Is the Cusco Tourist Ticket Worth 130 Soles (Plus Transportation Costs)?

The vast majority of people come to Cusco for one main reason. Cusco is the jumping off point for the Sacred Valley. More specifically, it’s the base most people use for their trip to Machu Picchu. But Cusco is so much more than Machu Picchu. REALLY! And if you truly want to experience the Sacred Valley in a more meaningful way, then we recommend that you consider getting the Cusco Tourist Ticket – or Boleto Turistico del Cusco.

What is the Cusco Tourist Ticket?

Officially called the Boleto Turistico del Cusco, the Cusco Tourist Ticket gives the holder access to multiple historic sites and museums around Cusco and throughout the Sacred Valley.

The Boleto Turistico is the perfect ticket to help you plan trips from Cusco to many of the Inca and pre-Inca ruins that are within just a couple of hours of the city.

Further reading: Coming to Cusco? We’ve put together a list of Cusco travel tips that we believe will can really help you plan your trip a little better. Well, most of them anyway!

Cusco Tourist Ticket Validity

The Boleto Turistico del Cusco is valid for ten consecutive days. You must buy your ticket on the day you start visiting the sites. You may not future-date your ticket.

Example: If you buy your ticket on October 1, you must see all of the sites on the ticket by the end of the day on October 10.

Just go to the site or museum, walk in, punch the ticket, and enjoy. Oh, and always have an ID with you, just in case. No one ever asked us for one, but it would be a shame to drive two hours outside the city, only to be asked for an ID that you didn’t bring.

Where to buy a Cusco Tourist Ticket?

The great thing about the Boleto Turistico is that you can purchase it at any of the 16 sites on the list. You don’t need to go to a central location to find one. But if you prefer, you can go to the Central Tourist office at 103 Avenida del Sol in Cusco.

You may need to show the attendant your passport, or local ID.

For students wishing to purchase a Student Cusco Tourist Ticket, you will need to show them a valid student ID. They are very strict about discounts and will not grant you a discounted ticket without ID that meets their exact requirements.

In other words, if you have to actually think about whether or not your ID meets the criteria, it probably doesn’t.

Cash only: You cannot buy a Cusco Tourist Ticket with a credit card or debit card. Cash only. At the Central Tourist Office, we did see a tourist pay with U.S. dollars, so this is probably an option if you just arrived and haven’t yet acquired any Peruvian cash.

If you really want to buy it in advance, you can get the Cusco Tourist Ticket here. It’s more expensive online and better to buy it at any of the sites.

What can you see with the Full Cusco Tourist Ticket?

The full Cusco Tourist Ticket is the best way to access the most important sites in the Sacred Valley. It gives you access to 16 sites and museums over a period of ten days. There are also partial tickets for people who may wish to only visit certain sites in the Sacred Valley.

Here is the entire list for those considering the full Cusco Boleto Turistico:

There are four Cusco Boleto Turistico options

The Boleto Turistico del Cusco is not a one-size-fits-all ticket. There are actually four different tickets you can buy. Visitors with different itineraries don’t have to feel boxed in. If you have varying plans in and around Cusco and the Sacred Valley, there’s probably a Cusco Tourist Ticket option for you.

Here are the four Cusco Tourist Ticket options, along with the validity, costs, and what each includes:

• Full Cusco Tourist Ticket
• Saqsayhuaman Area (Circuit 1)
• City and South Sacred Valley (Circuit 2)
• Sacred Valley (Circuit 3)

1. Full Cusco Tourist Ticket

Validity:	10 consecutive days
Sites:	All
Cost:	Regular: 130 soles Students (18-25): 70 soles with valid ID Minors (<18): 70 soles Peruvian adults: 70 soles Peruvian minors: 40 soles

But what about people who aren’t spending that much time in Cusco? Good news! There are plenty of Boleto Turistico options for you, too!

If you’re like most, you won’t be spending 10 full days in Cusco. The majority of people who visit Cusco spend 7 days or less here. Many Cusco tourists come to the city on bus tours like Peru Hop’s Full South to Cusco trip with the intent of staying for a few days and then heading to Machu Picchu.

Visitors with shorter Cusco itineraries can purchase a partial Boleto Turistico or, where allowable, simply buy single entrance tickets to museums or archaeological sites in the Sacred Valley.

Keep in mind that many Sacred Valley sites and museums don’t sell individual tickets and require that you have a Cusco Tourist Ticket – see our note below.

Here are the other three Cusco Tourist Ticket options you can buy.

2. Partial Ticket Circuit I: Saqsayhuaman

Validity:	1 day
Sites:	Saqsayhuaman Qenqo Puka Pukara Tambomachay
Cost:	Regular: 70 soles There are no discounts for students and minors Peruvians: 40 soles

3. Partial Ticket Circuit II: City and South Sacred Valley

Validity:	2 days
Sites:	Museum of Contemporary Art Regional Historical Museum Popular Art Museum Qoricancha Site Museum Qosqo Native Art Center Monument to the Inca Pachacuteq Pikillaqta Tipón
Cost:	Regular: 70 soles There are no discounts for students and minors Peruvians: 40 soles

4. Partial Ticket Circuit III: Sacred Valley

Validity:	2 days
Sites:	Pisac Ollantaytambo Chincero Moray
Cost:	Regular: 70 soles There are no discounts for students and minors Peruvians: 40 soles

IMPORTANT NOTE: Even if you know you can only visit 3 or 4 sites and museums, it may STILL be worth purchasing the full tourist ticket. Here’s why: Say you know you want to see Saqsayhuaman (only available on Circuit 1) and Ollantaytambo (only available on Circuit 3). In this case, you’ll end up paying 140 soles for that because there is no combo that includes both and neither place sells individual tickets. In fact, a lot of these places don’t. You must have a tourist ticket.

