 I hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu back in November of 2018. It was my first multi-day hiking adventure and it was truly life-changing. So today I want to share with you some things that I wish I knew before hiking the Inca Trail and I want to answer some of the questions that I've been receiving in preparation for the group trip that I'm leading this year from November 6 to November 16 to Peru to hike the classic Inca Trail. I have five spots open so if you are interested in joining me, check the link in the first comment to reserve your spot. If you want to hike the classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, you're gonna be basically flying to Cusco. Cusco is one of the oldest cities in the Americas and if I'm not wrong, it is probably the oldest still-inhabited city. People have been living there for more than 3,000 years so there's a lot of history and that's the city where your adventure will start if you are planning on hiking the Inca Trail. You will be probably flying to Lima and then some people choose to spend more time in Lima and then they would catch a flight to get to Cusco from Lima or you can just have a connection in Lima and then make your way to Cusco. Cusco is a city that's located at about 11,000 feet so that's around 3,400 meters which is pretty high. When I did the Inca Trail, I was living in Scottsdale, Arizona and I think in Arizona the elevation was just around 2,000 feet in that city. So going from 2,000 feet up to 11,000 feet is a huge elevation change and everybody's body is different but generally speaking a lot of people struggle with the change of elevation so my tip to you never plan your hike to start immediately when you arrive in Cusco. Try to at least have a day or two in the city to acclimatize to the change in elevation. I remember Alex and I when we got to Cusco our headaches were so bad we were literally unable to just even take the stairs to get to our Airbnb it was it was pretty interesting. When you check into your hotel or your Airbnb or guest house it's pretty common to get offered coca tea so the tea is used with coca leaves that are supposed to help acclimatize and to help with high altitude sickness and if you are walking around Cusco you will even notice that some of the shops or markets they would be selling raw coca leaves but they also sell candies and trees that you can buy you will also notice when you start hiking the Inca Trail some of the guides will probably offer you some coca leaves raw leaves that you can just chew on and they are supposed to help so other things that you can do other than the coca leaves or the coca tea to help you acclimatize well is to drink a lot of water and make sure that you are hydrating pretty well you want to make sure that you are getting enough sleep I know it's a little bit hard if you are jet lag and that's why I'm saying take two days to acclimatize and that's what I'm doing with this group trip we're not going to start hiking the Inca Trail immediately we are taking the first night to have our group dinner and then the next day we will be walking around Cusco to explore the historic city of Cusco and check some of the Inca ruins around the city and then the next day will be an acclimatization hike and when we feel like our bodies are ready we will start our adventure to hike the Inca Trail and I highly highly recommend taking the time to do something like that. The other thing that can help you with avoiding high altitude sickness is to stay away from consuming alcohol because that's just going to make it worse and make you dehydrated and also when you are flying make sure that you are taking care of yourself during the flight and make sure that you are hydrating and drinking a lot of water even before arriving to Cusco okay so that's about high altitude sickness and changes to the elevation now from Cusco you will be starting your adventure and by the way the the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu it's not something that you can do on your own you have to be with a local company because the government has a set number of how many people can be on the trail every single day and you are going to be with a company who will be taking care of most of the logistics on the trail but they will also take care of obtaining the permits on your behalf and that's something for my group trip this is something that I'm taking care of but anyway so you will be driven from Cusco to get to the trail head an area called Olaitan Tambo and there is a point the starting point is called kilometer 82 so kilometer 82 is where you will be starting your hike from when you arrive there we just arrived to the trail head here this is one of the buses of ours and this is our porter's team they're getting ready some of the team members over there the views are just amazing and we all are excited to get started this is the classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and there are so many other trails that you can take to get to Machu Picchu some of them are shorter than others but for this video I'm only focusing on the classic Inca Trail it's four days on the mountains three days of camping and at the end of it you get to Machu Picchu all right so day one from kilometer 82 you're going to be hiking for an average around five hours to six hours it just depends on the pace and how many people in the group and everybody's speed but on an average about six hours to get to camp the second day is supposed to be the hardest day of the trek where you climb all the way up to the highest point of the trail the first pass is called the dead women's pass and the elevation at that point is a little bit over 13 000 feet and that's the highest point on the Inca Trail and then you will be also hiking all the way down to sleep for the second day at lower elevation the third day you will be climbing a little bit higher up to the second pass on the trail and then the rest is going to be climbing down and when you the four day is when you arrive to the site of Machu Picchu it is a wonderful site and then when you get to the site you will be taking a tour around the site to learn about it and then the guys are super helpful and knowledgeable they will explain to you the history behind every single piece around that monument all right so that's in a nutshell now the company that you will be traveling with they will be taking care of most of the logistic meanings commonly the tents and the sleeping mats will be provided and the sleeping bags is something that's going to be available for you to rent so you can rent your sleeping bags or if you have your own sleeping bags and you choose to bring them with you you can do that too but I would say just stick to renting because the sleeping bags that are provided they are rated for the temperature on the mountain so don't gamble if you don't really know if your sleeping bag is going to be rated for the temperature in the area so I would say it's better to rent them and then you don't have to drag a lot of gear and luggage with you while you're flying and same thing with trekking poles you can you can rent trekking poles and I highly highly recommend trekking poles because this trail is notorious for having a lot of stairs there's are called the gringo killers and gringo is a dragatory term for white people and it's really tough so we're aiming for the top which is over there I wonder if