The Inca trail

[Sweetdisposition91]

Me and my boyfriend are hiking the Inca trail late October whilst we are backpacking South America.

Does anyone have any tips at all please?

What to pack, training, how it was etc?

Make sure you have a few days at altitude before starting. Make sure your footwear is supportive of your ankles, the steps are really, really uneven.
I know both of those sound trite but there were people who had ignored both getting sick and injured when I went.

If you hadn't already booked I'd say don't bother to do the full thing but just the single day walk with sunrise at the gate.

I just found it a chore and would have been happier just going on the train.

Sorry to be a downer. Peru itself is amazing and has so much to see and do.

It’s amazing.

Take proper ankle supporting walking shoes that you are really comfortable in. Start training now, the altitude makes it hard but being as fit as you can be really helps. There’s lots of steps, really lots. Find a hill to walk up and do it every day. If you don’t have hills get to a gym.

It gets cold at night . I had a good sleeping bag but still had a big duvet coat over the top, a goose down one that really squashed down flat and hat and gloves on to sleep.

Buy or take some sweets, fruit pastilles for us through some down moments.

Hand sanitiser and a flannel damp 8n a bag.

We were fairly acclimatised as we’d spent a week at altitude before starting, 8nthink that helped.

It’s smazing.

If you haven’t already booked there are other less used trails and ruins and you can still see Manchu pichu by train.

Prru is stunning.

You're so lucky. It's amazing, I've done it twice.

Definitely make sure you have a reasonable level of fitness and are used to climbing.

Your travel company will probably provide a list and likely also have a weight limit as the porters have weight limits. Don't be tempted to overpack, you won't need that much stuff. Warm layers, a change of clothing etc and don't worry about showering. (The only ones are bloomin feeezing at the last stop, goodness knows why I decided I needed one). You'll need waterproofs.

I was able to hire walking poles and they were a huge help for the steps. Definitely recommend.

Enjoy!

I enjoyed the trail more than seeing Machu Picchu as it was overcast and I was wrecked from all the hiking. We did it as part of a tour so only had to carry 5kg bags. The local lads carried our big rucksacks and they would get ahead and set up food tents during the day and sleeping tents at night which obviously took a huge amount of the work out of it and the food they prepared was fabulous. We spent a few days in Cuzco acclimatising so were ok with altitude sickness. Some bits were tough but you just keep putting one foot in front of the other and you get there. I loved it.