Updated on June 7, 2018
Do you want to buy Machu Picchu tickets? I did too.
Thousands of people have successfully booked their Machu Picchu tickets by following my instructions. I created these instructions after I almost ripped out my hair trying to book my tickets! You can also now book children tickets online too – I've added the instructions below.
The Machu Picchu website is very frustrating. I just finished booking my tickets last night. For something so popular, they do a really good job at making it very difficult to buy your tickets. Booking tickets ahead of time is a good idea to make sure you are not disappointed when you arrive. Peru and UNESCO have an agreement to sell a maximum of 2,500 Machu Picchu tickets per day and entrance to Huayna Picchu is limited to only 400 tickets.
UPDATE: Read my Full 16-day Trip Report to Peru / Machu Picchu here (which by the way was almost free)
The hotel I booked, Tambo del Inka (Urubamba) has a company called Tikariy handle tour bookings and they quoted me $78 USD for Machupicchu and Huayna Picchu. You can book the same tickets yourself for S/.152 = ~ $55 USD. That's a markup of $23 USD or ~ 42%. If you follow the steps below you can book it in just a couple of minutes and save the money for something else.
BOOKING A TICKET ONLINE
STEP 1: CREATE A RESERVATION (USING THE SPANISH VERSION)
- Go to the official government website: http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/. This will be much cheaper than a travel agent. If you get an error about “Flash”, try using Internet Explorer or any other browsers you have.
- The English version does not work (Update 1/16/2017 – looks like the English version works now, I was able to use the English version to make a reservation all the way up until I stopped at the credit card entry screen). If the English version does not work, use the Spanish version by clicking the Spanish flag in the top right corner (it should default to Spanish).
- Choose Machu Picchu on the top left and select the type of ticket you want. I selected Machupicchu + Huaynapicchu 1G 7:00-8:00 am because I also wanted to climb Huaynapicchu in the first time slot so I could be the first to the top for that day. The weather will likely be cooler in the first slot. During the 2nd slot, you may encounter late finishers from the 1st slot and you may have clearer views but it depends on the weather. If you don't want the extra hiking, just choose Machu Picchu.
- Select your date.
- Select the quantity of adult tickets by clicking the “0” under “Cantidad” (Quantity) in the section “Extranjeros Adultos” (Foreign Adults). The discounted price of is for Peruvian's and students.
- Click “Paso 2” (Step 2) at the bottom. The number of tickets available is 176 in this example (see the black box on the top left).
STEP 2: ENTER YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
- Enter your first name (“Nombres”) and last name (“Apellidos”), Male/Female, Country (for USA, enter ‘Estados Unidos'), Age, Type of Document, Document number. Here you can enter a passport or drivers license #.
- Click “Paso 3” (Step 3) at the bottom.
STEP 3: GENERATE A RESERVATION NUMBER
- Enter your email address in the “Correo” field.
- Click the 2 check boxes “La informacion proporcionada es correcta” (the info you provided is correct) and “He leido y acepto los Terminos y Condiciones (you read and accept the terms and conditions)
- Copy the reservation number that pops up – which will also be visible on the order form behind the pop up.
- The reservation # will also be visible on the order form behind the pop up. Copy the number as it will disappear!
STEP 4: PAY FOR YOUR TICKETS (VISA CARDS ONLY)
I checked with Chase and they say you no longer need to self enroll in Verified by Visa. For high risk transactions, the new Verified by Visa process will prompt you to enter CVV2, expiration date and last 4 digits of your Primary Customers Social Security Number (SSN). Enter the information requested and submit. Verified by Visa is available for most Visa cards from participating issuers. If you have concerns about Verified by Visa, please visit www.visa.com or call 800-654-9214.
- Click “Pagos” on the top menu bar.
- Enter your reservation number in the box and click “Pagar” to pay.
- Review the total price S/. 200.00 and an additional admin fee of S/. 8.06 (a little over $2 USD).
- Click ENVIAR.
- Enter your credit card information (there are English subtitles on this screen)
- Click “Pagar/Pay”. Only a VISA will work (I tried a Mastercard first, which didnt work. It worked when I used my Priority Club Chase Visa). **It has been reported that Wells Fargo cards don't work.
- I got a pop up message that I need to call Visa for extra security, but when I called them, they said they didnt even see any attempts to charge my card. I just clicked continue and then the charge went through and they immediately saw the charge while I was on the phone.
DENIED?
You may get denied here. To fix this you can email their call center at callcenter@culturacusco.gob.pe. They will likely tell you to contact one or more of the following people:
- Jose Chang – jchang@visanet.com.pe
- Aguayo Tarcila – taguayo@visanet.com.pe
- Giuliana Caceres – gcaceres@visanet.com.pe
- Karina Aguirre– kaguirre@visanet.com.pe
- Augusto Cier – acier@visanet.com.pe
When you email them they will ask for your name and booking code and maybe first/last 4 digits of the denied credit card (NEVER SEND YOUR ENTIRE CREDIT CARD VIA EMAIL TO ANYONE, ITS NOT SAFE). Once they have your request, they can change something on their end to allow the booking to go through.
You may get denied here AGAIN! – this time its probably your credit card issuer. Call your credit card issuer to see if they are blocking it. Try it again while you have them on the phone.
STEP 5: PRINT YOUR TICKET
- You are almost done! Go back to the main screen and click “check in”.
- Enter your reservation number in the box “Codiga de Reserva” and click the “Buscar” (Search) button.
- A PDF of your tickets will pop up.
- Save it (just in case, you've worked so hard to get this far) and print 2 copies (just in case!).
That's it!
TICKETS PRICES
| Type of Ticket | Foreigners | Locals | Daily Limit |
| Machu Picchu | s/152 (~$45) | s/64 | 2,500 |
| Museum | s/22 (~$7) | s/22 | |
| Machu Picchu + Huaynapicchu | s/200 (~$60) | s/112 | 400 |
| Machu Picchu + Machu Picchu Mountain | s/200 (~$60) | s/112 | 400 |
| Machu Picchu + Vespertino (evening visit) | s/200 (~$60) | s/100 | 1,000 |
| *Locals = Andean Community = visitors from Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador. Prices as of 1/2017 | |||
CHILDREN & STUDENT TICKETS
**UPDATE: According to reader Ravi Bansal, you can now purchase 1/2 price tickets for kids and students online. Search (Control-F) the comments for Ravi Bansal, or follow these instructions which I've cleaned up. READ ALL 4 BULLETS BEFORE YOU START!
- Step 1: Go to http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe and make a reservation for everyone as an adult. Children pay from 8 years old.
- Step 2: Copy your reservation number (see instructions above how to get one), but DO NOT PAY YET! Prepare an email to callcenter@culturacusco.gob.pe and you will need to include a) the reservation number and a copy or scan of your children's passport and/or students card. They will verify and change your reservation with 1/2 price rate for children and students.
- Step 3: They should answer within 15 minutes.
- Open Hours: You should make your reservation during their operating hours otherwise your reservation expires after 3 hours. Here are their hours (for June) 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm from Monday to Saturday. This is local Cusco time which you can check here https://time.is/Cusco.
Kid's Tickets: click here to read how (in both Spanish and English). Kids under 7 years old are free while those between 8 and 17 get 50% off but you will have to buy those through a travel agency, in your hotel in Cusco or at their office.
Student Tickets: students get 50% off the adult ticket prices, but you cannot book your tickets online. Follow these instructions.
Now you can get back to planning the rest of your Peru trip.
Find out how we took a 16-day trip to Peru almost for free: Read my trip report here
TICKET CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS
Sometimes plans change and you might want wonder how to cancel or get a refund for your Machu Picchu tickets. Unfortunately, tickets are generally not refundable according to the terms and conditions.
There are a couple of cases where you CAN get a refund
- Get a refund if they close the Machu Picchu site.
- If “because of health conditions or a general strike in the region”, you can change the name and date with a 10% penalty. So, you can then book yourself in the future or give/sell it to a friend.
- You can change your name and date due to other reasons for a 10% to 30% penalty depending on how far in advance you do it.
- Bullet 4 suggests you cannot get a refund or change the date or name.
What browser did you use for the actual transaction? I’m trying these steps and keep getting rejected at the payment confirmation screen. I see the last line as “Respuesta: Operación denegada”. I tried two different Visas, including a BofA debit card, which other sites have said is the only card that works. Calling BofA, they say they never see the charge. Thanks for the tutorial!
Frank,
I normally use Chrome but I think the site uses Adobe Flash so maybe you need to update that? Try Internet Explorer – its usually more compatible even though the browser stinks.
The card I used was the IHG/Priority Club Visa, so the BofA debit only is certainly not true. When I first entered the payment info, I got an error that said to call the Visa 800#. I did and they said they didnt see any charges hit. I thought that was strange so I just hit continue and they saw the charge hit a second later. Its almost as if they give an error before they even try to charge the card.
Ordering tickets from the official peruvian website is a nightmare. I had the same issue. Unless your visa qualifies for the verified visa, it won’t work. Also you need a flash enabled browser. A travel agent recommended http://ticketsmachupicchu.org, they are an authorized ticket seller and you can see the availability of Machu Picchu tickets or Huayna Picchu in real time. I did the Huayna Picchu hike, it was so worth it! Highly recommend it. Amazing pics!
They charge $50 for tickets or $57 w/hike to Huayna Picchu. That’s more than 2x the price if you buy direct (currently 64 soles ($20 USD) or 90 soles ($28 USD). Personally, I prefer to buy direct whenever possible and save money for other things. There are plenty of travel agencies where you can order tickets. For example, you can usually book tickets through the hotel you will be staying at. I suggest people try booking it directly first as it works for lots of people (just read all the comments).
A visitor wrote in:
Hello, Just found out this site, while looking for taxi option to Tambo del Inka. Did you manage to find a cheaper option than the one offered by hotel ? Also, are you planning on taking the train from hotel to AC or goto Ollanta first ? We are planning on visiting MP in Nov and so,appreciate more info. Thanks !
1) Yes, the car service offered by the hotel is very expensive: $43 per person or $86 for the two of us.According to this post, a taxi can be 60 soles ($22 total). Or a bus for 6 soles (~$2). I’ve read that any taxi charging you that 60 soles per person is scamming you. The hotel themselves told me that the taxi charges $25 per person, so I think perhaps they are lying to get me to pay extra for their service (pretty crummy for a nice hotel like this to lie).
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294317-i3351-k3458907-Cost_of_Taxi_Between_Cusco_and_Urubamba-Sacred_Valley_Cusco_Region.html
2) Yes, train from the hotel to AC (booked the tickets myself), but I am staying 2 nights so I’ll have time to explore the area.
Also, once I finish booking everything, I will post my itinerary with links, so check back.
Thank you so much for the help. The visuals were the best part.
Wow, wow and wow again……..your’e sooo right, it was easy! A bit long and laborious but it worked first time. I COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT THIS TUTORIAL.
BIG THANKS
P.S. If you’re English and searching for your country to put in with your name/passport number…..look under I for Inglaterra (not E-England, U- UK/United Kingdom, G- Great Britain)
Glad you could book it! Check back back soon – I will be posting details about my Peru trip.
Just booked my ticket after emailing all of the people you suggested. They did not charge my card the full amount? Did that happen to anyone else?
Can we book the ticket one month ahead? Some web said it only valid for use within three days after purchased. Is it true?
I booked tickets more than a month in advance and I have heard of people booking many months in advance. Just follow the steps in my post above and you can choose the dates you want. On a side note, on the train from urubamba to aguas calientes I got the first two seats which have an extra nice view – probably because I booked the tickets in advance.
Thank you for posting these detailed instructions! The good news is that I was able to buy tickets for the first day we will be in M.P. in March. However, I am unable to successfully pay for my tickets on the second day we will be there. I can generate the reservation, but can’t successfully pay for it using the same Visa card I used before! It never gets to the part where it asks me for my password. I just get the message Operacion denegada. I even called my bank and they said it’s not them holding up the transaction. So I waited a day, started all over, got a new reservation, and same thing. If I hadn’t been able to purchase the first set of tickets, I would have thought I was doing something wrong. Has anyone else had a problem buying a second set of tickets for a different day? Or is this just their website having intermittent problems?
