so you are interested in cusco peru or perhaps you're even visiting the region soon if so you've
come to the right video if you're new around here we're nicole and mico we've been traveling south
america full-time for the last six months and very recently we spent almost a month in cusco city
and the surrounding region in this video we are going to cover lots of the cool things to do in
cusco and the surrounding area we'll pack in lots of travel tips for cusco as well so hang tight and
if you find this video useful and helpful in any way we'd love if you click that like button and
even that subscribe button so one of the first things you're going to do when you get to cusco
is walk around plaza de armas that's like the main part of the historic downtown city center you're
probably going to be staying nearby this area it's really accessible full of people all the time
it's absolutely stunning but one of the main reasons you're going to want to spend time here
when you first get to cusco is actually because you're going to be acclimatizing so cusco city
sits at about 3 400 meters high so pretty much no matter where you're coming from in the world
especially if you're coming by plane you're gonna need a little bit of time to acclimatize
to that high elevation because you're going to notice right away that you're just always out
of breath in cusco plaza de armas is really just the main touristic part in all of cusco there's
tons of shops and tons of like restaurants and cute like souvenir stations and things like that
in the area there's also like a really cool church that we actually went inside and walked around and
you can actually go up to part of the bell tower and see the entire plaza which is so stunning
because i think we went at like sunset and that was really spectacular plaza de armas is also the
place where a ton of the really cool events that are happening in the city are going to be sort
of stationed around so when we were there we got super lucky we were there for a festival called
inti raymi which is like festival of the sun it's a really traditional incredible incan festival
and uh it was just so colorful so vibrant there was so much going on in the city and particularly
in plaza de armas obviously it's a once in a year event it happens during the winter solstice and we
just happen to be there right on time but what's important to note is that plaza de armas is a very
central place for all these special events so if you're walking around plaza de armas chances
are you might see something going on all right so now that you've done a lot of walking around
the plaza de armas you're probably getting a little bit peckish well the good news is there
are tons of restaurants around the plaza de armas and like those are probably some of the better
restaurants i'd say in all of cusco and maybe all of peru here we had some incredible meals
while we were in cusco i think probably our best recommendation would be to go to morena peruvian
kitchen we had just exquisite exquisite food here like the presentation was absolutely stunning you
come to the restaurant and the lighting is just so beautiful the decorations they give this like sort
of cozy elegant vibe and then you have views of plaza de armas right from your table and
one of the awesome things about morena peruvian kitchen as well as all the restaurants honestly in
and around sort of the plaza of the armas area is that you have a really good array of peruvian
dishes to try like really classic peruvian dishes and if you want to you could get some more sort of
western style dishes if that's more to your liking if you're also adventurous enough you could try
some of the cuy which is guinea pig it's a delicacy especially in the andean region of peru
so trying in cusco would be a really cool place to do it something that we did while we were in cusco
that we actually really enjoyed and thought was going to be super super gimmicky was the panoramic
bus tour so everywhere you go in cusco people are offering you this bus tour like it's constant
people are asking you if you want this tour um we eventually said yes to one of them our advice is
to say yes yeah honestly it was way better than we thought i thought it was going to be kind of lame
to be honest more like a tourist trap because you see like all these people on top of the buses and
you know it's the really traditional tourist look taking photos and stuff like that yeah turns out
it was actually super fun it was really fun you started off right in the center of the plaza armas
they give you like a quick rundown of the area and the city's history and things like that and then
they take you over a couple blocks down where you actually get on the bus and do a lap or two around
the area showing you the more important buildings outside of the plaza one of the first stops we
went to outside of the historic center cusco up at the hill is saqsaywaman so that is also a very
important site for the incas we didn't spend any particular time walking around we were able to see
it from the bus saqsaywaman is actually a really neat place to spend like a morning or an afternoon
if you've got the time in cusco it's incan ruins again so you can go through and learn lots more
about incan history it just didn't fit in our schedule but it is definitely a great way to spend
