The Sacred Valley of Cusco: Must-Visit Towns & Hidden Gems

I’ve traveled to Cusco many times; it’s one of my favorite places in Peru. And the Sacred Valley of the Incas, in Cusco, is a place you absolutely shouldn’t miss. Here I’ll tell you about each of the towns I most recommend to travelers.

The Sacred Valley is a place many travelers pass through on their way to visit Machu Picchu. In fact, most travelers depart on the train from the town of Ollantaytambo, which is part of the Sacred Valley.

However, not many people actually stop to explore it, even though visiting the Sacred Valley is one of the best things to do in Cusco (note: many travelers don’t know that Cusco refers to the entire Cusco region, including the city of Cusco and the surrounding areas).

If you have the time, I highly recommend dedicating at least one full day to visiting one or more towns. And if you’re short on time, there are also tours that take you to 3 or 4 towns in a single day, allowing you to experience their landscapes and culture.

Best tours to visit the Sacred Valley in Cusco, Peru:

Private Sacred Valley Tour: it takes you around Maras salt mines, Moray, Chinchero, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo. You have the option to be dropped of at the train station in Ollantaytambo to continuo your jouney towards Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) or return to Cusco.
Group Tour Around the Sacred Valley: you’ll get to visit Maras sat mines, Moray, Chinchero, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo and Pisac
ATV Tour to Maras and Moray: you get to drive your own ATV in the Sacred Valley, to the Maras salt mines and Moray.
Via Ferrata, Zipline and Skylodge lunch: climb a mountain in the Sacred Valley, zipline down, and have lunch in a transparent capsule hanging off the mountainside.
Mountain bike in the Sacred Valley: bike to the Maras salt mines and Moray from Cusco

Here I’ll tell you about each of my favorite towns in the Sacred Valley of Cusco and what to do in each one:

Table of Contents

Maras

Maras is a unique place in the Sacred Valley and highly recommended if you want to see something different. What makes Maras most famous are its pink salt mines (pink like Himalayan salt, since it’s also mountain salt), which sit along the slope of a hillside.

There are viewpoints from which you can admire the salt pools, and sometimes you can even see workers extracting salt from them. What’s especially interesting is that each pool belongs to a different family, who have owned and worked them since Inca times.

At the site, you’ll also find many stalls selling pink salt in all kinds of varieties: ground salt, salt grinders, salt with herbs, with chili, with barbecue spices, and even black smoked salt. You can also find chocolates with salt, which are quite good. They make great souvenirs to bring back from Peru.

In addition to the salt mines, you can also visit the town of Maras itself, which is about a 15-minute drive from the mines. It’s a very small, charming, and quiet village that few tourists visit. Here you can visit its small church and central square, surrounded by little shops selling more salt and a wide variety of chocolates with local flavors (like chili chocolate, muña -a local mint-, or Inca berries).

Maras is a lovely place to visit and stay if you’re traveling with time. There isn’t much to do and it’s very quiet, but it’s surrounded by nature and beautiful views. It also has a very good restaurant, La Portada.

➡️Also check out: Maras & Moray, Salt Mines and Ancient Ruins

Ollantaytambo

Ollantantambo ruins in the shape of a llama

Ollantaytambo is one of the most well-known towns in the Sacred Valley, since trains to Machu Picchu depart from here and most travelers pass through.

It’s also one of the prettiest towns in the Sacred Valley you’ll see during your Cusco trip.

The town is relatively small and very picturesque, with narrow streets and adobe buildings. It’s usually quiet (except near the ruins), unless you visit during an important festival. For example, the last time I was there was during the Bajada de Reyes celebrations, which included days of beautiful dances, traditional costumes, and live bands—an incredible festival. I highly recommend visiting around January 6th if you can, it’s one of the most colorful Peruvian celebrations.

The main attraction in town is the archaeological site, which is well worth visiting with a good guide to fully understand its history (it’s included in the tourist ticket). Outside the site, you’ll also find a small artisan market.

