Best Things To Do in Cusco Peru 2025 4K

What's going on everybody this is Island Hopper TV and today we're coming to you from Cusco, Peru. We're going to do a full travel guide. Let's do it. Coming to you from deep in the Andes mountains here in South America. We're at 11,000 feet elevation. We're going to show you all around from Machu Picchu to the Sacred Valley. Here we are right now at the Plaza Mayor or Plaza de Armas. This is a great place to hang out. Very colorful. Lots of activities going on down here. This is considered the heart of the Central Historical Area. When the city's throwing a party, in this case Carnival, this is where all of the action is going to be found. Along with several churches and the main Cusco Cathedral right here. There's also several different museums nearby. We will be showing you around the Central Area here with some other attractions. So we'll go here and then we'll head out into the Andes and show you around Machu Picchu. But I just want to set the tone of what to expect in this video. But yes this is the Central Historical Area, Plaza Mayor. A good place to start your trip. Here we are at the Quiricancha Museum. If you look right behind me you can see the old Inca ruins in the museum. And then they got a garden and a grass lawn right there. Quiricancha here was the most important temple in the Incan Empire. It's located just about five minute walk away from Plaza Mayor. One of the things that really impresses scholars, historians, and architects is the way the Inca were able to take very large rocks and place them on top of each other with precision and no grout. For those of you who want to check out Spanish history, you can check out the churches here in Cusco like the Cusco Cathedral. They also have the Iglesia de la Campaña, Sandblast Church, and much more. Now let's talk about the historical streets. So there are many different historical streets that you can wander around Cusco. That's why they call it the Rome of America. By the way, that rounded looking rock you see there, that's one of the rocks they say they were able to use to move around these very large rocks to build the temples and the citadels. Here in the rock you can see they've got a puma and a serpent. There's the head and there's the legs, body. That's how they know it's a male. And there's a snake. It's the serpent. This is the 12-angled stone and it's considered a national heritage site because it signifies the sophistication of the Inca's ingenuity. And here we are now at the San Pedro Mercado. This is a market that you can walk around and pick up some souvenirs and other foods. So let's go take a look. About a 10-minute walk away from the main square of Cusco. Here you'll find many different spices, drinks, types of food like corn, coca. You'll also find peppers, quinoa, coichi, maca. So much variety here and souvenirs. So it's a nice place to go if you're looking to do some shopping while in Cusco. It's really common here in Cusco for them to be selling corn on a stick. So that seems to be the number one street food. They also have a variety of different drinks. Some of them are medicinal and plants and leaves that you chew on that help you with high elevation. Some of you probably already know what I'm referencing. And I talked to some of the locals about why they would chew on a leaf like that. And they said that the high elevation is really difficult for most people. But the leaf did help give them energy and stamina. Incan runners could go long distance with it. The first temple for the king and the builder he said he wanted to put many flowers. And where he put the flowers was in the rock. You can see right here the flowers are built into the actual design. And they have them right here. All across here. Many flowers. It's a baby goat or baby llama? Sheep. Baby sheep. Baby sheep. Sheep. Sheep. Up here on the Mirador we have the baby goat Anita, the sheep. She's thirsty because she keeps licking the brass here on this. This is a nice lookout point for overlooking Cusco. Now here we are at Rainbow Mountain. This is one of the most famous things you'll do around Cusco. It has nothing to do with the Inca. But it's a very colorful mountain as you can see. It takes about three hours to get there. Many people say the hardest part is the actual hike. There are two different areas for Rainbow Mountain. All right guys so here we are now at Sacsayhuaman. Which means satisfied falcon. This is actually the tip or the head of the puma. Which actually extends all the way down into Cusco. So very significant archaeological site here in Cusco. As you're noticing the Inca like to build animals into the temples, the rocks, and the world around them. You'll see other places around Cusco in the valleys where they resemble things like condors or pumas. And this impressive archaeological site here called Sacsayhuaman was actually a Quechua word which sounds like something else in English. Although it's not so don't confuse it like everyone else does. But this was an impressive citadel temple right here on the mountain. They say it's the head of the puma like I said earlier. Entrance and you can see this is like an inlay. He's saying this is a snake. What they would have had was like a piece of lapis here and like some fine gems. So you would see like very beautiful. But now those rocks have been removed. I don't know where they went. And you can see right here at Sacsayhuaman how they have these rocks that are stacked on top of each other. There's no grout or anything in between. They're large rocks cut to precision. Even some of them have curvature to them which is so impressive. A lot of people say this is the second best archaeological site in all of Peru. And it's right just above Cusco. Maybe a 10 minute drive from the heart of the town. The elevation of this citadel sits at around 12,142 feet. