@ecodelta3732 we saw some people doing it without a guide. Didn’t see anyone solo. There are always people on the trail as it is a popular hike. The people who were self guided carried all their own gear like tent, sleeping bags, food, etc. It can be done but you will need to arrange or figure out where to camp along the way. It will take 2 nights for the trek to Machu Picchu.
Been there done that . We did the Salkantay lodge to lodge. A real treat each day was a warm clean bed, a hot shower, diner and breakfast each day. Oh the best part was having someone clean the mud and horse crap from our boots. A must hike. Do it!
We had an amazing time! We enjoyed our time trekking with Salkantay Trekkingz Juan Carlos was a fantastic guide. We recommend your company all the time.
The first thing I wanted was Tim’s beer. Then “Have you Tried coca leaves?”, I will! Came a voice very near the camera. The domes were nice. Another cool vid from the Coca Schuckers. When in Salkantay…
Tim is always enjoy the local drinks or beer 🍻 He is always so adventurous with trying new things. My fav thing about June. We loved the sky domes. Such a unique accommodation.
This video was beautiful and super informative! I'm doing this for the first time in May. I see you two are wearing tons of great gear! Would you be able to make some recommendations of what to bring and where you bought your gear from? I'm curious about your backpack, layers, sunglasses, hiking boots, and other small knick knacks that made a difference!
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it. Yay for signing up for the Salkantay hike. Good luck on your trek in May! Happy to make recommendations on gear. We share our entire gear list on our website: helenandtimtravel.com/hiking-gear-list. We followed our trekking companies website for our packing list. Here is their website: www.salkantaytrekking.com/travel-info/ultimate-salkantay-trek-packing-list. A couple people didn't bring hats or neck gaiters and it was helpful to have with wind and sun. Helen enjoyed having her vest too!
Thanks! Glad you liked the video. It did a great job of keeping my core warm and the part of my body that gets cold easily. It wasn’t on the salkantay packing list, but glad I brought it. Now I bring it every hiking trip especially when we are in the alpine. Even convinced Tim to buy one similar to mine 😃 -Helen
Nice! We used our trekking companies packing list. It was helpful! We pretty much followed It! ☺️ www.salkantaytrekking.com/travel-info/ultimate-salkantay-trek-packing-list/
24:43 To me they said the right route was easier for going to Salkantay Pass. When I saw hundreds of people taking the left route when I was in the middle of the right route I knew they were lying 🙂
Awesome video and views! I will be doing this in a month :) would you say a puff jacket is needed? I’ve been seeing mixed messages online so I’m debating on whether I’ll need to pack that or if a rain jacket and layers will be enough
Thanks, Brad! Awesome you’ll be heading there soon. You’re going to love the hike. I would say a puff jacket is needed up at the mountain pass. It was pretty windy when we were up there. It also rained on us a bit on say 3 during the rainforest part. They give you a very thin pancho, but it doesn’t do much. We just wore our rain jackets. If you’re going with a guide, they give you a duffle to pack most of your clothes, so you have plenty of room for jackets. Have a great hike! Let us know if you have other questions. -Helen
Are you planning to do this hike guided or self guided? The company we hired as a guide as a packing list on their websife www.salkantaytrekking.com/trekking-in-peru/cusco/salkantay-trek-4d
Thank you for the video! We are hoping to do this very soon. Thinking May but September looked really nice... We are debating bringing the kids (12, 13, 17). Did you see any kids/teens on the hike?
Hello Kaia! Salkantay is great hike to do! We enjoyed being on the Salkantay Trek mid September. We didn’t see any kids (that we remember) on the trek, likely because many kids were back in school that time of year. I recommend reaching out to a trekking company for more info. We did a search and it seems some trekking companies have an age limit of 14 and others do not have an age limit, but they recommend consulting with your doctor/physician first since the trek is at high altitude and is physically demanding. There are options to take a section of the hike by horseback and train to save on time and in case your kiddo gets tired. All things to consider ☺️ Hope that helps!
@@HelenandTimTravel we are doing the 4 day…basically the exact same as you. I was curious though if you thought the $60 to add the machu mountain hike was worth it? I’m sure it’s good but I live in the Rockies, and I’m big on value haha, and wonder if I’ll question the worth…seeing $60 US is almost $90 for us Canadians….for a 2hr hike.
