Since we arrived in Ollantaytambo, we had been hearing about Cusco’s “boleto” – the one-ticket-fits-all pass to grant us entrance into the main historical sites and points of interests around the city.

It was difficult finding “official” information about the boleto.  I found conflicting information all over the internet about which sites were and were not included. After a bit of preliminary online research, we went to the Municipal building on Avenida del Sol to purchase our boletos, hoping they would come with a brochure or some kind of additional explanatory guidance — no such luck.  There is a small map of Cusco on the back of the ticket, but other than that, we relied on Google for all of our know-how.

Because we had such an extensive amount of time in Cusco, we bought the full ten-day boleto for 130 soles (almost $40 USD); FYI to anyone purchasing it, you can only use cash.  There are some less expensive options for shorter time periods, but we wanted to be able to see as much as we possibly could, without rushing through it.

The following sites were included:

1. Museo de Sitio del Qorikancha 
2. Monumento Pachacuteq 
3. Museo Histórico Regional (Casa Garcilaso)
4. Museo Municipal de Art Contemporáneo 
5. Saqsayhuaman 
6. Q’enqo 
7. Puka Pukara 
8. Tambomachay 
9. Pisac
10. Chinchero 
11. Moray 
12. Tipon 
13. Pikillaqta 
14. Ollantaytambo 

We grouped our visits according to weather and where all of these sites were located.  We didn’t need to pay a visit to Ollantaytambo, since we’d already extensively explored the ruins there, so that left us with 13 different sites to see.

All of the museums are located in reasonable walking distance of one another within Cusco, so we decided to explore the Museo de Sitio de Qorikancha, Monumento Pachacuteq, Museo Histórico Regional, and the Museo Municipal de Art Contemporáneo all in one day.

We decided to tackle Sacsayhuaman and Q’enqo in one day, and then we visited the two other areas of the Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park – Puka Pukara and Tambomachay – on a separate day.

We allotted one day for Pisac on its own, and we visited Chinchero on its own as well, though many people choose to visit Chinchero, Maras, and Moray all in the same day trip.

Our final destinations were Tipon and Pikillaqta; we completed almost the entire boleto, but unfortunately, we ran out of time for Pikillaqta.  Not bad – we were still able to cross 13 of the 14 stops off our list!

Because there is so much information to share about the boleto, in our next few posts, we’ll share some more details about each site, according to how we grouped them and visited them.

-XO Emily