Luxury Cusco Holidays

Start exploring ancient ruins early by visiting Sacsayhuamán, a massive ceremonial complex built from a puzzle of limestone blocks. Overlooking Cusco from the northern hills, the site's scale is still enormous, and this only represents twenty per cent of the original structure. Much of the rest was dismantled by Spanish conquistadors for building materials.

We’ll arrange private tours during quieter hours, allowing you to appreciate the site without crowds, complemented by expert guides who explain both the astronomical alignments and the logistical mysteries of its construction.

For authentic immersion in daily Cusco life, few experiences rival San Pedro Market. This bustling covered market overflows with local produce, medicinal herbs, fresh juices and prepared foods that reveal untouched Andean culinary traditions.

Vendors offer over 50 varieties of corn, dozens of potato species in colours from purple to yellow, and jungle fruits whose names exist only in Quechua. The prepared food section serves authentic breakfast and lunch to market workers and locals.

We arrange private market tours with specialist guides who navigate you through the organised chaos, explaining ingredients, translating with vendors, and revealing the cultural significance behind the produce. These excursions can culminate in private cooking sessions using your market purchases.

Dominating the Plaza de Armas, Cusco's Cathedral represents the Spanish Empire's religious ambition, with the cathedral literally constructed using stones from the Incan palace of Viracocha. The baroque interior is filled with gilded altars, colonial paintings and intricate carved cedar choir stalls.

Discover cultural fusion with the Last Supper painting featuring Christ and the apostles dining on cuy (guinea pig), traditional Andean bread, and chicha corn beer. The massive Maria Angola bell in the north tower, cast with gold and bronze, can be heard from miles away.

Tour the site with a specialist who decodes the cathedral's artistic and historical layers, from indigenous symbolism hidden within Catholic iconography to the architectural techniques that blend European baroque with Incan methods.

Throughout Cusco's streets, Inca walls showcase ancient masonry. The most famous example is the twelve-angled stone on Hatun Rumiyoc street, which demonstrates the precision cutting that allowed massive stones to fit together without mortar, each irregular angle perfectly matched to its neighbours.

These foundations have proven more durable than the colonial structures they support, their interlocking design flexing during earthquakes rather than cracking. Walking the narrow street of Loreto, you can touch stones on both sides, with Inca walls from the Acllahuasi (House of Chosen Women) on one side and foundations of the ancient Inca Roca palace on the other.