Debbie,
When I first tried to pay for my tickets, it appeared to deny me. I called the bank and they didn’t see any attempt to charge. While I had them on the phone I tried again and it worked.
Do you have a different Visa card that you can try? What’s your plan – 2 days of Machu Picchu? I think one day was plenty – I got there in time for the opening, hiked Wyna Picchu then Machu Picchu and was done by around 1-2pm and then rain started to pickup so we left. Once it gets crowded there, its not as fun.
I do have another Visa card and thought about trying it, but didn’t want to have to take yet another card with me on this trip since I read that you have to show the card you used. I thought I’d try the whole thing AGAIN today, and if that doesn’t work, try the second card (I don’t think the second card is a “Verified by Visa” type though. Do you know if has to be that type?)
Yes, we are planning 2 days. It’s not that I think we’ll need 2 days, but since we’re going at the end of March, and that’s still the raining season, we could get rained out and I thought we’d be safer having the 2 days scheduled. Probably only doing this once in what’s left of my lifetime, so don’t want to blow it! (Went to Chitchenitza years ago and felt short-changed by the amount of time we were allotted, and was determined to never have that happen again) :o)
Thanks dude..that was helpful
thankyou so much, folllowed your steps and it worked like a charm first time 🙂
I keep getting denied at the payment stage — Operacion denegada. Between my husband and me, we’ve tried three different Visa cards, each multiple times. We’ve tried at different times of day and late night (thinking site might have less traffic then). Have tried each card with someone from the bank on the line and they never even see an attempt to charge from their end. We have notations on the accts to allow charges from Peru to go through and have had no trouble with other reservations, e.g., Peru rail. It’s crazy-making! Tearing mi pelo out!
You are using the Spanish version right?
Maybe you can try to register your card with verified by visa. Here is the link and a FAQ :
FAQ for Verified by VISA http://usa.visa.com/personal/security/visa_security_program/vbv/verified_by_visa_faq.html
Link to activate Verified by VISA
https://verified.visa.com/aam/activation/landingPage.aam
Si, using the Spanish version. My husband was going to register one of our cards this afternoon and try again. Vamos a ver. And thanks for your help with this and your site in general. Will let you know what happens.
One odd thing I noted when filling out the form for the reservation is that the direccion (address) box wouldn’t take any numbers, though I could enter our street name/city/country. However, this was not starred as a required box; furthermore, have had no trouble getting the reservation completed. And the pagar page takes our address, numbers and all…
Btw, have also tried calling the contact number in Peru. Twice got a busy signal,the ret of the time, it just kept ringing…
This process is as mystifying as trying to get soccer tickets in Italy or cash on a weekend in El Calafate in Argentina!
The follow-up:
Card now definitely Verified by Visa, bank on the line while trying to pay/pagar and…
Operación denegada
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then I am certifiable by now. (Oh, wait, I didn’t really *expect* different results so maybe an still OK)
I have been trying to get tickets for April since the beginning of January. I need tickets for 2 days. I was able to get tickets for one of the days. Every time I try for the other day my Visa is denied. I’ve tried everything. Could it be they have stopped selling tickets because of the landslide? I notice that there are not very many tickets being sold.
I’ve seen several posts here recently from people who have successfully booked the tickets so I’m not sure what’s going on.
Here is the agent who I would get the tickets at my hotel – they have an office inside tambo del inka (spg hotel). They sell the tickets for $78 vs 152 sol if I book myself (about $54.50 when I booked last year) which is why I didn’t want to book through them. Anyway here is their email valle@tikariy.com.pe or http://www.tikariy.com. I wouldn’t use them for any tours or anything really as they are super expensive (its in a luxury hotel, what do you expect). I had a much better local guide named Oscar Guevara for tours in the area gascorth@hotmail.co.uk – he speaks very good English and can be your transportation – much cheaper than the hotel offerings. I will include more details when I have a chance to write a post about my Peru trip.
I have the same problem. I go through all the step and got the reservation code but can’t make the payment no matter how many times try until it came out a screen said it is too many attempt. I have the visa by Bank of America too.
I try to use chrome, internet explorer and Firefox but all decline by the payment step. Do you have any idea?
I reached out to the tour agent at the hotel I stayed (valle@tikariy.com.pe) to double check. They said you can still buy tickets but due to the landslide, you have to take a bus part of the way and walk the rest, but they could still sell me tickets so I don’t think the landslide is causing problems for the website. My best guess is that there is a problem with the website since many people were able to do it and then all of a sudden many people are having problems. I hate to suggest using an agent because you will pay about 50% more (through the above agent) and probably less through another agency that’s not part of a luxury hotel.
I, too, have been frozen out after multiple attempts to pay using a number of different VISA cards issued by Chase and Bank of America. I tried following a link to Verified by VISA, but this only took me to a Chase online portal and not to any site which seemed remotely associated with Verfied by VISA. Searching for the latter on the Chase website yielded the statement that Verified by VISA is not a service managed by Chase with no other information or links provided.
Is the only solution to this going through a hotel such as El Alberque in Ollantaytambo, where we will be staying prior to our journey to Macchu Picchu?
Phil,
Which link did you use? I tested it to double check and its a Visa website not Chase. This was the link I was using https://verified.visa.com/aam/activation/landingPage.aam
I think most hotels will be able to arrange the tickets for you since pretty much anyone visiting there will be buying them but you will pay an extra fee for the convenience.
The link you privded DOES work to a point; however, when I entered my credit card number followed by the security code, I ended up at a dead Chase website.
When I tried, it gave me the following message:
We have recently upgraded several services. You may obtain complete access to Chase and your Online Authentication Service by going to http://www.Chase.com.
Is this the same that you get? I’m trying to get in touch with Chase to see what’s going on.
@Phil – looks like the mystery has been resolved. I’ve updated the instructions. Seems that Visa Peru may have been blocking you. Check the updated instructions or PKs comments.
Eventually, I give up. Recommend by the hotel , I use respons travel cusco , at least there is a way to chase. Agnes help me to book the Machu Picchu ticket . Only charge me 30s service charge for each ticket. It is still much cheaper than the other web. Seem reliable. Will update in couple days to review their service.
Thanks, please let us know how it goes so if it continues not to work people can use your agent. I dont recomment the agent that was in my hotel because they add such a big fee!
Received the MP tickets one day after make the 1/2 deposit. Excellent! Check my credit exactly amount.
They charge me 30s service charge for each MP ticket and No service charge for round trip bus ticket for $19 per set.
We also book a private taxi with English speaking driver one day with them. It cost us $80 (pick up for hotel to Moray, Maras and Ollantaytambo . Stop and wait, then drop us off in the train station.)
Total charge is $252.00 for two MP tickets, two set round trip bus tickets and private taxi for one day, which already include another $8 or $10 for donation to the local society. I will check about the donation when I meet them in Cisco and pay the 1/2 balance to them.
As of now. They seem really helpful and charge reasonable. Reply quickly.
Hope this can help those need this service too.
Their email is
Cusco-vt@responsibletravelperu
Web is
Responsibletravelperu.com
Will update again after finished the trip.
Thanks! I never heard of that donation – did they say its required?
Yes. It said is donation to one of the society. $2 per person per service.
Well, after a few gazillion more tries of snagging reservations on the government website, only to be denied at the payment stage (without the charge ever even reaching the bank), I gave up. I ended up getting tickets through the hotel we’re staying at in the Sacred Valley (the RioSagrado). Including the cost of the hotel’s commission, the cost was $65 per ticket for entrance to Machu Picchu + Montana.
The hotel said they would complete the transaction within 2 days. I sent them the necessary info on Friday, and on Sunday I received an email with a jpg of the tickets and the invoice/credit card charge. The hotel said they had a copy of our tickets on file for us, but I also went to the Machu Picchu website and entered the ticket numbers. Bingo! I was able to download a PDF for each of our tickets and print them. So the added cost was about $10-$15 per ticket — IMHO worth every cent not to see “Operación denegada” one more time.
Thanks for the update. If anyone needs help and is in the NYC area, I’d be happy to meet up with them to try to book these tickets together (I’d rather not ask someone to give me their credit card info to try). It was working for many people for a while.
Hey RW, I’m in the NYC area and would appreciate your assistance. I have been denied from 5 different Visa cards.
Thanks
Cliff, have you emailed the visa Peru people and followed all the steps? I recently updated them based on what peoples comments.
Hi there! I’m having problems also. Major props to your helpful site with screenshots, however! But I to, run into OPERATION DENIED at the final window. Thinking we should book our hotel, and see if they can’t book this for us.
If you are in a rush, booking with your hotel will be the fastest and easiest (of course you will pay extra for that, but it may be worth it for you). The Machu Picchu travel agents must have found my site and convinced them to make it stop working – jk. Have you tried at least one other Visa card? Mastercards don’t work so well in Peru. I heard lots of complaints from the vendors (both small and large corporate stores). Are you are in the nyc area? I’m looking for a volunteer to help with booking these tickets
first of all, THANKS SO MUCH for attempting to make the nightmare of ordering tickets a little easier. they really are great instructions and we went through the process with such great optimism. oh well…
i have been laughing out loud at some of the posts featuring “pelo” that is being ripped out by the handfuls! while i have been laughing, my husband has been attempting to order tickets. we have tried EVERYTHING with no luck. same problem …operation denied…in spanish of course! he has now slammed the computer and refuses to try again. i really hate to pay extra for something that we should be able to order online. if anyone comes up with a really cheap alternative, please post it.
also, how did things work out with the guide oscar guevara? we are looking for someone in may. any other names would be appreciated.
@Bonnie baer, check out PK’s comments and give that a shot. Looks like the Visa Peru people have added a little step requiring an email to them.
About the guide Oscar – he was great! He says he’s the only English speaking guide in Ollantaytambo – he lives near the Tambo del Inka. He went to college for tourism, has worked in many of the 5 star hotels in the area, and really knows his stuff. If I had known earlier, I would have booked him to bring me from the airport to the hotel and for tours (he’s cheaper than the regular taxi and more pleasant). I haven’t gotten around to writing my reviews from Peru, but its on my ever growing list of things to do with my site. I just need to find the time 🙂
I asked him to give me a list of tours/services he offers and I would post it up. Until I get to writing my full post, here you go for now:
Here is his info again
Local English speaking guide: Oscar Guevara gascorth@hotmail.co.uk
Here are his services/tours and prices as of December 2013:
NOTE: The prices are for up to 3 people that can fit in his car. If you have 4 to 6 people, he will rent a van and charge a bit more (see below). If you can combine the tour with the ride from Cusco you’ll save some more but maybe have less time at the sites. We arrived in the afternoon so took a cab to the hotel then had a tour the next day (and was sick from the altitude so went to bed around 6pm).
1) Cusco Airport to tambo del inka hotel 90 soles
2) Tour pickup at tambo del inka 3 sites 240 soles (or 400 for 4 to 6 people) (I did this and booked through the hotel for 300 soles — definitely recommend)
3) Tour with 4 sites including Pisac 300 soles (a full day) (470 soles for 4 to 6 people)
4) Tour to only pisac market and arqueological part 160 soles (from tambo del inka) — I didnt bother with Pisac b/c you will have a chance to buy the stuff every 5 minutes during your time in Peru.
5) Transfer from tambo del inka to train station in ollantaytambo 45 soles
6) Tour in Machupicchu full day 90 dollars include walk to the sun gate, or Wainapicchu,
7) Transfer to cusco from ollantaytambo station 135 soles,
8) Transfer from tambo del inka to cusco 90 soles.
Please let me know if his prices are per person or per service?
Thanks!
Hi Maura,
I got in touch with Oscar to confirm and the prices listed are for up to 3 people. For 4-6 people he will rent a van. I’ve updated my original comments with that.
First of all thanks to the Reward Boss for posting this process and the screenshots as they were crucial. I was getting Operation Denied for the longest time, but was successfully able to book my Machu Picchu tickets, here is how:
1) Register with verified by visa: https://verified.visa.com/aam/activation/landingPage.aam (not sure if this is needed but did it anyway)
2) Emailed the CALL CENTER, DIRECCION REGIONAL DE CULTURA CUSCO describing my issue with being unable to book tickets
e-mail: callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe
I think these are the folks that administer the tickets.
