Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations

Peru’s Salkantay Trek (vs. the Inca Trail)

I just spent a week off the grid, slogging up and down the Andes Mountains in Peru. I did something similar three and a half years ago con mi esposa, but on the Inca Trail. We paid in the neighborhood of $235 each then, but now you’re looking at $430 to $500 at most reputable agencies. Here’s a link that will explain the increases, but basically everything associated with that trek has gone up: permit fees, Machu Picchu admission, Peru Rail train tickets, and increased enforcement of better conditions for porters.

It’s a budget buster for backpackers, but one that plenty of people are still willing to spring for. Despite the rapid increase in cost, this trip is still super-popular. One Q’Ente agency spokesperson I interviewed for a newspaper story I’m working on said, “If you want to go in the high season [late May through August], you should book your spot five or six months ahead.”

Many people don’t know this or can’t plan so far ahead, so they end up on the “alternative Inca Trail”—the Saltankay Trek. There’s one version of this that joins up with the Inca Trail toward the end, but if all the permits are sold out that’s not a possibility anyway. The other more frequent option always open is to follow it all the way to the hydroelectric plant near Machu Picchu and then hop a local train at the end.

Having now done the Inca Trail and now the latter version of the Salkantay trek, I can compare the two. The Salkantay one doesn’t have the ruins or the cachet of the Inca Trail; you don’t just waltz into Machu Picchu on foot via the Sun Gate for one thing. But it’s still a fantastic hike through the picturesque Andes Mountains.

You travel with pack mules instead of porters unless you’re totally self-sufficient, slogging along with a tent, sleeping bag, and food. If you go with a tour company all this is taken care of in the price, which is on par with the Inca Trail but for another day or two of hiking and meals. If you go on your own—not possible on the Inca Trail but possible on this one—you have to hire your own mules and mule drivers at the town closest to the start of the trek. Plan to get there a day or two before to work it out. In theory you are supposed to buy a permit, which the agencies will do, but most people who hike on their own don’t bother. There is no monitoring anywhere and you don’t have to feel guilty: the government provides zero services along the route. It’s “natural toilets” all the way and no government trail maintenance.

Salkantay Mountain - 6,274 meters

The main advantage to this Salkantay hike is scenery, glorious scenery. The first two photos here are what you see near your campsite at the end of Day 1. Yes, Day 1! You see Huamantay (first pic) on one side of you and Salkantay (second pic) on the other side. It’s a bucolic scene of pastures, horses, glacial streams, and massive snow-capped mountains. Spectacular! Then the third picture is what you see after crossing the 15,000-foot pass and heading down the other side, on Day 2. Not a bad start, eh? You get much closer to the high mountains on this trek.

Then it’s narrow valley after narrow valley through the mountains, great vistas the whole way. You go through a lot of different elevations and ecosystems, including a high jungle day where you had better be smearing on some heavy-duty bug repellant. I think I heard the critters laughing at my 7 percent DEET I picked up locally at the last minute. I got devoured after wearing shorts that day and I’m still scratching.

The last day is really rough, with a lot of up and down, but there are two prizes. First, you get to see Machu Pichhu in the distance from an uncleared ruin on an opposite mountain. Second, you end up at a local train station where you hop the last leg to Machu Picchu town—Aguas Calientes. (The original Inca trail from this location is covered by vegetation and would be too damn hard anyway.) At that train station is a restaurant and at that restaurant is an abundant supply of cold beer. Ahhhhh…

Overall, this trail is a great alternative, but be advised that it’s tougher and rougher than the Inca Trail, especially if you try to cover all that ground in four days instead of five. Unless you go on the fancy lodge-to-lodge trek ($2,500), you’ll be doing “real” camping and the only toilets will be tent latrines set up by the trekking company you book with. Showers or baths? No, unless you’ll willing to brave the chilly streams or take a dip in the river.