Explore the Best that Cusco Has to Offer
Welcome to Cusco, the navel of the world! Join us on this spectacular half-day tour of all the most important historical sites in the city. You’ll feel inspired as you walk through ancestral streets and the pretty plazas of Qosqo.
You’ll go back in time as you walk through each era in the royal city’s past—it’s the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Americas! We can trace time through history from Native Americans to Incas and Spaniards and finally to modern-day citizens of Cusco.
Besides the historical importance of this grand city, Cusco is breathtaking with a buzzing culture and a cuisine highly-acclaimed on the world stage! We’re sure this majestic city will go above and beyond any expectations you have.
Cusco City Tour Map
- Overview
- Itinerary
- Inclusions
- What To Pack
- Faq's
- Pricing
- Enquire Now
Cusco City Tour .- If you spend any time at all in Cusco during your personalized Peru trip, explore the best of Cusco and its surroundings in just half a day, visiting some beautiful nearby attractions in Cusco – it is a fantastic place to add on to your itinerary.
For your first day in the majesty city, we recommend you visit four spectacular Inca Ruins set just above Cusco City and admiring the surrounding landscape! Cusco maintains its customs, traditions, mysteries, and tales about a legendary past as a city.
Along your journey you will also see street vendors and the local Cusquenan women dressed in traditional skirts and bowler hats in the side street markets, or wandering the Plaza de Armas with their pet llama, hunting down tourists for photographs. Come and be one of the first adventurers to make this tour with us.
Highlights of the Cusco City Tour
- Visit the city’s highlights so that you get to know Cusco from its foundations in a half-day tour
- Discover the history of the Incas with a local private guide
- Visit the Plaza de Armas where the Cathedral of Cusco is located
- Guided tour Coricancha or Temple of the Sun
- Guided tour of the Sacsayhuaman, Quenqo, Pukapukara, Tambomachay ruins
Trip Details
- Tour Location: Cusco City, Peru
- Tour Type: Cusco half-day tour – upgraded/ private personalized tour
- Tour Duration: 5 hours
- Departure Time: Daily departures, we have 02 schedules – Morning & Afternoon – You can choose the most convenient time according to your travel itinerary
- In the morning from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM
- In the afternoons from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM
- Need to book in Advance
- Pick up location: Customer’s hotel lobby located in Cusco city or airport, just let us know
- Drop-off location: Hotel of the customer in the Cusco city, airport or other locations in downtown, just let us know
- Group Size: Depends on you since the tour is in private service. Solo travelers are welcome to our trips as well
- Physical Grading: easy, gentle walk, stone steps, cobblestone streets, small elevation changes along the way, and some walks on uneven trails. Designed for everyone (kids, teens, adults)
- Customizable: Yes! Private, custom, add-ons all available. Can add this on to any tour or trek
- This is a MUST DO tour in Cusco – NOT to be missed!
Places to Explore
- Qoricancha
- Saqsayhuaman
- Q’enqo (Labyrinth)
- Puca Pucara
- Tambomachay (Temple of the water)
Why Take the City Tour Cusco?
- Cusco, Peru’s cultural capital, offers its visitors a rich history legacy
- Cusco holds various titles, including UNESCO World Heritage Site, Archaeological Capital of America, Historical Capital of Peru, and Navel of the World
- The Inti Raymi or “Sun Festival” is celebrated in Cusco
- During the Viceroyalty in Cusco, house and colonial churches and convent with magnificent art pieces were built on top of Incan walls and foundations.
HALF DAY CITY TOUR ITINERARY
The half day city tour Cusco runs every day either in the morning or afternoon. The tour in the morning starts at 8:00 AM until 13:00 PM / and in the afternoon starts at 13:00 PM until 6:00 PM
To start this half-day tour in the morning or afternoon, our guide will meet you at your hotel lobby and pick you up in our private transport. Then, we’ll head to the most important temple of the Inca Empire, the Temple of the Sun, known as the Q’oricancha (“golden enclosure” in Quechua). At the Q’oricancha, we’ll be able to observe detailed and intact architecture, and within the temple, we will see smaller temples dedicated to the moon, rainbow, stars, lightning, and thunder, among others, as well, we’ll be able to compare and contrast the building methods of the Incan culture and Catholicism – Q’oricancha was also the key spiritual center of the Incas, which leads to all four quarters of the Inca Empire. Today, the Santo Domingo church stands on top of the temple.