3) They emailed me back providing the following names and email addresses for their VisaNet Peru administrators (I think this is the 3rd party booking POC’s)
“Please contact Mr. Jose Chang the following email: jchang@visanet.com.pe, or Ms. Aguayo Tarcila the following email: taguayo@visanet.com.pe
Please, you must send the first 4 and last 4 digits of the card, the name on the card and the booking code.”
4) After emailing the VisaNet folks Jose was super helpful. Essentially they changed some settings on their end to allow me to book.
5) I tried booking again with the instructions provided by Reward Boss except this time I got Operation Denied by Issuer. This was different from last time.
6) I contacted my bank (credit cared issuer) it turns out they were blocking the transaction now. I got them to fix this.
7) Tried booking again according to Reward Boss’ instructions and this time it worked! Hurray!
8) Unfortunately I had to email back the VisaNet folks and Jose so they could change the same setting on their end so I could book my second set of tickets.
Hope this helps and please share!
PK, thanks so much for the update! Can someone else please also try this and let me know if it works? If this works for others, I will update the instructions in the main post. PK- looks like your comments were not finished with this at the end “3) I was”…is there anything else? Please be careful when sending your confidential information — I would never email my entire credit card to anyone. This email and website @ Visanet.com.pe looks legit but I havent dealt with them. I have emailed them to see what they say.
Sorry about the last portion “3) I was”, there was nothing else it was simply a copy and paste error. I believe the first 4 digits of the credit card it as a Visa not sure if this was truly needed by them or not. needless to say you are correct I would not send full credit card to them as you don’t know where it’s going
@Kris, check out the comments by PK — looks like the mystery may have been solved. Try emailing those people and see if it works.
I am going to try this today. We are leaving on March 22 so I would be very happy if I could have my tickets in hand.
@Kris, looks like the mystery has been resolved. I’ve updated the instructions. Seems that Visa Peru may have been blocking you. Check the updated instructions or PKs comments.
Yeah!!!! It worked. Thank you so very much to PK for figuring this out and to The Reward Boss for having this blog. I have been trying since January to get these tickets.
Fantastic. I’m going to update the post to reflect the latest info!
Thanks for the detailed write-up. It worked for me.
When I got the dreaded “Denied”, I sent an email to all three “callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe, jchang@visanet.com.pe, taguayo@visanet.com.pe””
Received a response from Jose in 10 minutes, retried, and it worked.
Also noticed that you have only 5 chances to retry to the payment; so, use it wisely!
Wow, it took 2 hours for the call center to email me back and it’s been another 3 hours since I emailed the folks at VISANET Peru and I still haven’t heard back. My reservation is going to expire soon! You were lucky to hear back in 5 minutes. I’m going to have to wait until next week when I have another weekday off to try this. I will email VISANET first thing.
For future use, here is the email I sent upon the “Denied” message. Jose replied in 10 minutes – he himself included, in his message, the last 4 of the card# I used originally – asking me to try again with the same card. And then it just worked.
—————-
To: callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe, jchang@visanet.com.pe, taguayo@visanet.com.pe
Subject: Not able to pay for Machu Pichu tickets
Hello,
I am trying to pay for my tickets using a Visa card; the transaction is denied. The reservation number is:
My full name:
Can you please enable this transaction so that I can pay online?
Thanks,
—
Glad this is finally working again!
Thank you for the information. My email was similar. My reservation finally timed out and I created a new one and emailed them again. This time José responded in 10 minutes! But then when I went to pay, I got the message “Operación denegada: Contactar con emisor”. I emailed José and he said that was my bank. I called my bank and they said did block the charge. So they cleared it and I tried again (with them on the phone), but I got “Operación denegada” (without the ‘Contactar con emisor’). I was escalated to a higher help department each time I tried until all 5 attempts were used up. I sent an email to José (who is now gone for the day) and then I called my bank back and found out that only one request had been made for the charges (the one that my bank blocked). I’m clear at this end, but blocked again at their end again. So Monday, when I have another weekday off, I will try this again first thing in the morning, email Jose right away, and hopefully post a message that I was successful!
I’m thinking it would be great to email them first and also call the credit card to make sure it doesn’t get blocked but I think Jose needs to see a rejected attempt before he can clear it.
Yes, I agree that you need to get a reservation first and try it once before E-mailing Jose, to show that you tried and were denied. That is what I did. I started at 10:30 in the morning. I only contacted Jose. I sent him the required info: name, reservation number and first and last 4 digits of Visa Card. He did not contact me until 4 pm my time, which was 7 pm his time (so he works late). By then my reservation had expired. I obtained a new reservation as soon as I got the E-Mail from Jose. This is the response that I received from him (I put x’s for my personal info). Note that I did not send him my billing address. He got that from my attempt to pay for the reservation that was denied:
Dear Ms. xxxxx,
Please try again we did some fixes on our fraud prevention system.
Please use the same data that you used in your last attempt.
Email : xxxx
Billing address : xxxx
Last 4 digits on card: xxxx
Regards,
José
I then obtained a new reservation and that time I was able to complete the entire process and purchase the tickets.
Good Luck! We are on our way Saturday. Today I am going to contact Oscar Guevera to see if he is free to take us from Cusco to Ollyantambo.
I just did it! Yesterday I kept gettting denied, but after contacting the email address provided in theisforum, they told me to contant chang, who said he fixed some problems and to try again (phishy, huh?) by that time my first reservation had expired, but i was able to make a new reservation and pay for it no problem. i called my credit card company and made the payment while i was on the phone with them so they would not block the payment. Fyi, I have a Visa card and I do NOT have verified by visa, (apparently my card is not eligible) so it does work if you don’t have it!
Emailing Jose may be the key to this process. Unfortunately, he isn’t the only one responding. Even though I included Jose in my address line along with the two other addresses recommended above, this is the answer I received. So, this process continues to be very finicky and unpredictable.
Dear Philip.
My apologies for that inconvenient but at the moment onlines payments can only be performed with VISA card system associated Verified by Visa, Please check with your bank if your card has this system, (however, due to security concerns, not all the cards are accepted). Unfortunately we have problems with online payments, please keep trying to pay, once finished this operation a page will appear confirming your payment (PAGO EXITOSO).
I suggest, if you have already employed a hotel o some service in Cusco they are able to help you to purchase your ticket. Another option is to contact to some travel agency. On our website http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe – Consultas (Queries) you can see the list of the travel agency.
If you want to visit ONLY Machupicchu City you can buy your tickets with 3 to 2 days in advance, if you want to visit Machupicchu and Huaynapicchu you need buy your tickets with 3 to 2 days in advance.
Also you can make your payment in the following authorized offices in Perú:
– Any office of the Banco de la Nación; Hours of Availability: Monday to Saturday from 7:15 – 18:30 hrs. Only you can pay in cash (Peruvian currency).
Authorized offices in Cusco:
– Ministry of Culture located on Av. de la Cultura Condomio Huáscar (Huascar Building) Nº238. You can book and pay in cash or with any card Visa. Hours of availability: Monday to Saturday 7:00 – 18:30 PM (Closed Holidays).
– The AATC (Association of voyages and travel agencies) located on Calle Nueva Baja Nº 424, Cusco – Peru. Phone: (084) 22-2580. Hours of availability: Monday to Friday from 9:00 – 16:00hrs. Only accept Visa cards.
Remember that you have 6 hours to make the payment or your reservation will be cancelled. The ticket is only valid on the date printed on the ticket, once you purchase the ticket there is not a refund neither change of date nor change of information.
Thanks for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Flavio Aguilar Sanchez
CALL CENTER
DIRECCION REGIONAL DE CULTURA CUSCO
Facebook, Skype y Twitter: DRC Cusco Ministerio de Cultura Call Center
e-mail: callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe
Telefono: (51) 84 236061
Direccion: Av. de la Cultura Nº238 Condominio Huascar Wanchaq – Cusco, Perú
So, after the first reply from the call center that was’t very helpful, I received a second email reply directly from Jose Chang, who just as in the previous examples, “fixed” something to allow my credit card to go through. In this case I had to create a brand new reservation since the first had timed out by the time Jose replied. The card worked and I was able to save my ticket as a PDF for printing closer to the actual date.
I tried to purchase another set of tickets for a different date using the same credit card that had just been accepted: Operation denied! Another email to Jose and the call center gang, for which I’m now awaiting a reply.
BOTTOM LINE: What an odd system! It seems Jose Chang is the ONLY contact that has the gumption to mitigate this system. Whatever the problem is, it seems to be event and time based.
I have a new one for you all…
This morning after playing the credit card game (which has been going on for over a month, more recently with the emailing to the Call Center and Jose at VisaNet Peru and calling my own back, I FINALLY got the message Pago Exitoso. BUT when I went into the website to check-in and print my tickets, that page showed the WRONG entry date! All of the other pages have the correct date except this one. I’m afraid to click on the button to print the ticket to see if it also has the wrong date. I emailed both Jose and the Call Center and it’s been 50 minutes and I’ve heard nothing back.
After an hour and a half of waiting and no one contacting me about the wrong date, I went ahead and clicked the button to print the tickets. THANKFULLY they had the CORRECT date! I am finally done with this fiasco and can go to Machu Picchu with tickets in hand. At this point I can say that it probably would have been worth paying someone to do this for me! :o) But I’m so glad that the Reward Boss has provided this website for all of us to learn and share, and I’m extremely glad to have my tickets.
I concur that this website has been a godsend in highlighting both the opportunities and challenges of purchasing tickets. Who would have thought that gaining admission to one of the world’s most popular and important sites would be this opaque!
It was a pain in the neck before when I first did it now its even more. Glad this helped you out!
Thanks! The tip to use the Spanish site was key! One other thing, I had to call Visa to “verify” the “verified by visa” charge, but it all worked. Can’t wait to visit!
Bruce
Jose said he cleared my card, but when I just put in payment it said: Pago Exitso.
What does that mean?
Is it better than Pago denagado?
That’s what you want! Now you go to the tab that says Check-in and print your tickets! 🙂
Ok great I figured it out, haha!
Although when printing it out, the ticket only took up about a third of a page.. Is that normal? Or should the ticket take up the entire page?
I hope it will be able to scan!
My ticket took exactly 1/2 page. There’s a button on the Check-in tab that lets you re-print you ticket.
This was a GREAT and very HELPFUL article. I was declined by my Chase Freedom credit card at first – and called the customer service line who lifted any blocks off the URL and Peru online charges. Still did not work. So I called the customer service line that the “Verified By Visa” popup tells you to call when you try to pay for the tickets on the site… I quickly got through and the man temporarily lifted my “Verified By Visa” for 24 hours. He stayed on the phone with my while I processed the payment (the third try) and IT WENT THROUGH! (Relief). I printed alot of copies and scanned them onto my computer in case (could not save them on the weird Adobe version the website provides the tickets on).
THANK YOU!!
Has anyone used the government website to purchase child tickets? What about a child under age 8, do i need anyhting for him (the site suggests children under 8 are free, but do I need some sort of “free” ticket, given that 2500 is the max?)
Thanks
Also, what if I want to purchase two types of tickets: 1x Machu Picchu only plus 1x Machu Picchu and Huanya?
Ryan
I would ask their customer service both of your questions: email their call center at callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe
So happy to have found this page. As everyone else here, I have been desperately trying to buy tickets on the govt website, and have already missed out on the climb, as those 400 tickets are already gone! I emailed a bunch of people, got a response from Flavio at the call center (with the same response that Phil got above) I have since emailed Jose and 2 other people at the VisaNet addresses… fingers crossed. If anyone has any other suggests, please let me know. We are in MP on 16 April and still have no tickets!
I would suggest to anyone who is traveling soon and doesnt have tickets yet to just book tickets with their hotel or some agent. If you want to climb Huayna Picchu in addition to Machu Picchu you need to book your ticket as soon as possible. Its amazing and I absolutely recommend it if you can!
