Where we stayed · Machu Picchu, Peru
The only hotel inside the gates
Belmond Sanctuary Lodge sits inside the archaeological park. That one fact reorganises the whole day.
Machu Picchu, Peru
Belmond Sanctuary Lodge is the only hotel inside the Machu Picchu archaeological park. That single fact rearranges everything about how the day works, because everybody else is on a bus and you are not.
The citadel was built in the fifteenth century and is among the best preserved ancient sites in South America, a place the Inca appear to have used for worship and contemplation rather than for administration. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it carries the visitor numbers that go with that.
Which is exactly why where you sleep matters here more than it does almost anywhere else. Staying inside the gates means the sunrise is available to you without a queue and a coach at the start of it. The lodge runs a sunrise tour with a guide and breakfast afterwards, and the difference between seeing that place with the first light and seeing it at eleven with everybody else is not a marginal one.
The rooms are decorated with local materials and look out at the mountains and the citadel. There are traditional rooms, suites, and a private bungalow. Ours had Andean textiles across the bed and a curtain you could pull back onto cloud sitting in the valley.
“Everybody else arrives by bus. You are already inside, which changes what the morning can be.”
From the journalThe rest of the property
There is a spa, a pool set into the gardens with water running past it, and a fitness room. The gardens themselves are worth an hour with a camera. There are hummingbirds in them, close and unhurried, and orchids that people come specifically to see.
Dining is at The Sacred Valley, local and international cooking with ingredients sourced nearby. Peruvian food does not need much help and does not get much interference here.
The property is serious about the setting it sits inside, with solar and water recycling among the measures. That matters more than usual when the hotel is physically inside the protected area.
What to build around it
Wayna Picchu is the climb behind the classic photograph and it needs booking well ahead, with limited daily numbers. Aguas Calientes below has the markets. Ollantaytambo, the Sacred Valley and Cusco are all reachable and all worth their own time.
If you only take one thing from this: book the sunrise, and book the lodge early. It is a small property in a place with no substitutes.
If the budget has to go somewhere on this trip, put it here rather than on the flights. The location is the thing you are actually buying.
From the journal · The Travelling T · Written September 2022
