The run from Cusco to Ollantaytambo is one of the easier scenic drives in Peru. Buses leave regularly and drop you in the Sacred Valley’s best-preserved Inca town — the base for most Machu Picchu trains.
Expect 1.5 to 2 hours on the road from Cusco. The route climbs out of the city, crosses the Chinchero plateau, then drops into the Urubamba valley with its terraced fields and adobe villages. Window seat if you can get one.
Once you arrive, Ollantaytambo is small enough to cover in half a day. The headline is the Ollantaytambo Archaeological Site — part fortress, part ceremonial complex, with granite blocks the Incas quarried from the opposite mountainside. The street grid in the town below is still the original Inca layout, which is unusual anywhere in the region.
For the bus side of things, Peruways publishes current schedules and prices and can bundle the Ollantaytambo bus with your Machu Picchu train onward.
Short version: Cusco–Ollantaytambo by bus is cheap, scenic and sets you up for a shorter train ride to Aguas Calientes the next morning. Worth planning in.