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In case you're wondering about that cougar and this being the head. The actual name for Cusco according to Pachacuti who was the Incan ruler. His father used to call Cusco the lion city. So that's why he wanted to make it like a lion with the fortress being the head. And the body you can see going down towards the river which resembles the tail. Along with getting beautiful views of the city of Cusco you'll also find many different alpacas up here just walking around. They don't really like to be touched but they will get close enough to you so you can take a picture. Also if you guys are planning to visit Peru I highly recommend you watch our other videos. We did everything you need to know when visiting Peru. That video I'll put a link to that down below in the description and the comments. We also did a Machu Picchu pool travel guide as well as a Lima travel guide. So if you're coming to Peru I highly recommend you watch those videos. We'll put them below in the description and the comment. Also one thing I wanted to let you know about the alpaca. It is something that you will find the shirts and the clothing have and it is considered one of the finest fabrics in the world especially the baby alpaca. More on that later but now we're headed out to Machu Picchu and along the way you'll you'll see these cliff capsules that sit along the sides of these hills here. Very high up there. The only way to get up there is to scale like a rock climber and you can stay at that hotel there. Now we're going to take the train to Machu Picchu Pueblo which from Ollantambo takes about two and a half to three hours each way. You can either take Peru Rail or Inca Rail. Now here we are at Machu Picchu. So from Machu Picchu Pueblo or also known as Aguas Calientes you take a bus up to Machu Picchu at around 8,000 feet elevation you'll find Machu Picchu here. Make sure you bring a lot of sunscreen because the sun is very bright up here on this beautiful hill and you'll see everything that you imagined Machu Picchu to be. It is absolutely spectacular. Try to book your tickets in advance and I would say circuit one, two or three are considered the best. Admission without a guide, the bus or the train ticket is 45 U.S. dollars. Here we are now at the hands of the community. This is a sanctuary for llamas, alpacas, guanacos, pecunias and condors. Look at them and the babies they escape. Look at this little one he escaped because he can't be kept in there so sometimes you see the little babies. The name of this place is actually Manos de la Comunidad and it is very nice to stop here. You're supporting the animal sanctuary that they have and you'll get to learn a lot about all of the animals except for the pumas. I didn't see any pumas here but these are the animals that are here in the Andes along the Peruvian highlands. This particular this particular destination is about 30 minutes outside of the Cusco city center and it's a good place to take the kids especially but even if you're an adult like me you can see the alpacas up close you can feed them they got so much character these animals it's really funny. Now in case you're wondering what the difference is between baby alpaca and regular alpaca fabric so the first cut for the alpaca is called baby alpaca it doesn't necessarily mean that they kill the alpaca or that they cut the hair off of the alpaca where the baby's gonna freeze it just means that it's the very first cut from the alpaca's hair so that's what baby alpaca is because it's a little bit softer it's just more sought after than the older alpaca's fabric and how do I know because our wonderful guide that you see here she was telling me everything I needed to know hopefully you get her because she is amazing and you can see the ladies here they're actually weaving some of the alpaca clothing that they actually sell here on site this is going to be some fine fabrics when you're in the Andes it does get chilly and what better than to have some of the locally handcrafted fabrics that come straight from the source there is a difference between the synthetic and the real stuff so make sure you're getting the real stuff if you want the highest quality and here's just a look at some of the quality they have here now here we are at Tambo Machay which is actually for place of rest here you'll find the fountain of youth you'll see these fountains very interesting so Tambo Machay this is about 35 to 40 minutes away from the center of Cusco you can see it started to rain on us so everyone was wearing one of these plastic raincoats be sure to pick one up when you go out especially during the raining season which goes from around November until March we are now at Puca Pucara which is the Red Fort by the