Today I started a virtual run to complete the Inca Trail.
The Inca Trail Virtual marathon and follow the 42.2Klms (26.2 mile) path of the Inca Trail and right through the breathtaking Machu Picchu.
You can now hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu from anywhere in the world. Earn Virtual Postcards, Street View of Location, Finisher Medal and Completion Certificate. Choose Your Own Timeframe. Access On Any Device. Unlock Virtual Postcards. Earn Incredible Medals.
Hiking the Inca Trail is an experience which should inspire excitement, invoke a little bit of fear, stoke jealousy amongst your friends, and stir a sense of wander in your soul.
One of the most popular things to do in South America – and one of the world’s most famous hikes – the Inca Trail is the sort of singular adventures for which we all travel. The hike itself, which brings you along ancient narrow paths deep into the Peruvian countryside and high into the Andean mountains, is gorgeous; perfect Incan ruins, cloud forest, and majestic valley views laid out like breadcrumbs along the way to perhaps the greatest end-point of any multi-day hike on earth, the iconic Machu Picchu.
The Inca Trail is a well-established and iconic 4-day, 3-night hike which leads travellers from km.82 (the start point 40 minutes outside the town of Ollantaytambo) all the way to Machu Picchu via its exclusive Sun Gate (also called Inti Punku).
The good news is that it’s a lot shorter than you may expect at only 40 kms (25 miles). The bad news? A significant chunk of that 40 kms is up steep, narrow Andean mountain paths at altitude.
The Incan Empire (which at its largest joined Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile and a small part of southwest Colombia) created thousands of kilometres of trails to link its important settlements and centres of civilisation, but it is this specific 4 day route which is known as the one and only ‘classic Inca Trail’.
Do note that if you see a tour with fewer days offered, then you are only going to be hiking a small section of the route
