Machu Picchu is booked out: Choquequirao, Ausangate and two quieter treks

In late June I tried to book Circuit 2 for a Saturday three weeks ahead, and every entry time on the ticket site was taken. So were the Friday and the Sunday. The next open slot was a Tuesday at 2pm, which is the hour I would least like to walk the terraces: hot, tired and with flat light.

Sold-out dates are normal in the dry season, and they rarely mean you cannot get in. Our Machu Picchu tickets guide explains the circuits, the routes and the official sales channels, and it is worth reading before you give up. This story is for the traveler who has run out of dates, or who would rather spend the same days walking somewhere with fewer people on the path.

I made two trips to the Cusco region in 2026, one in June and one in August, and walked four routes: Choquequirao, Ausangate, Lares and Huchuy Qosqo. I used the two short ones to get my body ready for the long ones.

None of these is Machu Picchu. The citadel has a setting, a state of repair and a completeness that no other Inca site in Peru matches all at once. If standing in it is the reason for your trip, the answer is a different date, a different route or a different month, and the tickets guide shows how.

What these routes can replace is the days. Four or five days on an Andean path with a reason to be there: stonework at the end of one, glaciers in the middle of another, villages that still weave and herd along a third. They also sidestep the booking problem. None of the four needs a Machu Picchu ticket. Elevations and distances below are rounded, and campsites, fees and routes change from season to season, so confirm the details with your operator.

Choquequirao is an Inca site on a ridge above the Apurímac canyon, in the region of Apurímac, a long day's road from Cusco. It is often called a sister of Machu Picchu because of its scale and its terraces. Only part of it has been cleared, and the terraces with white stone llamas set into the walls were the part where I spent the most time.

The usual route starts in Cachora, about five hours by road from Cusco. From there the path drops roughly 1,500 m to the Apurímac river and climbs roughly 1,500 m up the other side. The first afternoon is a knee-punishing descent, and the second day is the hardest of the four routes in this story. I walked it in five days with a full day at the site in the middle. The canyon floor is hot and dry by day and the camps above 3,000 m are cold at night, so you pack for both.

On my day at the site I counted fewer than 30 other people among the terraces. At Machu Picchu the same hours would have meant a timed route and a queue at the entry point. A cable car to the site has been announced for years. I saw no sign of one, and I would not plan around it. Ask your operator whether the site entry fee is included, and check the Ministry of Culture's notices for current rules.

Some operators sell a longer continuation from Choquequirao to Machu Picchu over high passes, about nine or ten days in all. I did not walk it, so I cannot rate it.

Ausangate is the highest peak in the Cusco region, at about 6,380 m, and the circuit around it is the hardest walk on this list. The trailhead is a few hours by road from Cusco, near Tinki at about 3,800 m. From there the path climbs over several passes above 4,800 m, the highest of them Palomani at around 5,200 m, and the camps sit between roughly 4,300 and 4,800 m. There are turquoise lakes under the ice, herds of alpacas and llamas, and hot springs near the trailhead for the last night.

I packed a sleeping bag meant for light frost, and that was my mistake of the trip. Nights at the high camps were well below freezing. On the second night I slept in every layer I owned and got maybe three hours. The guide checked everyone's oxygen reading with a pulse oximeter each evening, which I would ask any operator about before booking.

Some itineraries add Vinicunca, Rainbow Mountain. Day tours from Cusco reach it in the morning, so ask your operator to time the visit for a different hour. On the circuit we saw more alpacas than people on most days.

The Lares route crosses the high valleys north of the Sacred Valley, and its draw is people. The path links Quechua-speaking farming communities at 3,800 m and above, where families weave and herd, and itineraries stop in villages where textiles are sold and sometimes lunch is cooked. Most cross one pass at around 4,400 m, sleep in or near a community and finish in Ollantaytambo, where the trains to Machu Picchu Pueblo leave. Lares also has hot springs, which most operators schedule for the end.