Thank you so much for this people! I just did this today. After emailing just the call center (before reading this site) they provided me with an additional name at Visanet Peru – Mario Valdivieso ( mvaldivies@visanet.com.pe. ) I emailed Mario, the call center Jose and Aguao.
mvaldivieso@visanet.com.pe,
jchang@visanet.com.pe,
taguayo@visanet.com.pe,
callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe
Mario got back to me after about 4 hours (2 to spare) simply saying please try again with the same info. It worked!! Did not have to even call my CC company. I also do not think the card is verified by Visa. It’s a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and like others have said the verified by visa site just redirects to a message to go back to chase.com.
Wow, what a disastrous process, but I think it would be helpful to add the additional name to the directions. Thanks again for all of this.
sorry first link of Mario’s email is wrong. It’s correct in the list.
OMG. The comments here saved my life! I have been trying for days to get my transaction to go through and it just wasn’t accepting my credit card. On the advice here, I emailed all the people mentioned here (as you can see from my post at 11:21am today) and at 4:04pm I am the proud owner of 2 self-printed tickets! A guy named Mario (mvaldivieso@visanet.com.pe) got back to me, telling me to go ahead with the transaction, and it finally worked. I wish I had found you guys last week, but better late then never! Thanks again everyone here!
Worked for me! Thanks!
I just got mine. SWEET! (after much struggling)
Thanks to everyone that contributed.
Mario seems to be the key to this maze.
Fantastic!
Hmmm. It seems my credit card was charged twice for the tickets. I emailed Mario and Jose, no response yet! In the meantime, does anyone have any experience taking the train to MP? We have train tickets THERE, but we haven’t bought the return tickets there because frankly, the time we want is not available. We are hoping we can get 2 seats on the train we want when we arrive in town, on the off chance that either a) there are always a few extra seats available or b) tour companies reserve large blocks of seats, and sometimes a few of those don’t get used. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Fran, my train out of aguas calientes was packed. I suggest you book something that will work even if your preferred time is not available. There are a lot of people leave there at once. I took the afternoon train at 16:43 to poroy (cusco). Btw, poroy train station is in a crappy area but its easy to get a taxi. I lost a shoe out of my broken bag and someone grabbed it before I could get my stuff together. The taxi driver arranged for the shoes return the next day when I hired him again for a ride. Make sure you have your stuff secure move quickly and keep an eye on your stuff.
Thanks. But we are traveling only to Ollayantana… our choice of train is 20:45 or the next morning at 8:53. We would prefer to take the 18:45.. and we figure that if that doesn’t work out, we can make a decision to take the later train or stay another night in AG (which we don’t really want to do) Fingers crossed that it will work out. It seems that not ALL of the trains sell out, so I don’t think (hope) we won’t be stranded there! And thanks for the tips on safety — good to know!
Oh I started in Olly and took the train to aguas calientes. Got the very first two seats. Amazing view. That train was not full (to a.c.). Food was gross. Staying another night seems to be a waste but I guess that depends on where you are staying. My a.c. Hotel was crap – close to the train train and bus station. The hotel in Olly – amazing! It was the Starwood luxury hotel. Good luck, if you have flexibility it will all work out.
I just want to thank you for this easy step by step instructions. Thank you thank you thank you! You made my life easy.
You’re welcome! Glad to hear my pain and frustration wasn’t wasted!
We just got back from an amazing trip to Peru. I was able to purchase my tickets to Machu Picchu prior to leaving home by using the info in this website. I was even able to get tickets to, and climb, Huayna Picchu. It was great and I highly recommend it, but only if you have time. I was at Machu Picchu for 2 full days. I also booked my train tickets through Peru Rail prior to leaving the U.S. and had no problems with that. I hired Oscar Guevara to drive us (4 people) from Cusco to Ollantaytambo. He gave us a nice tour of the Inca sites along the way. He charged us s/ 470 ( $179 usd), instead of the s/300 that you posted on this site, for the trip because he hired a van and driver to take us. The van was nice but probably not necessary. He was concerned that we would have too much luggage for his car, but we didn’t really have much because we left half our luggage at our hotel in Cusco. Thank you for recommending him. He was pleased that you put his information on this site. He said that you told him you would do it, but he wasn’t sure that you really would. Oscar was very friendly, a good tour guide, and he spoke good English. I highly recommend him.
We stayed in Ollantaytambo at Hostal Iskay ($46/night), a really neat place in the middle of the old sector. We had two rooms with a private patio including an outdoor table and chairs. I have to say that if you are planning to go to Peru, keep in mind that it is a third world country. You can isolate yourselves and stay at the 5 star hotels, but I don’t like to do that. I kept my hotels at the $45 to $100 range and they were nice enough. We stayed at Hotel Chaska in Agua Callientes for three nights ($55/night). It is a new hotel, probably less than 3 years old. There is no problem getting from Machu Picchu Town to Machu Picchu. There is a bus that leaves every 10 minutes starting at 5:30 am. It is a half hour bus ride up the mountain. The last bus leaves Machu Picchu to take you back to Machu Picchu town at 5 pm. You can buy the bus tickets on the spot or the night before.
I was in Peru fifteen years ago and I have to say that it has changed tremendously. When I was there last there were very few hotels in Agua Callientes. Now it reminds me of Disneyland. There are plenty of hotels and lots of nice places to eat. When I was there last it had a dirt road going past the very few houses and restaurants that were there. We stayed in a person’s house that time. Not bad, just different. Now there are basically two towns; Agua Callientes (where the locals live), and Machu Picchu Town (where the Tourists hang out). We did have trouble sleeping because there was a nightclub somewhere that stayed open until 4am. There was a background booming bass that kept us awake. Earplugs would have been nice, but I left them in Cusco…
Was there any problem with the landslide that blocked the bus road? I heard they were stopping the bus half way up and making you walk the rest of the way. I’ve been in touch with him to clarify his rate and those rates are good for up to 3 people with 1 piece of luggage otherwise he needs to rent a van.
All the boulders from the landslide have been moved out of the way so the buses are able to go all the way up to the entrance to Machu Picchu. The van was very nice because for one thing he had a driver who stayed with the van (and our luggage) while Oscar took us to see the sites. It also made it easier for him to talk with us as we were driving from place to place because he didn’t have to concentrate on driving.
I rarely ever hire a private (or any guide) but Oscar was great and reasonably priced (even though I paid more through my hotel than anyone who contacts him directly). We lucked out because most of the sites he took us to were empty. I was very surprised and thought it was low season but Oscar said a few days before we went it was crowded. The photos came out much much better (I will certainly post some).
I keep getting two pop ups when I click Generar Reserva. The top one has my name and other data on it with my Reserva number. When I x it out, the other pop-up page has a different number on it. It has the following statement on it in Spanish: Una vex pagada la reserve debe imprimir sus tickets de ingreso a machupicchu digitando el codigo de reserve en la zona de check-in de la pagina web. I don’t think that I use it in the check in part. Do you know what it is about? I don’t think it is my reservation code???
Every time I try to get my reservation code, I get two pop-up pages. The first one is like the one that is in your example. The second, after x-ing out to top one, has a different number on it. I am not sure what it is for??? It says: Una vez pagada la reserve debe imprimir usu tickets de ingreso a macho picchu digitando el codigo de reserve en la zona de check in de la pagina web. I don’t think it has anything to do with my code number? What is it for?
I think you just need to copy the first reservation number and enter it on the payment screen. You can use the trusty Google Translator to help you: http://translate.google.com/
I too would like to thank TheRewardBoss for all of his/her insight. Without your assistance I would’ve been another very frustrated person and succumbed to purchasing overpriced tickets via a travel agent.
As many others have mentioned, I also experienced an issue with the transaction being denied only to find out that my credit card company had no knowledge of the transaction. I then mentioned that the transaction was going through the “verification by Visa” process at which time they told me there was nothing they could do but transfer me to a customer representative of the “verification by Visa” company. The Visa customer representative acknowledged the denied transaction and stayed on the phone while I went through the process again…….and voila! Success.
All in all, thank you again to TheRewardBoss. FYI to all those who are denied, it’s not your credit card company denying the transaction rather the “verification by Visa” company. Just call your credit card and ask to be transferred.
You’re welcome! Glad you found this useful!
I tired emailing all the addresses provided above and have not received a response today. I am wondering if they are slow in responding because of all the backlog from the weekend? Has anyone else had the same issue with not getting a response. My reservation time of 6 hours will be running out very shortly. Has anyone else run into a similar experience where no one responded to emails? What would you suggest my next steps be. Thanks for the help in advance!
That happened to me also. They finally responded at around 4:30 pm my time. By then my reservation had expired. But, it didn’t matter. They did their changes and I got another reservation and that time I was able to pay.
Thanks Mary Anne! I did not end up getting an email until about 11 hours after I sent the original one. In the mean time I attempted to call my credit card company (Chase) and although they set me up with someone from Verified by Visa, nothing that they did worked. The credit card company just kept on saying that they could never see the charge. Mario was the one who emailed me back and made it so that the charge finally went through. The main call center email also responded back, but their suggestion was just to book it through a travel agency. This whole process is extremely frustrating, but in the end I was able to get my tickets. Thank you so much to The Rewards Boss for starting this forum… I don’t think I would have had tickets otherwise. Best of luck to anyone still trying to get tickets!
I’m glad it worked for you. Have a good time!
Thank you so much Jeff. We have just used your clear step-by-step instructions to purchase our Machu Picchu tickets. We first registered with NetCode as our bank didn’t give us a choice for Verified by Visa, but it works – a code is sent to the phone which is then entered on the payment page. We wanted two days, so went through the whole process twice as we couldn’t see how to book for more than one day at a time – 4 tickets are now printed and saved as pdf’s. We are in Australia, in case that makes a difference.
I have also booked the train and having seen your comment above “on the train from urubamba to aguas calientes I got the first two seats which have an extra nice view” – looked at my seats, A1 and A2 in one direction, would that be the front? A45 and 47 on the other leg. Hopefully on the right side for the view.
Thanks again, Jan
Fantastic! Yes those were the seats I had. Please write when you get back and let me know how it was. Did you select the seats or they just gave you the best available? On the way back, the seats didnt matter as much as it was the afternoon and got dark quickly after we left. And there are a lot more people going from AC to Cusco so harder to get good seats.
Yes, randomly allocated train seats. Lucky, or super early in booking! According to the MP booking site availability calendar, only 15 people had booked MP tickets before us for our days in July, so maybe we were first to book the train.
How did you get assigned seats?
The seats are allocated by Peru Rail. Once you have done your booking and printed your tickets they show in the middle top box. I booked the Vistadome train, so can’t say about other trains. I didn’t see any way to request a particular seat.
Thanks!
If you’re coming from Urubamba, there are usually less people on the train and its a bit more expensive. If you’re lucky, you will get the first two seats!
To Jeff and all of the wonderful commenters: thank you all so much.
A note for others: reiterating what Debbie posted Mar 18, 2014 at 7:12pm:
If you get the message, “Operación denegada: Contactar con emisor”, it is your card company that rejected the transaction, so don’t bother with contacting Mario or Jose at this point. Clear the transaction with your bank, then try to put it through again. At this stage, you will likely receive the “Operación denegada”, at which point you need to contact Jose and/or Mario (I recommend sending it to both email addresses). I tried putting the payment through after receiving the go-ahead from Mario and it failed again with “Operación denegada”. I waited about 10 more minutes, tried again, and it went through successfully.
Thanks again to everyone and, especially, to Jeff. You have a very nice glass of wine (or four) waiting for you in Colorado when you pass through!
Oh, and, as some others have mentioned: I did have to make a new reservation as the first one expired before the transaction was cleared by Mario.
Thanks – which part of Colorado? May have to take you up on that!
About an hour West of Denver, up in the mountains; it’s off a back route to Breckenridge, if you ever head up there. I’m in Denver a bunch, too; including at the moment, at my girlfriend’s. It wasn’t just an idle offer, please do take me up on it!
Thanks. Your instructions helped get past the crash that happens if you try and use the English version.
Hi
Just wanted to say a big Thank you for your instructions.
Great help indeed! Heard a lot of issues getting tickets online but with your information here, its a breeze!!!
Cheers!
Thanks to your instructions I was able to order tickets for two days at MP. I placed my order and paid (after working with Mario). I checked-in and printed my two tickets on May5 and May6 respectively. I then noticed the two charges as pending on my credit card activity. Since then however, the pending charges have dropped and the activity has not posted to my account. Is this normal? I’m worried now that something went wrong as they have not taken payment.
