The Boleto Turístico del Cusco, universally known as the BTC, is the official entrance ticket system for the archaeological sites, museums and cultural attractions managed by the regional government of Cusco. It was introduced as a way of centralizing access to the dozens of sites scattered across the city and the Sacred Valley into a single ticket structure and distributing the revenue from tourism across a wider range of attractions rather than concentrating it at the most famous ones.

For travelers visiting Cusco for the first time, the BTC is simultaneously one of the most useful tickets available and one of the most confusing to navigate. The confusion stems from the fact that the ticket has been restructured multiple times over the years, the current version involves three separate partial circuits that can be bought individually or as a combination, and several of the most visited sites in Cusco are not included in the BTC at all.

This guide explains exactly what the current BTC covers, what it costs, which sites in Cusco require separate tickets outside the BTC system and how to decide which version of the ticket makes the most sense for your specific itinerary and interests.

WHAT THE BTC IS

The Boleto Turístico del Cusco is a regional government ticket that provides access to a defined set of archaeological sites, museums and cultural attractions across three geographic circuits: the city of Cusco and its immediate surroundings, the Sacred Valley of the Incas and the south valley south of the city. Each circuit can be purchased as a standalone partial ticket or all three can be combined into a full BTC that covers every site across the entire ticket system.

The BTC is not a single-site ticket. It is designed for travelers who plan to visit multiple attractions across several days and who want the convenience and cost efficiency of a combined access document rather than individual entry at each location.

CIRCUIT 1 — THE CUSCO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

Circuit 1 of the BTC covers the four main archaeological sites on the hillsides immediately surrounding Cusco city. These are the sites that most travelers visit on a standard Cusco city tour and they represent some of the finest examples of Inca military architecture, ceremonial design and hydraulic engineering accessible as a day excursion from the city.

Sacsayhuamán

Sacsayhuamán is the most impressive of the four Circuit 1 sites and one of the most extraordinary human constructions in the Americas. The fortress occupies the ridge directly above Cusco and consists of three massive terraced walls of precisely fitted polygonal stone blocks arranged in a zigzag pattern that gave the defensive walls a dramatically increased surface area while simultaneously creating a visual effect of almost overwhelming scale. The largest individual stones in the walls weigh over one hundred tons and were transported from quarries several kilometers away through methods that remain incompletely understood by modern archaeologists.

The site also includes the remains of circular towers, water storage cisterns and a large flat esplanade where the annual Inti Raymi ceremony is performed every June 24th before tens of thousands of spectators. Walking along the base of the main walls and then ascending to the upper esplanade level gives two completely different experiences of the scale of the structure and is the recommended approach for visitors with the time to do both.

Qenqo

Qenqo is a ceremonial complex built around and through a large natural limestone outcrop approximately two kilometers northeast of Sacsayhuamán. The Inca carvers used the natural formation as the raw material for an elaborate arrangement of carved channels, altars, niches and an underground chamber accessed through a narrow passage in the rock. The channels on the upper surface of the outcrop were used to pour chicha corn beer or llama blood during ritual ceremonies, and the carved zigzag patterns visible on the stone surface give the site its name, which translates approximately as zigzag or labyrinth in Quechua.

The underground chamber is the most atmospheric part of the site, a natural cave space with carved niches that may have held mummies during ancestor veneration ceremonies. The low ceiling and narrow entrance create a sense of intimacy with the rock that makes Qenqo one of the more compelling stops on the Circuit 1 route for travelers interested in the ritual dimensions of Inca culture rather than the purely architectural.

Puca Pucara

Puca Pucara is the smallest of the four Circuit 1 sites and is often described as a military control post that guarded the road leading north from Cusco toward the Sacred Valley and the Amazon basin. The name translates as Red Fortress, a reference to the reddish coloration of the stone when it is wet. The structures include enclosures, towers and terraces arranged to command a view of the road below, and while the site lacks the dramatic scale of Sacsayhuamán it provides useful context about the Inca road network and the administrative infrastructure that supported it.

Tambomachay

Tambomachay is the most elegant of the four Circuit 1 sites and the one that most consistently surprises visitors who are expecting military architecture. An Inca water temple built at a natural spring on the hillside a short distance from Puca Pucara, the site consists of a series of beautifully constructed niches, platforms and channels through which spring water flows in perfectly maintained streams that have operated without interruption for five centuries. The masonry is among the finest visible at any site in the Cusco region, with the stone surfaces smooth and precisely fitted and the channels engineered to maintain a steady, controlled flow regardless of seasonal variations in the spring output.

The site is believed to have had a ritual function connected to the Inca veneration of water as a sacred element, and the combination of the quality of the construction and the sound of the continuously flowing water gives Tambomachay a contemplative quality that distinguishes it from the more immediately imposing sites on the circuit.