you guys can see some people and then we'll drop down I believe with trekking poles you have more stability whether you are going up and down but mostly down because it's steep and there are a lot of stairs and it's not like you're going to be hiking on a dirt trail so there are a lot of stones uneven so the trekking poles are going to give you some stability and they're going to help you alleviate some of the pressure on your back and lower back especially because having two points of contact which are your legs when you are walking is not as good as having four points of contact with the trekking pole so I really really suggest having your trekking poles if you choose to bring your trekking poles with you if you are flying but just keep in mind you can't have your trekking poles in a carry-on backpack it must be checked because most airlines see trekking poles as potential weapons so that's something to keep in mind every team of hikers will have a team of porters and the porters do a tremendous job to pack all of the provision necessary for the four days on the mountain and they will be basically carrying the tents and sleeping mats and kitchen supplies because they will be preparing food for you on the trail and food was actually so impressive it's not the typical generic I don't know mountain house meal with hot water but they do actually cook every meal so you will have a proper breakfast lunch and dinner and then snacks in between and honestly the chefs they do a tremendous job they go above and beyond to make sure that the food is really good and pleasant and I remember when we did this trek they even made the cake for our group which was pretty impressive and they put a lot of thoughts in how they present the food to you which was pretty interesting to see and for people who have dietary restrictions they are very accommodating all you have to do if you're traveling with me on on this trip you let me know what dietary restrictions you have we communicate that to the chefs and they make sure that you have food for you on the trail whether you are vegetarian vegan or whatever these restrictions that you have about the difficulty of the trail it is not an easy trek and it is rated moderate to strenuous so some people might find it to be moderate but for other people it might be really hard especially if you haven't really hiked in the past at elevation and if you're not used to hiking for long hours so it is very important for this trek to prepare and spend some time on training three aspects of training that are important to focus on cardio strength and endurance so if you can go on some long runs if you can work on strength to make sure that you have strong knees and the suggestion here is to use the stermaster if you have a stermaster in your gym and you can just throw some weight in your backpack and then just walk for one hour two hours that would be great but nothing beats going out and being on a trail and trying to assimilate the conditions on the actual trek if there are mountains around your area where you can go and hike for five hours and six hours at a time if there is an incline that's great but if you don't that's not a problem you can still stick to using the incline on the treadmill in your gym or the stermaster like I said but it's really important to take training seriously of course there are some people who just show up and they don't take training seriously and some people can do it but it is going to be difficult and your goal when you are trekking is to really have a pleasant time on the mountain and the only way to guarantee that is by training properly the guys are so supportive and usually with the our group for example we will have a guide in the front and the guide in the back and if it's necessary we might have additional supportive guides to the group but even if people in the group they don't have the same pace there's usually a guide in the front for folks who are faster and there is a guide in the back so no one is really left behind and you are as safe as it gets I mean I remember even with our group because at that time I decided to carry all the weight me and Alex which was not a good idea and I'm gonna talk about this in a little bit here but I was slower than the rest of the group at that time I had the super heavy backpack but even with that the guide was with us at all times and I never felt left behind okay so when it comes to packing really all you have to carry with you is your date pack and I would say 20 liters to 30 liters 30 liters is ideal and all you need to carry with you in your backpack would be water which is provided by the company so the porters and the chef they will boil fresh water to make sure that it's safe for you to drink and they will give you enough water in the morning late at night whenever you need it really so you will have to carry that I would say at least have like a three liters hydration pack if you have one of those and if you need more water they will supply you with more water but basically your water snacks you want to have some layers in case it gets cold or warm you want to have a rain jacket with you poncho and just the typical essentials of hiking if you want to have a small emergency kit with your backpack that would be helpful but really things that you will need while you are hiking during the day your camera uh extra portable charger or batteries and stuff like that and the rest it can be carried by the porters so there is an option for you if you feel like oh my gosh this is too much for me I will give it to the porters you can give extra weight or extra clothing to the porters they will be able to take care of that it is key to keep it to a minimum and I know for somebody who's going on this adventure for a first time it's very you're very tempted that first and that's exactly what I did when I had the the first time I just packed way more than I needed and that's not necessary so I will help you with all of the packing gear and the things that you will need on this trail you also want to have some cash with you on the trail because at the end of the adventure there is going to be a tipping ceremony where you are expected to tip your guides and the porters because of course they do a tremendous job on the mountain and honestly it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the porters and the guide so there's a tip in ceremony where everybody pitches in and usually the company will send some information about what is the the norm what how much you are expected to tip and obviously if you feel like they're doing a better job you can tip them more and you can be as generous as you can you will also need cash with you if you want to buy some snacks on the trail I didn't expect to see this on the trail the first time but there were stands throughout the four days on the trail where you come across you know people selling snacks soda and even beer I remember one of the hikers in our group he was just drinking every night which I don't really recommend because you're already way too dehydrated to drink alcohol but if you know your body and you know it's something that you can handle go for it but yeah extra cash with you will be helpful so this is the Inca Trail on a high level if you guys have any specific questions please leave me a comment and I will be happy to make more detailed videos about this adventure and I hope to see you soon in Peru bye