Why You Want to Go to Machu Picchu, Before It's Too Late!
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The Truth About Machu Picchu
Visiting Machu Picchu was a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’ve been to a lot of ancient sites (pretty much all the big ones), and I expected to be underwhelmed by Machu Picchu… but I wasn’t. It’s really that cool. It’s vast, it has some unparalleled sweeping views, and you get to walk all through it like you’re Indiana Jones.
But let me be clear - this article isn’t to convince you to go to Machu Picchu. Either it’s on your Bucket List, or it’s not. Now, I think it should be, and it definitely was on mine. If you’re not interested in Machu Picchu, my point becomes moot.
But if you do want to go to Machu Picchu, then listen up: get there as soon as possible. Make plans for 2024 if you can. Because, believe me, if you think it would be bad now (and it is), it’s going to get a whole lot worse very soon. Let me explain.
- Going When It’s “Empty” Now
My traveling companion and I opted to go to Machu Picchu during mid-January 2023. This is about as LOW SEASON as you can get - you can’t even hike parts of the Inca Trail because the rainy season washes them out. Since it’s low season, there are significantly fewer tourists as well, which massively appealed to me.
So how low season am I talking? Well, during the high season, you need to purchase your tickets weeks, even months, in advance to ensure you get one of the spots. This is because the Peruvian government instituted a new policy in 2019 which makes each entry ticket timed (by the hour). So each hour slot has a limited number of tickets available.
When I went in January 2023, it was such a low season that I bought my tickets the night before and printed them in my hotel. From what I could calculate, more than 60% of tickets were still available, especially for every time slot except 12:00pm. There were even tickets left available for both Wayna Picchu and Huana Picchu, both of which famously sell out. So when I say “I went when it was fairly empty,” I really mean it.
Now, to be clear, I have lots of beautiful empty shots because it’s a huge site and I’m patient when it comes to waiting for tour groups to pass. But I shudder - shudder - to think what it would have been like at even 50% capacity… and 100% capacity? I’d probably have lost my damn mind. Wait until you read below about how this is going to get a lot worse.
- How the Government Controls Your Time
And while Machu Picchu is a wildly popular site, Peru has been getting into a whole lot of trouble over it. Archaeologists have warned of imminent collapse from tourist traffic, climate change, and landslides. In 2010, hundreds of tourists were trapped at the site after landslides, and had to be evacuated by helicopter.UNESCO is furious that the Peruvian government did not consult them before beginning construction on the new airport (more later).
In addition, tourists haven’t exactly been behaving. Recently, tourists were arrested and deported for damaging the site, and one gentleman was caught defecating (though, as you’ll learn below, he may not have meant any disrespect, he may have just been too far into the site to save himself). Peru has vowed to install cameras (I don’t know how) to increase security.
As a result, the government has put in some measures to attempt to mitigate the criticism and calls for the site to be closed (after all, Machu Picchu is a major money-maker for Peru). Some of these ideas are great, but some of these practices are, frankly, sinister.
In previous years, there were a limited number of tickets sold to the site each day, delineated into morning and afternoon. But 2019 saw a change such that tickets are now sold in one hour blocks. You must arrive within the hour of your ticket, or it becomes void. To be honest, I think this is a spectacular idea that staggers visitors through the site more (it takes about 3 hours or more to make it through the whole site).
Visitors are also required to leave after being at the site for four hours. It took my companion and I three hours to get through the site, but we also didn’t have to wait with crowds, and we didn’t hike the Sun Trail in the site (about an extra hour) because it was pouring when we got to it. We could have easily spent more than 4 hours there.
And we could have, because even though the current rule is that you must leave after 4 hours, absolutely no one was enforcing this in any way. No one remotely checked how long we were there.
You are also now required to take a tour guide through the site (this may be how they planned to enforce the 4 hour rule). Yet we were never approached by a guide, and certainly no one made us take one with us to enter. In fact, I’d say 90% of the people at the site the day we went did not have guides. So this way of controlling tourists and preventing them from misbehaving completely failed.
