Machu Picchu’s Inca Trail closed early this year due to a landslide earlier this month, but you can bet that when it reopens, it will be flooded with tourists from around the world. To minimize the damage done by crowds of hikers along popular hiking routes, and to diversify tourism opportunities in the region, Peru is planning to open new routes to Machu Picchu this year.
You may have seen this classic view of the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, with its stone structures and terraces and the pinnacle of Wayna Picchu in the background, so many times that it no longer serves to inspire. But when you're there, and you enter the complex and stand at this very spot, it'll be like seeing it for the first time. It's truly a special place.
Photo: Seumas Christie-Johnston/Shutterstock
New Machu Picchu Trails Are Opening in 2020
A budget of $1.2 million has been set aside for projects around the ancient citadel in 2020. Much of the budget will go toward maintaining the area’s infrastructure, repairing footpaths, building new information centers and waste stations, and funding a planting campaign that includes planting one million native plants and trees along the pathways. The rest will be dedicated to opening new access routes.
One of the new trails will be called the Amazon Access Route, and it will connect the Intihuatana community with the areas of San Miguel, Inkarakay, Mandor, and Puente Ruinas up to Machu Picchu town. Another route will connect Choquellusca with San Antonio de Torontoy, on the way to Machu Picchu. 