@@benlittlechilds1192 we didn’t feel like we had enough time to walk around Machu Picchu in the lower section after we did the hike. But we wanted to do it to get the classic top down view. Huayna Picchu is another option, but after reading about it, Machu Picchu mountain had better views. You will be doing 4 days of trekking already, so it also depends on if you want to hike more ☺️ Regardless you can’t go wrong with your decision. Probably not helpful! It is a challenge and lots of step, and we always like the challenge. Think we were able to finish the hike in about 1.5 hour with a 15 min break at the top
@@HelenandTimTravel Awesome, thanks for your time responding. We hike every week here 20-30km with 1500-2000m gains, and have also done Kilimanjaro for a similar comparison, so other then the altitude headaches haha, we are going into it confident...the hike part would be fine...it's the $60US for 2 hrs with a 15min view haha.
Totally get it! You can stay up there as long as you want. It was cool to get to see all the towering peaks in the distance too. You always run the chance of clouds and fog too, but that’s always a gamble 😅. We didn’t get the do the guided tour with our salkantay guide because we hiked the mountain, so you would miss that part and wander through yourself. If that’s the case and you want the guided part of the lower section, I would skip the mountain
Good luck on your trek! We were able to have access to showers except the last two camps before going over the pass. It was wayyy too cold for any of us to want to shower. We didn't always have warm water to shower...they were never hot except for maybe one. Out of 14-days, we got maybe 3 warm showers. Sometimes the tea house you stay at you can pay for the warm showers, but some of our accomodations had warm showers, but they were mostly cold. Helen only showered once ever 2 or 3 days and used baby wipes in-between. Hope that helps!
Hello Cindy! We chose Salkantay over Inca trail for the alpine lakes and mountain pass. We have heard the Inca trail is more moderate and Salkantay is more strenuous of a hike. Also, we chose Salkantay over Inca because we read it was less crowded. We really love alpine environments, plus on Salkantay you still get to hike part of old Mayan trails which is neat. They have options for a longer 5 to 7 day trek if you want to combine and do both trails☺️ Hope that helps! Never a easy decision to have to choose.
@@HelenandTimTravel Thank you so much for the information. My main concern is the altitude sickness. Salkantay is higher than the Inca but the challenging is also tempting😂 we don’t have time to do both. But either one should be an amazing experience. Thanks again and looking forward to seeing more of your great videos. Safe travelling!
Don’t think you can go wrong with either. Both a great experience I’ve heard from Inca trekkers. They offer plenty of ginger tea and had options to pay to take the donkeys to go over the pass if you aren’t feeling well. Happy planning! Let us know what you decide. We thought salkantay are was beautiful!
It depends how much time you have time. We did the 4-day since it was a good mix of Salkantay pass, hiking part of the Inca trail to Macchu Picchu area. The 5-day is the classic route and you take a slower pace. We included two links where you can compare 🤙🏽 5-day Salkantay: www.salkantaytrekking.com/pdf/travel-brochure-classic-salkantay-5d.pdf 4-day Salkantay: www.salkantaytrekking.com/trekking-in-peru/cusco/salkantay-trek-4d/
Great footage, thanks for sharing. Wondering whether you arrived a couple of days before the trek to acclimatize to the elevation? Also, what time of year did you do this?
Thank you! We did hike and spend the night up at Camp Muir the night of the climb to acclimatize. In all you sleep for 3 to 6 hours depending on what time you make it up to Camp Muir. We didn’t sleep much 😅We did the 4 day with RMI climb and first two days are an orientation and then the next day you do basic mountaineering skills and practice on the mountain out of paradise area. They offer a 5 day climb that allows more time for acclimatize and weather windows
@@HelenandTimTravel thanks for responding although perhaps you meant this comment for another video? I was talking about the Salkantay trek and not climbing Mt. Rainer. :)
Oh geez this is why we shouldn’t write comments at midnight hahaha 🤣🤣🤣 We got to Cusco the night before we started. We had been hiking in 12,000+ elevation in Huaraz before that which helped us acclimatize. We definitely recommend staying in Cusco at least day or two (even longer, it’s a cool city) before in case if you are coming from Lima, which is at sea level. You also stay in the sky camp in Soraypampa the night before you go through Salkantay pass, which helps 🏔️
May I know which group guide you chose ? Which month did you go? And difficulty level compare to Mt. Rinjani - Indonesia ? So sorry for asking too much, truly considering salkantay 😊😊 TIA !
