Hiking Guide: Salkantay Trek - Intro

The Salkantay Trek is a hiking trail in Peru, South America, offering a challenging alternative to the classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Starting near Cusco, this 5-day hike takes you through incredible and diverse landscapes—from towering snow-capped peaks like Mount Salkantay to lush, misty cloudy forests.

Unlike the crowded Inca Trail, the Salkantay route is quieter (although getting more and more popular!), more spectacular (in my personal opinion) and doesn’t require permits, making it a great alternative.

I hiked this trail with Machu Picchu Reservations in June 2024 - read all about my experience over the next few posts!

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Why I chose Machu Picchu Reservations:

After hiking for the past 4 months all across Argentina, Chile and Huaraz (Peru) self-guided, I wanted to try out a group trip. The Salkantay was the perfect opportunity to do this - multiple tour companies meant pricing was competitive, and Tim was off hiking another trail in Cusco (he doesn’t like hiking with other people, apart from me of course!). Plus, after carrying a heavy and uncomfortable pack for hundreds of kilometers already, being catered for with meals and a horse to carry my bag sounded like BLISS.

I researched several different companies, and landed on Machu Picchu Reservations because of their price and their good review. Most companies offered more or less the same experience and inclusions, yet theirs was significantly cheaper.

Given anything would be a luxury from how I’m used to hiking, I decided they were the company for me!

I only wanted to book if I could see the weather forecast, and I was able to book this tour just four days out, departing on 28 June.

Day 0: Pre-hike Briefing

The evening before, at 7pm, we all met at the Machu Picchu Reservations Centre for our briefing. The location is really easy to find and get to, just a block back from Plaza de Armas.

It was a bit confusing when I arrived as there were lots of people there for other tours as well, including a huge group for the 4-day version of this tour. They told me to go around the corner with the 4-day group for their briefing, which was odd but I thought there couldn’t be too much difference.

I was told the briefing would only take 20-30 minutes, but it ended up being over an hour. They were missing my tickets, so I went back to the main office to collect them and my bag for my gear that the horse would carry. The office didn’t have my train ticket downloaded and the website was down, so they told me they would email it to me. I was a little concerned but there wasn’t much I could do except for hope it would all work out (which it did!)