One of our personal favourites, this one-day visit to the Salt Mines of Maras and Moray Inca Ruins offers breathtaking scenery of the mountains surrounding the Sacred Valley of Cusco. In fact, we’d go so far as to say these are some of the BEST views you will experience on your entire trip!
The Maras Salt Mines and Moray tour from Cusco is a great way to acclimatize for a longer trek. We also especially recommend this tour for families, and for photographers who want to capture the different moods of the awe-inspiring Moray amphitheatres and contemporary aesthetic of the Maras salt flats.
Click FULL DESCRIPTION to read more about this amazing one day Cusco tour!
High quality personalized experience
Unique, off-the-beaten track routes
Experienced staff
Verified sustainability practices
$20 of every trek donated to Threads of Peru
Departure and return times are based on pick-up/drop-off from your Cusco hotel.
Get ready for a packed and fun-filled day visiting Maras and Moray! We leave Cusco at around 8 AM, taking our comfortable private transport to nearby Chinchero. Here we will delve into the unique weaving and natural dye traditions of the Andes at an awana wasi, a weaving house.
From here, our jaws will drop as we descend towards the Sacred Valley and are greeted by the most spectacular views of towering snowcapped mountains. These are the apus of Peru, revered mountain gods keeping watch over the fertile valley. Remember – as this is a private tour, we can stop anywhere along the way to take photos of the stunning surroundings. Just tell your guide and he or she will tell your driver to pull over at the best miradores or lookout points.
After about 45 minutes of driving through rich Andean farmland, we reach the fascinating Moray Inca ruins, one of the most unusual and interesting in the area. A pre-Incan site also thought to have been used by the Incas, Moray is a series of circular agricultural terraces which are believed to have been an experimental agricultural station for different crop strains. We will spend about 1 hour exploring these huge amphitheatres.
From here, we continue to the community of Misminay, located close to Moray. Here, the traditionally dressed ladies of the community will welcome you. We will have lunch around noon, enjoy a healthy and delicious meal featuring traditional Andean fare, including potatoes, corn and sweet potatoes.
Optional Extra: If you wish to extend your day by about 1.5 hours, we can add a traditional Agricultural Demonstration in Misminay. You’ll witness ancestral farming techniques first-hand as well as traditional agricultural tools, and maybe lend a helping hand as you give it a try yourself!
From Misminay we continue in our comfortable car about 30 minutes until we reach the charming village of Maras. Straight away, we descend to the Maras salt mines – a collection of watered terraces that take salt from an underground salty stream. Locals collect the salt through a fascinating process of evaporation.
The pools and salt embankments are an incredible sight against the stunning mountain backdrop – very Insta-worthy! We’ll have about 40 minutes to spend taking in this fascinating site from the lookout point.
Warning: it can get really hot in the salineras on a sunny day!
Optional Extra: If you feel like some thrills, we can organize for you to take an ATV tour from the village of Maras to the salineras and back again. Hot and dusty, this is a lot of fun for those craving an adventurous way to end the day!
Whether you add the thrill of an ATV ride or not, at the end of our Maras Moray tour, we get back in our comfortable vehicle to head back to Cusco. The drive takes about one to one and a half hours, and we will arrive back at your Cusco hotel around 4:30 PM, unless you have opted for one of the additional activities which will extend the day.
If you prefer, we can also leave you at a Sacred Valley hotel near Urubamba at no extra charge, though this may alter the arrival time.
Very memorable, incredibly rich history and great stories to tell!