The walk is shorter and gentler than Choquequirao. I did it in August, after two nights at about 3,000 m, as my warm-up for Ausangate, and the day I remember is the second, with a long flat stretch beside a river and a weaver's courtyard at the end of it. Carry small coins and notes in soles for weavings and any small fee a community asks. Nobody in a village can change a 100-sol note.

Because the route ends where the Machu Picchu trains leave, you can finish with a ride down the valley and a try at the citadel. Our tickets guide explains why the in-person quota in Machu Picchu Pueblo is a backup, not a plan.

Huchuy Qosqo means little Cusco in Quechua. The Inca ruins above the Sacred Valley are the reward at the end of a two-day walk from near Tambomachay, outside Cusco, down to the valley floor near Lamay. The first day crosses a pass above 4,000 m and takes about six hours, with an overnight near the ruins. The second is a short morning among the stonework and a descent to a road.

I walked it in June after two nights in the Sacred Valley, and it did what I wanted. A headache arrived at the pass and left an hour later, and I knew how my body behaved at 4,000 m before I committed to five days toward Choquequirao. The ruins are modest next to Choquequirao, and that is a fair price for a first walk.

Each route had to pass four tests. It needs no technical climbing, it starts within a day's road of Cusco, operators run it regularly in the dry season, and a reasonably fit person with a few days at altitude can finish it. I also asked whether it could fill the days a Machu Picchu visit would have taken, not just add a hike.

Salkantay missed on a different test. It has a high pass at around 4,600 m and big views of the peak, and it is a strong walk. But it ends at Machu Picchu, so it brings the ticket problem with it, and in the dry season it carries enough groups that some camps are crowded. If you want it anyway, book the citadel ticket first. I did not walk it in 2026, so I am going on what operators and other walkers told me.

Cusco is at about 3,400 m. Most people feel it on the first day: a headache, short breath on stairs, poor sleep. Give yourself two or three nights in Cusco or the Sacred Valley before any of these treks, and sleep in the valley first if you can, since Ollantaytambo is around 2,800 m. Drink water, go easy on alcohol the first night and expect the first uphill street to take your breath. Coca tea is sold everywhere and I drank plenty. It is pleasant, and it does not replace a rest day.

For Choquequirao and Ausangate, walk one of the short routes first, as I did, or spend a week around Cusco before. Ausangate is the one where a headache can turn serious. Severe headache with vomiting, confusion or breathlessness at rest means going down, and you should not wait for the morning. Ask a doctor about acetazolamide before you travel. I carried it and did not use it. Check your travel insurance too: some policies cap trekking at a set altitude, and our insurance guides list what to look for.

The trekking season is the dry season, about May to September, and the best time to visit Peru has the month-by-month detail. In June the Choquequirao canyon was dry and hot. In August Ausangate was crisp and clear at dawn, with ice on the tents. From about November to March rain and cloud arrive, February is the wettest month, and landslides delay trains and close roads.

Choquequirao is the walk I would not do in the rain, because the descent into the canyon turns slick and parts of it are exposed. If your only dates fall in the wet season, Lares and Huchuy Qosqo are the two I would still consider, with a rain shell and a spare day. Ausangate is the one I would drop.

With four or five free days, walk Huchuy Qosqo or Lares after two nights in the Sacred Valley. With ten or eleven, spend three nights acclimatizing, walk Huchuy Qosqo, take a rest day and then start Choquequirao. Ausangate works better as its own trip, or as the second half of a long stay, once you know how you handle height.

All four are normally sold as guided departures with a cook, mules and tents. For Choquequirao and Ausangate, the logistics at the start make going alone hard. Quotes from operators varied a lot, and I did not log them well enough to print a range, so ask for a written itinerary that lists what is included: transport, meals, camping gear, community fees and the site ticket. The classic Inca Trail is separate and runs on its own permit system, which the tickets guide covers.

If Machu Picchu is still the goal after all this, go back to the tickets guide and look at weekday and late slots first. Peru's rules are posted on the Ministry of Culture's Machu Picchu site, and Tu Boleto at tuboleto.cultura.pe shows live availability for each route. Check both on the day you plan, because slots open and close.