way each one of these archaeological sites have a cost of admission for the ticket I highly recommend getting the full Cusco tourist ticket if you plan to go from Cusco to the Sacsayhuaman and then into the Sacred Valley that includes 16 different attractions and costs around 47 U.S. dollars there's really so much to learn about the Inca civilization the more I went around the more impressed I was what I have coming up for you a little later on is going to be even more impressive sites that you've probably never even heard of like Moray or some of these other Incan ruins my suggestion for Cusco is try to stay here around 72 hours if you're going to do Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley you're probably going to need around five to seven days here we are at Canca this is an area where they would do sacrifice of a llama and if they cut open the llama and pulled his heart out and it was healthy that signified that it was going to be a good year if they pulled the heart and they saw that it was black or white on either side and an unhealthy heart it signified that it might not be a good year what they would do with the llama after they were done sacrificing it here at the altar is they would take it to Sacsayhuaman and then over there the king would also pour the blood into the beer and then they would drink it everyone was happy because it was going to be a good year I asked what happens if it's not going to be a good year and I didn't really get much of an answer but I'd assume it probably wasn't a great experience for the locals at the time but either way as you're going through Canca here you'll see they do have the altars and they say there was a variety of different sacrifices going on here but the only one that I heard about was the llama but I heard there was some more possibly just depends on who you ask and who's your historian but they like to stick to the story about this just being for llama sacrifice and as you work your way down that's when you'll start to see the actual sacrificial table or the rock where they would do the sacrifices there was more than one and yeah it's a bit eerie but it's here in the cave just some background on this trip here my dad actually came to join me from Arizona it's been a lifelong dream of his to come see the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu Sacsayhuaman he even wanted to go down to Bolivia to Pumapunco because he's a stonemason himself so you could see for someone like him this is pretty much the most incredible place that he could go aside from maybe the Egyptian pyramids or Angkor Wat and even then this was actually at the top of his bucket list so if you're coming to Cusco and you can find Caesar right here he's 84 years old he's a local expert now let's talk about some of the local Peruvian cuisine obviously starting with the golden log or beer from the sacred valley but then you have latorn which we talked about previously maize chicharron they have trout ceviche up here tamales but there's more coming later in the video something interesting about this aqueduct right here it's a river and then right underneath here it turns into a road and you actually drive on that road you would never know that there was an aqueduct or a river that comes down cascading from the mountains here this was designed by the Inca but now obviously it's taking on some of the modern characteristics thanks to Spanish colonization and everything but still this is an ancient aqueduct that goes back to the Inca remember the Inca were a very sophisticated ancient civilization primarily with rocks the area we're at now is an overlook looking into the valley of Cusco people are started to move over here because you can actually get a nice home here with a garage for around 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. dollars you go over here this is the old colonial area and then as you pan to the left over this way you'll see this is the new area of the valley of Cusco where people are living and farming it's a good life out here if you look right down here you can see they've got potatoes they've got beans and maybe even some corn lots of varieties of potatoes grow out here and on your way from the Cusco to the secret valley you can actually visit Cochihuasi which is an animal sanctuary where they have all types of animals that you might find here in Peru like these condors they've also got monkeys and so much more little cats llamas Cochihuasi is a bit different than Manos and I would recommend going to both but I like this one here because the condor is amazing to see you actually go in the exhibit this is a huge bird just so you know they used to be around Machu Picchu but when they built the hydraulic power plant the helicopters actually scared off all of the condors and they haven't been able to reintroduce the condor to Machu Picchu so Peru is home to cats like this which look like your average house cat which is interesting they also have the Andean bear and they have the puma although we didn't get to see the puma because he was sleeping but here it is the condor or the flight of the condor they actually have two here one is a male and another female well we have arrived at the sacred valley here it actually extends from south of Pisac all the way up to Machu Picchu and the reason they