From Q’oricancha, we’ll walk down Avenida El Sol, where we will take our private transport and drive for 25 minutes to the outskirts of the city to visit the spectacular archeological site of Sacsayhuaman which features with its enigmatic stones, 200-ton monoliths. Although the site was religious, the Spanish considered it a military fortress because of its location and the way it was built. Here is made the famous Inti Raymi or Festival of the Sun on June 24 of each year. After an explanation of your guide, you will have some time to explore this site on your own.
At the appointed time, we’ll regroup with our tour guide to continue onto other archeological sites in the area. Next, we’ll visit the fascinating Inca site of Q’enqo (Labyrinth or Zigzag). A side built in a natural rock formation to show the complex patterns of steps, seats, geometric reliefs and a puma design. It was also created to represent the Andean constellations and the concept of the three worlds, each one representing sacred animals: the condor, puma, and snake; according to some theories, funerary rituals.
After that, we’ll take another five-minute drive to Puca Pucara, a small, circular Inca site, which was a shelter for travelers coming to Cusco from the Amazon. It was also a military center and used to protect the nearby temple located at Tambomachay. The final stop on our tour is Tambomachay, known as the Temple of Water, with impressive water fountains, thought to be used by the Inca for bathing. Besides, the Incas practiced religious traditions tied to water in order to rejuvenate the land. This tradition is known as the fountain of eternal youth. From there, we’ll drive back down to Cusco city and drop you off at your hotel.
Important Note
While we expect the tour will run as the itinerary describes. Participants should accept that there is the possibility of changes, being necessary liable to local conditions, e.g, strikes, natural disasters, these changes might be at the discretion of your travel company.
What Is Included For Cusco Half-Day Tour?
- Pre-departure briefing: We’ll meet you at your hotel for an orientation before your city tour in Cusco. The meeting will be at 5:00 PM the evening before the trip begins.
- Experienced Guide: All our guides are graduates of the professional career of Tourism of the National University San Antonio Abad of Cusco. Our guides are chosen for their professionalism, experience, responsibility, seriousness, unbridled passion for exploring, and a desire to share in the experience. They’ll make sure you are safe and happy.
- Transportation: All your transportation is included in this half-day city tour of Cusco. We’ll pick you up from your hotel to explore the Cusco city and outskirts of town. Once you complete the tour, we’ll take you back to the door of your hotel. The type of transportation will be provided based on the group size – SEDAN, MINI-VAN or VAN.
What Is Not Included?
- Hotel before/after the tour
- Tourist Ticket (Boleto Turistico): 70 soles per person (or 130 soles if you are also doing the Sacred Valley)
- Entrance to Qoricancha (Temple of the Sun): 15 soles per person
- Meals: There are no meals served during this tour. You should be back in Cusco in time to enjoy lunch on your own.
- Travel interruption & travel medical/evacuation insurance (required)
- Tip for your guide is optional but highly encouraged if you enjoy your tour
Note on the entrance tickets
The entrance fee to the archaeological and tourist sites are not included. Please note that you will need to purchase an admission partial ticket (Boleto Turistico Partial) whose cost is PEN 70 Peruvian soles (about USD 25 per ticket) which allows you to access four historical sites located on the city limits like Sacsayhuaman, Q’enqo, Puca Pucara, and Tambomachay (in other words, it is used only on this tour). The cathedral and Q’oricancha (Temple of the Sun) are separate entrance tickets and are PEN 25 Peruvian soles (about USD 8 per ticket) and PEN 15 Peruvian soles (about USD 5 per ticket). However, if you plan to visit historical sites in both Cusco and the Sacred Valley, we recommend you purchase the general admission ticket (Boleto Turistico General) whose cost is PEN 130 Peruvian Soles (about USD 45 per ticket), this ticket allows you to visit 14 historical sites, which are located in Cusco, Southern part of Cusco, Sacred Valley (Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Moray, and Chinchero), and some museums in Cusco city. The ticket is valid for 10 days. The Maras salt ponds ticket is not part of the boleto turistico parcial or boleto turistico general (partial or general ticket), this ticket should be purchased at the entrance of the same place, whose cost is PEN 10 Peruvian soles (about USD 4 per ticket). It is not necessary to purchase the tourist pass in advance, as you can get it at the first site we visit on the tour.
