Mandor Machu Picchu — Hotel in Machu Picchu

Being late with our travel planning, I was appalled by the hotel options and the prices in Aguas Calientes. We also would have liked to hike the Inka trail, but this sounded equally crowded.||||We ended up doing the trip as described below, which I highly recommend for outdoor lovers and hikers. Key ingredient is the Gea Lodge (it is the same place as Jardin de Mandor).||||The lodge of Jardin de Mandor has opened only some months ago. It is simple - shared bathrooms, but clean, hot water and in a spectacular setting right in the valley at the river in lush scenery. There is no other house closeby. Value is excellent. There is also a good restaurant on site. The gardens are very beautiful, including a native tree reforestation project and 2 waterfalls (the bigger one a 20 minutes walk from the lodge) and swimming holes. You get the back view of Huayna Picchu. Highly recommended for nature lovers!||||How to make this a special Machu Picchu trip - by way of Santa Teresa:||||Day 1||Travel from Cusco to Santa Teresa by rental car (5 hours) or by public transport. You might have to switch buses in Ollantaytambo and/or Santa Maria.||Recommended stay at Ecoquechua Lodge in Santa Teresa.||||Day 2||Use morning for hot springs (less people than in the afternoon)||Leave car and luggage at Ecoquecua Lodge, take a cab to Hidroelectrica (25 minutes, 5 soles shared cab, 30 soles private cab).||Walk 1.5 hours upstream along the train track to Jardin de Mandor / Gea Lodge. Mostly flat, except first 10 minutes uphill. Very beautiful hike! Visit the gardens.||||Day 3||Get up at 4:30, walk 25 minutes further along the track to the turn off heading to the ruins, hike 1 hour up to the ruins. Visit Machu Picchu which opens at 6am, head back to Jardin de Mandor (downhill is shorter) and have an extensive lunch there, go swimming etc||Head back to Hidroelectrica in the afternoon - 1.5 hours, take the cab back from Hidroelectrica to Ecoquechua lodge for dinner.||||Day 4||Head back to Cusco. If you travel with your own car, you have time in the morning to do some zip lining.||||Things to consider:||- Day 3 is a day hike. Visiting Machu Picchu means walking up and down in the ruins. You can do this if you are reasonably fit and hike occasionally. Alternatively stay over at Jardin de Mandor on your way back.||- Roads from Cuzco to Santa Maria are excellent, the road from Santa Maria to Santa Teresa (45 minutes) is unpaved and cut into the mountain - there are quite some drops!||- Both Ecoquechua and Jardin de Mandor will keep your stuff at no extra charge.||- No need to hire any tour operator. You can't get lost hiking along train tracks.||- Buy your Machu PIcchu ticket online beforehand. No expensive train...

As a family with 2 kids (7 and 8 years old) Aguas Calientes didn't sounded like a place where we could find something quiet, decent, reasonable priced to sleep.||But then I found the website of Gea Lodge (same owner as the Mandor Gardens)!||It sounded great and it was! ||Erwin picked us up at the train station in Aguas Calientes and we had a nice walk along the railway to the lodge. The kids were very excited when a train passed by. ||We ate a early diner (especially for us), had a nice shower and slept well in the basic but comfortable family room with 4 seperate beds.||The next morning Erwin made a lot of effort to get us on an early bus up to Machu Picchu. He went into the long line of people in aguas calientes for us early in the morning so that the bus could pick us up near the bridge. In that way we didnt had to wake up the kids in the middle of the night to get to machu picchu early in the morning!||Excellent service!||Erwin also provided packed brackfast/lunches for our day at machu picchu.||When you sleep at the gea lodge the only thing you hear at night is...

We were so lucky to find this lodge through trip advisor. After spending a few nights in the flawless Incan town of ollantaytambo, we arrived by train in aguas calientes a sad tourist town reeking of inauthenticity. Fortunately we were met by Erwin|Rosa at the train station, who carried our bags as we walked a pleasant hour along the urubamba River to Gea Lodge. It sits right on the river as part of several thousand hectares of nature preserve. We were given a lovely triple room with shared bath. Meals were served with other international travelers. Lunch was packed for a day in Machu Picchu. We enjoyed the hike to the water falls on the grounds. A perfect experience to relish the splendor of Machu Picchu while maintaining the tranquility of the region. Highly recommended for anyone willing to get away from the bus loads of tourists in|AC and be at one...