Additional costs – Transportation

This is where a lot of visitors might get a little confused. Technically, you just pay the 130 soles and you can enter any of these sites and museums.

But there’s another consideration. Some of these archaeological sites are quite a bit outside of Cusco. So if you happen to be staying in Cusco, it’s important to note that may of the archaeological sites you’ll be visiting are sort of far away. You’re going to need transportation at the very least. And transportation is not included in the price of the Cusco Tourist Ticket.

You will need to either take a taxi, hire a car, take a collectivo, or use one of the public buses (if they go there).

Sample transportation costs

The costs we’ve included below are only examples, of course, because you will do your trips differently than we did. Still, we want to let you know how we did it to give you at least a small idea if what it costs. We went on various excursions using our Cusco Tourist Ticket over a period of ten days. On some days, we combined excursions.

Here’s what we paid, roughly.

Pisac

This town is about one hour outside of Cusco. We used a collectivo from Cusco to go to Pisac. The round-trip cost from Cusco to Pisac was 10 soles (about $3.00 each). Totally worth it. Pisac is not only a fantastic Inca ruin; it also has one of the best markets int he Sacred Valley.

We took a taxi to the top of Pisac for 25 soles and hiked down to the town to spend the rest of the day at the market. An amazing experience that we suggest you do as well.

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Chinchero, Moray, & Salinas de Maras

The Salinas de Maras is not included in the Cusco Tourist Ticket, but it is very much worth the extra money and time. We recommend adding it to your trip to Moray and Chinchero. The admission cost is 10 soles per person.

Because these three places could be combined into a day trip from Cusco, we decided to hire a driver for the day. We left Cusco at 10 am and returned at 4 pm. The driver picked us up in an SUV and took us to all three sites for a total of 200 soles – or $60. That may seem like a lot of money, but the logistics involved in organizing all of these trips separately and finding transportation made this worth the money for us.

If you decide not to do the salt mines, you should be able to hire a driver for the day for 150-180 soles.

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Ollantaytambo

This site is about 2 hours outside of Cusco. The cost for a round-trip collectivo to Ollantaytambo from Cusco is 20 soles (about $6.00 each)

Pikillaqta and Tipon

These two sites were close together so we combined them. We took a bus to Pikillaqta for about 10 soles each. We toured the site, along with an optional free site called Rumicolca and then took a bus back to Tipon for 1 sol each. There, we hired a taxi for 15 soles to take us to the top of the mountain.

We hiked back down the mountain and through all of the amazing ruins (including an optional free site called Pukara). Then, we took a bus back to Cusco for about 3 soles each.

Saqsayhuaman, Qenqu, Puka Pukara, Tambomachay

These sites are very close to Cusco. That said, you will still need transportation. All of these sites are accessible via the Huerto Local Bus Line for about 1 Sol each way (about 30 cents). If you’d like to take that bus, we recommend walking to Rosaspata market and catching it there.

If you prefer to take an Uber from the city center, expect to pay about 15 Soles (including tip) to get to the farthest site, Tambomachay.

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Do you need to hire a guide?

In nearly every museum and Cusco archaeological site you’ll visit using the Cusco Tourist Ticket, you’ll have the opportunity to hire a guide. In many case, that will run you around 20 to 50 soles, depending on how much time is required by the guide.

On our trip, we avoided this cost altogether. We found Wikipedia and other Web sites to be invaluable resources during our travel in Cusco.

That said, some people prefer guides and, well, $6-$15 is a bargain for a couple of hours with a professional guide.

Our total cost using the Cusco Tourist Ticket

Here’s what we paid, in total, for two people. Keep in mind that this didn’t include the cost of food. But food is so cheap that it didn’t make much of a difference anyway.

Ticket price: 130 x 2 = 260 Soles ($77)
Transportation costs: 330 Soles ($95)
Total cost: 590 Soles ($175.00)

Cost per day for two people: $17.50

Is the Cusco Boleto Turistico worth the price?

For all of the amazing Inca ruins and museums we got to see over a period of 10 days using our tickets, we think that was a bargain. We think you will agree.

If you have at least ten days, you’re likely going to use two of them to go to Machu Picchu. Use whatever you have left and buy a Cusco Tourist Ticket to see these other amazing things.

If you don’t have ten days, but still want to see a few things besides Machu Picchu, then we recommend buying one of the partial tickets and seeing as much as you can. At the very least, we think seeing the archaeological sites in Cusco – Saqsayhuaman, Qenqo, Puka Pukara, and Tambomachay – to get an idea of some sites besides Machu Picchu and to understand why Cusco is where it is.

The best way to get around in Peru

We made our way to Cusco using the comfortable buses of Peru Hop. Whether you’re an experienced traveler or a novice, we highly recommend Peru Hop. They make the journey from Lima to Cusco both fun and super easy.

You can read about our trip – Peru Hop Full South to Cusco – right here.

Lonely Planet Peru

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