Hello! So excited you are considering the Salkantay hike. We really enjoyed it. We think Mount Rinjani was tought because there was more elevation gain and the terrain and humidity made it much more difficult, as well as longer days of trekking. The guide we went with was Salkantay Trekking. All the info is linked in the TH-cam description 😃
Think there were showers at sky Camp but we didn’t take any because it was only the first night and it was a cold shower 😅 many did a quick sink shower and wipe down. Definitely bathrooms on the hike and when we stayed in the place with Andean huts on night 2, we had pay showers and had warm water.
We had been staying in Huaraz about 2 days prior at 3,052m or 10,013 feet, then after we also hiked and camped overnight at Refugio Peru the day before to Laguna 69 at an even higher elevation. Everyone is different per your fitness & physical level and experience, but we generally spend a minimum of 1 to 3 days especially when over 3,000 m if you’re doing high altitude hiking or climbing. Hike we did the day before to help acclimatize: th-cam.com/video/3OJ441LziTA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=h6Ch8monLEAPCIDU More info on acclimatizing: www.mountainhardwear.com/learn/know-how/expedition/acclimatize.html
We are using Apple AirTags on our iphone. You then go to “Find my” app on your phone and it’s under items. Here is the AirTag amzn.to/3PIJ8hS (you can also buy in 4 pack) ☺️
We would definitely stick to the 4-day trek to have more time to see other parts of Peru. You do get an extra stop hiking Lucmabamba, which is an Incan Archaeological site in Aguas Calientes that we didn't get to see. We knew after 4 days we would want a break, since we had been hiking quite a bit around Peru before this. It also depends on the cost and the time that you have. The Salkantay Trekking Company offers both 4 and 5 day and has a helpful map on both treks. It is only a $50 USD difference for the 4 and 5 days trek, so not too bad. Hope that helps! Let us know if you have any other questions.
It is definitely a well traveled trail. It’s a classic trail to hike and definitely draws a lot of people. Still a fun adventure, but not everyone’s style we understand
This is hands down one of our favorite adventures we have been on. Highly recommend hiring a guide for the Salkantay hike
Hay algún peligro ir solo ?
@ecodelta3732 we saw some people doing it without a guide. Didn’t see anyone solo. There are always people on the trail as it is a popular hike. The people who were self guided carried all their own gear like tent, sleeping bags, food, etc. It can be done but you will need to arrange or figure out where to camp along the way. It will take 2 nights for the trek to Machu Picchu.
Wow. Amazing place. Amazing video.
Thanks for taking us with u. Loved watching.
Do stay connected friends
Thank you!! Hope you’re well! So happy you enjoyed it. Always appreciate you watching
Been there done that . We did the Salkantay lodge to lodge. A real treat each day was a warm clean bed, a hot shower, diner and breakfast each day. Oh the best part was having someone clean the mud and horse crap from our boots. A must hike. Do it!
Glad you had a good experience and sounds like you choose a great guide company to go with. Cheers to more adventures 🥾🌎
Wow, guys!! 📣 Shout out to the best travel guide video of the Salkantay trek 👏👏👏
We had an amazing time! We enjoyed our time trekking with Salkantay Trekkingz Juan Carlos was a fantastic guide. We recommend your company all the time.
Thanks for sharing your journey and safe travels! 😊
Thanks, Thomas! Hope you and your family are well ☺️
The first thing I wanted was Tim’s beer. Then “Have you Tried coca leaves?”, I will! Came a voice very near the camera. The domes were nice. Another cool vid from the Coca Schuckers. When in Salkantay…
Tim is always enjoy the local drinks or beer 🍻 He is always so adventurous with trying new things. My fav thing about June. We loved the sky domes. Such a unique accommodation.
