What the Short Inca Trail skips, what it keeps, and when it is the honest Plan B for a sold-out month.
Both treks end the same way: through the Sun Gate and down into Machu Picchu. Everything before that is different. The 2-day Short Inca Trail starts at Km 104 (Chachabamba, about 2,150 m), climbs to Wiñay Wayna at about 2,650 m and reaches the Sun Gate at 2,720 m in the afternoon, after roughly 12 km and six or seven hours of walking. You sleep in a hotel in Aguas Calientes and visit Machu Picchu with a guide the next morning.
What the short trail skips. Dead Woman's Pass, the three camps, and the ruins of Llactapata, Runkurakay and Sayacmarca — the part of the classic trail most people remember as the trek itself. It keeps Wiñay Wayna, the Sun Gate and the walk down into Machu Picchu, which is why it is the honest Plan B when your month has sold out, not a smaller version of the same thing. If your month is gone on the classic trail, check dates for the most-reviewed 2-day trek.
There is no short 4-day Inca Trail. The Short Inca Trail is the 2-day route from Km 104; the classic trail from Km 82 is the 4-day one. If a listing calls itself a short 4-day trek, read the start point — it is one or the other.
Price. GetYourGuide sells two 2-day listings; the most-reviewed one starts from $653 per person, against $750–1,499 for the sixteen 4-day treks. The gap is smaller than the difference in days, and the 4-day trek we recommend costs $798.
On the 2-day trek you walk for one day and sleep in a bed; on the 4-day trek you walk for four and sleep in a tent for three nights. The 2-day route never climbs above the Sun Gate at 2,720 m — lower than Cusco itself — while the 4-day route crosses 4,215 m on day two. Both reach Machu Picchu with a guide, and both need a permit booked in your name.
No — there is no short 4-day Inca Trail.
The 2-day Inca Trail is worth it if your dates are sold out on the classic trail or you have only two days.
No — on the 2-day trek you reach the Sun Gate in the afternoon of day one, after about six or seven hours of walking from Km 104.
Yes — the 2-day trek needs an Inca Trail permit, but from a separate Km 104 permit pool.
The 2-day Inca Trail is much easier than the classic trek: about 12 km with a high point near 2,720 m at the Sun Gate, against 42–46 km and 4,215 m.
The 2-day trek costs from $653 per person on GetYourGuide, where two 2-day listings are sold, against $750–1,499 for the sixteen 4-day treks.
Yes — you can book the 2-day trek when the 4-day is sold out, because it uses a different permit pool that often has dates two to three months ahead.
For families with younger children, the 2-day trek is usually the better choice: about 12 km, no night above 3,000 m and a hotel instead of a tent.