If you have time, or if you don’t have the tourist ticket and want to visit other ruins, you can hike up to the Pinkuylluna ruins, located on the hill across from town. You can access them via Lares Street, across from the Picaflor guesthouse.

When you’re up at the ruins, notice how the Ollantaytambo archaeological site below is shaped like a llama!

And when you’re back down in the main square, look up at Pinkuylluna—it has the shape of a face, said to be Tunupa, the protector of Ollantaytambo.

Another lovely place to visit is ALQA, the Museum of Andean Expressions, run by some friends (they also have a great restaurant). They have an exhibition space with many pieces—some ancient, others contemporary—and they’re experts at explaining what each piece was used for, its history, and its symbolism, tailoring the explanation to whatever catches your interest.

➡️Also check out: The Best Things To Do in Ollantaytambo

Chinchero

Chinchero is the perfect town to visit in the Sacred Valley if you love textiles, as it’s a town of weavers.

Any day is good to visit Chinchero, but it’s even better on Thursdays or Sundays, which are market days when locals from nearby areas come to sell their goods. Either way, I recommend going early. The last time I went was on a Sunday, and while there were many vendors, after lunchtime many of them started packing up and leaving.

You can find all kinds of things: decorative wall textiles, pillow covers, pouches, rugs—all very colorful. They work mainly with sheep wool, but you’ll also find many alpaca garments.

Chinchero also has an archaeological site that’s included in the tourist ticket. It’s worth visiting if you have the ticket and the time, though it’s smaller and less impressive than others you’ll see in Cusco.

And if you want to go on a hike, I recommend the Poc Poc waterfall. I haven’t done it myself, but friends have told me the trail is very beautiful (though not flat).

One thing to keep in mind: Chinchero is one of the highest towns in the valley and is actually higher than the city of Cusco, so take it slow to avoid altitude sickness.

Urubamba

Urubamba is a fairly large town—the largest in the valley—where you can find just about everything: a wide range of accommodations, large hotels, many restaurants, a big market, and all kinds of local businesses.

It’s also the preferred town for expats and people from Lima who want to live in the Sacred Valley.

If you want to spend a few days in the valley visiting different towns, Urubamba is a perfect base, as it has many conveniences and is centrally located.

In Urubamba itself, you can visit the main square. I also recommend checking out the market to learn more about local products and maybe grab a fresh juice. Around town, you’ll find all kinds of restaurants; I recommend Migas del Valle for a good menu del día or a tasty pastry.

If you want to go for a hike, you can climb Cerro La Cruz for nice views over Urubamba. I recommend doing this closer to the rainy season, though, since when I went during the dry season the landscapes were a bit less striking.

If you like ceramics, don’t miss Cerámicas Seminario, the shop of a famous ceramic artist whose pieces are featured in museums abroad. You can buy beautiful, functional ceramics at very good prices.

Moray

Moray is another iconic stop in the Sacred Valley. Unlike the other places I mention in this list, Moray isn’t actually a town, but rather an archaeological complex.

The ruins consist of circular terraces, several meters deep. It’s believed that the Incas used this site to experiment with crops and see how the different microclimates on each terrace (caused by the change in altitude between levels) affected what they planted—essentially, an agricultural laboratory.

And if you have time and are interested in a gourmet experience based on local ingredients, you can visit Mil, the restaurant located right next to the ruins. It’s run by the same chef behind Central in Lima, which was named the best restaurant in the world a couple of years ago.

Travelers and tours usually combine a visit to Moray with the Maras salt mines, since they’re located fairly close to each other.

Yanahuara

Yanahuara is a small, quiet town without many tourist attractions (aside from the beautiful valley it sits in, of course).

But one thing I absolutely love about Yanahuara is its hummingbird viewpoint Santuario de Colibríes Ensifera Ensifera, a hidden gem up a mountain path.

