Peru · Ecuador · Private journey
Machu Picchu and Galapagos: One Trip, Three Lengths
Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
From $4,500 per personfor the 10-day versionFrom $5,100 per personfor the 12-day versionFrom $6,150 per personfor the 16-day versionland only · 4 or more sharing
See dates & prices- Sacred Valley to Santa CruzSacred Valley to IsabelaLima to Isabela
- 10, 12 or 16 days
- 2 countries
- 4 bases6 bases7 bases
- highest point
- 2,871 m3,399 m3,399 m
- moderate pace
- Private
Machu Picchu and Galapagos in one trip, ordered so you sleep low before you climb and never chase a 06:30 flight. Ten, twelve or sixteen days.
Almost every Machu Picchu and Galapagos itinerary you compare will be built the same way, and it will have the same two faults. It sleeps you at 3,399 m on your first night, and it gives the Galapagos the short half of the trip while charging you for the expensive one.
This is the same trip in the other order.
Why the order matters more than the hotels
The mistake is not visiting Cusco. It is sleeping there the first night.
Cusco sits at 3,399 m, and the airport puts you at that altitude straight off a red-eye. Most itineraries then run the city tour that same afternoon. The next day you have a headache and you have lost two of your ten days.
The Sacred Valley floor is at 2,871 m. That is five hundred metres lower, and we come down from the airport without stopping in Cusco, keep you two nights there, and go up to the city at the end of the Andean leg.
We will be precise about what that buys you, because the honest version is still a good argument. The CDC’s guidance is that two to three nights at 2,450 to 2,750 m before going higher is “markedly protective”. The Sacred Valley sits just above that band, so the correct claim is materially safer than Cusco, not risk-free. Anyone who tells you the valley is a safe altitude is selling you something.
Two other numbers are firmer. A 2023 review in the Journal of Travel Medicine, covering 11,021 people across nineteen altitudes, found that altitude sickness rises 4.5 times more steeply per 100 m gained when people arrive by air — which is the whole case for gaining height in steps. And Machu Picchu itself is at 2,430 m, below the 2,450 m threshold at which the CDC considers an unacclimatised traveller at risk at all. The famous part of this trip is the low part.
The detail sits in the South America altitude guide.
The mistake everyone makes joining the two
Planes to Galapagos only leave in the morning. From Quito, between 06:30 and 07:00. From Guayaquil, between 08:00 and 09:00. There are no afternoon departures, and there is no combination that gets you out of Cusco and into the islands on the same day.
So that night on the mainland is not filler. It is compulsory. Every operator puts it in the itinerary and none of them explains why, which makes it look like a wasted day.
The part that is a decision is where you spend it. Quito is at 2,850 m. Guayaquil is at 4 m. And flights out of Quito stop in Guayaquil anyway, for about forty minutes — so from Quito you fly an extra leg to reach the same place.
That is why we go in and out through Guayaquil. You sleep at sea level and you get up an hour and a half later.
The two seasons contradict each other
This is the question nobody answers, because the honest answer is inconvenient.
| Machu Picchu | Galapagos | |
|---|---|---|
| May to October | Dry. Open skies, firm paths | Garua season, June to November. Choppy sea, water at 19–22 °C, wetsuit needed, visibility 10–21 m |
| December to May | Wet. Mud, landslide risk, trains can be suspended | Warm. Calm sea, water at 23–24 °C, visibility 12–33 m |
| February | Inca Trail closed all month, 31 Jan to 28 Feb | The best sea of the year |
There is no perfect month. There are two compromise windows: April to May, and September to October. May is the better of the two — Peru has entered the dry season and the Galapagos water has not cooled off yet.
If you want one rule you can act on: come in March or April for the water and accept mud in Peru. Come in July or August for the ruins and accept a wetsuit.
Worth knowing either way: Intrepid and G Adventures both sell the Inca Trail inside this combination and neither warns about the February closure.
What it actually costs, in full
The published “from $X” on a combined trip is never the price. On the twenty rival products we measured, the gap between the headline and what you actually pay runs $700 to $1,200, because the internal flights and the park fee sit outside it.
| Item | Approx. | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Land package | Quoted for your dates | — |
| Guayaquil to Galapagos, return | $350–500 | Avianca from $358 |
| Lima to Guayaquil, one way | $156–176 | Aggregators only, treat as indicative |
| Lima to Cusco, one way | $60–130 | Fares observed September 2026 |
| Park fee plus Transit Control Card | $220, cash | Official, Resolution 002-CGREG-24-02-2024 |
| Isabela municipal fee | $10 | Twelve- and sixteen-day versions |
| Inter-island launch, one way | $35–60 | Operator-published, and they genuinely disagree |
| Isabela water taxi | $1–1.50 each way, cash | Both operators agree |
Two things about that table are worth saying out loud. The park fee doubled from $100 to $200 in August 2024, the first rise since 1998, and pages selling this trip today still print the old figure — Latin America For Less and Amazing Peru both publish “$100” right now. And the Transit Control Card can now be issued online in advance as well as at the airport desk. We file it for you, which matters more than it sounds: the CGREG counters keep short hours — Quito 05:00 to 12:00, Guayaquil 06:30 to 13:30 — and you need a return ticket in your name to be given one.