I should add they I am still able to Check-In today with my reservation numbers and my ticket still says “Payment made by Visa No ******”
Not sure but it looks like it worked. I’d give it a couple days then check your charges again.
That actually happened to me as well. The charges stopped showing up in pending and went away completely. A few days later though they showed up again as actual transactions.
Whew it JUST posted today. Post date was 10 days after Trans date. All good now. Thank you both!
Does anyone know how to buy a child’s ( student ) Ticket on line? It does not offer that option that I can find
Marty – I posted the instructions above — search for “If you need tickets for children”
MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS!!!!!!! This was so so helpful. OMG, no wonder why people pay double or triple to have a travel agent do it. Thank you for posting this. BTW, you might want to add “Repuesta: Pago Exitoso” means it went through and “Respuesta: Operacion Denegada” means denied
Thank you so much!!!! Thanks to you, it only took 3 hours to make the booking! I would never have guessed that the basic problem was that the site doesn’t work in English!
Great information – thank you!
After many multiple times to try to purchase tickets in English, I looked online to see your directions to use the Spanish site.
And then I think I must have clicked on a different spot on the calendar without realizing it, for my now printed and paid for tickets says “Fecha Ingreso” June 27, when I want June 18th.
I sent an email to the callcenter and I hope they can change it, since I noticed it right away.
IS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO GET A VISA CARD ? I REALLY DO NOT want this.
or can I verify my MASTERCARD by visa??
another question: for the persons who had problems even with their visa card:
DO YOU THINK, THIS HAS JUST TO DO WITH THE OFFICE TIME? that it just does not work during the night local time ?
So I finally made it successfully to the payment stage, entered in my payment information (using a Visa card) and then was taken to a screen where the translated Spanish basicallt said: password of the credit card holder was denied.” I didn’t enter any password information on that screen. Has anyone had that happen to them??? This is just about the most frustrating experience ever.
Any recommendations?
thats a new one…have you tried a different card?
I immediately sent a reply off to the call center and the response was anything but helpful. He started by saying that reservations time out after 6 hours to which I replied with, well I tried to purchase said reserved tickets 10 minutes after I had made the reservation.
He gave me two individuals email addresses at Peru VisaNet to contact to which I just did.
I did try another Visa card this morning to see if it was perhaps the other but no go.
Here was the actual Spanish message verbatim:
Operacion denegada: Password de tarjeta habiente incorrecto
(Transaction denied, cardholder’s password incorrect)
It really is ridiculous that trying to get tickets is the most impossible thing ever (when it should not be the case at all).
Agreed. It sounds like the people he suggested emailing are the ones I wrote above above and they need to unblock/approve your transaction. Did you contact them initially?
Thank you for this amazingly detailed post. Just got my tickets without getting frustrated as I knew what to expect! 🙂
Wow. you made it so easy for us. Thanks a ton.
Go figure leaving off the CCV would do the trick! Thanks!
God bless all you people!!! Wow, what a headache, but I never would have been able to do it without all your help. Mario emailed me back within an hour, and it all went smoothly after that!
Thank you so much for this information! Really helped us out tremendously! The problem we had was that we chose the “student” price for our boys who have International Student ID numbers and entered them as required, BUT when we checked out, we were charged the usual adult rate for them as well- but we were not about to start over! We just paid the required amount and were happy to print out our tickets!!!
Congrats! i remember the feeling when I was first able to print my tickets!
Thank you so much. I had been pulling my hair out trying to book these tickets. Tried your steps and it worked first time. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I landed here after many hours of unsuccessful attempts at paying for my tickets online. Multiple times I used up my 5 attempts without success. Didn’t matter if I called my card company (CapitalOne Venture) or tried to register with Verified by Visa, or using a different card, etc. Emailing Jose and his group was successful after the first attempt. I think that is the only way to get it to work. It seems like there would be a more efficient way of doing this, but I guess if it works…
THANK you for putting this together! I may contact the guide you mentioned as well. Good info!
I couldn’t have done it without your posting. Very clear, concise instructions were very helpful. Success. I’m looking forward to the trip.
Thank you.
Thank you! We have booked two nights in AC, and want to go up into the park over three days – are tickets good for entry on multiple days, or do we need to purchase a ticket for each day we want to enter the park? If we want to enter in the late group on day 1, can we then enter with the early group on day 2 on the same ticket?
I think you would need to buy separate tickets for each day. Also, I suggest you go as early as possible as the crowds come later in the day.
I finally managed get my payment through by following the instructions at the top of this chain. I contacted VISANET and actually spoke with Mr. Joes Chang. he told me that the issue at least with my card was that the address entered was INCORRECT. Which was not the case, anyhow, he asked me to try again and I did, then magically the transaction went through. I do however have to say that the address has to be IDENTICAL to what appears on your VISA STATEMENT. In my case I had put Apartment xxxx (number) instead of UNIT xxxx as it appeared on the statement, so this may have something to do with it. So, have your VISA statement and entered the IDENTICAL complete address information. Hope this helps.
Yesterday I followed every step, printed my reservation, went to “Check In” and I got that it was pending. Today I checked my reservation number and it says it was cancelled in the system. I’m going to wait a few days to see if the payment ends up coming through my Visa before I try again.
You’re heaven sent. I’ve been trying this for weeks and finally decided to Google if other people were in my boat. With your help I finally made it to Step 3! When I went to pay, I was denied the first time but as I was typing my email to callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe I received a call from Bank of America about possible fraudulent activity. Once she cleared it I was able to resubmit and it was perfect. Thank you so much.
Hi! I just tried to pay with a Capital One credit card, and it didn’t work. It said something like “didn’t receive authentication from issuer”. Curious if it had anything to do with Verified by Visa, I checked out https://verified.visa.com/aam/activation/landingPage.aam and entered my CC info; it said “Your card is not eligible.” Then I entered my Bank of America debit card info in the Verified by Visa site; this one went through. So I figured I’d try my BoA card to pay for my tickets. It worked! “Pago Exitoso” (Payment successful!). I’m not saying this will work for everybody..but perhaps the MP site doesn’t know how to handle cards where the issuer doesn’t participate in Verified by Visa.
Fantastic, thanks for the step by step guide, have successfully booked 2 tickets for our trip in October…. Am so excited, can hardly wait.
Tickets successfully booked – thanks to you! I tried with a MasterCard first (I know, I know, but it was all I had), then Dad’s (Australian) Visa on the same reservation number but it didn’t work. After emailing customer service they confirmed that the order had been cancelled so I tried rebooking and voila, tickets!
Just FYI, the people to email at Visa are now:
Mr. Jose Chang to following email: jchang@visanet.com.pe Mr. Mario Valdivieso to following email: mvaldivieso@visanet.com.pe or Ms. Karen Schebesta to following email: kschebesta@visanet.com.pe Please, you must send the first 4 and last 4 digits of the card, the name on the card and the booking code.
Thanks again for taking the time on this topic, you’ve been a great help!
Thanks for the update!
Thanks you for this. I allowed me to purchased our tickets in advance.
YES! Been trying to do this for ages and failing massively, however your instructions were AMAZING. Thank youuuuu
Thanks for reading! Enjoy Machu Picchu!
You are a life saver. Thank you!!
I followed instructions from rewardboss and others on the thread and I was able to buy tickets (2 of them) on first attempt. I received “Pago Exitoso” :). Thanks rewardboss for excellent instructions and rest of you for your inputs.
Key is, as rewards boss suggested, I first did Visa verification by clicking on :
Link to activate Verified by VISA
https://verified.visa.com/aam/activation/landingPage.aam
this link takes you to verified by visa site and you need to provide your visa card details and complete the boxes; you will then be asked to create a password for future online purchases and I did. I used that password when I was buying tickets at Government website where Machu Picchu tickets are to be purchased.
Couple of issues I encountered in my first attempt.
1. when the screen prompts you to enter address (Step 3 in rewardboss’s instructions above) I was unable to enter house number (number keys don’t work); so I filled my address without house number (just street name, city and country which don’t have any numbers in it); that way I could go to next step
2. when I completed entering my visa card details (at this point it will let you enter your house number in billing section; ex: 1234 so and so street) and clicked submit, the website started processing my submission (prompted me not to close the browser) and then froze at a screen where Verify Visa displayed on top but rest of the page was blank. I waited for a minute to see if it continues but it did not. Then I clicked on refresh button on the browser (little curved arrow, to the left of home symbol) and it worked. This time verify visa screen displayed my visa card information (last 4 digits of visa card) and prompted me to enter the password that I created when I activated verify by visa before I started purchasing Machu Picchu tickets. I did enter the password and bingo, the transaction went through and I did receive “Pago Exitoso” message.
Thanks every one for the great help.
Goodluck to future adventurers 🙂
Anand
Thanks for sharing Anand!
Like many on this thread, I had such trouble first using the English language version; followed by, after finding this site, following RB instructions. Yesterday, after two failed attempts, a call to my bank (VISA) and no replies from all names listed, I decided to do the same process again today. Failed one attempt with bank on the phone who saw no transactions, emailed all parties with “Please Help” in subject filed, received email from Mario that I need to contact my back, replied with i already did twice over two days, another Mario reply to try again, and finally…Successful Payment. Whew!
Thank you RB and all for your trial and error so that the rest of us are not left thinking we are incompetent and successfully purchase not-a-breeze-to-get tickets. Could not have done it without your help. I feel bad for people who give up or continue trying endlessly without this site’s info. Happy and safe travels everyone!
Congrats!!
Thank you SO MUCH. These instructions saved my sanity. 🙂
Dear all,
It is most definitely the most comprehensive post for purchasing your Machu Picchu tickets online from the Peruvian government website (www.machupicchu.gob.pe). Without this post, I would not have been able to do it!
That said, the most frustrating step is to overcome the dreaded “operacion denegada” (operation denied). I cannot deny that one may get lucky with some bank card but, if you end up like me trying about six different debit/credit cards (Bank of America, Wells Fargo and so on) with the same result, it is not going much help, is it?!
Consequently, I wanted to add comments to this post from my experience purchasing two sets of tickets for October (one set for Machu Picchu and the other set for Machu Picchu + Huayna Picchu).
Please find below what I have learnt:
1) Just forget about the “Verified by Visa” thing!
2) If you get “operacion denegada”, you will have to work with Visa Peru AND your bank. I believe there is no way around it. You will have to be persistent and patient.
3) When you get “operacion denegada”, contact your bank. If they see the attempt (being denied), make sure that they are not going to deny it next time. If not, proceed with next step.
4) Once you have dealt with your bank (or not), contact Visa Peru (visanet.com.pe) as per the post. In my case, my email was forwarded to Mario Valdivieso (mvaldivieso@visanet.com.pe).
5) Once you have the answer from Visa Peru to try again, try again…
6) At this point, you may get “operacion denegada” time and time again for some obscure reason (timing of the answer, new reservation, etc…). Stay calm and just repeat steps 3 to 5… You will get those damned tickets!
It took me about 3 days of back and forth but it did work at the end. Don’t be afraid, though. I am sure it would have taken less time if I had strictly followed steps 3 to 5.
Good luck! May the force be with you!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for posting these directions. Although I was prepared for problems, I was able to purchase the tickets and print them out with no payment denials or phone calls to anyone! Was done in 5 minutes !
Lucky! 🙂
I tried to book, and got a number, but cannot seem to be able to pay…here is the message that keeps appearing…
los siguientes visitantes ya cuentan con una reserva para esta fecha
no se puede continuar con la reserva
Hasta que expire el plazo de pago de las reservas iniciadas
Google translator says that means…
these visitors already have a reservation for this date
can not proceed with the booking
Until the deadline for payment of reservations initiated
What more do I need to do now to confirm and pay for the tickets ?
Did you book two reservations for the same people on accident?
I got the same message as yours. Would you mind share how it is solved? How long does the initial reserve expire if not paid.
I get the same message.
The reservations on their website holds only 6 hours.
