Chinchero, Moray and Maras Salt Mines Tour

This Chinchero, Moray and Maras salt mines tour covers three stops on the northern side of Cusco, close to the Sacred Valley, in five to six hours. After a group pick-up, about an hour on the road brings you to Chinchero, with views of the Chicon and Pitusiray mountains.

In the town, an important Inca settlement and a center of handmade textiles, you make a short stop with one of the few families who still keep the old methods, where you learn about ancient textiles and see how weaving is done. Thirty minutes further on is Moray, an Inca agricultural laboratory set in a rare depression in the land, where the Incas shaped unique circular terraces and watered them with an engineered irrigation system.

The last stop, about an hour away, is the Maras salt mines, a vast collection of terraces fed by a stream high on the mountain.

• About 1,000 small pools, filled by one salt spring channeled over centuries
• Water that evaporates on sunny days and leaves pure salt, a technique used since pre-Inca times

You then drive about an hour and a half back to Cusco, and the group is dropped off near the Plaza de Armas. The tour includes a bilingual guide, transport and hotel pick-up. Food, drinks, tips and the Moray and salt mine tickets are extra. It is not suitable for people with back problems, mobility impairments, visual impairments or those over 100 kg.