Circuit 1 practical details

The four Circuit 1 sites are best visited in sequence as described above, moving from Sacsayhuamán through Qenqo, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay in a single morning excursion with private transport between them. The circuit requires approximately two to three hours in total for a thorough visit to all four sites. The BTC Circuit 1 partial ticket covers all four and can be purchased at the sites or through Inka Tickets in advance.

CIRCUIT 2 — THE SACRED VALLEY SITES

Circuit 2 of the BTC covers the three main archaeological sites in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, the broad river valley that stretches northwest of Cusco toward Ollantaytambo. These sites are typically visited as part of a Sacred Valley full day tour that follows the valley road from Cusco.

Pisac

The Pisac site sits high above the market town of the same name on a ridge overlooking the confluence of two rivers in the Sacred Valley. The ruins are extensive and cover multiple distinct areas including an agricultural sector of magnificent terracing visible from the valley floor below, a religious and ceremonial sector at the highest point of the ridge and a residential sector built into the steep terrain between them.

The agricultural terraces of Pisac are among the most impressive in the entire region, cascading down the mountainside in curves that follow the natural contours of the ridge and demonstrating the Inca capacity to engineer productive agricultural land on terrain that would challenge any modern agricultural system. The ceremonial sector at the top includes a precisely oriented Intihuatana solar calendar stone and a Temple of the Sun whose window alignments track the movement of the sun across the solstice and equinox points of the year.

The walk from the parking area at the base of the site to the upper ceremonial sector takes approximately forty-five minutes to one hour on a clear stone path and involves significant altitude gain. The views across the Sacred Valley from the upper levels are among the most comprehensive available anywhere in the region.

Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo fortress is covered in detail in our dedicated article about the station and town, but within the context of the BTC it represents the most architecturally significant site on Circuit 2. The massive agricultural and defensive terraces, the unfinished Temple of the Sun with its six monolithic granite stones and the preserved Inca town plan below the fortress combine to make Ollantaytambo one of the most complete and best-preserved Inca urban sites anywhere in Peru.

Chinchero

Chinchero sits at a higher altitude than the other Sacred Valley sites, at approximately three thousand seven hundred and seventy meters, on the plateau above the main valley road between Cusco and Urubamba. The site combines Inca agricultural terracing and a large Inca plaza with a colonial church built directly on Inca foundations in the seventeenth century, following the pattern of religious architecture across the entire Cusco region.

The town of Chinchero is also one of the most important centers of traditional Andean weaving in the region. Several family-based weaving cooperatives in the town maintain the full cycle of textile production from the shearing of alpaca and sheep through the dyeing of fibers with natural plant and mineral pigments to the weaving of complex traditional patterns on backstrap looms. Visiting a demonstration at one of these cooperatives gives a concrete understanding of the textile tradition that produced the extraordinarily sophisticated fabrics preserved in Peruvian museums.

Circuit 2 practical details

The three Circuit 2 sites are spread across the length of the Sacred Valley and require a vehicle to visit in a single day. The standard Sacred Valley tour visits all three along with additional community and market stops, taking approximately eight to nine hours in total. The BTC Circuit 2 partial ticket covers entry to all three sites.

CIRCUIT 3 — THE SOUTH VALLEY SITES

Circuit 3 of the BTC covers three sites south of Cusco along the road toward Puno, an area that receives fewer visitors than the northern circuits but contains some of the most historically significant archaeological remains in the region.

Tipón

Tipón is one of the most remarkable hydraulic engineering sites in the entire Inca world and one that is consistently undervisited relative to its significance. The site consists of an elaborate system of agricultural terraces, canals and fountains engineered around a natural spring on the hillside, with water channeled through the entire site in a series of precisely constructed stone channels that maintain a controlled flow through multiple levels of terracing. The engineering complexity of the water management system at Tipón represents a level of hydrological understanding that modern engineers studying the site have found consistently impressive.

The main terrace complex is approached through a series of progressively more refined architectural spaces, and the sound of the continuously flowing water channels throughout the site gives Tipón an atmosphere unlike any other site in the Cusco region. It is one of those places that rewards slow and attentive visiting rather than a quick walk through, and travelers who take the time to understand what they are looking at typically rate it as one of the most genuinely interesting sites they visit in Peru.

Pikillacta

Pikillacta is a large pre-Inca urban settlement built by the Wari culture between approximately 600 and 1000 CE, centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire. The site covers an area of approximately two square kilometers and consists of hundreds of rectangular enclosures arranged in a regular grid plan, with walls of rough stone that once reached several meters in height and were plastered and painted white. The Wari were a highland civilization centered further north in the Ayacucho region and Pikillacta represents one of their most significant southern administrative centers.

