What is it?

Cusco is the beating heart of the Andes — once the sacred capital of the Inca Empire, believed to be laid out in the shape of a puma, and still a city where history is visibly stacked layer upon layer. Walk its lanes and you'll run your hand along Inca stonework so precisely cut that a knife blade can't slip between the blocks, only to look up and see Baroque bell towers and terracotta rooftops built by Spanish conquistadors on those very foundations. The Plaza de Armas hums at dusk with buskers, students and vendors selling alpaca scarves, while smoke from anticucho grills drifts down the steep alleys of San Blas. At 3,400 metres the air is thin and sharp, the light is impossibly clear, and processions, brass bands and festivals seem to erupt without warning. Beyond the colonial facade, Cusco is unmistakably Quechua: women in bowler hats and layered polleras lead llamas through the streets, coca tea is offered everywhere, and Inti Raymi still fills the ruins of Sacsayhuamán each June. It is both the launchpad for Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, and a destination that easily earns several days of its own.

Where is it?

Cusco sits in the southeastern Peruvian Andes, roughly a one-hour flight or a long overnight bus from Lima, and serves as the gateway to the Sacred Valley, Rainbow Mountain, Humantay Lake and Machu Picchu. The dry season from May to September brings crisp blue skies and the biggest festivals — Inti Raymi on 24 June is spectacular — while the November to March rainy season is greener, cheaper and quieter, though the Inca Trail closes each February. Many travellers acclimatise in the lower-altitude Sacred Valley towns of Pisac, Urubamba or Ollantaytambo before basing themselves in Cusco itself.

What makes it worth it?

Few cities deliver such an immediate sense of standing inside living history. Travellers routinely say they arrived planning two nights and stayed a week, seduced by the mountain light, the food scene and the feeling that something ceremonial is always about to happen around the next corner. There's a particular emotional jolt in touching the 12-angled stone on Hatun Rumiyoc and realising it was shaped without iron tools, or in watching the sun set over red rooftops from a San Blas balcony with a pisco sour in hand. Visitors often describe Cusco as the moment Peru clicked into place — where Machu Picchu stopped being a postcard and became the endpoint of a civilisation whose descendants are still here, still speaking Quechua, still farming these hills. Years later it's not just the ruins you remember, but the smell of woodsmoke and eucalyptus, the sound of a distant brass band, and the strange thin-air exhilaration of a city in the clouds.

How accessible is it?

Cusco is one of South America's easiest cities to reach and welcomes well over a million visitors a year, with daily flights from Lima (from around $60–150 return) and a well-worn tourist infrastructure of hostels, boutique hotels and English-speaking guides. The main challenge is altitude: at 3,400m many people feel headaches, breathlessness or nausea for the first day or two, so plan a gentle arrival, drink plenty of water, skip alcohol initially and consider coca tea or altitude medication. Budget travellers can get by on $30–50 a day, mid-range on $80–150, while high-end hotels and private Sacred Valley tours run considerably more; the Boleto Turístico combined ticket for the ruins and museums costs around 130 soles. The historic centre is steep and cobbled, which can be tough on knees and unsuitable for wheelchairs in places, but taxis are cheap and plentiful. If Machu Picchu or the classic Inca Trail is part of your plan, book months ahead — trail permits sell out up to six months in advance and entry tickets are capped daily.