Peru · Travel guide
Peru Itinerary: What Really Fits in 7, 10 or 14 Days
A Peru itinerary for 7, 10, 14 or 21 days: what fits in each, the order that keeps your first Andean nights low, and what every add-on costs in days.
This is the reasoning we use when we date a trip, not an article written to fill a blog. The Peru itineraries it feeds are here.
Every Peru itinerary you will find online is one trip, day by day, sized to whoever wrote it. That answers the wrong question. What you need to know first is what fits in the days you actually have, and in which order, because Peru decides the order for you: you land at sea level in Lima and the places you came for sit between 2,040 and 3,830 metres.
So this guide does it the other way round. One shared core, the rule that sets its order, and then what each extra day buys you, from one week to three.
The core every Peru itinerary shares
Almost every first trip is built around the same four stops. The only real decisions are how long you stay in each and whether you add anything after Cusco.
| Stop and nights | Sleeping altitude | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Lima, 1–2 | ~150 m | International flights land here |
| Sacred Valley, 2 | 2,871 m | The lowest place to sleep near Cusco |
| Aguas Calientes, 1 | 2,040 m | The town below Machu Picchu |
| Cusco, 2–3 | 3,399 m | The highest night, saved for last |
Machu Picchu itself sits at 2,430 m. The flight from Lima to Cusco takes about 1 h 20, and the road from Cusco airport down to the Sacred Valley another 1 h 20. The train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes is 1 h 30.
Sleep low first: the rule that decides the order
The standard altitude guidance is simple: from below 1,200 m, don’t go straight to sleeping above 2,750 m in one day, and once above 3,000 m, add no more than 500 m of sleeping altitude a day. We explain where those numbers come from in our guide to altitude in South America.
No first night in the Andes after Lima fully meets that rule. But the choices are not equal:
| First night after Lima | Altitude | Over the 2,750 m line by |
|---|---|---|
| Cusco | 3,399 m | 649 m |
| Sacred Valley | 2,871 m | 121 m |
That is why a well-built Peru itinerary lands in Cusco and drives straight down to the valley, 528 m lower, instead of spending the first night in the city. Cusco comes after Machu Picchu, when you have already had three or four nights to adjust.
The same rule sets the direction if you add Lake Titicaca. Going from Cusco to Puno, at 3,830 m, adds 431 m of sleeping altitude: inside the 500 m limit. Starting the trip at the lake does the opposite, and puts your very first Andean night at the highest point of the whole route.
A 7-day Peru itinerary: the core and nothing else
| Day | Where you go | Where you sleep |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrive in Lima | Lima |
| 2 | Fly to Cusco, drive down to the valley | Sacred Valley |
| 3 | Maras, Moray and the valley floor | Sacred Valley |
| 4 | Ollantaytambo, train to Aguas Calientes | Aguas Calientes |
| 5 | Machu Picchu at the early entry, back to Cusco | Cusco |
| 6 | Cusco | Cusco |
| 7 | Fly to Lima and home | — |
It works, but there is no slack. A delayed flight on day 2 or a bad night on day 3 eats into the one morning you cannot move. If you have seven days and a choice, drop Lima to an overnight connection rather than cut a night in the valley.
A 10-day Peru itinerary: add Lake Titicaca overland
Ten days is the most searched length, and it is the first one with room for a second region. Lake Titicaca is the natural addition because it continues the route by land instead of sending you back to an airport.
| Day | Where you go | Where you sleep |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Arrive in Lima, a day on foot | Lima |
| 3–4 | Fly to Cusco, down to the valley, Maras and Moray | Sacred Valley |
| 5 | Train to Aguas Calientes | Aguas Calientes |
| 6 | Machu Picchu, back to Cusco | Cusco |
| 7 | Cusco | Cusco |
| 8 | Overland to Puno via Raqchi and La Raya | Puno |
| 9 | The Uros and Taquile islands by boat | Puno |
| 10 | Fly back to Lima from Juliaca and home | — |
The Cusco to Puno leg is a full day either way. The PeruRail Titicaca train leaves Cusco at 07:10 and reaches Puno at 17:40, about 10 h 30 on the rails; the road with stops at Raqchi and La Raya fills a similar day with more to see.
This is, night for night, the Peru half of our 13-day Peru and Bolivia tour, which then crosses the lake into Bolivia instead of flying home.
A 2-week Peru itinerary: the Amazon or a slower pace
At two weeks you can add one more region. The honest choice is between two versions of the jungle, and they are not interchangeable.
| Compared | Puerto Maldonado (Tambopata) | Iquitos |
|---|---|---|
| Getting there | About 55 min by air from Cusco | By air or river only, via Lima |
| Fits after Cusco | Yes, one short flight | No, you backtrack to Lima first |
| Driest months | June to August | No real dry season |
| Days to add | 3–4 | 4–5 |
Iquitos is often described as the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road, which is part of its appeal and most of its cost in days. For a two-week trip that already includes Cusco, Puerto Maldonado is the one that fits.