For the wider picture, the South America travel cost guide breaks down the seven numbers that actually move a quote.
Galapagos is not the short half
This is the one we feel strongest about. Peru For Less and Latin America For Less both give you five nights in Peru and four in Galapagos. Rebecca Adventure Travel and Amazing Peru give you four and three.
You fly to the most remote archipelago in the Americas and sleep there three nights.
On the twelve-day version the split is five and five, and the islands get two bases rather than one — Santa Cruz for the boat days and Isabela for Las Tintoreras and Los Tuneles. On the sixteen-day version Isabela gets three nights and Sierra Negra fits.
One trip, one page
You will notice this page offers three lengths instead of three separate itineraries. That is deliberate, and it is worth explaining.
Almost everyone selling this trip publishes one page per duration. Peru For Less sells a ten-day version and Latin America For Less an eleven-day one — the same itinerary, two brands, one company. Metropolitan Touring sells twelve days at $11,199 and Metro Journeys sells the same twelve days at $10,399. Adventure Life runs three near-identical pages at fifteen and sixteen days.
It is the same trip. Splitting it across pages only makes it harder to compare, so we put the choice where it belongs: on one page, next to the day you would actually gain or lose.
The shape of it
Where this trip actually goes
Day by day
Three lengths, one trip
The shortest version that still works. Cusco city does not fit, which is the real difference between ten days and twelve, and we would rather tell you before you buy. You never sleep higher than the Sacred Valley.
Day 1
Land in Lima and carry on to the Sacred Valley
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaThe flight from the United States lands before dawn and you connect to Cusco without leaving the airport. From Cusco airport you drop straight to the valley: an hour and twenty of road and five hundred metres less. Loose afternoon in Urubamba.
Day 2
Moray, the Maras salt pans and Ollantaytambo
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaThe circular terraces of Moray and the three thousand pans of Maras in the morning. In the afternoon you climb the fortress at Ollantaytambo, the only Inca town still lived in on its original plan. Second night at the same height: your body works while you eat.
Day 3
Train to Aguas Calientes
Overnight: Riverside hotel, Aguas CalientesFree morning in the valley. The train leaves Ollantaytambo at midday and follows the Urubamba for an hour and a half to the bottom of the canyon. You arrive with an afternoon in hand and the first bus already booked for the morning.
Day 4
Machu Picchu, circuit 2
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaFirst bus, early entry, circuit 2 — the terrace the photograph is taken from. Three hours inside with a guide. Afternoon train back and into the valley again, not Cusco: you sleep six hundred metres lower than almost everyone else that night.
Day 5
Sacred Valley to Guayaquil
Overnight: Hotel, GuayaquilThe only transfer day. Cusco to Lima in the morning, Lima to Guayaquil at 12:30, on the ground at 14:45. Afternoon on the Malecon and in Las Penas, early dinner and bed: tomorrow the plane leaves at nine.
Day 6
Fly to Baltra and the Santa Cruz highlands
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraNine in the morning, two hours in the air. You cross the Itabaca channel and climb into the highlands: giant tortoises loose in the grass, not in a pen, and a lava tube you walk through standing up.
Day 7
Darwin Station and Tortuga Bay
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraThe Charles Darwin Station in the morning, breeding centre included. Then forty minutes on a stone path to Tortuga Bay: two kilometres of white sand, marine iguanas, and a lagoon at the far end with no swell at all.
Day 8
Boat day: North Seymour or Santa Fe
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraOut at seven. North Seymour for blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds in full display, Santa Fe for land iguanas and snorkelling with young sea lions. The season decides which, not the catalogue.
Day 9
Second boat day, or nothing at all
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraBartolome and its Pinnacle Rock, or Plazas and Pinzon. You can also do nothing: Las Grietas is a water taxi and a twenty-minute walk from the hotel.
Day 10
Baltra and the flight out
Departure dayTransfer to the channel, flight to Guayaquil, in by early afternoon. You can connect with an international departure the same day only if it leaves after 21:00. If it leaves earlier, one more night in Guayaquil goes on the end.
