How we hiked the Inca Trail with a baby, and survived!

When we moved to Peru after college, the first thing that everyone asked us was if we had visited Machu Picchu. After a year and a half of saying “not yet,” we finally had the opportunity to go when my brother and sister came to visit us for 3 weeks!

I researched a ton about how to get there  independently from Lima and also about how to take a baby to Machu Picchu… and survive. Honestly, I really didn’t find that much information about it, but luckily I had a few friends who had already made the hike and I was able to drill them with all of my questions!

First of all, we live in Lima, so our crazy $334 price doesn’t include the flight from the US. My brother and sister flew with JetBlue Airlines from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and paid $480 for their round-trip flight. You have to be flexible in order to get this price, but it is possible!! The normal price to fly with Delta is between 700-1000 USD. But, my brother and sister are the second people to come visit us and get this awesome price!! Double proof that it can be done! You just have to be willing to fly with Spirit or JetBlue Airlines. I recommend JetBlue because they have awesome customer service and let you check one bag for free!!

Ok, so after you make it from the United States to Lima, you can take a flight from the Javier-Chavez International Airport in Lima straight to Cusco, or you can stay a couple of days in Lima. You can see the Presidential Palace, tour the catacombs, and see a little bit of the capital city of Peru. As far as tourist activities, I think that you can see the historical part of Lima in 2 days. A good hostel to stay in is Kokopelli Hostel which is right in the center of the city. People there speak English, are super helpful, and it is safe!

We took Peruvian Airlines from Lima to Cusco. They are the only airline we found that does not discriminate in pricing. Most airlines will charge you more if you are not Peruvian, but ironically, Peruvian Airlines is the one that does not charge more! We paid $134 for a round-trip flight from Lima to Cusco. The flight time is around 1 hour and 20 minutes, and the view is absolutely incredible the whole time, so try to get a window seat!

Arriving in Cusco, we walked out to the street and caught a taxi (avoiding all of the airport taxi drivers who always charge a higher price) and paid 10 soles (around 3$) for the taxi to take us to Kokopelli Hostel in Cusco. This is the sister hostel to the one I recommended you to go to in Lima!

Kokopelli Hostel is my favorite! We walked in the door and all of the staff were super nice and welcoming. They also all spoke English and Spanish. They take volunteers who get free lodging in exchange for working at the hostel and so everyone is very friendly and happy to be there! The furniture is really funky and cute, there are hammocks hanging everywhere, cool art painted all over the walls, and fun events in the hostel every night. It also has a bar/restaurant where you can play pool and order food and drinks and big couches where you can hang out. There are computers and wifi so you can contact family and friends. Overall, it’s my favorite hostel I’ve ever been to! And I’ve been to A LOT of hostels!

We stayed two nights in Kokopelli exploring Cusco before we were going to head to Machu Picchu. We wanted to give ourselves a chance to get used to the crazy altitude and I’m so glad that we did. The first day there, all of our heads were swimming and we felt weird! We chewed the leaves of the cocaine plant and drank tea made from the leaves and that helped a lot! I know what you are thinking, haha, but don’t worry! It does not have the same effect as cocaine, because cocaine is extracted from the leaf and requires several solvents and a chemical process (or so says Wikipedia, lol) The coca leaves did make my brother’s tongue go numb after chewing them all day, so take that as you will.

Our first two days in Cusco gave us enough time to see the historical part of the city, the central plaza, and hike up to the Cristo Blanco that overlooks the city. On our third day, we woke up at 3 am to begin our trek to Machu Picchu. We took a taxi from Cusco to Ollantaytambo which cost us 90 soles. Since there were 4 of us, we split it 4 ways which ended up being 22.5 soles each (or a little bit more than 7 dollars) The taxi ride from Cusco to Ollantaytambo was 2 hours long and we arrived at 6 am. The taxi driver dropped us off in the central square of Ollantaytambo and at 6am there was literally nothing open, and nothing happening! We asked a few Peruvians about transportation to continue our journey to Aguas Calientes, aka Machu Picchu Pueblo, and they said we were going to have to wait until 1pm and take a bus. We did not want to waste so many hours of our time waiting and so we walked around and asked some more people about alternative ways to get there and we found a small collective combi, which is a big ol’ van, full of people and needing 4 more passengers. It was our lucky day, and theirs! So we paid 3 soles each to get in the van and get dropped off at kilometer market 82 of the Inca Trail. The van took tiny back dirt roads and dropped everyone off at their houses. The view was beautiful and the road we took was right along the river.

