And the planning for our trip to Matchu Picchu was intense as we tried our best to make sure we stay within our budget. Thanks to our host Sue and Eddy for helping us make sure we did not pay that over priced outrageous prices for the journey up to the top..

So here is the deal. the Train ride one way from the Sacred valley to Aguas Calentes ( the town in matchu picchu) was $97 one way. the cheapest was $64 but that is around 9:30pm. and its just 1 one way price. with a large family like mine it can break a bank for sure. and then once you arrive at the small town you will then take a bus up to matchu picchu for $12 round trip for kids and $26 round trip for adults and the bus up is about 30min ride. the train ride from sacred valley to aguas calentes is about 2 hour ride. So you see our family of 6 could not possibly take the train up and back down and the bus ride…and also to pay the entrance for the main event matchu picchu…

Thanks to our host we came to the conclusion of renting a private van for 2 days and go up there but the van can only drop us off at a place call Hydroelectrica. because only the train can go to aguas calentes which is the town that you have to go to get to matchu picchu.

But there a challenge…after the van drops us off at hydroelectrica we must walk 3 hours on the train tracks all the way to aguas calentes…which is a pleasant walk but the mosquitos will eat you up….yeap they will have a field day with your body. Anyways we did it and since we had the private van we where able to stop for lunch and also stop at a town call Santa theresa and got to jump into the hotsprings there which was so lovely. and oh if you don’t have a swimsuit don’t worry they rent them there. for $1 you can rent a swimsuit and jump in the water.

so after about 2 hour stop for some hotspring time we then drove to our stop and we started our 3 hour walk.

we also found out that if you are travelling from Cusco you can get the public van from cusco to hydroelectrica for $20 round trip… so you see the train is a bank breaker for sure.

Oh and if your buy your matchu picchu entrance ticket online you will be paying a whole lot but if you go to the cusco office you will be paying way cheaper just make sure to carry along your passport. and kids 7yrs and under are free and from 7yrs up to 18yrs is half the price.

now hotels at the small town that you get to before making your way up to matchu picchu are very cheap and seem to be available even at the last minute so you can choose to wait and arrive there to decide which place you want to stay. we stayed at an ok hostel and it was clean and had wifi and cable tv.. and it was only $12 a night for two people in the room and includes breakfast. prices in the town was pretty cheap.

while on the road

at the top it was cloudy and rainy

aguas calentes town

our 3 hour hike…ended up 4 hours going but 2 hours coming back…