Visitor overload at Machu Picchu; go to the hundreds of free, open sites across the Sacred Valley instead

Anybody interested in seeing Macchu Picchu should be aware of a few things:

First, if you want to go to MP, you’ll have a nice, somewhat busy time. Bear in mind that:

A lot of people want to see MP as the most famous Incan town and nobody regrets their visit, MP is in a beautiful valley and Peru is wonderful.

Visiting Macchu Picchu is going to require multiple in-advance reservations, multiple legs of travel, hundreds of USD equivalent for separate train tickets, shuttle buses, guides, entrance tickets, you will be surrounded by tourists and tour services and many areas of MP are restricted from access. The Macchu Picchu ruins are heavily reconstructed.

There are literally hundreds of other intact ancient Incan sites you can visit for free and walk around inside of unrestricted or for a few dollars. There are so many citadels, towns, qolqas, lakes and sacred sites in Peru to see with far fewer or no other tourists, no entry fees and unrestricted access. Many sites are within walking distance of Cusco(the Peruvian city you’ll take your trains and buses to MP from).