Peru and Machu Picchu from Quebec: the complete guide

Lima is reached nonstop from Montreal in the winter season, in about eight hours twenty, on Air Canada and Air Transat. No visa is required of a Canadian citizen for a stay under ninety days. Allow ten to fourteen days, and know that access to Machu Picchu runs through numbered circuits and timed entry under a daily quota.

Machu Picchu sits on a great many lists, and it is one of the few destinations that does not disappoint. But Peru runs far beyond the site: Lima and its cooking, Cusco built on its own Inca foundations, the Sacred Valley, Lake Titicaca, the Amazon.

To place Peru among the other long-haul destinations, see the guide to world destinations from Quebec.

How do you get to Peru from Montreal?

Nonstop to Lima, but only for part of the year. Air Canada and Air Transat serve Lima from Montreal in the winter season, a few flights a week, in roughly eight hours twenty. The rest of the year requires a connection, usually in the United States or Central America.

That constraint shapes everything: the best time to visit the Andes is our summer, which is exactly when the nonstop does not operate. Your adviser compares both scenarios against your real dates.

Inside the country, the Lima to Cusco flight takes an hour fifteen and books early, because fares climb quickly. Good coaches link Cusco to Puno in about seven hours across the altiplano, and the journey is worth taking for its own sake.

How do you get a Machu Picchu ticket?

Online, on the official portal of Peru’s Ministry of Culture, as soon as your dates are fixed. It is the first constraint of any trip to Peru, ahead of the flight.

The system was rebuilt. The visit now runs through three circuits, panoramic, classic and royal, each divided into numbered routes that determine what you see and where you may walk. A badly chosen ticket closes off sections of the site, and it cannot be changed at the gate.

The daily quota is about 5,600 visitors in high season and 4,500 the rest of the year. High season covers, among other periods, 19 June to 2 November. Allow two to three months ahead for a standard circuit, and four to six for a route including Huayna Picchu or for a departure in June, July or August.

A guide is not required by regulation, but most circuits require one and it is strongly advised. Without a guide you will see well-cut stones. With one, you will understand why they are still standing.

The four ways of getting there

1. The train from Ollantaytambo, an hour and a half through the valley. The usual way. Two companies operate it, and seats book six to eight weeks ahead in high season.
2. The Inca Trail, four days of walking to the Sun Gate at dawn. Five hundred permits a day in total, of which around two hundred go to visitors; a licensed agency and a guide are compulsory. The trail closes for the whole of February. Book four to six months ahead, and more for the summer.
3. The other trails, Salkantay, Lares, Inca Jungle, which fall outside the official trail’s quota, are often quieter and sometimes more beautiful.
4. A night in Aguas Calientes, the village below the site, to take the first bus at opening and see the citadel before the groups.

What else belongs in the itinerary?

Cusco deserves separate mention. The conquistadors built their cathedrals directly onto the Inca foundations, using the same stones. Every baroque wall rests on something older. At Sacsayhuamán, blocks weighing from tens of tonnes to more than a hundred are fitted without mortar so precisely that a sheet of paper will not pass between two joints. Archaeologists still argue about the method.

And Lima, which most travellers treat as a stopover. That is a mistake: within a decade the city became one of the food capitals of the world, driven by a cuisine that crosses Quechua, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese traditions. One of its restaurants was ranked first in the world in 2023. They book two to three months ahead.

How do you handle the altitude?

This is the subject brochures say least about and the one that decides the quality of your trip. Cusco sits at 3,400 metres, close to a thousand metres above Machu Picchu. Altitude sickness happens in Cusco, not at the site.

At that height every breath carries less oxygen. The body takes twenty-four to seventy-two hours to adapt, and in the meantime headaches, fatigue, nausea, breathlessness and insomnia are common. It is mild in the great majority of cases, and it is perfectly capable of ruining three days if you have made no plan for it.

How the itinerary is built does more than any remedy: landing in Cusco and going straight down into the Sacred Valley, then climbing back, is the surest way to enjoy the trip. Coca leaf tea, served everywhere in the Andes, is part of local culture and many travellers find it helps; do not bring it back to Canada, where the leaf is a controlled product.

