Inca Trail Trek Permit Availability (in real-time)-2009

We're very sorry but the Government office just changed the System of putting the connection for the "Available spaces link" with the Tour Agencies ,for the moment you can see the "Available Spaces through the following link "http://nahuidev.inc-cusco.gob.pe/"

The information shown below is taken directly from the government trek permit database and shows the real-time availability of trek permits for the Inca Trail. Trek permits are required for the classic 4-day Inca Trail, the shorter 2-day Inca Trail and the 7-day Salkantay / Inca Trail trek. Alternative treks such as Lares Valley, Ausangate, Choquequirao, and the 5-day Inca Trail via Santa Teresa do not require trek permits. The government issues a maximum of 500 trek permits for each day. Since trekking staff are also included within this limit of 500 persons this means that, on average, about 200 trek permits are allocated to tourists and about 300 allocated to guides, cooks and porters.

How to use this data base: First you will realise that the information given is in Spanish! The data base is mainly used by the trekking agencies in Cusco to decide when they need to close their groups and buy the trek permits. However you don't need to know much Spanish in order to check how many trek permits are still available on the date that you want to do the trek.

Step 1: Using the mouse press on "INGRESAR COMO INVITADO",you don't need any password or user name.

Step 2: Press on the Option " CONSULTAS".

Step 3: Find the option "DISPONIBILDAD CAMINO INCA 2009"(= AVAILABILITY)

Step 4: Your are going to find different options such a some for each year(2009) and each month ,after you make sure the month you wanna start the Inca Trail press on "VER DISPONIBLIDAD".

You have to know that using this same link given by the Government office you can see other options like,Tour agencies authorized ,Tour Guide Authorized ,Datas of the people who already booked for the Inca Trail ,etc.., the The number of remaining spaces for each day of the month will now be shown. (Fecha = date, Disponibilidad = Availability). The maximum number of spaces is 500.

Interpretation of the Results: If the number of spaces available is zero then it basically means that all the trek permits have been sold out and no matter how many companies you contact, none of them will be able to offer you space on the Inca Trail. Even if companies have cancellations regulations prevent them from filling these spaces with other clients. This may sound ridiculous but the system has been designed to prevent "wealthy" companies buying up all the spaces in advance using made-up names and passport numbers and then cancelling them nearer the time only to fill the cancelled spaces with real clients. The number of remaining spaces does not fall steadily, rather it falls exponentially. That it to say that the number of spaces remains between 300 and 500 for quite along time but as it starts to fall below 250 more companies decide to buy permits for their groups and the rate that the spaces drop starts to increase. Often the last 100 spaces can sell out in a day or so. For example just because there may be 160 spaces available on the day that you want to start the trek, by the time you find a suitable trekking company and send them your trek deposit, it doesn't mean that there will still be 160 spaces left! So it is highly recommended to book your Inca Trail as far in advance as possible.

When to make a trek booking: The government has strictly limited the number of people permitted on the Inca Trail during 2009 (permits are issued to about 200 trekkers per day plus 300 porters). We recommend that you make a trek booking as early as possible. In 2008 the trek permits for some dates sold out more than 4 months in advance !! However don't make a booking until you have all the group details (names, passport numbers, ages etc) and you are sure about your trek departure date since these details cannot be changed after we have bought your trek permit.

We can manage to obtain trek permits for ALL of our clients and have had a 99% success rate in obtaining the campsite Winay Wayna on the 3rd night of the trek (the campsite nearest to Machu Picchu) which allows you to arrive at Machu Picchu for sunrise. Only tour operators that buy their permits early can do this.

I f you cannot find available spaces for the dates you are palnning to do the Inca Trail ,we invite you to look at our other Alternative treks like ,Lares _ Machupicchu 4 D / 3 N , Salkantay-Santa Teresa - Machupicchu 5 D / 4 N and others for mentionning .

Ask for information to our staff in the office ,you also can contact us by MSN ,(ecowaykys@hotmail.com).

eview updated permit availability information in the following .PDF electronic documents. Make sure permits are available for the date you want to start the trek and proceed to booking: