Ollantaytambo is one of the few Andean towns still built on its Inca grid, and one of the easier places in the Sacred Valley to spend a slow couple of days. Peruways runs guided visits that pair the fortress ruins above the town with the colonial grid below.
The fortress is the main site. Pachacuti built the enormous terraces and the unfinished Sun Temple on the upper platform; the quarry across the valley is where the stones were dragged from. In 1537 Manco Inca’s forces beat the Spanish here before withdrawing to Vilcabamba — one of the few Inca victories against the Spanish advance.
The town itself repays a walk. The colonial houses sit on Inca foundations, the stone channels running water through the streets are pre-Hispanic, and the plaza market carries textiles from Patacancha at better prices than Cusco’s San Pedro.
Trips in the wider Sacred Valley start easily from here — Pisac, Chinchero, Moray, Maras, and the train down to Machu Picchu from the station at the eastern edge of town.
Book through Peruways.
