Machu Picchu: Trip of a Lifetime

Our series helps you plan for travel's greatest adventures. Chris Moss explains how to tackle the 550-year-old Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.

1:49PM BST 20 Sep 2012

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Machu Picchu is so well-known and so certain to fill travellers with high expectations that you might think it s doomed to disappoint. No other South American archaeological site comes close when it comes to visitor numbers and broad appeal (coach tourists mingle with backpackers and hardcore hikers at the ruin every day of the year). Only Sacsayhuamán in Cuzco which is usually part of a Machu Picchu itinerary is comparable for sheer scale and architectural audacity.

But with a bit of careful planning and the right approach, you will find the site as enchanting and engaging as any on the planet. The draw of Machu Picchu (which means old mountain in the Quechua language) is obvious: a 550-year old citadel built by the most advanced and in Peru the very last pre-Columbian society in the spectacular setting of a saddle between two forest-clad Andean peaks that has been preserved enough to be recognisable as a city. It is high: 7,973ft above sea level. It is large: the ruins are the size of a village, and combined with adjoining forest and wilderness park, the historical sanctuary , as Unesco describes it, covers more than 116 square miles. It is also mysterious: we know its functions were partly residential and partly religious, but we are still guessing about its cosmic positioning and its academic importance to the Incas.

Machu Picchu is set in humid subtropical forests, providing a protected habitat for ferns and palms and several endangered species, notably the spectacled bear. Add in swirling clouds, llamas grazing on the terraces and the option to arrive following a hike on mountain trails and/or a train trip through the valley of the Urubamba River (aka the Sacred Valley ), and you have a memorable trip that can last two, seven or 14 days. You just have to work out how to catch that quiet moment at the hitching post of the sun and find the right angle for a tourist-free photograph.