@@HelenandTimTravel adventure as we well know is worth a risk or 2. Love you both. Smiling inside when I watch your vids.
Awe thank you ❤️ we appreciate your friendship. Love you two Vern.
Great video you have inspired me to go here.
So happy that the video inspired you to go! We enjoyed our experience ☺️
This video was beautiful and super informative! I'm doing this for the first time in May. I see you two are wearing tons of great gear! Would you be able to make some recommendations of what to bring and where you bought your gear from? I'm curious about your backpack, layers, sunglasses, hiking boots, and other small knick knacks that made a difference!
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it. Yay for signing up for the Salkantay hike. Good luck on your trek in May! Happy to make recommendations on gear. We share our entire gear list on our website: helenandtimtravel.com/hiking-gear-list.
We followed our trekking companies website for our packing list. Here is their website: www.salkantaytrekking.com/travel-info/ultimate-salkantay-trek-packing-list. A couple people didn't bring hats or neck gaiters and it was helpful to have with wind and sun. Helen enjoyed having her vest too!
This is a superb video! 🎉 I'm glad you mentioned your vest. I was curious to know if it was beneficial as it relates to keeping you warm.
Thanks! Glad you liked the video. It did a great job of keeping my core warm and the part of my body that gets cold easily. It wasn’t on the salkantay packing list, but glad I brought it. Now I bring it every hiking trip especially when we are in the alpine. Even convinced Tim to buy one similar to mine 😃 -Helen
Awesome video! I see a Sony 18-105 as well :-D love the lens choice
That’s my first ever camera and lens. Still love it! But couldn’t bring it on our world travels. No room for it 😆 -Helen
Amazing! We’re doing this in May. I would like to know what you guys packed for this trip
Nice! We used our trekking companies packing list. It was helpful! We pretty much followed It! ☺️ www.salkantaytrekking.com/travel-info/ultimate-salkantay-trek-packing-list/
Thank you
24:43 To me they said the right route was easier for going to Salkantay Pass. When I saw hundreds of people taking the left route when I was in the middle of the right route I knew they were lying 🙂
Definitely a tough part of the hike. We had a few in our group take the right and they looked much happier 😅😉 Such good memories!
This is my favorite excursion so far! I so want to stay in a sky dome! Thanks for adding the night sky shots. This video was awesome!
We are glad you enjoyed it. The sky dome was one of our favorite parts. Thanks for watching, Mom ❤️🥰
Awesome video and views! I will be doing this in a month :) would you say a puff jacket is needed?
I’ve been seeing mixed messages online so I’m debating on whether I’ll need to pack that or if a rain jacket and layers will be enough
Thanks, Brad! Awesome you’ll be heading there soon. You’re going to love the hike. I would say a puff jacket is needed up at the mountain pass. It was pretty windy when we were up there. It also rained on us a bit on say 3 during the rainforest part. They give you a very thin pancho, but it doesn’t do much. We just wore our rain jackets. If you’re going with a guide, they give you a duffle to pack most of your clothes, so you have plenty of room for jackets. Have a great hike! Let us know if you have other questions. -Helen
Do you guys have a packing list for this trip or recommendations?
Are you planning to do this hike guided or self guided? The company we hired as a guide as a packing list on their websife
www.salkantaytrekking.com/trekking-in-peru/cusco/salkantay-trek-4d
Thank you for the video! We are hoping to do this very soon. Thinking May but September looked really nice... We are debating bringing the kids (12, 13, 17). Did you see any kids/teens on the hike?
Hello Kaia! Salkantay is great hike to do! We enjoyed being on the Salkantay Trek mid September. We didn’t see any kids (that we remember) on the trek, likely because many kids were back in school that time of year. I recommend reaching out to a trekking company for more info. We did a search and it seems some trekking companies have an age limit of 14 and others do not have an age limit, but they recommend consulting with your doctor/physician first since the trek is at high altitude and is physically demanding. There are options to take a section of the hike by horseback and train to save on time and in case your kiddo gets tired. All things to consider ☺️ Hope that helps!
we are there in 2 months to do this hike:)!
Awesome! Excited for you! Are you doing the 4 or 5 day salkantay trek?
