Machu Picchu Express

Cusco sits at 11,150 feet, so the first few hours are yours to settle in and the sightseeing waits until afternoon. It starts at Qoricancha, where the Spanish built a church straight onto the Temple of the Sun, then climbs to Sacsayhuaman, the fortress above the old capital, with the whole city open below. Last is the little lookout fort at Puka Pukara, out where the road turns down toward the Sacred Valley.

A full day down into the Sacred Valley, which runs lower and warmer than Cusco. The morning is Pisac, market stalls filling the square and Inca terraces curving around the hillside above it. Then the stone stairs at Ollantaytambo, the one place the Inca turned back Spanish cavalry, by flooding the plain below the fortress. Back in Cusco by evening.

Machu Picchu as a day out from Cusco, by train down the Urubamba valley past river and cloud forest. An early start puts the citadel in view by late morning, when the mist lifts off the terraces and the stonework at 7,970 feet appears all at once. A guide walks the temples and plazas, then the afternoon is open for wandering in Machu Picchu Town below the ruins. The evening train carries the day back up the valley to Cusco.

If the flight out is late enough, there is a last morning in Cusco: the steep lanes of San Blas, the artisan workshops, the market stalls off the main square. Then the transfer to the airport and your onward connection.