Traveling Cusco on a Budget

By Kaitlin Nunn, at Peru For Less, specialists in Peru travel packages. 

In order to save some money in Cusco, you’ll have to be willing to get off the well-trodden Gringo Trail. Here are some suggestions for traveling through Cusco on a budget. 

Once you return to the airport and fly to Cusco, you’ll notice a difference right away – and not just the altitude. “Cusco es muy tranquillo,” my taxi driver explained when I remarked that Cusco seemed so much more relaxed, the traffic much calmer, and the way of life more at ease than in Lima.  Hire a cab at the airport for no more than 5 soles to take you into town. 

There are plenty of restaurants, hostels, hotels, and travel agencies in Cusco, so you really don’t have to do any planning ahead of time. But if you don’t want to worry about finding a place to rest your head when you arrive in Cusco, you can reserve a room ahead of time. Even many of Cusco’s cheapest hostels have web pages where you can book online. 

Many hostels in Cusco offer quiet, private bedrooms and bathrooms with hot water, and some serve delicious breakfasts as well. The Hostal Resbalosa is a family-run hostel with a sun-drenched breakfast terrace overlooking the Plaza de Armas. Ask for a room with a view, and order the American breakfast and platano (banana) smoothies. The hostel also offers pick-up from the airport, and runs a small travel agency.     

Cusco is very walkable, and maps are available in just about every hotel and hostel. On your first night in Cusco, make sure to take it easy to adjust to the altitude. To beat sorroche (altitude sickness) drink some coca mate (tea), take some Ibuprofen, down lots of water, lay off eating too much and drinking alcohol, and make sure to get some rest.  

Just take a walk through the Plaza de Armas, and then skim the side streets to find a restaurant that fits your appetite — and your budget. Generally, the further from the Plaza you go, the cheaper the restaurant. There are local menu restaurants with set meals for under $5.00, but for higher quality dining you’ll have to pay a bit more. I ate at the restaurant just off the Plaza for about S./ 25 ($10.00), a packed but small restaurant where local Cusquenos played live Andean (flute and guitar) music. 

Cusco is also the best place to buy your souvenirs, because the Sacred Valley can have higher prices, and Cusco has a wider selection. Plenty of Cusquena women sit along the streets knitting hats and sweaters, and you can duck into just about any alleyway to find a treasure trove of gifts for reasonable prices. I bought a knit hat from a lady who set up her shop — just a tarp spread under her knitted goods — outside my hostel door. 

On your second day in Cusco head to the museums and churches. Sites not to be missed include the Church of San Blas, the Museo de Arte Precolombino, the Cathedral and the La Compania de Jesus (whose façade rivals the Cathedral’s), and Qoricancha at Santo Domingo. Behind the Santo Domingo church lies Qoricancha, the Inca’s Golden Palace and Temple of the Sun, once brimming with gilded Inca treasures – supposedly so much that it took the Spanish three months to melt it all down and ship it to Spain.   

Many travelers to Cusco want to check out the ruins of Sacsayhuman, but you have to buy the Boleto Turistico (BTQ), a 10-day pass that includes entrance fees to many museums and sites in Cusco and the Sacred Valley. All the other sites on the BTQ are accessible without the BTQ, except for Sacsayhuman, so if you can bear to skip out on the hilltop ruins that some say were an Inca fortress, others an Inca temple, then just go without. 

If you really want to get outside of the city of Cusco itself and do some day hiking, take a bus (or hire a cab) from the Plaza de Armas up to Tambo Machay, above Sacsayhuman. You can explore plenty of ruins, huacas (shrines), and local Quechua farms that line the hills northeast of Cusco, then walk the approximately 4 miles back into town.

This guide to traveling through Cusco on a budget before a Machu Picchu tour was written by a Peru travel specialist at Peru For Less.