some time in cusco if you've got a chance so after saqsaywaman the bus takes you up the hill further
to a couple other sites one of which includes a place where we met a local who was able to run
a traditional incan ritual overall just like a really interesting immersion into the culture
one that we did not expect from like your typical touristic bus tour and then after that we went
over to another site called cristo blanco which is like a statue of jesus christ right at the top
of the hill that overlooks down to like the cusco valley and that was also like an awesome place to
just take some photos and enjoy the scenery of the area something to know about cusco is especially
i mean we were there in the winter time in cuscos winter time and it is very cold once
the sun disappears so pack lots of warm clothes but if you don't pack enough you could always
buy some extra like warm clothing um throughout the city because there are tons of shops that sell
sweaters hats mitts and gloves and leg warmers everything you could ask for you can buy in either
plaza de armas or just generally around sort of the cusco historic center one of the most common
souvenir pieces that we saw while walking around cusco is the very classic south american sweater
of like you know you can tell us the peruvian kind of textile like fashion with some llamas on
it there's honestly no better way to tell all your friends and family and co-workers back home that
you just got back from your trip in south america than getting one of these sweaters i have one
in and around the plaza de armas and sort of just the general area within the historic center of
cusco there are tons of shops where you can also buy 100 percent alpaca wool products of course
alpaca wool is really really popular in peru it is a very cool thing to buy but if you're interested
in getting alpaca wool before you actually arrive to peru our suggestion would be to go and check
out appalachian gear company we recently got a couple of their sweaters and holy smokes
game changers game changers we absolutely love them we wore them non-stopp in peru
it was really chilly so once we had them we just wore them constantly especially in cusco
if you've seen some of our other videos you know how we feel about merino wool
we think it's a little bit overrated this alpaca wool is an alternative so far
we're liking it yeah we're super impressed so far so anyways you can get that from appalachian gear
company or of course right in peru you're going to find lots of options there as well
okay the lighting is changing a little bit uh this is the disadvantage of not
having our own studio and using an airbnb wherever we are in the world is where we're
coming to you from you just never know what you're gonna get so if we're squinting a lot
we're sorry it's been overcast all day we start to film it's like here's the sun
there's also san pedro market which is a great place to get souvenirs but what we also love at
san pedro market is that you can get super local like lunches or food options so we went there at
one point and just got lunch of the day you get this awesome what they call it an almuerzo this
is a very hard spanish word for me to say there's multiple dishes you get like soup and then you get
a main dish then you usually get a drink with that of some kind anyways super filling super yummy
super local so if you want a cool local experience go to san pedro market you can do some shopping
they've got all the classic shopping for tourists but then you can also go and have an awesome meal
if you're interested in learning more about incan culture and incan history definitely go and check
out qorikancha it's like one of their main temples there in cusco we had a chance to walk around and
explore the ruins explore the garden which is beautiful even climb up to like the bell
tower and look around we do highly recommend that you try and get a guide just at the front there
um you'll learn a lot more than we did just sort of walking around and checking things out looking
like we knew what we were doing there's so many things to do in cusco during the day but if you're
looking for more things to do at night we highly recommend going to this place called republica
del pisco we just had an amazing time hitting kind of the cusco night scene and then ending
off at republica del pisco because they had like awesome karaoke and like live music and
dancing it was uh a blast so much fun we joked that it was like next level karaoke because it's
not actually karaoke okay there's like a live band and they're playing but they just let anybody come
up and sing if they want to so it's not like you have the words up you have to know the song okay
but it is seriously next level like randoms from the audience just go up and they just sing with
the whole band playing behind them such a cool experience if you get a chance and you're feeling
up to it despite the elevation we highly recommend you give it a shot so all of these different
things you could probably fit into one to two days within the city of cusco and once you've done that
you've acclimatized to cusco we would suggest an awesome day activity which is to do the rainbow
mountains so it's just a quick one day tour from cusco city they pick you up in cusco drop you off