Same thing is if you tried 5 times and no response – just try next day again
Hi, I was wondering if any one knew if Machu Picchu was closed on certain days? I am planning on going Sunday the 21st of December. Also I wanted to know if the hotel in AC and Cusco could be booked day of?
You will definitely want to buy your MP tickets ahead of time or there is no point in going – if you book the ticket then you will know they are open.
Cusco is a big city, so I don’t think you will have a problem finding a hotel day of. You might want to test it out by checking Kayak.com for hotel room availability tonight. AC is a small tourist town. Depending on the season, you will probably be able to find something but you won’t know where or how much. There are tons of options but the place can be a bit of a maze – wandering around streets that look the same and are not labeled. If you are not sure when you will be there, how about asking your hotel to book a couple days in advance when you are almost there?
Thank you for doing this. With your directions purchasing the tickets was surprisingly easy!
This is very helpful. However I encountered a special problem. During the reservation, I accidentally closed the pop up window which generated the reserve (because I saw under the sex, it says M, but I had chosen F). After many fumbles I reached the Pay step. But it says the reservation code does not exist. If I try to make the reserve from the scratch, it will say that I have already made a reserve (and the available reservation did reduced by one). How frustrating. Any suggestion? Thanks.
As I can see, they still have same problems and dont even try to solve it. Servers are probably in Cusco, because response from website is veeeery slowly.
I try already second day to buy this creepy tickets, and as far they ask to bring the visa card to gates, I cannot ask my friends to make payment for me and I dont want to pay extra fees for tourist agency.
I am wondering, how the one of ‘7th wonders of the world’ can have such a sucking website.
Hi,
We have had a lot of trouble booking tickets for “Machu Picchu+ the mountain”. When we get to step 3 and we click the “Generar Reserva” buttom a window pops up, which says that the resevation cannot be registered and that we have to restart the program. We have been following your steps, and we cannot figure out what we are doing wrong?
We are from Denmark and we do not know what to write in the adress box, we have tried DK, DNK and our commune “Kolding” – maybe this can be the problem?
We hope you can help, thanks.
I am trying to book tickets to Mach Picchu for May 13 2015 and cannot enter the number of tickets in Step 1. Any ideas why — is it too early? I tried other dates — different months in 2015 and still same problem
Also, is it only the passport number of the ticket purchaser that is required or all passport numbers in our party? I ask because two of the passports need to be renewed and the passport numbers will change.
The website says there is 0 availability on the top left – look for “Disponibilidad: 0”. When I load the site, there is a notice of what looks like a discount promotion for locals who want to visit after 13:00 (1pm) for the next 6 months: Dec 12, 2014 to May 12, 2015. My guess is they broke the website when they added this promotion.
Try emailing them: callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe
Regarding the passport, I would renew the passports first. I can’t remember but I may have entered my drivers license # in the DNI Document option instead of the passport (because I had some doubts about the website…for obvious reasons which everyone who has read this tutorial would probably agree with).
I wrote to the call centre on Dec 19th – no reply yet!!
Hello:
I have been trying to access the website “www.machupicchu.gob.pe” for three days to purchase tickets for 2015 midyear and I get the message “The connection has timed out” or “This webpage is not available”. I used multiple browsers, computers, and networks and no luck. I am located in Denver. Anyone else having an issue opening the webpage? Or experienced this issue and resolved it somehow?
Thanks.
@Tony – its working for me now. It was probably just down (its not very reliable).
Here are the six options for visiting Machupicchu. My wife and I are will be there for just one day (arrive in morning and leave at night) and we wanted to know if any of the options listed below (in addition to #1) is worth the time.
Can any one who has experienced options 2-6 provide some input? Thanks.
1) Machupicchu $126 pp
2) Machipucchu + Museo $148 pp
3) Machipucchu + Huaynapicchu 1GO $150 pp
4) Machipucchu + Huaynapicchu 2GO $150 pp
5) Machipucchu + Montaña $140 pp
6) Machipucchu Horario Vespertino $45 PP
We did #3 – and were the first to arrive at the gate to and climb to the top of Huaynapicchu. Definitely worth it! I’m not sure about where you are getting the prices thought. I would recommend getting in there early in the morning when they open, which is probably not possible if you arriving the same day (due to the long train ride). The place will get crowded around the late morning to noon which is the perfect time to leave. There are some places that are narrow and hard to pass once there are lots of people milling around.
Site is working but not able to book for May 2015
I want to visit Machupicchu + Huaynapicchu 1G 7:00-8:00 am.
But when I visit the web, I can’t see any available tickets.
Is it soldout?
I wii go there on March 8,2015.
Thank you very much.
Thank you I purchased my tickets very easily with your detailed explanation.. tickets for 2015 are available right now..
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for this amazingly helpful post! I was able to successfully purchase 4 tickets for my group going in February 2015, and everything went exactly as described. First time with the credit card, my transaction was denied as expected, but an email to Jose fixed it! He also replied very quickly for a late Friday afternoon haha (~4pm). Tickets are in the bag, so to speak 🙂
Fantastic! I thought the website was broken again after some of the other comments.
I am also staying at the Tambo and their tour prices are insane. With the info here I can book the MP tickets easily enough.
Questions –
The rail station advertised as the Hotel’s is “Urubamba” and can be booked at perurail, correct?
Once you arrive at MP rail station how do you get to MP?
I agree – I would definitely NOT book any of their tours from the agency inside the hotel, however, I would recommend hiring a local guide named Oscar Guevara (gascorth@hotmail.co.uk). You can hire him for cheaper than I did. Read my review to find out more about the tour I took with him and his other tours as well. Several readers have also hired him and all had positive things to say.
Train: Yes, it’s the only train which is part of perurail. You’ll arrive at AC (Aguas Calientes) and you’ll need to buy bus tickets. After you exit the station and walk through the market, you will cross over a little bridge then walk down to the street level. The bus tickets about a block up from there. Ask if you can’t find it (there is 1 main place to buy the tickets). Walking is an option but not a very good one. We almost walked back but it was raining. If you plan to take the bus both ways, buy a round trip ticket to save time on the way back.
Thanks a lot man….it was so helpful!!
Enjoy MP! Its amazing!
Boss,
We are happy to have found you and your friends; we still have not scored our tickets. After my husband encountered the blank white page three times he turned it over to me.
After one try, I searched and found we were not the Lone Rangers. I have called my Chase Visa twice; the first guy told me to try again and I would have no problem. He lied. I called again and was told same, that he put an ‘override’ on my account. The Visa was not processing it as it was considered a suspicious purchase. I am waiting for the ‘reservation’ to drop off so I can try again.
I had the same problem trying to book Lima to Cusco on Star Peru. Called Visa, they said it was pending the merchant submission. It eventually went through but Star Peru had cancelled my reservation. Two phone calls and several emails and I still don’t know what went wrong; Star Peru emailed me that my card had been cloned. When I asked for my reservations back due to my card being charged, they ignored me and I was credited. This was after sending my passport number and first and last four Visa numbers. They have a US number but the agents English is equivalent to my Spanish. No bueno.
I really don’t know how so many people plan trips to Peru on their own. It is a hair raising experience. I booked on Lan without incident.
Hope to get MP/HP tickets tomorrow. Fabulous Peru sells them for $69 and you can pay with paypal.
I have a reservation at The Sanctuary Lodge (big splurge, but highly recommend by several family members) to wake to the sunrise hike to Sun Gate before the crowds. The concierge gave us some tips after I found you, but not as precise as here. They can get them but I am afraid to ask the price. I guess my time and frustration might be worth the Fabulous Peru price.
here is their link:
http://www.fabulousperutours.com/welcome-fabulous-peru-tours.html
Thanks for your comments… I feel your frustration! There are many agencies that will arrange the tickets for you, however, I wanted to make 100% sure that I had tickets and that no one was going to screw me over. I booked only 1 night to see Machu Picchu and the last thing I wanted was to arrive and find out that I had been scammed and there were no tickets for me – or that I had to go to some other town to pick them up. I also thought their markup was too high. More importantly, I don’t have to give my confidential information to random people I don’t know or trust via the internet.
The current price for Machu Picchu and Huaynapiccu is 152 soles = about $50 USD. The agency you quoted charges $69. A $19 markup is a 38% markup. For 2 people, that’s $38 savings. It may not be much savings considering we were there for 16 days (see how much we paid for flights and hotels here), but I knew for sure I had my tickets and I was going to hike MP on my tight schedule.
Regarding your flights, you can book them mostly for free using miles and points. Do you have British Airways Avios or American Express Membership Rewards Points? Domestic flights in Peru can all be booked cheaply using points – that’s how I booked all 4 of my domestic Peru flights.
Scored!!! Got the MP tickets with Huayna Picchu! $102.78 for two of us. Our concern was that HP would sell out. AND I have contacted Oscar and he has replied, so we will be setting up a tour with him.
In regards to the tickets, their website is a joke; no one would be able to figure out the nuances by themselves. They do not seem to be concerned with selling them, as they get sold other ways. After so many attempts, I had the process down except for the last step, which was getting the actual tickets. The last thing that comes up and says ” Successful Payment” rather than denied, has no link to print nor instructions what to do next. So I referred back to your incredible instructions #5. Go back to the home page and click ‘check in’, paste the reservation number, and bingo the pdf’s come up!
RE points: Yes I used my AM EX points by transferring them to Delta and it was half what it was on the Am Ex travel link. 45k points r/t from Phx. I did not know to use them within Peru so bought the Lan for $321 r/t which was higher than Star but I was fed up with that outfit. Which airline did you use your points on?
This trip came about because my husband is meeting our son to do the Cordillera Huayhuash 16 day trek.
Son has been in Colombia since Dec. 6 and now in Ecuador, flying to BA next week then working his way through Argentina and Chile. The trek w/dad cramps his style, it is best to have no commitments when traveling that way so we hope he makes it. It was cheaper to book multi-city on Tame rather than one way from Quito to BA so time will tell if he makes the flight from BA to Lima or gets there another way from Chile. If anyone is interested in a local guide for above, we have one. Can let you know how it went later in May. His name is Abner.
More off the topic I know but this is good: son lost his money belt with everything in it on the bus in Colombia going to Santa Marta. It apparently fell out of his backpack when he was pulling out his guide book to look for a hostel. He goes to check in and reaches for his passport and the belt is gone. They ask his last name but he is zoned out looking. They say his name and that the bus company called and have his passport. The company called the various hostels! He went down to get it and everything was in it, including cash. Wow! And this was on Christmas Eve, best gift ever! (lesson: wear your money belt)
And don’t fall for the bird doo scam used by pickpockets : )
I transferred Amex points to BA miles and used those to book LAN flights. Read this – I listed exactly which flights I booked and which miles I used to pay for them. The cash prices are listed as a reference point to show how much you can save.
Please let me know how the guide you use works out when you get back.
Hi There, sorry if this question has been asked before but if you want tickets for 2x days do you have to to it twice or am I missing something?
Do you mean you want to visit MP 2 different days? I would think you just buy 2 separate tickets. I thought 1 day’s visit – a full day to climb WP then wander around MP – was enough.
Thank you 🙂 We are goiing to go one afternoon then back the next morning to get there first so essentially 2 half days..
I have still not had any luck purvchasing the tickets though, they emailed back to say to try it now but it came back saying:
Estimado Usuario: La reserva fue cancelada por el sistema
which translates to: Dear User, The booking was canceled by the system
So I have emailed them yet again…
I am detemined to do this myself! Thanks for the tutorial it was a huge help!
you may want to just try a new booking. Oh and I thought the afternoon was too crowded for my taste. We were there before they opened and were first to the gates at WP and first to the top. It was an amazing experience especially with not many people around. By the afternoon, all the tourist crowds came. It is hard to even move around with so many people there. I’m
FYI – I have had this response from Jose:
I will be out of the office, please contact Augusto Cier (acier@visanet.com.pe) for Machu Picchu tickets
Karen Schebesta (kschebesta@visanet.com.pe) Fraud Prevention or
Rossana Villacorta (rvillacorta@visanet.com.pe) Chargebacks
I wish I had known this; who would think to use British Airways to use points on LAN? What other airlines can you use via BA?
I spent $643 for two r/t LIM/CUZ tickets on LAN. A lot of that was tax. Can I get some of that back?
