Ollantaytambo is 72 km north-west of Cusco in the Sacred Valley, at 2,792 m — a two-hour drive via Chincheros, or a longer loop through Pisac and Urubamba. Peruways runs the route as a day-trip or as a stop on a longer Sacred Valley circuit.
The fortress above the town was built under Pachacuti in the 1460s as a royal estate and climbs in agricultural terraces to a half-finished Temple of the Sun. In 1537, Manco Inca defeated a Spanish cavalry force here by flooding the terraces below — one of the only Inca battlefield wins of the conquest. The town below is the only Inca settlement still laid out on its original grid, which makes walking its stone-cobbled streets a different experience from the mostly-colonial centre of Cusco.
Peruways’ day-trip includes hotel pickup, a licensed Ministry of Culture guide, site tickets and lunch in Urubamba. If you’re going on to Machu Picchu, the train from Ollantaytambo station is the standard next leg, and we book that too.
Plan your Cusco–Ollantaytambo day at Peruways.
