatross. On the way to Ballestas, you will be able to see the candelabra in the coastal sand dunes - one of the many giant petroglyphs that dot the landscape.
  Lima Lima Lima, "the City of the Kings," became the effective capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, established 1560. Today, a visit to Lima may serve as a unique Peruvian experience that offers a glimpse into the Andean world, Spanish tradition and the country's modern aspect. Visit handsome old buildings and baroque churches that testify to the city's religious background and the Plaza de Armas, shared by the realms of the Catholic church, municipality and national government. The pre-Inca ruins of Pachacamac lie a short distance south of the city. Once a ceremonial site, Pachacamac has been the most important religious center of the Andean world since before the age of Christ. Stop and admire The Temple of the Sun and the Moon, Lima's outstanding museums, and Machu Picchu - a "Jewel in the Mist."	Destination Guide

  View Full Itinerary

  Valid Date Ranges

  November 2024

  11/17/2024

  11/29/2024

  $7,790 per person

  Trip prices are per person, land only, based on double occupancy and reflect applicable discounts. Trip prices and discounts are subject to change. Airfare is additional. Tour prices, dates and itineraries are correct at the time of the website going live, however are subject to confirmation at the time of booking. Other restrictions may apply.

  All fares are quoted in US Dollars.