The other option is to spend the extra days on the core itself: a third night in the Sacred Valley and a fourth in Cusco. It sounds less ambitious. It is also the version with the fewest bad altitude days.
A 3-week Peru itinerary: time for Bolivia
With three weeks, the question stops being what else fits in Peru and becomes whether to cross the border. From Puno, the road runs along the lake through Copacabana to La Paz, and from there a flight reaches the Uyuni salt flats. How to put Peru and Bolivia together, in which direction and in how many days, has its own guide.
A three-week trip can hold the whole 10-day route above, two or three nights in the Amazon and the Bolivian side of Titicaca with La Paz, or Arequipa at around 2,300 m in place of the jungle. What it still cannot hold comfortably is all of them.
What each add-on costs in days
This is the table none of the day-by-day itineraries show you. Each line is what you give up to get it.
| Add-on | Days it costs | Why that many |
|---|---|---|
| Night in Aguas Calientes | 1 | Needed for the early entry to Machu Picchu |
| Lake Titicaca from Cusco | 2–3 | A full travel day each way, plus the islands |
| Amazon via Puerto Maldonado | 3–4 | Two flights and at least two full days in the reserve |
| Amazon via Iquitos | 4–5 | Back to Lima first, then a separate flight |
| Each extra internal flight | ½ | Transfers, check-in and waiting, before the flight itself |
| The classic Inca Trail | 3 more than the train | Four days on foot instead of a 1 h 30 ride, and permits |
| Bolivia and the salt flats | 4–5 | Border crossing, La Paz and a flight to Uyuni |
The Inca Trail line is worth stopping on. It replaces the train, so it does not add four full days, but it needs permits months ahead and it is closed every February. If it matters to you, it is the booking that fixes every other date.
The bookings that fix your dates
Most of a Peru itinerary can move. Four things cannot, and they are the ones to book first:
- Machu Picchu tickets. Entry is timed and sold by circuit. A standard ticket costs S/152 (about $45) and one that includes a mountain climb S/200; from 1 May 2026 the park adds an S/11 fee.
- The train to Aguas Calientes. It has to match the ticket, not the other way round.
- Internal flights. Lima to Cusco runs from roughly $60 to $130 each way. Each extra flight costs $60 to $200 and, as above, half a day. Our South America travel cost guide breaks those figures down.
- The Inca Trail, if you want it. Permits are limited and the trail closes in February.
The season is the fifth constraint, and it moves the whole plan rather than a single day. The best time to visit Peru is not the same month for the Andes and the Amazon, so a trip that adds the jungle should be timed for both.
Asked before booking
The questions we get on this
- How many days do you need in Peru?
- Seven days is the floor for Lima, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cusco without rushing the altitude. Ten days is where most first trips land, because it adds Lake Titicaca overland. Two weeks lets you add either the Amazon or a slower pace, not both.
- Is one week enough for Peru?
- One week is enough for the Machu Picchu core and nothing else. It works if you fly straight to Cusco on day two, sleep your first Andean nights in the Sacred Valley and accept that Lake Titicaca, the Amazon and Arequipa are for another trip.
- Is two weeks enough for Peru?
- Two weeks covers the core, Lake Titicaca and one more region, usually the Amazon from Puerto Maldonado, 55 minutes by air from Cusco. It is not enough for the core, the lake, the jungle and Arequipa together without spending most of the extra days in transit.
- How many days in Peru for Machu Picchu?
- Plan four days from Lima: the flight to Cusco and down to the Sacred Valley, a day in the valley, the train to Aguas Calientes and the visit itself the next morning. The site takes about three hours with a guide, but the early entry is what forces the night below it.
- How many days in Cusco and Machu Picchu?
- Five to six nights between the Sacred Valley, Aguas Calientes and Cusco. Two in the valley, one below Machu Picchu and two or three in Cusco at the end, when your body has had time to adjust to 3,399 m instead of arriving there from sea level.
- Can you do a day trip to Machu Picchu from Cusco?
- You can, but it puts the road to Ollantaytambo, 1 h 30 of train each way and about three hours on the site into one day, and it rules out the early entry. A night in Aguas Calientes costs one day and gives you the morning at the site.
- How many days for Peru and Bolivia together?
- Thirteen days is how we plan it: Lima, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cusco, Puno and Lake Titicaca, then across to La Paz and on to the Uyuni salt flats. Under that, one of the two countries turns into a stopover.
- When is the Inca Trail closed?
- Every February. The Peruvian park authority closes the classic trail for maintenance each year under resolution RP 336-2016-SERNANP. Machu Picchu itself stays open, so a February trip still reaches the site by train.