When researching for our trip I spent a lot of time trying to budget for different locations around the world. Cost of living varies dramatically between each country that we are visiting, however, we still try to set an average daily budget of $75.00 USD. We know if we stay around this amount that we can visit all of the locations we hope to. In this post I am going to break down all of our expenses and answer the question, how much does it cost to travel in Cusco, Peru?
*Disclaimer: We are attempting to travel more on the budget side of things so obviously costs can vary dramatically. You can easily spend significantly more or less than what we did depending on your preferences.
We spent 7 nights and 7 days in Cusco. Then we also spent an additional 3 nights and 4 days on the Inca Trail itself, however, that was paid for in advance and is not counted towards our daily totals because it was an excursion we specifically budgeted for. We spent a significant amount of time in Cusco acclimatizing to the altitude prior to starting our hike as well as two nights after the hike. Many people use Cusco the same way, as a jumping off point to nearby treks. Hopefully this post is helpful if you are deciding if Cusco is an affordable location to base yourself in Peru!
Cusco
Our total daily expenses in Cusco from the time we landed in the airport to the time we boarded our flight to La Paz, Bolivia were…….. $482.39 USD for an average of $68.91 USD per day. These costs only include our normal daily expenses for meals, grocery, accommodations, transportation, etc. This does NOT include the cost of our flights to Cusco or the cost of the Inca Trail itself but it does include all of our normal expenses while touring Machu Picchu including meals.
- We don’t include our 4-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu trek because that is something that we budgeted and planned for separately. It is more expensive as its a multi-day hike but it was an amazing experience!
Accommodations – $256.66 USD total / $36.67 per night
In Cusco we spent $256.66 USD for 7 nights in a budget hotel about 15 minutes walking distance from the Plaza de Armas. This amounted to $36.67 USD per night.
- For us this hotel was on the more expensive side of our budget which left us with less to spend on other things throughout the day. We stayed in a hotel in order to be able to store our bags there while we were hiking to Machu Picchu.
Transportation – $12.73 USD total
Taxi
We walked almost everywhere in Cusco aside from to/from the airport which was arranged by our hotel for 20 soles per trip (40 total). We also tipped the driver 1 sole per trip. This totaled 42 soles, or $12.73 USD.
Meals – $95.00 USD total / $13.57 per day
In Cusco we ate out for almost every meal. Our hotel came with a complimentary breakfast which we took advantage of.
Breakfast
Complimentary
Lunch
Since our hotel came with a complimentary breakfast we took advantage of that every day. Neither of us eat a ton early on in the day so we often ate a big breakfast and skipped lunch. We found that people ate dinner in Cusco significantly earlier than in Lima (around 5-7 PM compared to 7-10 PM in Lima).
In all our time in Cusco we only had two lunches out that cost $18.79 USD total.
Dinner
We ate dinner out every night. If we could change one thing it would have been nice to have access to a kitchen so we could have cooked a few of our own meals. Cusco definitely had some more expensive options in the tourist heavy area we stayed in so it was an adventure to find cheaper, local food sometimes. In total we spent $76.21 on 6 dinners, an average of $12.70 USD per meal.
- If you’re looking for something other than Peruvian food, Nonna Trattoria in Cusco had delicious brick oven pizza that was very affordable!
Travel Truth: If you’re going to be in Cusco for a few days and are looking to stay on budget, our recommendation would be to book a place that has access to a kitchen. That way you can still store your bags (if you’re doing a multi-day hike) but can also prepare some of your meals.
Grocery – $42.85 USD total
Water
Tap water in Peru is not drinkable therefore we spent $11.70 USD on water. We found that on average water cost about 3.30 soles for a 2.5 Litre bottle.
Snacks/Misc.
We spent 102.80 soles, or about $31.70 USD on snacks and miscellaneous expenses at the grocery store. This included buying toilet paper (for the Inca Trail since you need to bring your own), snacks, trash bags for waterproofing our stuff, and vinegar.
Travel Truth: Vinegar is great to disinfect things like water bottles especially when the tap water is not potable. We bought a small bottle from the grocery store for about 2 Soles. Also buying trash bags for the inside of your backpacks is a good idea. We never felt worried about the inside of our bags while hiking even when it was pouring rain!
Excursions – $49.09 USD total
We did a pretty major excursion in addition to the Inca Trail, and that was the Lake Humantay Trek. The trek itself cost us 80 soles per person and included two meals and transportation, which equates to $48.48 USD. We also paid 2 soles, or $0.61 USD to use the bathroom there.
Read More: Day Trip to Lake Humantay
Gear – $7.58 USD total
Nicki needed to get waterproof pants for the Inca Trail to cover her leggings in case it rained. Spoiler alert, it both rained AND hailed on our hike so I probably should have bought waterproof pants as well.
The pants cost 25 soles at Rosly in Cusco or about $7.58 USD. This store is amazing for rentals and anything gear related that you can possibly need for trekking.
Miscellaneous – $18.48 USD total
Haircut
I needed to get a haircut in Cusco because I was a few weeks overdue. It cost 45 soles, or $13.64 USD.
Bathrooms
Paying for bathrooms never goes away. We spent 6 soles on bathroom trips at Machu Picchu, or about $1.82 USD.
Bag Check
Since we are only using our carry on backpacks for our trip around the world, we also used these as our hiking packs for the Inca Trail. They were too big to carry inside of Machu Picchu so we spent 10 soles checking them. This cost $3.03 USD.
Other expenses budgeted for separately
Flight from Lima to Cusco
This cost us $136 total, or $68 USD each, for a one way flight from Lima to Cusco.
Inca Trail
The Inca Trail is not cheap especially if you go with a reputable guide service. We each paid around $750 USD for the trek itself, all our meals on the trek, renting sleeping bags, camping air mattresses, and trekking poles (we highly recommend you do the same if you go) and the tips for our guides and porters. This was a major excursion for us on our trip so we set aside money a long time ago in order to do this.
We went with Alpaca Expeditions and could not be happier with our choice. The guides, porters, and chefs were outstanding and we have nothing but positive things to say about the experience!
Check out our posts for what we did on each day of our 4-day Inca Trail trek!
Overall
Overall we are happy we stayed under budget during our time in Cusco. However, we did find it to be more expensive than Lima. Check out our budget breakdown for Lima to see everything we spent there!
Cusco is more touristy due to all the nearby hikes (particularly the Inca Trail) so it can be difficult to find more affordable food options. However, it has such an amazing feel and beautiful views everywhere! We would definitely recommend exploring Cusco as it’s definitely one of our favorite places we’ve been to yet!
