Cusco Travel Guide: What to See, Eat & Know | Palace Tours

Cusco sits at roughly 11,150 feet in Peru’s southern Andes, cradled in a green valley ringed by peaks and fed by the Huatanay river. For close to four centuries before the Spanish arrived it was Qosqo — the “navel of the world” — the political, religious and administrative heart of Tahuantinsuyu, the Inca empire that stretched from southern Colombia to central Chile. Four ceremonial highways left the main square for the empire’s four quarters, and every provincial governor was expected to keep a house in the city. When Francisco Pizarro’s men took Cusco in 1533 they did not level it. They built on top of it, raising churches and mansions directly onto Inca foundations, which is why the city you walk today is genuinely two cities stacked on one another.

That layering is what makes Cusco extraordinary rather than merely old. Walls of mortarless andesite, cut so precisely that a blade will not slide between the blocks, still carry Spanish Baroque arcades above them. The whole historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and remains a living working city of around 430,000 people, not a museum. Cusco is also the gateway to Machu Picchu: the rail lines to Aguas Calientes leave from Poroy and from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, an hour or so down the road, and Palace Tours guests board the Hiram Bingham — Peru’s Pullman-style luxury train, with its brunch service, observation car and evening return — for the journey through the Urubamba gorge. Lima is about a 90-minute flight northwest, and almost every Cusco itinerary begins there.

What to see in Cusco

• Plaza de Armas — The colonnaded main square, built over the Inca ceremonial plaza of Huacaypata. It is flanked by the Cathedral and the Church of the Society of Jesus, and it is where the city’s festivals, processions and evening crowds all converge.
• Qorikancha (Temple of the Sun) — The empire’s holiest sanctuary, once sheathed in gold plate, with the colonial convent of Santo Domingo built directly onto its curved Inca wall. The single best place to see the two civilisations physically fused.
• Sacsayhuamán — The zigzag fortress-temple on the ridge above the city, built from limestone blocks that reach well over 100 tons. How they were shaped and fitted without mortar is still debated. Sweeping views back over the red-tiled roofs.
• Cusco Cathedral — A 16th-century basilica on the square, home to hundreds of Cusco School canvases, including a celebrated Last Supper in which the meal laid on the table is a roasted guinea pig.
• San Blas — The steep artisans’ quarter of whitewashed walls and blue doors, full of woodcarvers’ and silversmiths’ workshops, small galleries and cafes on the climb up from the centre.
• Hatunrumiyoc and the Twelve-Angled Stone — A narrow lane whose Inca wall contains a single famous block cut with twelve interlocking angles, the standard illustration of Inca masonry at its most exacting.
• San Pedro Market — The city’s covered central market: stalls of Andean potato and corn varieties, cheese, fruit juices, herbal remedies, textiles and hot lunch counters used by locals rather than tour groups.
• The Sacred Valley — Pisac and Ollantaytambo — An easy day trip down into the Urubamba valley: Pisac’s hillside agricultural terraces and craft market, and Ollantaytambo, a still-inhabited Inca town whose original street grid and water channels remain in daily use.

What to eat in Cusco

Andean cooking here is built on ingredients domesticated in these very valleys. Cuy (guinea pig), traditionally roasted whole, is the ceremonial dish, while alpaca appears grilled or as steaks and is lean and mildly sweet. Chiri uchu — a cold plate of chicken, dried meat, cheese, roe, seaweed and a corn pancake — is the classic Cusqueño festival dish. Look also for rocoto relleno, a hot red pepper stuffed with spiced meat; hearty chairo and quinoa soups; and lomo saltado, the beef-and-onion stir-fry that reflects Peru’s Chinese-Peruvian chifa tradition. Peru’s coastal star, ceviche, is on plenty of menus, though it is at its best nearer the sea.

Street food deserves as much attention as the restaurants. Anticuchos — skewers of marinated beef heart — are grilled on street corners after dark; salchipapas and wood-fired empanadas are everywhere near the Plaza; and choclo con queso pairs giant-kernel Andean corn with a slab of fresh cheese. To drink, chicha morada is a sweet non-alcoholic purple-corn infusion, while fermented chicha de jora is its traditional alcoholic cousin. Coca tea is offered on arrival almost everywhere as an altitude remedy, and the pisco sour is the national cocktail. Cusco’s fine-dining scene has grown considerably, with several kitchens now building serious tasting menus around native potatoes, Andean grains and river trout.

Shopping & crafts

Cusco is one of South America’s great textile cities. Look for handwoven alpaca and baby-alpaca scarves, throws and sweaters — genuine baby alpaca is noticeably soft and light, and priced accordingly, so treat very cheap “alpaca” with suspicion. Weaving cooperatives in and around the city sell pieces made on backstrap looms with natural dyes and will usually show you the whole process, from spinning to plant-based dyeing. San Blas is the quarter for woodcarving, retablos (painted devotional boxes), silverwork and reproductions of Cusco School religious paintings, while the Sacred Valley markets at Pisac and Chinchero are especially strong on textiles and ceramics.

Best time to visit

Cusco has a dry season and a wet season rather than a hot one and a cold one. May to September is the dry season: clear bright days, cold nights that can drop close to freezing, and the most reliable conditions for trekking and for photography at Machu Picchu. It is also the busiest and priciest stretch. April and October are excellent shoulder months, with green landscapes, thinner crowds and mostly settled weather. November to March is the rainy season, bringing afternoon downpours and mist-wrapped ruins, but also the lowest prices and the lushest valleys. Whenever you come, expect a wide swing between daytime and night-time temperatures and pack layers.

Good to know

• Altitude is the main thing to plan for. At around 11,150 feet, altitude sickness is common. Allow two nights to acclimatise before anything strenuous, drink plenty of water, eat lightly and go easy on alcohol on arrival. Many travellers find it easier to head down to the Sacred Valley — roughly 2,000 feet lower — first, and return to Cusco afterwards.
• Machu Picchu requires a timed entry ticket tied to a specific circuit and entry slot, and daily numbers are capped. Tickets sell out well ahead in the dry season, so the site visit and the train need to be booked together and in advance.
• The currency is the Peruvian sol. Cards are widely accepted in hotels and better restaurants, but carry small notes for markets, taxis and craft stalls.
• The centre is steep and cobbled. Comfortable shoes with grip matter more here than in most cities, and the combination of hills and thin air makes short walks feel considerably longer than they look on a map.
• The sun is fierce at this elevation even when the air feels cold. High-factor sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses are year-round essentials.

Palace Tours packages Cusco with the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and the Hiram Bingham train, and pairs it on longer itineraries with Lima, Arequipa, Lake Titicaca and the Belmond Andean Explorer. To plan yours, speak to a specialist on 1-800-724-5120 (US/Canada), WhatsApp +1-786-408-0610, or +1-609-580-1372 internationally.