WHEN TO GOPERU · AMERICAS21 AUG 2026 · 6 MIN
THE MONTH EVERYONE PICKS FOR PERU IS THE WRONG ONE
NOVthe month to book −52%people at the gate 3 wkspermit lead time $500less per person
Every second request we get for Peru asks for July. It is the school holiday, it is the dry season on paper, and it is the month I would talk you out of if you gave me two minutes.
The rain does stop in June. What nobody tells you is that it also stops in November, and the numbers on the ground are completely different — barely half the visitors, and the permit you want is still available three weeks out instead of three months.
I have run this route in every month the airline flies it. What follows is not a preference — it is what the notebook says after fifteen seasons of writing down who was at the gate, what the sky did after lunch, and how far ahead I had to fight for a permit.
Start with the crowd, because it changes the day more than the weather does. In July the first entry at six o'clock is already a line of people two hundred long, and by nine the terraces above the guardhouse are shoulder to shoulder. In the first fortnight of November I have walked the same path at the same hour behind four other people. Nothing about the stones has changed. Everything about the morning has.
In the margin
~2 9006 000
visitors a day
3 wks12 wks
permit lead time
$4 400$4 900
nine days, per person
Struck-through figures are the July equivalent, from our own 2025 bookings.
Then the permits. They are issued by name and date, and once a date is full it is finished — there is no waiting list, no favour I can call in, no supplier who keeps a few back. For July we are booking twelve weeks out and I have told people in April that they were too late. For November, three weeks has been enough every year I have worked here.
“I have stood at that gate in both months. In November you can hear the birds.”
There is a trade and I will not hide it: November afternoons carry a shower, an hour or two, usually after three o'clock. We plan the mornings around it — and in fifteen seasons nobody has complained about a wet hour in a café in Cusco.
The year, as I would book it
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Go now Fine Crowded Wet
SO WHEN SHOULD YOU GO?
Late October to mid-November, or the last two weeks of April. If July is the only month you have — school, work, whoever else you are travelling with — say so. We will book the permits in April and start the mornings an hour before everyone else.
One more thing that only shows up in the low season, and it is the reason I keep arguing for it: the people who live there have time. In July the woman who weaves in Chinchero has a queue of forty; in November she will sit with you for an hour. The cook at the place in Urubamba comes out of the kitchen. The train guard remembers your face on the way back. None of that is on an itinerary and all of it is the trip.
If you can only travel in July, this is not a lecture — half our Peru bookings are July and they are good trips. It just takes different work: permits bought in April, mornings starting an hour before the guidebooks say, and two of the days moved to the valley while the citadel is at its worst. We will say all of that in the draft, before you pay anything.
If you go in NovemberFour things worth knowing
- 01Take the 06:00 entry anywayNot for the crowd — for the light. The cloud usually sits in the valley until seven and then lifts off the ridge in about four minutes.
- 02Keep the afternoons softWe put the market, the weavers and the long lunches after three, when the shower comes. Nothing that matters is scheduled outdoors then.
- 03Two nights in the valley before the citadelUrubamba is 600 m lower than Cusco. Sleeping there first is the single biggest thing you can do about the altitude.
- 04Book the permit before the flightA flight can be re-dated for $40—90. A permit cannot be moved at all. We always hold the permit first.
FIVE COMMENTS
Mateo and the planners answer here themselves. Nothing is deleted unless it is spam.
5comments 2answered by us 4 hmedian reply 0deleted, ever
Anna ReidBooked Peru · travelled Nov 20252 days ago
We took Mateo's advice and moved from July to the second week of November. Six people at the gate at six in the morning. The shower came at four every afternoon and we were always inside by then.
ReplyHelpful · 14
Mateo QuispeAvavaGuide · Cusco · author2 days ago
Replying to Anna Reid
That was your morning on circuit two, Anna. I remember it — the cloud lifted off the ridge in about three minutes and nobody spoke for a while.
ReplyHelpful · 9
Tom BergmanReader3 days ago
Honest question — we only have the school holidays, so July or nothing. Is it genuinely still worth it, or are you telling us not to come?
ReplyHelpful · 6
Sofia MarchettiAvavaPlanner · Europe & Americas3 days ago
Replying to Tom Bergman
Genuinely worth it, Tom. Half our Peru bookings are July. It just needs the permits held in April and the mornings starting an hour early — we write all of that into the draft before you pay anything.
ReplyHelpful · 11
Priya RamanBooked Peru · travelling Apr 20275 days ago
The point about sleeping in Urubamba first is the thing nobody else told us. We had planned two nights in Cusco straight off the plane at 3 400 m.
ReplyHelpful · 8