What you need to take:
- Original passport
- Tourist ticket (not included in price)
- A good (and small) daypack
- Comfortable shoes
- Hat and sunglasses to protect you from the sun
- Sun protection cream (factor 35 recommended)
- Waterproof jacket/rain poncho
- Camera and films
- A bottle of water
- Extra money for drinks and tips, souvenirs.
- Optional: Personal medical kit. Disinfectant, aspirin, stomach tablets, medicine to avoid altitude sickness, etc.
Why choose Peru Spirit Adventure?
- Peru Spirit Adventure is a family owned travel agency and a local tour operator based in Cusco, Peru, in the Ancient Capital of the Inca Empire! Peru Spirit Adventure was founded by a Peruvian with over many years of guiding experience, and is a 100% Cusqueñian Company without any shareholders.
- We are an agency with a great spirit of adventure and passionate about travel, dedicated to offer the best tourist services, to take you to discover the vast riches, natural and archaeological of each corner of the country.
- We provide high quality service as well as focusing on having small groups to enhance the travel experience and customize any tour or trek to suit your travel, fitness, budget, and time preferences. This is what makes us stand out from other tour operators.
- We create small personalized tours & treks strictly and only operated by local professional staff catering in PERSONALIZED and HIGH QUALITY SERVICE. Our guides in Peru are hand selected by the owners of Peru Spirit Adventure. All guides for our tours and treks are native to Peru and speak fluent English to ensure excellent communication and a positive experience overall.
- We pride ourselves on providing 5 star service before, during, and after your trip. Peru Spirit Adventure is dedicated to excellent customer service and adventure experiences. We have been awarded from Trip Advisor the Certificate of Excellence for the last three years. Please check out our reviews and certificates of excellence on, TRIPADVISOR for yourself!
- We are direct operators of all the tours and treks we offer, from family trips, honeymoon trips and luxury travel, including adventure tours to Peruvian Andes. Please email us to customize your trip in Peru.
- Our tours & treks are operated in private service with a mínimum of 2 people to confirm the departure – Max 8 / Average 4 guests, ensuring a small group feel and specialized attention.
- We are a responsible and sustainable tour operator – Our mission is to provide exceptional tours, treks, and adventure trips. During our trips, we make every effort to minimize negative impacts and maximize the benefits to the local people and natural environments we visit. We pay fair, livable wages, ensuring we hire and maintain the absolute best guides and support staff. We are proud of our team without them, we wouldn’t be able to offer the best service and lifetime experiences to our clients.
Price for the Half Day Cusco City Tour
Our Half Day Cusco City Tour is done privately and the cost is based on your group size. We need a minimum of 2 people to run the tour
- Price for 2 people: 70 USD per person
- Price for 3 people: 50 USD per person
- Price for 4 people: 40 USD per person
- Price for 5 people: 35 USD per person
- Price for 6 people: 30 USD per person
- Group of 7 to 13 people: 250 USD total for the total group (not per person)
- If you are over 14 members, just let us know to give you the best price
PLEASE: Make sure to add the fees associated with your PayPal / VISA transaction (approx. 6%) Peru Spirit Adventure will be sending you a receipt indicating the exact amount we received from you and the amount of the balance to be paid upon your arrival in Cusco.
Why Private?
- Small groups
- Personalized service
- Make stops at your will
- Take your time to take pictures
- Avoid the 30+ people bilingual group services
- Avoid the shopping stop tours
Have a nice tour!
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Main Square of Cusco, Peru