You also cannot bring food or drink (besides water) into the site. But no one checked our backpack, and we did (though we didn’t consume it). There was nothing to stop less responsible tourists.
Tickets must be bought online or at Cusco/Ollantaytambo; in other words, you cannot buy them at the site itself, nor at Aguas Calientes (more about that below). This is also good because it prevents massive lines at the site that would be overwhelming on the limited structure there. So this is a positive effort.
- Hope You Can Hold It
But when you do get to the site (after, as I’ll describe, an unpleasant process), you will want to do one thing before entering: go to the bathroom, which costs about $1. And why?
There are no bathrooms in the entire site. Now, it’s an ancient site, so obviously, they aren’t going to build bathrooms into the site. But they could easily build the bathrooms on the other side of the gate, just inside the ticketed area, so that people who have emergencies have access to something. I’ve been to dozens of sites on five continents, and none have required you to forfeit your ticket to go to the bathroom. Not Angkor, not Giza, not Tikal, not the Acropolis, none of them.
I have actually read reviews that recommend you buy two tickets (at over $50 a piece) to the site so you can stop and go to the bathroom during your visit. Some suggest wearing a diaper. Seriously. Otherwise, you are, well, shit out of luck. Oh, and if the elevation sickness is affecting your digestion? Like I said, shit out of luck.
I have a real problem with the administrators of a site limiting the amount of time you are there by denying you bathrooms. I consider it abusive and immoral to punish people physically for staying in the site.
So while some of the changes made by the Peruvian government have been beneficial, others have been useless because of a lack of enforcement. And some are just plain cruel.
- Getting There Is Already Bad
Also a challenge: you have to get to Machu Picchu, and right now, that’s not the easiest thing. You can hike the Inca Trail for four days to get there if that’s your jam. It takes more than four days, though, because you need to acclimate to the elevation in Cusco for at least two days. So, we are talking a week of effort.
I didn’t have that kind of time. Also, I am not a hiker, so hiking at elevation? Hard pass. Also, as I said, my travel companion and I were there in January, so the Inca Trail was pretty much out. Three people were trapped in a landslide there just days after we went, and one died. Instead, we took the train route.
You can take the train from Cusco to Ollantaytambo (about 2 hours), and then change at that station to take another train to Aguas Calientes (another hour and a half). During the low season, they don’t even offer the first train - you have to take a shuttle or collectivo to Ollantaytambo to catch the train. So it’s four hours each way.
Because I hate waking up early, my travel companion and I traveled the day before from Cusco to Ollantaytambo using a private driver, who also took us to an alpaca collective at Chinchero, the ruins at Chinchero and Moray, and the salt mines at Maras before dropping us off at the ruins of Ollantaytambo. Then we stayed overnight at Ollantaytambo. This was the best way to do this, and I highly recommend it.
This meant we could just catch the train in Ollantaytambo and go straight to Aguas Calientes. We took the Vistadome one way, and the Expedition the other. If you’re wondering whether to splurge for the Vistadome, the answer is no. The view is the same, the seats are the same, and the price difference gets you a piece of quiche. The train is a heinously expensive rip-off you can’t avoid without an even more expensive pre-set tour.
Once in Agua Calientes, you have to take a shuttle up. This is the most expensive 20 minute shuttle you’ll take, and you can only buy your tickets once you’re in Aguas Calientes. Oh, and Aguas Calientes is a crappy town - poorly signposted, few good restaurants (Full House, down by the river, was the only good place in town), and aggressive touts. You’ll be excited to get on that shuttle.
Aguas Calientes... at least you can see the bus ticket area there to the left...
Wait times can range from zero minutes to over an hour during high season. As I said, we were there during low season, so we got right on when we wanted to.
