Ollantaytambo sits 72 km north-west of Cusco in the Sacred Valley, at 2,792 m. It is the only Inca town still laid out on its original grid, which makes walking its narrow stone-cobbled streets a different experience from the mostly colonial centre of Cusco.
Above the town, the Ollantaytambo fortress — built under Pachacuti in the 1460s — rises in agricultural terraces to a half-finished Temple of the Sun, where six massive pink porphyry blocks still stand. In 1537, Manco Inca defeated a Spanish cavalry force here by flooding the terraces, one of the few Inca victories in the conquest.
Peruways runs a day trip from Cusco that pairs the fortress with the Pinkuylluna granaries on the opposite hillside, Sunday market in Pisac (if timing fits) and the Chincheros weaving cooperative. Trip includes transport, a licensed guide, and either lunch in Urubamba or an early return to Cusco.
Book the Cusco–Ollantaytambo day with Peruways, or buy the Ollantaytambo entrance separately if you are travelling onward by train to Machu Picchu.