To get there, you can take a taxi from Urubamba. An even simpler option is to take a colectivo to the last stop in Yanahuara and then pay a bit extra for the car to take you privately up to the viewpoint, which is located uphill in the mountains.

Go early in the morning for the best chance to see more species, which are attracted by the feeders at the viewpoint. You can see many beautiful hummingbirds, including some of the smallest in the world.

If you love birds like I do, this is a lovely place to spend a few hours.

Calca

Calca is a town that not many travelers visit; it’s more local, medium-sized, and a nice place to pass through if you want to see what everyday life in the valley is like.

One very recommended stop just before entering town is the Inkariy Museum, a hiddem gem most travelers overlook. The museum has sections dedicated to Peru’s most important pre-Hispanic cultures and is excellent if you want a better understanding of history. The pieces aren’t original—they’re replicas—but the goal of the museum is to tell the story of each culture through its most important objects. They also have several rooms with life-sized replicas of everyday scenes so you can get a sense of how people lived and dressed.

In Calca itself, you can visit its markets (there are two) and its small church. One thing that surprised me when I visited the church, was learning that the town’s patron saint is a millennial Italian saint, Carlo Acutis.

If you have time, there are also ruins you can hike to. For example, Huchuy Qosco, which I visited on one of my trips to Calca. You’ll see very few visitors there, and the views are beautiful. That said, the hike is long—about 3 hours—and you should go with someone who knows the trail, as it’s not well marked.

Yucay

Yucay is a very small town just a few minutes from Urubamba. The town itself doesn’t have many tourist attractions, but if you’re passing through or staying in Urubamba, I recommend visiting the small Cultura Viva museum.

They offer a cultural walkthrough of the facilities. At each station, you learn something about local culture. For example, they explain textiles—from how wool is spun, to the plants used for dyeing, and the meaning behind each pattern or design. They also explain the meaning of the little bull sculptures you see on many rooftops in Cusco (spoiler: they’re for protecting the house). They show traditional clothing and explain what it means if a hat is decorated with flowers or not, among many other interesting cultural details.

There’s also a brewery that I’ve heard is worth visiting, but unfortunately, when we went, it was closed despite being during opening hours.

If you have time to hike in the surrounding hills, you may also find rock paintings, though they’re not signposted. When we were staying in Yucay, my boyfriend went running in the mountains several mornings and came across them multiple times (though he also got lost a few times!).

Pisac

Pisac is one of the most well-known towns in the Sacred Valley of Cusco, mainly because of its archaeological site. It’s one of the largest sites in the valley and absolutely worth visiting—one of my favorites outside of Machu Picchu, along with Sacsayhuamán in Cusco city. It sits atop a mountain, so it’s easy to reach by tour or taxi from town, though hiking up takes quite a while.

Another highlight of Pisac is its Sunday artisan market. That said, I’ve visited on different days of the week and the market is always open—it’s just bigger on Sundays, with more vendors coming from nearby areas.

There are also beautiful hikes in the surrounding area, where you can walk alongside water channels.

And although the town itself isn’t very large, it has plenty of shops and restaurants, as many foreigners have chosen to live here in the valley. Because of this, the town has a bit of a hippie vibe, and you’ll find many facilitators offering ayahuasca ceremonies, cacao ceremonies, sound healing, and more.

➡️Also check out:: Journey to Pisac

Planning Your Trip to The Sacred Valley, Cusco

If you’re short on time, I recommend joining a tour that takes you to visit some of these towns—there are several highly recommended options, like the ones listed at the beginning of the post.

And if you have more time, take it slow and explore them at your own pace. Maybe spend a night or two at some ot them. I’m sure you’ll love them.

If I had to choose just a couple of places to visit, my top picks would be Ollantaytambo, the Maras salt mines and Chinchero. But they are all really beautiful places.

I hope this information helps you plan your Peru travel itinerary and your visit to the Sacred Valley of the Incas and have an unforgettable trip to Cusco!