For a long time, trying to buy a ticket to Machu Picchu online felt a bit like trying to cop Glastonbury tickets, except this festival is actually an Inca citadel high in the Andes. Now, thanks to a recent rule change, a shedload of tickets have become available.
The Ministry of Culture has scrapped advance reservations on Tu Boleto, the official ticketing site, with the change announced on September 11 and a trial of the new system starting on September 22. Before, you could hold tickets for up to three hours without paying for them. Now you pick a date and entry time, then have 15 minutes to pay, and if you don’t, the ticket goes straight back on sale, according to Radio Programas del Perú.
A government audit of 209,051 reservations made by eight tour companies found that 131,626 of them, or 62.9 percent, were later cancelled. That meant the site could appear fully booked for months when it wasn’t, with culture minister Alberto Beingolea saying that anyone logging on at the time wouldn’t find tickets until December. Some visitors were turning up in Cusco hoping to find a ticket on arrival, only to find none and be forced to stay longer.
Since the change, the ministry says availability has opened up. On October 6, Beingolea said there were more than 90,000 tickets available for the rest of the year, according to Latin Times, with just over 1,000 for October, around 29,000 for November and more than 60,000 for December. Those numbers will change quickly as tickets sell, and it’s worth knowing that the change doesn’t mean the site now has a higher capacity. Daily visitor limit remains the same – the ministry has simply freed up tickets that were being blocked.
To buy yours, head to the official site, tuboleto.cultura.pe, and make sure the name and ID you book with match what you’ll carry on the day. If you’re already in Peru, 1,000 tickets a day are still sold in person in Machu Picchu Pueblo, also known as Aguas Calientes, although those sold out for three days in a row in mid-October. And if you like to plan ahead, Beingolea has said that tickets will soon go on sale up to a year in advance.
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