Cusco City Tour Half Day

City Tour Cusco, Cusco, Peru

Overview

Cusco City Tour Half Day, Cusco is the center of the Inca history and home to some of the most important ruins. Exploring them with a member of the To Machu picchu team will help make this period of history come alive. Visit the beautiful cathedral in the main square, Temple of the Sun and then head by car to the city limits to visit the 4 main Inca ruins including Sacsayhuaman. From here you will also see some of the most beautiful views of Cusco, so don’t forget your camera.

Note: The hotel must be booked on the main town due the early pick up for our services we are unable to go to the airbnb as most of them do not have a name or address easy to find and some of them are located far away from the main town.

Briefing between 5pm – 7pm the evening before the trip in our office, explaining all tour details from our guide.

Be inspired as you walk through the ancestral streets and plazas of Cusco! You can walk through each era of history in this regal city; it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Americas! We can trace time from Native Americans to Incans to Spaniards and now to modern-day citizens of Cusco. Besides its historical importance, Cusco is an absolutely breath-taking city with a living culture and a cuisine highly-acclaimed on the world stage!

For your first day in this majestic city, we recommend visiting all nearby archaeological sites and admiring the surrounding landscape. As a city, Cusco maintains its customs and traditions along with the mysteries and tales about a legendary past.

Cusco’s Cathedral: Located in Cusco’s Main Square, the cathedral is a colonial monument of great artistic value. It was built on top of the Wiracocha Inca Palace and houses works of carved wood such as the choir, pulpit and altars, beautiful paintings from the Cusquenian School of Art (including a Last Supper painting in which Christ and His disciples eat cuy – guinea pig!) and works of embossed silver. This cathedral flanks the grandiose Plaza de Armas – the historical and cultural heart of Cusco.
Koricancha Temple and Santo Domingo Convent: This religious center was built to worship the Sun, the most revered deity during the Inca Empire. Inside the temple, you will find smaller temples dedicated to the sun, moon, stars, etc. Outside are beautiful, regal gardens and fountains on the grounds of the monumental temple. Here, the combination of the extraordinary Inca architecture and the Spanish colonial architecture is what stands out the most. In addition, the Cusquenian School of Art’s gallery offers you the opportunity to appreciate some of their colonial art pieces.
Saqsayhuaman: Located 2 km from Cusco City, this fortress was built using enormous carved rocks joined with compelling precision. It is composed of three overlapping platforms with an average length of 360 meters. In its construction, you can see stones as big as 9 meters in height! From here, you can enjoy a spectacular view of Cusco city along with the beautiful landscape formed by the surrounding mountains.
Q’enqo: Located 1 km from Sacsayhuaman, this complex was an Inca ceremonial cult center. The most prominent feature of this complex is an open space called the amphitheater. Back in its day, you would have found Inca mummies in the 19 trapezoidal niches found here. Today, the amphitheater is half of its original height.
Puca Pucara: This complex is known as the “red fortress” due to its reddish tints resulting from the vast amounts of iron in its rocks. It is thought that this fortress was perhaps an old tambo (dairy farm?) that served both as a resting and guarding spot to protect Tambomachay. Here you can see attractive architecture, fountains, aqueducts, and several Incan enclosures.
Tambomachay: This complex is made up of a combination of finely carved stones, waterfalls, and aqueducts to carry water coming from nearby springs and hot springs. For this reason, Tambomachay is associated with the water cult. In front of this construction, there is a tower that is said to have served as a guarding post and communication tower.

Tour Cusco City Tour Half Day

After finishing the guided tour, we will visit a traditional market where you can see beautiful works of art from Cusco and buy products made in this region. The tour finishes at approximately 18:15 hrs when we arrive back in Cusco city.

Activities: City Tour
Difficulty Levels: 3 of 5
Maximum Altitude: 3700 masl. / 12139 ft.
Departures Day: Daily Departures.
Starts: Pick up at your accommodation in Cusco around 1:30 AM
Ends: Drop-off at your accommodation in Cusco around 6:15 PM

Price Includes

Specialized bilingual guide
Private Transport
Box lunch water, banana apple and chocolate

Price Excludes

Additional Services
Insurance
Drink
Tickets
Entrance fees (Cable and car and Moon Valley)

Itinerary

Day 1City Tour Cusco

You will be picked up from your hotel in Cusco at 13:20 – 13:50 hrs to begin your City Tour. First, we will visit the main Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas where you will have the opportunity to see a wide range of paintings from Cusco’s School of Art, old writings, and works in gold leaf and embossed silver. Once finished, you will continue on to Koricancha or the ‘’Temple of the Sun’’ to appreciate its architecture and perfect stone constructions only seen in Inca temples of high importance. Continuing on, we will head outside the city to visit the archaeological circuit of 4 sites: Sacsayhuaman, Q’enqo, Puca Pucara, and Tambomachay. At Sacsayhuaman, you will see its famous stones all carefully carved and enormous in size. At Q’enqo, you will learn some more about this archaeological site’s religious importance in the Inca times. At Puca Pucara, you will see an ancient military construction, part of Cusco’s ancient defense system. Lastly, at Tambomachay, you will see a temple dedicated to the Water Cult with fountains that still work in today.
Itenirary

13:30 – 14:00
We pick you up at the door of your hotel. Then we will go to the Plaza de Armas of Cusco where our guide will explain the historical importance of this place.
Itenirary

14:00 – 14:30
Next we will visit the Cuzco Cathedral, one of the most imposing and historical in South America.
Itenirary

14:30 – 15:30
We continue with the tour, visiting the Inca museum of Coricancha (Convent of Santo Domingo). The guide will explain to us the importance of this enclosure, the most important of the incanato.
Itenirary

15:30 – 16:45
The tour continues in the direction of the fortress of Sacsayhuaman. The guide will give us details of the mysterious constructions as well as the historical events that occurred there.
Itenirary

16:45 – 17:45
After visiting Sacsayhuaman, we will do the same with the enclosures of Qenqo, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay, from where you can see from the top all the splendor of Cusco.
Itenirary

17:45 – 18:15
We will end the tour by returning with private transport to Plaza San Francisco, a few meters from the Plaza de Armas of Cusco.

Photos

Tour Map Cusco City Tour Half Day

FAQs

What is the difference between the City Tour in shared and private service?

The Cusco City Tour in shared service includes transportation and a guide for a group of diverse people (up to 20 tourists). The private service, on the other hand, is a special service for a closed group of from 2 visitors.