@@HelenandTimTravel we are doing the 4 day…basically the exact same as you. I was curious though if you thought the $60 to add the machu mountain hike was worth it? I’m sure it’s good but I live in the Rockies, and I’m big on value haha, and wonder if I’ll question the worth…seeing $60 US is almost $90 for us Canadians….for a 2hr hike.
@@benlittlechilds1192 we didn’t feel like we had enough time to walk around Machu Picchu in the lower section after we did the hike. But we wanted to do it to get the classic top down view. Huayna Picchu is another option, but after reading about it, Machu Picchu mountain had better views. You will be doing 4 days of trekking already, so it also depends on if you want to hike more ☺️ Regardless you can’t go wrong with your decision. Probably not helpful! It is a challenge and lots of step, and we always like the challenge. Think we were able to finish the hike in about 1.5 hour with a 15 min break at the top
@@HelenandTimTravel Awesome, thanks for your time responding. We hike every week here 20-30km with 1500-2000m gains, and have also done Kilimanjaro for a similar comparison, so other then the altitude headaches haha, we are going into it confident...the hike part would be fine...it's the $60US for 2 hrs with a 15min view haha.
Totally get it! You can stay up there as long as you want. It was cool to get to see all the towering peaks in the distance too. You always run the chance of clouds and fog too, but that’s always a gamble 😅. We didn’t get the do the guided tour with our salkantay guide because we hiked the mountain, so you would miss that part and wander through yourself. If that’s the case and you want the guided part of the lower section, I would skip the mountain
Thanks guys for great videos..I’m there in May ..what was the washing facilities like ? Or was it wet wipes all the way ?
Good luck on your trek! We were able to have access to showers except the last two camps before going over the pass. It was wayyy too cold for any of us to want to shower. We didn't always have warm water to shower...they were never hot except for maybe one. Out of 14-days, we got maybe 3 warm showers. Sometimes the tea house you stay at you can pay for the warm showers, but some of our accomodations had warm showers, but they were mostly cold. Helen only showered once ever 2 or 3 days and used baby wipes in-between. Hope that helps!
@@HelenandTimTravel thanks guys
Hi Helen and Tim, great video! We plan to go next May, what is the main reason that you guys chose this hike instead of the Inca trail?
Hello Cindy! We chose Salkantay over Inca trail for the alpine lakes and mountain pass. We have heard the Inca trail is more moderate and Salkantay is more strenuous of a hike. Also, we chose Salkantay over Inca because we read it was less crowded. We really love alpine environments, plus on Salkantay you still get to hike part of old Mayan trails which is neat. They have options for a longer 5 to 7 day trek if you want to combine and do both trails☺️ Hope that helps! Never a easy decision to have to choose.
@@HelenandTimTravel Thank you so much for the information. My main concern is the altitude sickness. Salkantay is higher than the Inca but the challenging is also tempting😂 we don’t have time to do both. But either one should be an amazing experience. Thanks again and looking forward to seeing more of your great videos. Safe travelling!
Don’t think you can go wrong with either. Both a great experience I’ve heard from Inca trekkers. They offer plenty of ginger tea and had options to pay to take the donkeys to go over the pass if you aren’t feeling well. Happy planning! Let us know what you decide. We thought salkantay are was beautiful!
Hi what’s the difference between 4 days & 5 days trekking? Which one do you recommend? Planning to go there next year. Thanks🙏🏽
It depends how much time you have time. We did the 4-day since it was a good mix of Salkantay pass, hiking part of the Inca trail to Macchu Picchu area. The 5-day is the classic route and you take a slower pace. We included two links where you can compare 🤙🏽
5-day Salkantay: www.salkantaytrekking.com/pdf/travel-brochure-classic-salkantay-5d.pdf
4-day Salkantay: www.salkantaytrekking.com/trekking-in-peru/cusco/salkantay-trek-4d/
Great footage, thanks for sharing. Wondering whether you arrived a couple of days before the trek to acclimatize to the elevation? Also, what time of year did you do this?
