I visited Machu Picchu in May of 2024. I suspect it is one of the most obvious bucket-list destinations for anyone who's ever been bitten by the travel bug, so I will skip touting its qualities. In fact, it seems that most of the visit details that I mention in this review have already been covered in the previous reviews. I will probably offer only the slightest of variations. Although not when it comes to rain in the supposedly dry season...

Since the number of visitors is capped daily, whether you hike Camino Inca or ride the bus from Aguas Calientes to the visitor gates, you should purchase your entry tickets in advance. The hour printed on your ticket is the earliest you can enter - and 59 minutes later will be the latest. Staying more than a few hours at the sanctuary is not physically doable for most people for the two simple reasons that there are no toilets inside and no re-entry with the same ticket.

Two half-day sessions would allow you to cover everything without getting uncomfortable. There are several paths through the site, so you could explore the "upper town" in one session and the "lower town" in another. A couple of key points at the site are open for access only in parts of the day. To my great annoyance, I could not ascend the Sun Temple because it is on the upper circuit and is only accessible in the morning - I would have flipped the timing of the upper- and lower-circuit sessions if I recognized that limitation in advance.

If you hiked Camino Inca and saw Machu Picchu for the first time from the Sun Gate, climbing one of the surrounding mountains may not be enticing, but for others it is a potentially fulfilling add-on. The climb to Huayna Picchu takes no more than 45 minutes even for someone in an indifferent physical shape. There is the payoff of the elevated views, even though you end up standing quite far from the sanctuary below. The hike to the summit of Huchu'y Picchu is significantly shorter at about 15 minutes and much less taxing - and brings you closer while still seeing Machu Picchu from above. I ended up climbing both - possibly in violation of my ticket parameters; it certainly included Huayna Picchu climb, but the two trails happen to diverge beyond the ticket checkpoint, so I simply went up the Huchu'y trail upon coming down from Huayna. There is a sign-in/sign-out procedure at that trail ticket checkpoint, so be prepared for an extra bottleneck wait at busy times.

If you come to Aguas Calientes by train, you can take it all the way from Cuzco, but it is less time-efficient than driving to Ollantaytambo and getting on the train there: Cuzco to Ollantaytambo train segment can easily take four hours either way, while the car or bus ride would only take about two hours. The Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes train ride is about two hours long in each direction. The Expedition ticket grade is the cheapest; Vistadome adds larger panoramic windows throughout the car. Vistadome Observatory offers additional diversions in the lounge car for a predetermined portion of the ride, including a music-and-dance show and access to an open-air vestibule at the very back of the train.

The bus service from Aguas Calientes to the archaeological site is continuous and reasonably efficient, even if the lines may appear daunting. It purposefully serves only one hourly slot at a time on the way up. Queuing and waiting for non-trivial time is practically unavoidable, since the line for the subsequent hour starts forming as soon as the time slots shift forward. Your tickets and your passport will be checked at least three times at different points before you get on the bus (and then again at the entrance). You can choose to skip the bus and hike the trail between the town and the site, although I only noticed people doing that on the way down.

The town of Aguas Calientes is all about hotels, restaurants, the central artisan market, and little beyond that.

On balance, I did Machu Picchu as much justice over the course of two half-days as I could within the constraints of my overall Peruvian itinerary. It was certainly a bucket-list destination for me and I was duly impressed by it. And yet, I am only giving it 4 stars. That is for practical considerations: the non-trivial logistics, the lines, the limitations of access. And, most importantly, for the bladder control requirement which can influence the length of the visit for those of us who are getting up in years.