Here’s where the crazy/fun part starts. The van dropped everyone else off, and then pulled up to a dead end where 3 donkeys were blocking the road. The driver shut the van off and told us that this was our stop. We all piled out of the van, took some pictures of the donkeys, and went to buy some water and ask the store owner how to get to the trail. He told us to hike the train tracks or go up a little bit and follow the dirt trail. We crossed the train tracks to take a picture with the Inca Trail sign! We took the dirt trail instead of starting out on the tracks and we found two hikers who were camping on the side of the trail right at the beginning. They said it was about a 9 hour hike, that is was very beautiful, and that we could follow any road and it would lead us where we were going!

We started the trail at kilometer 82, which is where the classic 4 day Inca Trail hike starts as well, but takes a different route. We talked to a few hikers along the way who were also hiking without a guide and they were taking 2 days to hike the trail so that they could camp along the river. We hiked from kilometer 82 to Aguas Calientes in one day and after doing it, I think we were totally insane!

The hike was absolutely incredible. A rushing river, breathtaking mountains, cool, crisp air, wildflowers, cows, just incredible! At this point, we had made it to the Inca Trail from Cusco for approximately $8. I read a lot about hiking down the railroad tracks, but to be safer we decided to hike on the path most of the time. That added a couple of hours to our time because the railroad tracks are shorter! About halfway through the hike, we switched to only using the tracks so that we could get off of the trail before it got dark. There are places on the side to stand when the train comes by and it always honks its horn before it comes since there are so many backpackers hiking the tracks!

We ended up hiking 18 miles in 12 hours. We started hiking around 7am and stopped several times to eat lunch and to let the baby out of her hiking pack so that she could crawl around in the grass. We walked into Aguas Calientes, which is the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu, right at 7pm as it was getting dark.

In Aguas Calientes, we stayed at a hostel called Umina Machu Picchu that I booked through hostelworld.com. It was what I would call a “normal hostel” which is kind of dirty, one pillow, one sheet, no towels, and lots of hippie backpackers. We paid 66 soles (about 22$) for a private bedroom with two beds and private bathroom where Chris, Jubilee, Sam, and I all slept. My brother paid 22 soles to stay in a mixed dorm room with other people. I would say… only stay in this hostel if you are looking for the cheapest price, are an experienced hostel-stayer, and don’t have very high standards for where you sleep.

The next morning, my brother, John Eddie, woke up and hiked up to Machu Picchu. The rest of us literally could not make it. Our feet were so sore and our ankles were hurting, and everyone told us that it would be a dangerous hike to make with a baby. John Eddie made the hike up to the top in about 1 hour, and said it was difficult. He is also in awesome shape and runs circles around the rest of us, so I’m not sure if I would have made it climbing the stairs! Instead, we paid $12 each to ride a bus up to the top. It was worth every penny! There is a little ticket booth that sells bus tickets and the buses leave every 10 minutes. We went to a little cafe that had wifi and waited a while to give my brother time to get to the top. Our bus ride took about 20 minutes and gave us an incredible view of the mountains. When we arrived at Machu Picchu, we all piled out of the bus and got in line to go in. We needed to show them our passports and our entrance tickets. I read online that you also needed to be ready to show them the visa card that you used to pay for the entrance tickets and that they reserved the right to refuse your entry if you could not provide it, but no one asked us for it. (If you purchase your ticket directly from the website, it will cost you $50)

Once inside, there is a place where you can pay 3 soles to leave all of your bags so you don’t have to carry them around the park and there is also a table where you can stamp your passport with a Machu Picchu stamp. We did all of that and then set out for the ruins.

We spent several hours exploring the ruins, climbing up to the top, hiking to the Inca Bridge, trying to play with the llamas, and relaxing. You need about half of the day to see everything and to be able to lay back and relax in the grass with the llamas.

