If your hiking season ends when the rain rolls in, Peru has a fix: the Salkantay Trek, a roughly 36-mile route from near Cusco over a 15,190-foot Andean pass and down into the cloud jungle, finishing at Machu Picchu. Unlike the permit-capped Inca Trail, it can be hiked independently or with a guide, and itineraries run from three days to a week-plus.
One recent four-day trip with operator Salkantay Trekking shows how the route works. Day one means a pre-dawn shuttle from Cusco to the Challacancha trailhead, a gentle warm-up along an old aqueduct, and an optional but unmissable side hike to Humantay, a turquoise glacial lake revered as an Apu, or living mountain spirit, by local communities. The first night is spent glamping at nearly 12,800 feet in glass domes with views of the Salkantay and Humantay glaciers.
Day two is the big one: a steady climb to Salkantay Pass, higher than the summit of California's Mt Whitney, where cooks meet hikers with coca tea to head off altitude sickness. Then comes a punishing 5,500-foot descent through mule trains into the jungle, ending at a camp with private bathrooms, hot showers and pisco sours. Day three mellows out along the Santa Teresa River valley with stops at fruit stands selling chirimoya (custard apple), lúcuma, pacay and granadilla, plus a coffee farm pouring intense geisha beans. The final stretch follows rail tracks from Hidroeléctrica to Aguas Calientes, the base town for the ruins.
Machu Picchu itself needs no introduction, but it rewards an early alarm: even at 6am the entrance queue is long, since there is no real low season. Built around 1450 and abandoned by roughly 1530 after the Spanish conquest, the citadel was apparently never found by the invaders, and the reason for its abandonment remains debated — disease, or evacuation to join emperor Manco Inca's last stand at Vilcabamba.
For hikers, the appeal is obvious: Peru's trekking infrastructure is mature, villages along the route offer lodgings, resupply and pay showers, and alternatives like the seven-day Choquequirao trek deliver Inca ruins with far thinner crowds. A tip borrowed from the guides: spend two or three days acclimatising in Cusco, which sits at over 11,000 feet, before you start walking.