Also it seems like a really bad deal to use points on the actual Am Ex travel site.
Bad deal is right. I never use amex point to buy any travel or products (or on amazon). The best value for Amex points is to transfer them to miles if you like to travel. If not, the gift cards are a decent value.
BA Avios are amazing for short haul flights (that’s the only thing I use them for) in many places around the world. For example, NYC to Montreal is 4,500 one way. Domestic flights around Peru I believe are all 4,500 avios each way. Similar deals in Asia. Plug in a city in this tool (http://wandr.me/Award-Search/Avios-Map/LIM) and it will show you where you can go.
You can try to get a refund but I would confirm they are willing to do a refund, then book the flights with Avios, then cancel your flight and get the refund. Award seats can disappear in seconds. They may offer you to cancel the flights for a fee — but depending on the fee it may not be worth it.
I got my tickets on about the 10th try over two days, so don’t give up!
I am so glad to know about Avios, that is a real insider tip! Thanks so much. I will look into cancelling LAN and rebooking with points. Pretty sure though it will be a steep fee. My understanding is to transfer to BA from Am EX? This is the way to Avios?
Steph, from what I have been reading, arrive on the first bus the day of your ticket. Many people are done by noon before the crowds hit. You have 500 trekkers and 2,000 coming on the buses. There is a Belmond Sanctuary Lodge 5 Star hotel at the entrance to MP, it is all inclusive. It you want to have the peace and quiet after the crowds, stay there that night, then get up before dawn and do the Sun Gate (no ticket required) before the crowds. . With tax, it’s $1,127 the night we are there in April. It is less off season. We have been advised by several people that it is worth it.
Yes – Amex points transfer to British Air Avios. There was a 40% bonus for transferring Amex Points to Avios that just ended recently. Normally I won’t transfer my points to Avios unless there is a good bonus (30%+) or I have a specific use (like needing a Peru flight).
And I agree – TAKE THE FIRST BUS. Also, we walked to the sungate closer to noon and it was not crowded. Its farther than it seems – and I’m assuming that’s why not many people were there.
Thank you Gertie!
Yes! Got both days tickets but it took 3 days:
Day 1 both failed and had to email them.
Day 2 – I had to re-issue the tickets and one of them went through and payment worked.
Day 3 – I had to re-issue one of the tickets and it went through and payment worked.
Thank you so much everyone for all the tips and tricks! Unfortunately (or fortunately if it reduces the amount of visitors?) the Inca trail is closed in Feb which is when we are there.
Can’t wait! Good luck to everyone trying to book online! Persistance is key 🙂
@Steph – don’t worry, there will be tons of people by noon anyway!
Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!! Every step you wrote was perfect and, YES! I was about to start pulling all my hair out!
Thanks so much for all the details. I have emailed Jose and I’m hopeful this will work for me.
Wanted to ask if you had any tricks for buying train tickets on perurail.com – I keep getting rejected there too.
Do you have any suggestions for a good guide for MP?
Yes, I wrote about a very good guide named Oscar – here are the details.
Perurail – I haven’t heard of problems with that but if you provide some more details, maybe some of the other people reading this have some ideas.
Thanks again – – I ended up paying with paypal on the perurail site and it worked. My credit card had been rejected several times.
Hi. Thank you for all your info!! I tried this so many times and still no luck. I spoke to my bank and they unblocked the transaction block. I also emailed all the people you said above and no response yet (it’s been one day now). Do you know about how long it takes for them to reply back? I’m just worried that the HP tickets will be sold out for our dates soon 🙁
Nilma – you can see how many tickets are available in the top left corner. My guess is you’ll hear back in the next day.
Thanks for your reply! I did hear back and he asked for name, booking number, and name on credit card. Then he emailed me today to try again and AGAIN it keeps saying “denied”. Ah. I’m so frustrated. I’ll email him again and see if any luck.
You might need to call your credit card again to make sure they didn’t block it.
When I get to the page where i want to pay, there is no “ENVIAR” to click onto. Cannot proceed with order ):
Thank you for these clear instructions and everyone’s tips as well. I could not have navigated the ticket site otherwise! Just printed my tickets and feeling excited 🙂 Thank you again!
Thanks a lot, worked out very well 🙂
And just one stupid question! only visa debit card is an option for online payment? we have only visa electron … And if this doesn’t work, what agency is reliable?
(at the edge of pulling my hair)
I suggest you ask Oscar Guevara gascorth@hotmail.co.uk (a local guide i used and have written about in my reviews) for help or ask one of the hotels you booked in Peru.
Thank you for the tips!! I made the payment with the visa guy support!
Thank you so much for this extremely useful guide! Just ten attempts – and I got my tickets for May 🙂
A small additional hack from me 🙂 If you do not have (like me) any VISA card, you can try issuing VISA VIRTUAL card in your bank and it works.
I’ve been toggling between Google Translate and the Machu Picchu ticket site for the past four hours trying to book my tickets. I was getting so frustrated and was about to give up and just wait to get the entrance tickets once I get to Peru. I’m so glad I read through the comments on TripAdvisor that lead me to this link. It literally took me less than 5 minutes to book the tickets with this visual guideline. Thank you!!
Glad you found my page – and thanks for the note! Check out my other Peru posts if you want to travel free using miles and points.
Hi Boss,
What do you put in for tipo Doc and NRO Doc?
We also are staying at the Tambo Del Ink a but expect to be very frugal and do more with the natives after our first two days.
Also is this just the cost for our visit excluding the train ride? Do you recommend going from Urambamba to MP or to go from Cusco to MP?
Sorry for all the questions, I booked half the hotel only without an itinerary. What did you think of the hotel? Are there nice places to hike within walking distance? Thank you so much!
Claire,
You can enter your passport in that box.
Tambo del Inka is AMAZING… we didn’t spend any money there other than the tour they arranged with the local guide which I have written about. Breakfast was free and FANTASTIC! (free if you are platinum).
This is just for tickets to MP. Getting there is completely separate. Go from Urubamba since you are already there. If you go from Cusco then you won’t make sense to go to Tambo.
I LOVED the hotel, especially since I used points. There is nothing nearby except a few restaurants and the grounds of the hotel are very nice. If you contact the guide, Oscar, he can arrange a few things for you. His contact info is in my previous comments.
Check the train map here to figure out where things are.
HELP!!
OK.. so I’m on the site and tried 3X already but when I attempt to put the country for the second person it only gives me the following options – Peru, Bolivia, Coloma and Ecuador. . Tickets are booking quickly and there isn’t an option for the US only for the first person not the second. Any suggestions?
Thanks a million! As a gringo who (A) doesn’t speak Spanish and (B) has great difficulty navigating any incredibly dense bureaucratic process, even in English, I must say: your step by step explanation of how to book a ticket to Machu Picchu, with illustrations (I actually required them more than once) was AWESOME and INDISPENSABLE. It worked first time, just the way that you said, other than a slightly lower price. I owe you all one!
Hi again,
I changed my trip to MP after finding out there is a train basically on site at Tambo. I emailed the woman and said the train cost $175 a person plus an additional $335 for the bus?! That’s more than we spent to see it! Is there a cheaper method or should I go from Quellomayo yellow river – the second place I’ll be staying at?
Is that USD or Soles? Who are you emailing? A tour agency? If you’re booking with the tour operator at Tambo — you better have DEEP pockets.
You do not need a tour agency for Machu Picchu. All you need is MP tickets, train tickets, and a hotel, which can all be booked yourself easily. The bus tickets to get up you can buy there. Don’t let them rip you off.
Here are the trains I took and the prices when you book directly http://www.perurail.com/
Train Urubamba 6:20a Lv 6:50a to Machu Picchu $77
Train Machu Picchu 16:13 Lv 16:43 to Poroy Expedition Class. $79
Thanks, this was super helpful. I tried so many times on the english version. My first attempt was denied, I think because of the Visa I used wasn’t verified. I contacted the emails given, but got no reply from any of them. Maybe that info needs to be updated…
A week later, I tried again with my Chase Visa, which was verified by default, got held up due to fraud protection. Gave the OK to Chase, and re-entered my info once again, and finally got my tickets.
Thanks for the detailed steps!
Sam – did any of the people reply since the week you emailed them?
In step 2 what do i put if i’m from Australia?
@Anthony – Australia is in the “PAIS” drop down. Aruba, Australia, Austria…
Thank you! We were having such trouble with the english site and this worked like a charm!
You’re welcome! Did you have to email anyone to get it to work?
I followed this all the way through and ended up having to email the contacts you listed. One of them was out of office and forwarded two different email addresses back to me to try and contact. I emailed them and haven’t heard back yet (it’s been 5 min), however these might be useful for others, or to add to your list. Thanks for your help!
gcaceres@visanet.com.pe
kaguirre@visanet.com.pe
Thanks – do you have the names so I can add it to the post?
Giuliana Caceres – gcaceres@visanet.com.pe
Karina Aguirre – kaguirre@visanet.com.pe
I got a response back this morning from a new address, who finally did something to allow my purchase to go through.
Augusto Cier – acier@visanet.com.pe
Hopefully these email addresses will be helpful to others in the future.
Thanks!
Thank you SO much! I know a little Spanish myself, but never would have gotten past step 3 without your blog. You rock!
you’re welcome – please stop back and let me know how your trip went. If you need some ideas, check out my trip review.
Thanks a bunch for your fantastic instructions. Made the purchase of the entrance tickets to Machu Picchu pain free! It would have taken me otherwise a lot longer…Great job!
Thank you for such helpful instructions. I was getting so frustrated with the machupicchu website – I was ready to pay someone to purchase the tickets for me…well, that is until I saw how much of a mark-up there is. I found these great instructions and breezed right through. With the small problem of my VISA being denied. Once my credit card company knew I was making the purchase I was able to finalize my tickets within minutes.
Glad it worked out!
I’ve been trying to book MP ticket like 10 times and still no luck. I follow every single step, call Chase before making the booking and still I got the message “Operación denegada”. I already tried two visa cards.
I emailed callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe back in MARCH, Flavio suggested me email mtrivenov@drc-cusco.gob.pe or Jose Chang jchang@visanet.com.pe. Now four months later, still haven’t heard anything back from them yet. I emailed them again, hopefully I can hear back from them soon. If not, I think I will have to book through an agency since my date is getting closer.
That’s really frustrating. The prices I quotes from the agency was inside of an expensive hotel, so I bet you can find better prices online or through your hotel in Aguas Calientes. If you’re going with someone else, maybe they can try booking it with one of their credit cards. Don’t wait too long as there are a limited number of tickets.
Big Big Big Big Big Thanks!!!!! (Had a difficult time to find “united states” or “north america” or “america” for a while, then we found you already made it clear!)
Have fun in Peru! Have a good time! Let me know how it went when you get back
Such a great resource! Thanks again, and glad we could share it in our post, A Complete DIY Traveler’s Guide to Reaching MACHU PICCHU!
Looks like their site is not letting us book Machu Pichhu tickets for 2016?
@Ro – the website says the search feature won’t work in January only… but I just tried it and I can see all the availability even in January. How far did you get in the booking process on their website http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/.
GREAT website and suggestions on how to book for the dastard tickets!
Tickets for all routes until 31 December 2016 are NOW AVAILABLE! Grab ’em, peeps!
I have just managed to book for an “MP + HP 1G” ticket and it went without a hitch, after following the amazing advice on this website! It was all done in 5 minutes! Although I know some elementary Spanish, this website did help a lot in smoothening out the process without my even breaking a sweat, much less pulling out a strand of hair.
Cost – S/152 + S/6.13 (admin fee) = S/158.13
It seems like the machupicchu.gob.pe website has improved a little bit. However, once you have successfully secured a ticket, you cannot save a copy to your electronic device. You have to PRINT the ticket. The pop-up window of your ticket is in Flash. There is no way to save an electronic copy (unless someone knows how to do so).
My two-penny’s worth of suggestions in addition to the great tips on this website –
(1) Do sign up for Verified by VISA. It might not be the same case for everyone but when I was in the process of paying, the Verified by VISA window did pop up. Fortunately, I had already signed up summer last year.
