Sometimes you’ve gotta pay to play. As anyone who has gone to Peru this summer has found, prices have risen again on the Inca Trail. Due to a rise in permit fees and at Machu Picchu, the total fee for the 4-day hike is now running $300-$360 per person if booked with an agency in Cusco.
In addition, one of the alternate treks that procrastinators could do on the fly now has been closed to independent trekkers. You must go with a group. Here’s the lowdown from the South American Explorer’s Club e-newsletter (a useful resource for this sort of thing.)
Changes to the Salkantay Trek
The Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC) has instituted new rules for the Salkantay trek. Now it is only possible to do this trek with an agency and additionally, they have implemented a new change of 120 soles ($36), therefore expect the price of the trek to increase accordingly. There have been other price changes. For entrance to Machu Picchu, the price is now 118.50 soles ($36).
It is expected that in the next year, there will be similar changes to other alternative inca trails. For up to date information, please contact the Cusco Clubhouse, cuscoclub@saexplorers.org.
There are good reasons for all this, which you can read in my Transitions Abroad article from a while back, Saving Machu Picchu . Just ignore the actual prices–they’re already out of date.
If you are a member of South American Explorer’s Club and you get their magazine, watch for another Peru story of mine in their next issue, with a view from the porters’ perspective.