The contrast between Pikillacta’s regular grid plan and rough stone construction and the curved, precisely fitted masonry of the nearby Inca sites makes the site fascinating from an architectural and cultural comparison perspective. Understanding Pikillacta gives context to the long history of complex civilization in the Cusco region that preceded the Incas and to the cultural layering that characterizes the entire archaeological landscape of the southern Andes.

Andahuaylillas

Andahuaylillas is not an archaeological site in the conventional sense but a colonial village south of Cusco that contains the Church of San Pedro Apóstol, often called the Sistine Chapel of the Americas. The comparison is not hyperbole. The interior of the church, built in the early seventeenth century, is covered floor to ceiling and wall to wall in gilded altarpieces, polychrome murals, carved wooden choir stalls, painted ceilings and a collection of colonial religious art that represents the most concentrated and best-preserved ensemble of Andean baroque decoration in Peru.

The exterior of the church is plain and whitewashed, giving no indication of what lies inside, and the contrast between the humble exterior and the extraordinary interior is one of the most memorable architectural surprises available anywhere in the Cusco region. The church is still an active place of worship and the experience of visiting it has a different quality from the archaeological sites, more intimate and more connected to living cultural practice.

Circuit 3 practical details

The three Circuit 3 sites follow the road south from Cusco and can be visited in a half day morning or afternoon excursion with private transport. The total visit time for all three sites is approximately four to five hours including transport between them. The BTC Circuit 3 partial ticket covers all three sites.

WHAT THE BTC DOES NOT COVER

This is the most important section of this guide for travelers planning their Cusco itinerary, because the assumption that the BTC covers the main Cusco attractions leads many visitors to arrive at significant sites without the correct ticket.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is not included in the BTC. It has its own completely separate ticketing system managed by the national Ministry of Culture rather than the regional Cusco government. The ten circuits at Machu Picchu each require their own ticket booked in advance through the official system.

Qorikancha

Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun in the center of Cusco and arguably the single most historically significant site in the entire city, is not included in the BTC. It requires a separate individual entrance ticket. The museum attached to the Qorikancha complex is included in the BTC but the archaeological site of the temple itself is not. This distinction confuses many travelers who purchase the BTC expecting it to cover Qorikancha entry.

The Cathedral

The Cathedral of Cusco on the Plaza de Armas is not included in the BTC. It has its own entrance fee and its own ticket purchasing arrangements at the entrance.

The Inca Museum and other museums

Several museums in Cusco operate independently of the BTC system with their own ticket structures. Confirm which specific museums are included in the current BTC before purchasing if museum visits are a significant part of your itinerary.

Private archaeological sites

Some archaeological sites in the region are managed by private entities or communities rather than the regional government and operate outside the BTC system entirely.

CURRENT PRICES

The BTC pricing structure has been updated multiple times and the current prices should be confirmed at the time of booking as they are subject to change. As a general guide, the full BTC covering all three circuits costs approximately $40 to $50 USD for foreign adults with reductions for students, children and Andean Community nationals. Each partial circuit can be purchased for approximately $15 to $25 USD. Children under ten years of age are typically admitted free or at a significantly reduced rate.

Contact Inka Tickets for current confirmed pricing at the time of your visit.

IS THE BTC WORTH BUYING

The BTC represents excellent value for travelers who plan to visit multiple sites across the three circuits during their time in Cusco. If your itinerary includes the four Circuit 1 hillside sites, the Sacred Valley tour covering Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero, and the south valley excursion to Tipón, Pikillacta and Andahuaylillas, the combined BTC is significantly cheaper than paying individual entry at each site and eliminates the need to purchase separate tickets at multiple locations.

For travelers with limited time who plan to visit only the Circuit 1 hillside sites or only the Sacred Valley sites, a partial circuit ticket covering those specific sites is more economical than the full BTC. The partial tickets are available at the sites themselves or can be arranged through Inka Tickets in advance.

For travelers whose Cusco time is primarily focused on Machu Picchu and the city’s colonial architecture rather than the archaeological sites covered by the BTC, the ticket may not represent value for money. The Cathedral and Qorikancha, two of the most visited sites in the city, both require separate tickets outside the BTC system and for some travelers those two sites represent the majority of their Cusco sightseeing interest.

The honest recommendation is to map your planned sightseeing against the BTC coverage before purchasing and calculate whether the combined ticket or individual purchases work out more economically for your specific itinerary. Our team is happy to advise on this calculation for any itinerary.

HOW TO BOOK

Contact Inka Tickets with your travel dates and a description of your planned sightseeing in Cusco and the Sacred Valley. We advise on which version of the BTC makes sense for your itinerary, arrange the ticket and coordinate it with any guided tours, private transport and additional entrance tickets you need for the sites outside the BTC system. Everything arrives in a single booking confirmation covering your complete Cusco program.