How to Choose the Right Machu Picchu Route—and Secure Tickets

04.10.2024 - 13:15 / cntraveler.com / Machu Picchu

If you haven’t been to Machu Picchu lately—or are a first-timer to Peru’s famed Incan archaeological wonder—get ready for a somewhat complicated ticketing process. In a bid to help ease congestion and manage conservation at the overtourism-plagued UNESCO World Heritage Site, the destination has once again switched up its entrance ticket system.

It’s the latest iteration on a circuit-based approach that has been in place since 2017, when the site moved away from free-for-all-entrance tickets. That means, instead of entering and exploring the area at your leisure, timed entrances are attached to limited sections of Machu Picchu, organized into routes that wind past different sights—meaning one ticket gets you access to a portion of the site, for a set window of time. You can come back on various tickets to see the whole thing, but exploring willy nilly is a thing of the past.

This past June, the country’s Ministry of Culture revised this system yet again, shaking up the routes. Visitors now have 10 options to choose from—which Peru tourism officials say will allow for better customization around visitors’ interests and capabilities—though much like the first introduction of the route-base systems, that just means more for visitors to parse before nabbing a coveted ticket, which are known to sell out.

“Having 10 routes is complicated, in terms of explaining those possibilities to customers,” says Maritza Chacacanta, Peru Operations Manager for Intrepid Travel, one of Peru’s leading tour operators.

My first visit to Machu Picchu was back in 2010, when the decision on how to access the site was essentially made for me—there was substantially more to consider during my second visit to the archaeological site this August. There’s one more curve-ball as of June 2024: Seemingly counterintuitively to the site’s broader conservation goals, the Peruvian government has raised the cap on daily visitors from 4,044 last year to up to 5,600.

After navigating this system on a recent visit, and touching base with leading Machu Picchu travel experts, I’ve gathered everything you need to know about the new ticketing system ahead of your next visit.

The Inca Bridge, offered on Circuit 1 tickets, is accessed by a relatively short walk from the heart of Machu Picchu–and allows visitors a chance to escape the bustle of busier areas.

Visitors can now choose from three different circuits—"panoramic,” “classic,” or “royalty”—each with sub-routes, for a total of 10 options that cater to different perspectives, interests, fitness levels, ages, and time limits. “By offering different options, it has diversified the experiences, allowing more travelers to choose circuits that fit their interests and needs, without overwhelming a