(2) If your bank has the service, inform them at least two working days ahead that you are expecting a transaction originating from Perú. This would at least minimise the chances of the ticket payment being rejected on your side (rather than wondering if it is from the Perúvian side or your side).
I have not tried paying with a MasterCard and thus, I cannot comment on that.
A great big THANK YOU to everyone who manage this website and to everyone who contributed!
William, if you ever have trouble printing, using Chrome, the browser lets you print directly to PDF as if it were a printer. Or it will save it to Google Drive. Very useful. Glad it worked for you! Enjoy MP!
Oops. Sorry, peeps. I have gone back to the machupicchu.gob.pe website and it DOES allow you to save a copy of the ticket in PDF. Sorry, I stand corrected on that point!
Excellent summary of the most convoluted online purchasing process I have ever encountered – follow the steps and it will probably work for you, unless you use a Wells Fargo Visa.
After 4 frustrating days of attempting to purchase tickets, including 4 different booking numbers (5 attempts to pay per booking number are allowed, the fact that they track the number of attempts to pay and set a threshold tells you something about the gob.pe website), a total of 20 failed attempts to pay, with 2 different Visa credit cards, 5 phone calls to Wells Fargo, and 3 emails to Augusto at Visanet (one of the emails provided in the original post above for help on the gob.pe website), and being assured a half dozen times by as many people in the Wells Fargo fraud department (3 of the times I waited over 20 minutes on hold, and was routinely passed from one person to the next, in total telling my story of online purchasing woes over 20 times to Wells Fargo) that my purchase would be authorized, I now finally learn 4 days later that WELLS FARGO DOES NOT AUTHORIZE ANY TRANSACTIONS WITH THEIR CREDIT CARD on the gob.pe website.
Wells would not tell us why, other than “it is for my protection” – total BS, as we all know the banks are protecting themselves at the expense (and sanity) of their customers.
I confess, I broke down in tears after reaching this point. We leave in 7 days for our trip and we still don’t have tickets. On the plus side, I probably need to toughen up a bit before travelling internationally. I do feel a bit stronger now.
We now attempting to work with a travel agent. Maybe Wells gets a cut? Or maybe the government of Peru has an incentive to get us to pay a 40-80% markup to their local travel agents?
Advice – DON’T USE A WELLS CARD, and you may want to bring a different credit card on your travels, also (I should have learned this before – they once cancelled my card due to suspected fraud when I attempted to pay for a cab in Phoenix AZ, a place I travel to frequently, and I was stranded with no way to pay). I am so mad I am closing my Wells accounts and my Visa card and going to a different bank. I am crossing my fingers that the local travel agent isn’t a scammer. Wish me luck.
That’s frustrating! You are certainly cutting it close (7 days), I suggest you just call your hotel and see if they can arrange it. Online, I’ve seen agencies adding ~$15 USD to the price per ticket which is probably worth it considering the hassle you had. The hotel may charge more. I stayed at the Starwood hotel on the way to MP any/all activities were incredibly expensive. I’m sure my tiny ‘hotel’ in Aguas Calientes probably could have arranged tickets for less. I wrote about a local guide in my other Peru posts which many readers have used and saved $ dealing with him directly. Thanks for the update on Wells Fargo, I will add a note in the post about this.
Apparently I booked my mom’s ticket with afghanistan as her country of origin, instead of United States. Who should I email or call to fix this, or will this not matter when we enter in July, because her other info and passport number is correct.
This guide was a huge help! I simply should have been more careful in checking everything twice on that difficult website.
I would ask their customer service both of your questions: email their call center at callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe
i did the same! feeling so dumb.. how did you fix it? I emailed the call center immediately after
This was such a help. I lost almost no hair……Just a few strands!!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
🙂 enjoy MP! Hope to hear about your trip in the comments
Thanks so much for this! We were super confused until we found this post 🙂 thought it would lead straight onto the payment page but nooo!
I know this is an older post and it is well done, but there are a few areas where you got things a little wrong, or just used poor wording.
1) There are actually 4,900 tickets currently available for Machu Picchu each day, not 2,500
2) When referring to the Huayna Picchu tickets, I think your indication that “the first group of the morning is the best time to beat the crowds” is a point of opinion. The crowds on Huayna Picchu should be about the same weather choosing the first or second entry as the tickets are set at 200 for each time slot. The crowds in Machu Picchu itself will be less first thing in the morning, but just because someone gets the second entry, does not mean that they can not enter Machu Picchu first thing in the morning. Generally the things to be considered when purchasing Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu Mountain tickets is that the first entries have the highest chance of the site being covered in clouds, but offer the coolest temperatures. The second entries can make for a hotter climb, but also offer the best chance of having a clear view of the site.
3) On step 3 above, they have now changed the “address field” to be an “e-mail address field”
4) Prices have gone up this year, don’t know if you want to edit the post or not but regular entry is now S/152.00 Soles
Thanks! I updated all the screen shots and the prices. Where are you seeing 4,900 tickets?
As far as the Huayna Picchu tickets, I don’t think someone buying the 2nd entry would be allow in during the 1st entry time frame and if you enter in the 2nd slot, you will have all the people in the 2nd time slot plus the people from the first time slot who haven’t finished/started late or are still hanging out. Of course weather will be a factor. When we got to the peak, we were the first ones up and it was amazing to be up there alone. Soon after that it started getting crowded and there’s not much room at the top. All of MP got really crowded in the afternoon as the tour busses came in then it started raining so it was the perfect time to leave.
Made it all the way to the end – only to find out the site that accepts the credit card payment is a non secured one. So… still no tickets! Thanx for sharing this info. Not sure where to turn now.
So they took your payment? what happens when you try step 5 (print your ticket)?
Thank you so much for your instructions. They were extremely helpful. I had struggled for three days to get tickets to MP. One update to add is that it appears that the email address to the call center has now changed
from:
callcenter@drc-cusco.gob.pe
to:
callcenter@culturacusco.gob.pe
Thanks again for the helpful information.
Thanks – updated it. Emails to the old drc-cusco.gob.pe email bounce back.
Very helpful and up-to-date information. The booking process was smooth as result of following these instructions. Thanks!
Very helpful, I am a native Spanish-speaking person, and I was pulling my hair trying to figure out. Your post was so helpful!
Hi:
I paid full adult price to buy tickets for two of my children. Few days after I had bought those tickets I received the following email from
callcenter@culturacusco.gob.pe
on how to buy tickets for children at half price. I hope that this information is of use for others who are planning to travel to Machu Picchu with their kids.
Ravi
**************************************************************************
Dear Mr. Bansal
Good night
Please read all the information, and choose the option you want.
Directly in http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe is not possible to buy for student or children, the purchase are only for Adults. Also the students and children have a special rate lower than adult. There isn’t any kind of student’s or children’s reservation. The fewer than 8 years old children just show in Machupicchu gate their original passport for verified their age.
There are 2 ways to buy:
1) By your own in Cusco’s offices:
· You should buy the ticket by your own with the students or children original ID’s.
· If you aren’t in Cusco, one friend, one relative or hotel’s worker can buy the ticket for you showing the students or children ID’s (with a copy is enough).
In Cusco: the offices work from Monday to Saturday 7:00 am to 7:30 pm (no holidays). You can book and pay in cash or with Visa or Mastercard.
– In Garcilaso Street s/n. Also kwon as Garcilaso Museum.
– In Maruri Street 340.
In Aguas Calientes Centro Cultural in the Main Square or Av. Pachakuteq s/n. Open all days from 5:15 am to 8:30 pm. Only cash
For just Machupicchu or Machupicchu + Mountain option, you will able to buy tickets because you will find enough spaces until one day before the visit.
NOTE: Machupicchu + Huaynapicchu sold out 2 months in advance.
2) Buy your ticket online follow the next steps:
1- In http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe make a reservation without any mistake for everyone who pays, as adult (adult, student and children) Remember children pay since 8 years old.
2- Send that reservation without any payment to this mail immediately, next to your children passport and/or students card (scan) for verified. (the information will be verified for change your reservation with children and student rate)
3- Wait our answer in 15 minutes and make your payment, because every reservation is only valid for 3 hours
4- If you want to make this please send the documents and reservation from 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm from Monday to Saturday. This schedule is for all June.
Once you buy the ticket there isn’t any kind of refund, please before buy the ticket get your train ticket.
For Children (with Passport or ID) and/or for Peruvians and foreigners students Pre-Grade with 18 or more years, with ISIC Card and/or University Card, like Credit Card material. (With 4 request print it 1)University Name 2) Student Name 3) Student Picture 4) Expiration Date 2017. In Machupicchu Gate, you must show the original ones.
Sincerely.
Lilian Callapiña Cosio
Thanks for sending the email. I mentioned how to buy kids tickets in the post but doing it via email is new. I’d be interested if anyone is successful in getting kids tickets for 1/2 price via email as they suggest. It will be impressive if you get a response within 15 minutes and your reservation updated.
I agree. I just hope that this information is useful for others.
Your information is terrific and I had this page open while I was doing my reservations. Even though others had stated that the English version of the official site is working, I did not take a chance and bought my tickets using the Spanish version of the official site.
Thank you for such a detailed account of how to buy the tickets, which I had found very useful. Hence, I shared the information that I got on your site.
It works!
After running into an error paying, I found this site – and mention of emailing to receive the student price. I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.
1. They responded within 15 minutes (3pm – 7:30pm).
2. Price was adjusted for our 2 children (we attached a pic of their passports).
3. Saved us $50.
I’ll admit – the first night (6/5) there was an error paying – and it was late, so our reservation expired. I went back on 6/6 at 4pm to re-reserve and email again. Worked perfectly.
Thanks for the update! I’ve updated the post with more clear instructions.
I was able to book my ticket after much headache. I contacted someone at Visanet and was able to get my card unblocked for the first transaction. The reservation had already lapsed but the card still worked for some reason. I also had registered the card in verify by visa, not sure if that helped. It was a Capital One Quicksilver card.
The second transaction(I had 6 people in my group and 5 is the limit) went through a lot smoother, the card transaction was just denied by my bank and I had to call them to unblock the transaction. You’ll know if this is the case if the Result at the bottom say Operacion Denegada.
Ive been living in latin america for the last few years and Just as a note for travelers this type of problem with online transaction and foreign credit cards is pretty common. Typically there’s an option to pay in cash at a grocery store/convenience store, at least thats the case in peru and colombia. Hope this helps!
Hi Chris, I noticed you mentioned that your group was 6 people. Just to clarify, you had to go in with two transactions but did not have any problem using the same card? I need to buy tickets for a large group. I’m worried about buying 5 and then not being able to purchase the next 5 tickets if there’s some kind of limit per person. Thank you!
Thank you. I had few problems, but had to change credit cards halfway through (I bought many tickets).
Questions: How does one get refunds? I bought 20 tickets and 5 people have cancelled the trip.
I added a section on ticket cancellations for you. Please see the bottom of the post, but the short version is you probably can’t get a refund. Looks like the people who canceled are going to eat the cost.
Please use Internet Explorer. I attempted paying thrice with Chrome it did not work.
Yes, looks like there is a problem with the website using Flash. It worked for me on Internet Explorer. Didn’t work on Chrome, Firefox, Safari.
I just bought tickets on Chrome! But only with the help of your amazing guide. Thank you so much for doing this! (I kept wondering why the charge for the tickets never came through, ended up on your page after unsuccessfully trying to call the Ministry)
This was so so helpful in understanding why my credit card never got charged… I guess we don’t actually have tickets?! Yikes!
Thank you so much! Would have been awful to arrive and realize our tickets weren’t real.
Glad you got your tickets! Enjoy Machu Picchu!
Thank you for your instructions!!
Excellent guide! Just be sure to have a certified guide. As of July 1, 2017, an official guide is required for entrance. There are many sitting outside the entrance.
The big thing to watch for as you mentioned is that you don’t actually have your ticket once you get the reservation code. Having to plug that in on the payment page is key.
Seems the guide is only recommended or perhaps there are rules that aren’t being enforced. Prices I’ve seen are 100 soles for up to 4 people for a guide at the door, so if you have 4 people, that’s ~$8 USD.
Thanks for taking the time to make such an instructive guide. This step by step has helped me a lot to be able to get my ticket. Again thank you very much.