Where to Stay in Cusco for the Inca Trail

For the 4-day Inca Trail, stay in Cusco the night before and the night after. The treks start with an early hotel pickup, TreXperience’s with a 4:30 AM start, after a briefing the day before, and they end with a drop-off at your hotel in Cusco on the evening of day 4. Book the trek first, then a room the company can collect you from: TreXperience’s 4-day Inca Trail hike & panoramic train picks up from hotels in Cusco or the Sacred Valley, at US$840 per adult (read 12 November 2026).

Where to stay in Cusco

Cusco is where the treks begin and end. TreXperience holds a safety briefing the day before the trek and keeps your luggage for free while you are on the trail; Alpaca Expeditions holds an in-person briefing at 6:00 PM the day before at its local partner’s offices. So the night before is a Cusco night, close enough to the briefing and inside the company’s pickup area. Ask the company which hotels it collects from before you book the room; for TreXperience’s trek, the pickup details show when you check availability.

The night after matters too. On TreXperience’s trek, day 4 ends with the train to Ollantaytambo and the drive to Cusco, arriving in the evening; Alpaca Expeditions’ GetYourGuide trek gets back at about 8:00 p.m. A bed in Cusco that night saves an onward journey after four days on foot.

Each link opens an Expedia room search for that area; the hotels and prices are Expedia’s.

Hotels near Machu Picchu: Aguas Calientes

Machu Picchu Pueblo, better known as Aguas Calientes, is the town below the citadel. SERNANP’s map describes it as the place with lodging, food and assistance, and the starting point for the visit to the citadel, reached by train from Cusco or Ollantaytambo. On the 4-day trek you only pass through: the bus down from Machu Picchu, free time, then the train. The 2-day short Inca Trail is different: TreXperience’s 2-day trek on GetYourGuide includes a night in a 3-star hotel there, and Alpaca Expeditions’ 2-day trek a night in a 4-star hotel, so you do not book that night yourself.

A night of your own in Aguas Calientes suits a visit to Machu Picchu on a separate ticket, on another day. Hotels and hostels both:

Ollantaytambo, in the Sacred Valley

Ollantaytambo is on the way to the trail: TreXperience’s group stops there for breakfast on day 1, and it is where the train back from Aguas Calientes arrives on day 4. On SERNANP’s map it is 1 hour from Cusco by road, and 60 km, about 2 hours 10 minutes, from Machu Picchu Pueblo by train. TreXperience picks up in the Sacred Valley as well as in Cusco, so a stay in Ollantaytambo works with its trek; ask the company to confirm the pickup when you book.

After the trek

If Lake Titicaca is your next stop after Cusco, lake-titicaca-tour.com covers the Cusco to Puno train and bus. For the trek itself, the 4-day itinerary has each day and the packing list.