When it was time to head back, we took the Peruvian train. There are two trains leaving Machu Picchu Pueblo and going back to Ollantaytambo. One is the tourist train and one is the “backpacker train” which is the train that the Peruvian citizens take. For a peruvian citizen, it costs 10 soles (3$) to ride the train and for an American citizen, it costs $45. Not fair, but better than the $65 one way ticket on the tourist train. So we went with a 7pm departure back to Ollantaytambo and got here at about 9pm. When we arrived, there were taxis and vans lined up outside of the train station waiting on people to take back to Cusco. We bargained with a taxi driver and got the same 90 soles price we paid to get to Ollantaytambo in the first taxi. He took us back to Cusco and we stayed another 2 nights at Kokopelli hostel before flying back to Lima.

We had an awesome time getting to Machu Picchu and were super proud of ourselves for making the hike! I hope this blog post encourages you! You do not have to have a ton of money to travel and you also don’t have to do it the conventional way. You can also do it with a baby! It is possible!

Things to pack if you are hiking to Machu Picchu with a baby: 
-Warm hats, socks, baby gloves, and blankets. It gets cold!
-A sippy cup and bottled water if your baby is old enough to drink it
-A distracting, crunchy snack. For us, crackers and baby cookies are the magic trick! They literally saved our lives. It gets boring bouncing around in a hiking backpack seat for 12 hours…. babies need crackers. The end.
-Diapers and wipes. I used the same rule that I use when we fly. 1 diaper for every hour that we will be hiking/flying. I always have too many diapers but I’d rather have too many than not enough!
-Baby Tylenol and a thermometer just in case

Tips/other things to know: 
-Bring as much water as you can carry. It might be heavy, but you will be happy you did! We brought water, and then bought water at two different houses and then drank water from the river and then ran out of water again!
-In order to hike the trail in such a short amount of time, you should be training beforehand! We were all training and climbing stairs and getting ready for the hike in advance and making the hike in one day took ALL of our strength! I think we literally crawled into Aguas Calientes at the end of the hike!
-Make sure your camera/cellphone batteries are charged! The views and the experiences that you will have along the trail are absolutely incredible.
-You won’t get lost even though it seems like it. Sometimes the trail disappears and sometimes you are walking on cow trails. But what the first hiker told me was true… all trails lead you to Machu Picchu!
-Don’t forget to pack toilet paper.
-Altitude sickness is no joke! Just decide if it is worth it or not, and then accept it. I’ve heard a lot of people say that the altitude ruined their trip. The altitude sickness is weird, but if you pack medicine, take it beforehand, chew the coca leaves, and make the best of it, you will enjoy Machu Picchu even with your head swimming! And you might have some funny stories about throwing up behind a taxi cab to tell later on (even though it doesn’t seem funny at all in the moment)

Websites that will help you plan your trip: 
Here is where you can buy your Machu Picchu entrance ticket for the cheapest price (you have to do it in the Spanish version though because if you click to translate it into English, it will not work. So just get someone to help you who speaks Spanish, or email me and I’ll be happy to help!)

Here is where you can book a room at Kokopelli Hostel

Here is where you can look for a hostel in Aguas Calientes (you can book at Umina like we did, but only do so at your own risk haha! I would do it again, for the cheap price, but don’t be mad at me if you get roomed with some crazy hippie hikers or … 😉 get bedbugs!)

Here is a video of our hike that you can watch, and good luck with all of your traveling dreams and adventures. May they all come true! (Especially if you have babies, I’m rooting for YOU!)

$384 price includes: (this is just for fun and to give you an idea, since this price depends on how many people you are with and which rooms you get at the hostels… but this was how much I paid for private rooms and everything I needed to travel with my baby girl)
-$8 to split the taxi ride to the airport in Lima
-$134 round trip flight from Lima to Cusco
-$1 each taxi ride from airport in Cusco to Kokopelli Hostel
-$25 per night at Kokopelli Hostel (4 nights total)
-$7 each taxi ride from Cusco to Ollantaytambo
-$1 each combi ride from Ollantaytambo to Kilometer 84 AKA beginning of the Inca Trail
-$22 private room at the hostel in Machu Picchu
-$50 entrance ticket to Machu Picchu Park
-$12 to ride the bus up to Machu Picchu
-$12 more to ride the bus down from Machu Picchu if you choose not to hike
-$45 to take the train back from Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo
-$7 each to take the taxi from Ollantaytambo back to Kokopelli Hostel in Cusco
-$60 spending money for souvenirs and food/drinks…. and medicine in case you get altitude sickness!

Disclaimer: hiking this trail was EXTREMELY physically challenging and should only be done if you are in excellent physical health. You should also take a guide…and some Tylenol.. And maybe the train.