Machu Picchu & the Sacred Valley

If Peru tops your travel list (and it should—U.S. News ranks it #4 for “World's Best Places to Visit for 2025”), there's no better time to go! This year, we’ve added an extra day to our Machu Picchu & the Sacred Valley adventure, giving you even more opportunities to explore the ancient Inca ruins of Peru’s Andes and the Urubamba River region. In an overview of this seven-day tour, Expedition Leader Rosa Alegria Gonzales reveals what we’ve added to the itinerary, including new activities and more time in Cusco, the once gold-laden capital of the Inca empire.

Hidden to Western explorers until the early 1900s, the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu await on this in-depth adventure to the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River in the Peruvian Andes. Expedition Leader Rosa Alegria Gonzales shares everything you need to know before your trip. Get tips on what to pack for exploring at high altitudes;, enjoy a preview of the places we stay, (such as the Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, named one of National Geographic's Unique Lodges of the World), and learn about the wildlife we may encounter—including Peru’s iconic llamas!

The Inca established the largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas, spanning from grassland savannas to tropical rain forests to the Andean Highlands. One of the crowning achievements of this civilization was the construction of the city of Machu Picchu. Expedition Leader Francis Casapino reveals why this architectural wonder was such an impressive feat of engineering, describes some of the construction techniques used by the Inca, and explains how and why Machu Picchu was built on such challenging terrain.