Ollantaytambo sits in the Sacred Valley 72 km from Cusco, and it is the one Inca town still laid out on its original 15th-century grid. Walking the cobblestone streets feels less like a museum and more like a town that never stopped being lived in.
Peruways can set up guided visits to the ruins above the town, where terraced fortifications climb the hillside and the unfinished Temple of the Sun shows six monolithic blocks of pink rhyolite hauled from a quarry across the valley. From the top of Temple Hill the view opens onto the Urubamba and the snowy Veronica range.
Down in the town, the Sunday market is worth timing a visit around, and the local chicha de jora served in the picanterías is the real thing.
Most travellers use Ollantaytambo as the launch pad for Machu Picchu: trains to Aguas Calientes leave from the station several times a day. Peruways bundles the train, the bus up to the citadel and the entry ticket.