Thank you! We did hike and spend the night up at Camp Muir the night of the climb to acclimatize. In all you sleep for 3 to 6 hours depending on what time you make it up to Camp Muir. We didn’t sleep much 😅We did the 4 day with RMI climb and first two days are an orientation and then the next day you do basic mountaineering skills and practice on the mountain out of paradise area. They offer a 5 day climb that allows more time for acclimatize and weather windows
@@HelenandTimTravel thanks for responding although perhaps you meant this comment for another video? I was talking about the Salkantay trek and not climbing Mt. Rainer. :)
Oh geez this is why we shouldn’t write comments at midnight hahaha 🤣🤣🤣 We got to Cusco the night before we started. We had been hiking in 12,000+ elevation in Huaraz before that which helped us acclimatize. We definitely recommend staying in Cusco at least day or two (even longer, it’s a cool city) before in case if you are coming from Lima, which is at sea level. You also stay in the sky camp in Soraypampa the night before you go through Salkantay pass, which helps 🏔️
@@HelenandTimTravel thanks for the info!! what time of year did you visit/do the trek?
@gracekim8898 you’re welcome! We hiked salkantay around mid Sept ☺️
May I know which group guide you chose ? Which month did you go? And difficulty level compare to Mt. Rinjani - Indonesia ? So sorry for asking too much, truly considering salkantay 😊😊 TIA !
Hello! So excited you are considering the Salkantay hike. We really enjoyed it. We think Mount Rinjani was tought because there was more elevation gain and the terrain and humidity made it much more difficult, as well as longer days of trekking. The guide we went with was Salkantay Trekking. All the info is linked in the TH-cam description 😃
sky dome looks cool! is there a shower area in the sky camp?
Think there were showers at sky Camp but we didn’t take any because it was only the first night and it was a cold shower 😅 many did a quick sink shower and wipe down. Definitely bathrooms on the hike and when we stayed in the place with Andean huts on night 2, we had pay showers and had warm water.
Hi, what kind of acclimatisation you require to climb Nevado Mateo?
We had been staying in Huaraz about 2 days prior at 3,052m or 10,013 feet, then after we also hiked and camped overnight at Refugio Peru the day before to Laguna 69 at an even higher elevation. Everyone is different per your fitness & physical level and experience, but we generally spend a minimum of 1 to 3 days especially when over 3,000 m if you’re doing high altitude hiking or climbing.
Hike we did the day before to help acclimatize: th-cam.com/video/3OJ441LziTA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=h6Ch8monLEAPCIDU
More info on acclimatizing: www.mountainhardwear.com/learn/know-how/expedition/acclimatize.html
@@HelenandTimTravelThanks you!
@johnybravo5667 you’re welcome!
what time if the year did you go?
We were there around mid September :)
What app did you use to track your luggage ?? That’s so clutch !
We are using Apple AirTags on our iphone. You then go to “Find my” app on your phone and it’s under items. Here is the AirTag amzn.to/3PIJ8hS (you can also buy in 4 pack) ☺️
Very informative and fun video! If you had to do it again, would you choose the 4 or 5 day trek?
We would definitely stick to the 4-day trek to have more time to see other parts of Peru. You do get an extra stop hiking Lucmabamba, which is an Incan Archaeological site in Aguas Calientes that we didn't get to see. We knew after 4 days we would want a break, since we had been hiking quite a bit around Peru before this. It also depends on the cost and the time that you have. The Salkantay Trekking Company offers both 4 and 5 day and has a helpful map on both treks. It is only a $50 USD difference for the 4 and 5 days trek, so not too bad. Hope that helps! Let us know if you have any other questions.
May I ask which month of the year did you do the hike? The views are mostly clear without fog!
We were in Peru in Sept ☺️ It was a great time of year and not as busy it seems
How did you hang the reflex camera on your chest?
We use the Peak design camera clip 📸 you can find it at rei bit.ly/3LNgYzS or Amazon amzn.to/45zNJYh
Hi, what happened with the dog?
Hello! Which dog are you referring to? ☺️
Imho it all looks too comercialised. There is nothing adventurious in this type of trails / hikes.
It is definitely a well traveled trail. It’s a classic trail to hike and definitely draws a lot of people. Still a fun adventure, but not everyone’s style we understand