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Pretty much everywhere in Cusco costs money to visit, but there are a couple of options for tourists to visit more sites and save money. They are the Cusco Touristic Ticket and the Religious Circuit Ticket.
The tickets seemed to be confusing to some visitors so I want to quickly explain them here. Please note they do NOT cover every tourist site or museum in Cusco. Many tourists were under that impression when they bought their tickets and I witnessed this several times.
Cusco Touristic Ticket
The Cusco Touristic Ticket (Boleto Turístico) costs S/130 for foreigners (as of July 2023). It gives access to 16 sites in Cusco and the Sacred Valley (Valle Sagrado). However, only six of the sites are within Cusco itself. It can be purchased at almost every site included on the ticket, and you will need your passport to both purchase the ticket and enter the sites.
The ticket is non-transferable and is good for 10 days from the date of purchase. There are also partial touristic tickets, but I won’t go into that here. When a site is visited, a hole is punched in the ticket.
If you plan on visiting the archaeological sites in the Sacred Valley and are interested in the museums offered on the ticket, it’s well worth buying. Working hours for each site are listed on the back of the ticket along with a map.
In Cusco, you can visit the Pachacuteq Monument (Monumento Pachacuteq), the Qosqo Center of Native Art (Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo), Regional Historical Museum (Museo Histórico Regional), Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo), Museum of Folk Art (Museo de Arte Popular), and the Qorikancha Site Museum (Museo de Sitio del Qorikancha). Of these, I only visited the Qorikancha Site Museum and wasn’t too interested in the others.
Nearest Cusco are the Inca archaeological sites of Saqsayhuamán, Q’enqo, Pukapukara, and Tambomachay. I visited Saqsayhuamán but unfortunately didn’t have time for the others. They can all be visited on a scheduled half day tour usually starting at 2pm and finishing at 6:30pm. You can find this tour at pretty much every tour office in the city.
The other sites are much further from Cusco are the Inca archaeological sites of Tipón, Pikillaqta, Chinchero, Moray, Pisac, and Ollantaytambo. I visited all of these sites on three separate organized day trips. Again, they can be arranged in just about any tour office in the city.
Religious Circuit Ticket
The other ticket is called the Religious Circuit Ticket (Boleto del Circuito Religioso). It focuses on six of the main religious sites in Cusco. The cost was S/30 (as of July 2023) and it can be purchased at any of the sites listed on the ticket. Like the Cusco Touristic Ticket, it’s good for 10 days and non-transferable. A map with working hours of each site is on the back.
Three of the sites are located in one place – the Cathedral, Church of Triumph (Iglesia El Triunfo), and the Temple of the Holy Family (Templo de la Sagrada Familia). They’re the most interesting and beautiful of the sites listed on the ticket. The other sites are Church of San Blas (Iglesia de San Blas), Church of San Cristóbal (Templo de San Cristóbal), and the Archiepiscopal Museum (Museo Arzobispal) at the Archbishop’s Palace (Palacio Arzobispal).
