Inca Trail Availability And Permits

Hi Kai, Unfortunatley Inca Trail permit regulation is really strict. You can only secure a permit for a specific day and the permit is tied to the name in your passport and passport number, therefore they are not transferable or refundable. The sales process is really convoluted as well. There are only 500 permits a day and they only officially go on sale in January of the year you want to trek. So in your case the permits go on sale in January 2017. Registered tour operators are the only ones who can secure permits. Tours are pre-sold by these companies before the permits are released so their is no guarantee that they will be able to get you a permit until they are released and availability for any given day is made transparent. March usually sells out very quickly, within a few days of permits being released in January, March will sell out. I recommend pre-booking with a company, but if they don’t manage to secure your permit you can always do the Lares or Salkantay treks – which in my opinion or just as nice, especially the latter. Hope this helps!

Hi Katie, it’s best to chat with a tour operator as they have access to the permit booking system and can give you accurate numbers on permits available for any day, at any given time. You can use our tour recommendation service to get in touch with our preferred operator: https://www.machupicchutrek.net/go/

H Sam, any trek on the classic Inca Trail requires a permit. There may still be permits available for December. I recommend getting in touch with a tour operator asap, use our recommendation service to get a quick quote: https://www.machupicchutrek.net/go/. Alternative routes don’t require permits, the shortest is probably the Huchuy Qosco: https://www.machupicchutrek.net/hike-to-machu-picchu/huchuy-qosqo-trek/