in cusco and it is exactly what it sounds like you go to a place called the rainbow mountains which
are these beautiful colorful mountains that kind of look like hills but you're at like 5000 meters
and you can hardly breathe um but it's a really fun day trip it's just a couple hours out there
they feed you along the way you spend a few hours looking around the incredible beautiful rainbow
mountains before coming home so it is a bit of a long day all you're gonna have time for when
you get back is bed and sleeping because you're going to be very tired or republica del pisco
another easy day trip from cusco would be humantay lake so this is something you could set up
with some of the tour agencies around the plaza and from there they'll pick you up and they'll
take you over to humantay lake where you'll then be hiking at elevation so this is not an easy hike
let me tell you it's a little bit challenging because you're so high up your reward is
the beautiful humantay lake which is just crystal clear so so turquoise blue and surrounded by these
super high andes mountains it's a stunning area it's a stunning landscape so if you're looking
for just like a quick retreat to get into the mountains and see the andes this is a great option
we actually went and saw humantay lake as part of our salkantay trek so to get to machu picchu there
are a handful of different routes that you can use to get there you can of course take the train
which is the sort of more classic very fast way to get to machu picchu you can take the inca trail
which is the very classic way to hike up to machu picchu or you can do the salkantay trekk that's
what we did it is a four day hike up through the andes all the way to of course the very iconic
machu picchu what you all came to cusco to see and the first day of that trek you get to see humantay
lake the next few days after that are honestly some of the best hiking we've ever done in our
life of course you can do the classic inca trail but for us we just like that feeling of immersion
in nature and really just something a little bit more hiking-esque for us yeah something that made
us feel i think a little bit more isolated there were still lots of people on the salkantay trek
um but we felt a little bit more sort of immersed into the andes sort of proper um and just tucked
away from a lot of things so we love the salkantay trek so if you get a chance we've got a video
about it we'll link it if you want to check it out if you choose to take the train to machu
picchu which actually brings you to the town at the base of machu picchu called aquas calientes
that is also an excellent option we took the train back to cusco from machu picchu because of course
we hiked up the train ride takes you through the sacred valley and it is it is truly beautiful
the hard part for us was staying awake because we were so exhausted after five days of hiking
but honestly the views were so good we actually didn't fall asleep i was very impressed
the last thing on our list about what to do in cusco and the cusco region is of course machu
picchu let's be honest that's why you went to cusco it is definitely worth the hype we were
blown away by machu picchu we just loved our time there i swear we could have just spent
days and days hanging around and just kind of getting to know the general area we could
spend hours and hours talking about machu picchu and all the tips that we have from machu picchu
but we feel like that deserves its own video so we actually have made another video about
machu picchu and if you're going there we highly recommend checking out that video to get a couple
more insights and again tips before your visit there because it is a little bit different than
how it ran pre-pandemic in 2019 and before before we give you our final thoughts on cusco we want
to take a second to thank our patrons who help us to bring you guys new videos every
single week from all around the world if you're interested in checking out our patreon we will
link it above one of our goals with patreon is to build a travel community because honestly
having a travel community has changed our adventures so much especially at our time
in cusco we connected with a few people that were already in our circle of friends through social
media and through youtube and it just like it just made the whole experience way better yeah it was
really cool we got to meet a few people in cusco that we met through youtube and just like get to
know the community a little better talk about travel and all the cool ways that people are
integrating travel into their life and we loved it cusco is an awesome place we highly recommend
checking it out spend a couple extra days there if you can either before or after your trip to
machu picchu you will definitely not regret it and with that we'll leave you guys there thanks
so much for watching we'll see you in the next one and if so you have come to the right place
we're nicole and mico shoot nice excellent way to see a lot of the area and a lot of sort of
if you want to check out our patreon we'll link the link link the link above
i think there's a lot of beauty there that we have yet to see
and that's it
so you are interested in going to peru or perhaps no just a second take two