The version we recommend. You reach Cusco at 3,399 m with three Andean nights already behind you, and Galapagos gets five nights across two islands instead of the three that most itineraries give it.
Day 1
Land in Lima and carry on to the Sacred Valley
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaThe flight from the United States lands before dawn and you connect to Cusco without leaving the airport. From Cusco airport you go straight down to the valley: an hour and twenty of road, and five hundred metres less altitude. Loose afternoon in Urubamba with nothing scheduled.
Day 2
Pisac: ruins first, market after
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaThe terraces of Pisac in the morning, before anyone has come up, and the Inca cemetery cut into the cliff opposite. The village market in the afternoon. You come back down to sleep in Urubamba again.
Day 3
Moray, the Maras salt pans and the train
Overnight: Riverside hotel, Aguas CalientesThe circular terraces of Moray and the three thousand pans of Maras in the morning, Ollantaytambo before lunch. The train leaves mid-afternoon and drops into the canyon in an hour and a half, following the Urubamba the whole way.
Day 4
Machu Picchu, then up to Cusco
Overnight: Boutique hotel, central CuscoEarly entry, circuit 2, three hours inside with a guide. Train back to Ollantaytambo and road to Cusco stopping at Chinchero, which at 3,762 m is somewhere you visit in passing and never sleep. You arrive in Cusco with three Andean nights in your body.
Day 5
Cusco: the Inca city underneath the Spanish one
Overnight: Boutique hotel, CuscoSacsayhuaman and its two-hundred-tonne blocks in the morning, Qenqo and Tambomachay after. In the afternoon the Qorikancha, where you can see exactly where the Inca wall stops and the convent starts. San Blas on foot to close the day.
Day 6
Cusco to Guayaquil
Overnight: Hotel, GuayaquilThe only pure transfer day in twelve. Cusco to Lima in the morning, Lima to Guayaquil at 12:30, on the ground at 14:45. Afternoon on the Malecon, early dinner, early night. The plane to the islands leaves at nine.
Day 7
Fly to Baltra and the Santa Cruz highlands
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraNine in the morning, two hours in the air. You cross the Itabaca channel and climb into the highlands: giant tortoises loose in the grass rather than penned in an enclosure, and a lava tube you walk through standing up.
Day 8
Boat day: North Seymour or Santa Fe
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraOut at seven. North Seymour for blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds in full display, Santa Fe for land iguanas and snorkelling with young sea lions. The season decides which, not the catalogue.
Day 9
Ferry to Isabela and Las Tintoreras
Overnight: Seafront hotel, Puerto VillamilThe seven o'clock launch, two and a half hours with the sea still calm. In the afternoon, Las Tintoreras: white-tipped reef sharks asleep in a crack in the lava and Galapagos penguins at eye level. Snorkelling at Concha de Perla on the way back.
Day 10
Los Tuneles
Overnight: Seafront hotel, Puerto VillamilForty minutes out to the lava arches of Cabo Rosa. You swim between them with green turtles, seahorses and white-tipped sharks. In the afternoon, the flamingo lagoon and the Wall of Tears.
Day 11
Back to Santa Cruz
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraThe seven o'clock launch, into Puerto Ayora mid-morning. The Charles Darwin Station and Tortuga Bay in the afternoon, which is when the beach empties out.
Day 12
Baltra and the flight out
Departure dayTransfer to the channel and fly to Guayaquil. You can connect with an international departure the same day only if it leaves after 21:00. If it leaves earlier, one more night in Guayaquil goes on the end.
Two nights in Lima, three in the Sacred Valley, three in Cusco and three on Isabela, including the hike up Sierra Negra. No filler third country: the extra days go into the two places you came for.
Day 1
Land in Lima
Overnight: Hotel, Miraflores, LimaYou land before dawn and sleep. In the afternoon, the Miraflores seafront and the Puente de los Suspiros in Barranco, on foot.
Day 2
Lima: the Larco and the old centre
Overnight: Hotel, MirafloresThe Museo Larco in the morning — the best pre-Columbian collection in the country and the one that gives context to everything you are about to see. Plaza Mayor and San Francisco at midday. Ceviche somewhere local rather than somewhere in a guidebook.
Day 3
Lima to the Sacred Valley
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaFlight to Cusco and straight down to the valley without stopping in the city. Free afternoon.
Day 4
Pisac
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaThe ruins of Pisac early and the market after. Back down to sleep low again.
Day 5
Moray, Maras and Ollantaytambo
Overnight: Country hotel, UrubambaAll three in one day without rushing, because there is time. Third night in the valley: by now you are sleeping normally.
Day 6
Train to Aguas Calientes
Overnight: Riverside hotel, Aguas CalientesMorning in the town of Ollantaytambo, train at midday. Afternoon in Aguas Calientes: the Mandor gardens or the hot springs.
