Slow travel keeps topping the trend lists for 2026, and yet one of the most visited wonders on earth is still consumed almost entirely as a fast-paced day trip. A 14-hour round trip of trains, buses and hiking is what happens when most people attempt to explore the iconic Peruvian citadel that is Machu Picchu. Call it the once-in-a-lifetime paradox: we travel farthest to the places we give the least time. If only there was a better way to experience this magical site!
For those who haven’t been to this Wonder of the World, the standard itinerary is punishing. Wake before dawn in Cusco – while also likely contending with altitude sickness due to this city being at 3,400 meters – board a bus then a train winding through the Sacred Valley, and then another 30-minute bus up the switchbacks, all to make it for a timed entry gate that admits you for a single circuit in one direction with no re-entry. By the time your mind has settled on just how magnificent this site truly is, a guide is already walking you toward the exit and the return train.
The bittersweet element to all this is that memories are formed during sleep and rest. We would all want to remember every moment spent at such a place as Machu Picchu, yet due to the exhausting travel required, most might only remember that they were there as evidenced by the photos on their phone and on Instagram.
Conversely, the paradigm of slow travel and preserving one’s wellness throughout this journey implies starting with a good night’s sleep at the mountain rather than commuting to it. That’s where Sumaq Machu Picchu Hotel comes in, a five-star, 62-room property in Machu Picchu Town, formerly Aguas Calientes, sitting on the bank of the Urubamba River about eight minutes from the train station and directly on the road to the citadel.
This context brings us to our own first time visit to Machu Picchu where one of your writers (Adam) had a chance to stay at Sumaq in order to experience firsthand the site as well as what it means to do so in a slow travel manner by staying at the sanctuary next door to the titular citadel. During this time, it was also a delight to speak with Angie Clavijo, co-owner and managing director, who runs the hotel alongside her brother Aníbal.
Enabling Different Moments of Machu Picchu
First off, Sumaq is a family story. Founded in 2007 by the Clavijo Begazo family under Clabe Andina, it is now led by the second generation, continuing the work of their father, Don Aníbal Clavijo, who has spent more than 35 years in Peruvian boutique hospitality. The name comes from Quechua (the ancient language of the Incas that’s still spoken by many in the Andean highlands), where ‘sumaq’ means beautiful, pleasant and harmonious.
For hotels, there’s a lot in a name, serving as a core mantra to guide the onsite experience and to reflect the level of service. Sumaq was deliberately chosen both to keep the language of the Incas in daily use as well as to directly convey a deep sense for how guests should take their time to appreciate this world wonder.
To add another driver for why slow travel is the best way to approach a visit to Machu Picchu nowadays, since June 2024, Peru’s Ministry of Culture has organized the citadel into three circuits and ten routes, with each ticket covering one route in one direction with no going back. Seeing a second circuit requires a second ticket on a different day or time slot – an act that’s essentially impossible when your visit is bookended by trains.
Stay in town and it becomes easy, allowing a person to experience different ‘moments’ of Machu Picchu and see it from different angles or weather conditions in order to fully soak in (sometimes literally in the rain!) the site’s timeless beauty.
For example, most first-timers opt to take Circuit 2B, the classic route through the upper and lower terraces that offers the postcard view below the Guardian’s House. It’s recommended to do so in the early morning while the cloud forest is still releasing the mist that gives Machu Picchu its otherworldly reputation. A stay in town would allow visitors to return the following afternoon on Circuit 3A for the lower royalty route and, for those with the legs, the four-hour climb up Huayna Picchu.
Same site, different mountain and completely different memories. That’s the heart of it. Morning fog and afternoon sun materialize into two distinct places, while two circuits produce two distinct understandings. Most travelers will see this wonder once in their lives, so why settle for a single fleeting impression when a second night converts the whole trip?
Completing the Memory with Culinary Precision
Between multiple visits up the mountain to the citadel, Sumaq gives you somewhere to properly recover. Rooms look out over the river valley and the surrounding peaks for some personal reflection after the quotidian horde has departed on the last train out of town for the day. Then at Aqlla Spa, treatments draw on Andean hot stones, local honey and native plants including muña and coca leaf, with an Andean Cleansing Ritual using sacred herbs and smoke. And from personal experience, sleeping at 2,000 metres in Machu Picchu Town is also gentler on the body than Cusco’s aforementioned high-altitude aches.
Then there’s dinner, which may be the most underrated argument for staying. Qunuq Restaurant works from Andean terroir and the region’s remarkable agrobiodiversity, sourcing native potatoes from the community of Huatata where more than 350 varieties are grown, along with Andean quinoa, native cacao and medicinal herbs bought directly from highland farmers at fair prices. For geographic context, Machu Picchu sits where the Sacred Valley highlands meet the Amazon basin, and the kitchen makes full use of both larders, blending them into some European favorites for some unique culinary creations.
Guests can also book tasting menus with the pinnacle being “Flavors of the Andes: Apucc Mikhuna” with the Quechua phrase meaning ‘the food that the mountains bring us’. Together with Munay-Ki – Quechua for ‘energy of love’ – these menus highlight the rich agrobiodiversity and food-driven storytelling of the land. Then there are also cooking and bar classes, plus Pachamanca demonstrations where food is cooked underground on hot stones in the old way. After a long day on ancient terraces, sharing that table with the people you travelled with is what completes the memory.
The credentials back the philosophy. Sumaq was accepted into the Considerate Collection of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, which recognizes genuine commitment to sustainability and cultural preservation, and the hotel is in the final steps of B Corp certification with B Lab. It also appears in the MICHELIN Guide’s hotel selection.
Overall, the citadel of Machu Picchu asks a great deal of the people who come to see it. Sumaq’s quiet proposition is that the wonder deserves more than a rushed morning, and that the right sanctuary next door lets you breathe, sleep, eat well and go back for the version of the citadel you missed the first time.
What Sumaq Teaches Us All
A philosophy we adhere to is that ‘the more personal, the more universal’. Through a stay at Sumaq, we’ve discovered one of the key benefits of living the slow travel life: letting experiences breathe ultimately means better memories formed. As more and more travelers come to appreciate this advantage to slow travel, it’s reasonable to assume that they too will be looking for accommodations that can facilitate incredible ‘moments around the moments’.
That is, travel is never just about the visit to the bucket list attraction, be it Machu Picchu, the Coliseum in Rome or Disney World in Orlando. It’s about gathering around the table for dinner afterwards and discussing what was just commonly experienced with friends and family. It’s about having a cozy spa downstairs where you can have time for quiet reflection amidst the heat of a sauna. It’s about not feeling rushed to make a train or bus schedule once the peak experience has passed, instead strolling back to a clean room for a warm shower. That’s what true luxury hospitality feels like, and we invite you all to look at what Sumaq Machu Picchu Hotel is doing to make that a reality.
