Getting to Machu Picchu takes some stitching together — train, bus, timed entry ticket — and the Consettur bus up from Aguas Calientes is the step most people underestimate. Lines at the Aguas Calientes ticket office routinely run 45 minutes or more at peak hours, which eats into your 4-hour entry window.
The 25-minute switchback drive
The bus climbs roughly 400 metres on 13 switchbacks over about 25 minutes. The alternative is a steep 1.5-hour hike up the Hiram Bingham trail. Buy the bus ticket (currently US$24 round trip for foreigners) and save your legs for the ruins themselves.
Why you don’t want to buy on the day
The window and the queue are the problem. Buses leave every few minutes from 5:30am, but the ticket office is a separate line from the boarding line, and you need to be at the citadel entrance for your timed slot or you lose it.
Book online through Peruways
Peruways handles the Consettur booking, your train (PeruRail or Inca Rail) and the Machu Picchu entry ticket in one place, with the circuit you want and the entry hour you want. Show up with the voucher, skip the ticket office.
Lock the pieces in
Head to Peruways to put the whole chain in order — bus, train, entry — before you leave home. One less thing to sort in Aguas Calientes.
Booking the bus ahead isn’t a nicety; with limited daily entry capacity and timed slots, it’s what keeps the day from unravelling. Lock it in with Peruways and treat the queue as somebody else’s problem.
