u/tacodocks

Just sharing my experience from today in case it helps someone planning their trip and wondering whether they need to sacrifice their sleep schedule to the mountain gods.

For context: there was absolutely no way I was waking up at 3 a.m. I like sleep too much for that level of commitment. I already had a ticket for Route 1B that I bought online as basically the “last available option in the system” situation. Not my preferred route, but at that point I was just happy to have any entry into Machu Picchu locked in.

Still, I wanted to try my luck in person to see if I could get something better.

So today, May 2nd, I showed up around 6:00 a.m. with two people I was traveling with. We all went together, slightly skeptical but reasonably hopeful to secure another ticket for the next day.

The line was TERRIFYING, but turns out it went way faster than expected. We were able to secure three tickets for our desired route and time. We could even pay by card!

By that point (around 8:40), there were still plenty of options left. We got Route 3B easily, and there were still other routes available too (around 120 tickets for 2A for example). The whole experience was quite OK.

So the main takeaway: at least right now, early in the season, you don’t need to show up at absurd hours and suffer through the early morning. Arriving around 6 a.m. seemed perfectly fine, and you still have a good chance of getting what you want.

That said, we did end up queuing for about two and a half hours in total, so it’s not exactly a walk-in-and-out situation either.

Anyway, hope this helps someone plan a bit better and avoid unnecessary early morning chaos.

Stijn Baert rant