Day 7
Machu Picchu, with a climb
Overnight: Boutique hotel, CuscoEarly entry, circuit 2, and an added permit for Huayna Picchu or the Sun Gate if you ask for it when you book — the quota is small and it sells out months ahead. Train back and road to Cusco via Chinchero.
Day 8
Cusco: Sacsayhuaman and the Qorikancha
Overnight: Boutique hotel, CuscoThe ruins above the city in the morning, the Qorikancha and San Blas in the afternoon. The San Pedro market if there is light left.
Day 9
South Valley: Tipon, Pikillacta and Andahuaylillas
Overnight: Boutique hotel, CuscoThe day nobody sells. The canals of Tipon, which still run; Pikillacta, which is Wari and not Inca; and the church at Andahuaylillas, Andean baroque from floor to ceiling. Back to Cusco in the afternoon.
Day 10
Cusco to Guayaquil
Overnight: Hotel, GuayaquilThe only pure transfer day in sixteen. Cusco to Lima in the morning, Lima to Guayaquil at 12:30. Afternoon on the Malecon and an early night.
Day 11
Fly to Baltra and the highlands
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraThe nine o'clock flight. Giant tortoises in the wild in the highlands in the afternoon, and a lava tube you can walk through.
Day 12
Boat day: North Seymour or Santa Fe
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraOut at seven for whichever island the season favours. Snorkelling included.
Day 13
Ferry to Isabela and Las Tintoreras
Overnight: Seafront hotel, Puerto VillamilThe seven o'clock launch. Tintoreras and Concha de Perla in the afternoon: reef sharks asleep in the lava and penguins at eye level.
Day 14
Sierra Negra and Volcan Chico
Overnight: Seafront hotel, Puerto VillamilSixteen kilometres there and back to the rim of the second largest caldera in the world, then out across the lava field of Volcan Chico, which is still steaming. You leave early because the cloud comes in by mid-morning.
Day 15
Los Tuneles, then back to Santa Cruz
Overnight: Hotel, Puerto AyoraCabo Rosa in the morning. The three o'clock launch to Santa Cruz — and we will say it plainly: from August to November that crossing moves.
Day 16
Baltra and the flight out
Departure dayThe Darwin Station if the flight allows it, then transfer and departure.
What is included
- Every hotel night for the length you choose, with breakfast: a country house in the Sacred Valley, a riverside hotel in Aguas Calientes, a boutique in central Cusco, a hotel in Guayaquil, and hotels in Puerto Ayora and Puerto Villamil.
- Local English- or Spanish-speaking guide in the Sacred Valley, at Machu Picchu, in Cusco and on every island outing. In Galapagos, a naturalist guide certified by the National Park. It is compulsory, and not everyone says so.
- Machu Picchu entry, circuit 2, booked months ahead with an assigned entry time.
- Return train between Ollantaytambo and Aguas Calientes, and the shuttle buses up to the citadel and back down.
- All land and sea transfers: airports, Sacred Valley, the Itabaca channel, the inter-island launches and a water taxi where one is needed.
- Full-day Galapagos outings with lunch on board and snorkelling kit: mask, snorkel, fins, and a wetsuit from June to November.
- The meals marked day by day in the table. The rest are left free on purpose: in Puerto Ayora and in Urubamba you eat better outside the hotel.
- Local telephone support around the clock for the whole trip, in Peru and in Ecuador.
- We file your Transit Control Card in advance on the CGREG platform, so you are not queueing at the airport desk inside its short opening hours.
What is not
- International flights. Quoted on top of the land price so the two are comparable. We are happy to book them with you, or leave them to you if you have points or a route you prefer.
- Internal flights, meaning Lima to Cusco, Cusco to Lima, Lima to Guayaquil, and Guayaquil to Galapagos and back. See the cost table below: we do not hide them, we add them up.
- Galapagos National Park entry fee, 200 USD per foreign adult and 100 USD per child under 12. Paid in cash on arrival. Resolution 002-CGREG-24-02-2024, in force since 1 August 2024.
- Transit Control Card, 20 USD per person. We file it; the money is yours to pay.
- Isabela municipal fee, 10 USD per person, on the twelve- and sixteen-day versions.
- Alcoholic drinks, laundry, telephone calls and personal spending.
- Tips for guides, crew and drivers.
- Travel insurance. Not optional in practice: Machu Picchu is climbed on foot and the sea around Galapagos gets rough.
- Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain climbing permits on the sixteen-day version, which carry a quota of their own.
Make it yours
This is a starting point, not a package
Every one of these days can move, and so does the length. Tell us what you have and we rebuild it around you, usually within a working day.