The only positive step in this entire process is that they have now made the shuttles more efficient by checking your Machu Picchu ticket time. They won’t let you go up to the entrance whenever you want: they fill the shuttles with people who will be entering Machu Picchu (by timed ticket) earlier. This means if you are cutting it close, people who are there hours early won’t be able to get on the shuttle before you. That’s a good thing.
So even if you’re smart like we were, and stay the night before in Ollantaytambo, you’ve still got an hour-and-a half on the train, a walk through Aguas Calientes, a line for bus tickets, a line for the shuttle bus, and the ride up, before you even get to the entrance. Almost makes you wanna hike it instead.
And remember: you gotta use that single bathroom at the entrance that everyone is crowding into because they can’t/couldn’t go in the site. You’re welcome.
Now, all of this is expensive and annoying, but you do it because Machu Picchu is worth it. And the government is trying to make it better. Except they’re about to make it much, much worse.
- Devastating Changes Coming
Currently, Machu Picchu sees about 1.5 million visitors a year (so, truly, aim for the low season). The government has added timed tickets, timed shuttles, bathroom limits, time limits, guide limits… so many factors to control visitors. But they don’t want to limit visitors.
In fact, they want more.
Cusco airport is definitely a challenge. It’s small, understaffed, and very limited in services. If the weather is bad, you aren’t landing or taking off. Apparently, it doesn’t even have enough seats for waiting passengers during the high season. Luckily, we were there during low season, so it wasn’t terrible.
But with over-tourism rocking Peru like it is everywhere else, the government needs to expand the Cusco airport… except it can’t. There’s no physical space. Instead, they’re building a new airport about 30 km from Cusco, near Chinchero. Unlike the Cusco airport, which focuses on domestic flights (Lima and Arequipa), the Chinchero airport will cater to international locations.
The environmental effects will be devastating. Archaeologists have tried to fight it, stating that it will irrevocably damage the site.Those scholars were essentially ignored.
And it will bring even more tourists to Cusco, an absolute gem of a city that is already breaking under the weight of tourism. Or, even worse, with the right flights, visitors will be able to skip Cusco all together by flying into Chinchero and going straight to the site. I could even imagine one-day tours from Bogota, Lima, or Quito that whip you right from the airport to Aguas Calientes.
And skipping Cusco would be a cataclysmic error. The city is stunningly beautiful, surrounded by world-class hiking, evocative Incan sites, and colorful markets. The people are friendly, the food is knock-out good, and the churches are elegant.
This new airport, which is expected to open in 2025, will completely change the game. Yes, it’ll be a little easier for you to get there. But, to be honest, getting to Cusco by plane or bus was the easy part. The new airport won’t make the slog down through Aguas Calientes to the site any easier.
But it will pour hundreds of thousands more tourists into Machu Picchu. The site will become over-run. The environmental damage will be serious. With more visitors, the entire system, barely operating at capacity, will break. It's inevitable.
- If You Want to Go, Now is the Time
I cannot stress enough that the vibe at Machu Picchu, and at several points along the way, is tense. Lines are long and tour groups are aggressive - and I was there during the low season, when the crowds weren’t even at 50%! In Cusco, low season was marked by desperate touts and drivers.
While double the numbers will bring more money, it will also bring thrill-seekers who care little for Peru or Cusco, and who will be happy to use the new airport as a pit-stop. All the problems that have rocked Venice in their battle with cruise ships will apply here: bad behavior, pollution, degradation of local industries in favor of mass tourist needs, and more.
Machu Picchu is beautiful, but it’s disappearing beneath a sea of trampling tour groups and transportation fumes. With the 2025 airport, I fear that it will break and become intolerable to visit. Add to that the effects of climate change and wear-and-tear on the site, and I don’t expect it to be open to the public past 2030. So if you want to see Machu Picchu and enjoy it in any way, now is the time - your window is closing very, very quickly.
So if you want to see Machu Picchu and enjoy it in any way, now is the time - your window is closing very, very quickly.