Anything touching preventive medication belongs to a conversation with your doctor or a travel clinic rather than to an article. Make that appointment six to eight weeks before departure.

The signs that mean going down

Confusion, loss of balance, severe breathing difficulty or chest pain at altitude are no longer simple discomfort. Descend immediately and seek medical help: these are the signs of high-altitude pulmonary or cerebral oedema.

Hotels in Cusco generally keep oxygen on hand. Never climb higher while severe symptoms persist.

When should you go to Peru?

May to October for the Andes, with a marked preference for May and for the September to October window. June to August is perfect for weather and impossible for availability if you leave it late.

One date worth knowing: Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the Sun, is held every 24 June in Cusco, with a reenactment at Sacsayhuamán, thousands of participants and ceremonies in Quechua. If your stay can be made to coincide, it is an experience apart.

And for anyone worried about mist: Machu Picchu under morning cloud, when the vapour rises out of the valleys and uncovers the terraces in pieces, is often more beautiful than in full sun. That is not a consolation, it is a fact.

What does a twelve-day itinerary look like?

For ten days: the same route without Lake Titicaca. Never skip the acclimatization days in Cusco. They are the difference between an extraordinary trip and an exhausting one.

See our Peru packages and departures, and our organized trips with a guide.

What do you eat in Peru?

Peruvian cooking went from unknown to celebrated in twenty years, and it is not a fashion. The country grows thousands of potato varieties and hundreds of ají chillies, and its kitchen crosses Quechua, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and African traditions.

1. Ceviche: raw fish cured in lime, ají amarillo, red onion, coriander, served with giant corn and sweet potato. Nothing like the Mexican version: sharper and more direct.
2. Lomo saltado: beef stir-fried with tomato, onion and soy, served with rice and fries. Chinese technique meeting Peruvian produce exactly.
3. Causa limeña: a cold terrine of potato whipped with ají amarillo, filled with tuna or chicken.
4. Ají de gallina: shredded chicken in a creamy sauce of bread and walnuts. Peruvian comfort food.
5. Anticuchos: marinated beef-heart skewers grilled over charcoal, sold on the street in Lima at night.
6. Pisco sour: grape brandy, lime, egg white, sugar, bitters. The right way to begin a meal.
7. Chicha morada: purple corn, cinnamon, clove, lemon. No alcohol, and profoundly Peruvian.

Formalities and practical advice

No visa for a Canadian citizen: the exemption covers ninety days out of any three hundred and sixty-five. That correction matters, because a great deal of writing still cites a hundred and eighty-three days, a rule that no longer exists. The passport must be valid six months on arrival, and you may be asked for a return ticket and proof of accommodation.

On entry you are given an Andean migration card. Do not lose it: it is asked for on the way out.

The currency is the sol. US dollars pass in hotels and tourist restaurants, cards work in Lima and Cusco, and cash is needed everywhere else. Never drink the tap water, and avoid ice outside the larger establishments.

On health, no vaccination is required to enter, except a yellow fever certificate if you arrive from certain countries. Hepatitis A, typhoid, and the malaria and yellow fever question if you are going to the Amazon are settled at a travel clinic six to eight weeks before departure.

For getting around: book domestic flights early, prefer the major coach companies for long distances, and in Lima use a ride app rather than hailing a taxi in the street.

How to have your Peruvian trip prepared

Tell us your dates. Our advisers will check whether the nonstop to Lima operates then, which Machu Picchu circuit matches what you want to see, and whether tickets are still available. This is the trip where booking early makes the biggest difference of anything in this guide.

Talk to an AquaTerra adviser at 1 866 628-6241.

Voyages AquaTerra holds a Quebec travel agency licence. Booking through an agency licensed in Quebec gives access to the Fonds d’indemnisation des clients des agents de voyages (FICAV), which covers certain specific situations; the conditions are set out on opc.gouv.qc.ca. Air services, quotas and Machu Picchu access rules mentioned here were verified in September 2026 and change every year.