call it the sacred valley not just because it's so beautiful as you can see but it's because it's like a fertile valley that supplies wheat beans corn carrots all the vegetables everywhere in Peru for Cusco for Lima Arequipa it all comes right out of here so major farming area very fertile so here we are now at the ancient Inca city of Pisa way up here if you look right over here we've got some rice terraces that just cascade down the mountain and this ancient city here is more of the same amazing rock work fortress citadel sanctuary up on the hill it's always amazing to walk around these especially when you see the stones that go over the actual walkways one thing I will say don't confuse Pisa town with the old archaeological side of Pisa because they're two totally different areas so you have to go up the mountain to get there also I said those are rice terraces which is really just a farming terrace where they would have farmed potatoes corn or other types of crops not necessarily rice and now when we went down into peace hawk we actually stopped at one of the local gem stores so my dad as you've been told he is big on rocks that includes lapis chrysocolla turquoise any type of rock onyx a lot of different rocks come from here and he wanted to stop and see what kind of jewelry they had so this is one of those things to do is go shopping for some jewelry she was using the tesla ball here because you can actually tell what's a real rock and what's fake or plastic using the tesla globe anytime you see the electrical current flow towards that actual rock that means it's real here we are in urubamba which is along the rio and the sacred valley this restaurant here is called don angel angels don angel it's a restaurant inca casona so we're gonna see what kind of food they got we're just really waiting for the rain to pass it's really chilly really cold when it's not raining it's it's actually kind of humid to be completely honest this was probably the best restaurant i ate at in all of peru they had a big buffet huge banquet hall lots of food this is the place to go if you want to try real authentic peruvian food including guinea pig or alpaca side dishes they had everything but ceviche here plenty of corn lots of soup papa soup is one of the most famous soups or foods you will find across peru that's soup with potato and i did tell you a little earlier on that we were going to show you more of that peruvian cuisine well this is actually where you're going to get to see what the unique foods are that you'll find out in the andes this for me was actually my first time trying guinea pig you're about to see my reaction to be honest i was trying to avoid eating that and alpaca yeah this is my first time trying guinea pig here at uh in uh the sacred valley wow got the really good flavor i like it well what it really tasted like was quite salty and crispy i don't know if it's always going to taste that way i was worried that it was going to be gamey but it wasn't also it was my dad's birthday so they decided to do a peruvian birthday celebration feliz cumpleaños and so he got put on the spot with that and uh that happened yeah so here we are at the salt mines up here in marsis this is really great they have this pink peruvian salt we're going to go down here and see what's going on so i guess just as they have himalayan rock salt they also have andean rock salt but this one here is considered salt farming so as the stream comes down the water enters into one of these puddles or ponds and then it eventually dries out and they redirect the water and then they just harvest that salt from there now we've arrived at moray this is actually an experimental laboratory for a variety of different crops they would come here and try them out because of the microclimates that they can build on each terrace three regions of peru you have the coast you have the sierra and then you have the jungle so they could try out crops all three of those different climate zones they could try right here now when we say it's a laboratory farm that means the incas used it as a laboratory farm they no longer actually plant anything here so far as i know and there's a few of these different terraces around this area the one that you're looking at right now just so happens to be the most photogenic and famous looking terrace area these flowers here are called baby shoes you can see they look like a baby's shoes you can see they're building the new airport here in cusco it's about 55 minutes outside of town but it's far from being done right now the main airport is right in the city center of cusco lots of congestion and farther away from machu picchu than this one so if you're trying to go to machu picchu the new airport will be a lot closer and it's actually out here in chinchero which is actually a scenic area all in of itself a very historical town so chinchero is about to be up and coming maybe it'll be as popular as cusco one day because it is quite historical as you can see this church and the historic roads well actually it will never be as famous as cusco but it will be more popular anyways that's going to conclude this episode of island hopper tv if you enjoyed it hit the like subscribe to this channel if you love it and we'll see you on the next one from lima and as we talk about machu picchu