The hook
There is a second Machu Picchu, larger than the first, and to reach it you have to walk for two days into a canyon. Almost no one does.
01Why it's worth it
Choquequirao was raised by the same Inca in the same century as Machu Picchu, spread across a ridge high above the Apurímac River with terraces, plazas, and temples, and it is actually the bigger site, still only a third cleared from the cloud forest. The difference is the road: there isn't one. Where Machu Picchu takes a train, a bus, and a million visitors a year, Choquequirao takes a brutal hike, two to three days each way down into the canyon and up the far side, and sees fewer than ten thousand people in a whole year. That is the whole appeal. You get an Inca city the size of Machu Picchu, in the same cloud forest, with almost nobody else there.
02How to experience it
The classic route starts near Cachora, west of Cusco, and drops thousands of meters to the river before the long climb to the ruins, a genuine multi-day trek best done in the dry season from May to September with a guide and mules. There is talk of a cable car that would change all of this; for now the walk is the gatekeeper, and it is worth it.