Cusco

Cusco stands at the meeting point of Inca foundations and Spanish colonial architecture. Mountain light, stone walls, plazas and Andean traditions make the city both a historic capital and a gateway to sacred landscapes.

Cusco was the capital of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire, which by the early sixteenth century stretched from Ecuador to central Chile. After the Spanish conquest the colonists built their churches and mansions directly on Inca foundations, so that streets such as Hatun Rumiyoc still show precisely fitted stone walls beneath colonial balconies. The Qorikancha, the Inca temple of the sun, survives within the Dominican monastery of Santo Domingo.

The Plaza de Armas, with its cathedral and the Jesuit church of La Compañía, forms the centre; San Blas, the artisans’ quarter, climbs the hillside above. Over the city rise the massive zigzag walls of Sacsayhuamán. Cusco sits at about 3,400 metres, and many travellers acclimatise first in the lower Sacred Valley of the Urubamba, returning to the city on the way to or from Machu Picchu.

The dry season, from May to September, brings clear skies, bright sun by day and cold nights, sometimes below freezing in June and July. It is also festival season: Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the sun, is re-enacted at Sacsayhuamán on 24 June, and Corpus Christi brings the saints of the city’s parishes in procession to the cathedral. These are the busiest months at Machu Picchu.

The rainy season runs from November to March, with the heaviest rain in January and February; the Inca Trail closes in February for its annual maintenance. April and October are the shoulder months, greener and quieter, with mostly fine mornings. At any time of year the altitude matters more than the weather: the first day is best kept gentle, with time to acclimatise before longer excursions.

Cusco’s finest hotels occupy its historic buildings. Belmond Hotel Monasterio is a former seminary of the late sixteenth century, and Belmond Palacio Nazarenas a former convent beside it; JW Marriott El Convento Cusco is built around a colonial convent with Inca walls on view; Palacio del Inka, a Luxury Collection Hotel, stands opposite the Qorikancha; and Inkaterra La Casona is an intimate manor house on Plaza Nazarenas.

LVXVRY books JW Marriott El Convento Cusco and Palacio del Inka through Marriott STARS & Luminous — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges the programme attaches to the stay. For the two Belmond houses and Inkaterra La Casona, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay directly, together with the journey to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu.