I think there are other approaches involving a longer hike. Check with GAP adventures out of Toronto. I think it’s www.gapadventures.com

There are various alternatives:
- Through Salkantay, a high pass (4600m). you leave from Mollepata or Sayllapata. This is the usual alternative.
- From Aguas Termales Lares, but you often trek to Aguas Calientes then drive/take a train the last bit (I’m not sure).

Some agency websites:
www.hadatouroperator.com
www.peru-expeditions.com
www.explorandes.com
www.condortravel.com
www.rutasdelperu.com
www.limatours.com.pe
www.saaqp.com.pe

P.S.How is the spanish coming along?

Take the train from Cuzco…we booked our trip through American Express…I’m not quite so adventurous. Oh … and don’t drink the water.

There are several agencies there who will book you on a two or three day tour that takes bikes or horses which is supposed to be a lot of fun.

Once you get to Cuzco, ask around. There are plenty of travel companies there and many have their own spin on the “traditional” Inca trail. Only if you want to do the traditional 4-day hike do you really, really have to book so far in advance.

Although it doesn’t get you directly to Machu Picchu, I recommend the Lares trek from Lares to Ollantaytambo. Then you take the train to Aguas Caliente and Machu Picchu.

We did a three day trek and absolutely loved it. We went with a guide, a cook and two horsemen. My wife and I were the only two clients on the trip. My wife got it through Pachamama Explorers (http://www.pmexplorers.com) and we would higly recommend them to anyone. They were also about half the price of the Gap tours.

We were passed by a Gap tour that had about 20 people in it and they did less walking and more travel by bus.

You can see my pictures of the trip at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79409788@N00/sets/72157600013518225/detail/

So we finally found one that we liked.
http://www.machetetours.com/index.html?http://www.machetetours.com/english/manu.html

Thank you everyone for the websites. It’s nice to have a lot of friendly, helpful people on 43things!

As an update for others who may find this helpful…

We ended up just showing up in Cusco and booking a tour for a couple days later. We booked a Lares valley trek, an alternate to the Incan trail, with Llama Path. It was a wonderful trek (but misleading on how challenging it was), and I recommend them.