Salkantay Horizons started the way most good things in Cusco start: with a guide who knew the mountain too well to stop talking about it.
Our founder grew up in Cusco, spent his early years learning the trail the way locals learn it, through seasons and weather patterns and the kind of accumulated knowledge that only comes from walking the same route enough times to know every section intimately. The company came later, built around a simple conviction: that the Salkantay is one of the most extraordinary trekking routes in the world, and that most people who walk it deserve a better experience than the overcrowded, under-resourced operations that had come to dominate the market.
Salkantay Horizons is a specialized brand within My Peru Destinations Group, a Cusco-based tourism corporation operating multiple travel brands across Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Within that portfolio, Salkantay Horizons has a single focus: the Salkantay route. We do one trek, we do it well, and we have no interest in expanding into something more generic. Every guide on our team knows this mountain specifically. Every detail of our logistics has been refined through years of running this exact route in every season and every weather condition the Andes can produce. That focus is the whole point.
The backing of My Peru Destinations Group means that behind our small-group trekking operation sits a full logistical infrastructure: in-house transportation, established relationships with accommodation providers across the region, a dedicated operations team in Cusco, and the financial stability that allows us to invest in equipment, guide training, and service quality without compromise. We are not a one-person booking operation. We are a professional team with corporate resources and the mindset of people who genuinely love this mountain.
We are based in Cusco, which means we are not a booking platform, not an aggregator, and not a company run from a city that requires a flight to reach the trailhead. When you contact us, you are talking to people who walked the route last week.
Guides
Every guide at Salkantay Horizons holds a professional certification from the Regional Tourism Directorate of Cusco and a current wilderness first aid qualification. Beyond the paperwork, what we look for is something harder to certify: the ability to read a group, manage altitude emergencies calmly, and talk about Andean history and culture in a way that makes people genuinely want to know more.
Most of our guides were born in Cusco or in the communities along the Salkantay route itself. Several of them started as porters before training as guides. They know the mountain not as a product but as a place they have a genuine relationship with. That comes through on the trail in ways that are difficult to articulate but easy to feel.
All our guides are bilingual in English and Spanish. Several also speak French, German, or Portuguese. If you have a specific language requirement, let us know at the time of booking and we will match you accordingly.
Porters
Our porters are local men from the communities of Mollepata, Soraypampa, and the surrounding villages. They are paid above the legal minimum wage, provided with proper equipment including cold-weather gear and appropriate footwear, and fed the same meals as the trekking group. We follow the Peruvian Porter Protection Law without exception and we go beyond it in several areas.
The porter team is not invisible support staff. They are the reason the camping experience works. Most trekkers develop a genuine affection for the porter team over four or five days on the trail, and the farewell on the final morning in Aguas Calientes is one of those small moments that tends to catch people off guard.
Cooks
Our trail cooks are a quiet point of pride. The food on a Salkantay Horizons trek is not camp food in the way most people expect. Breakfasts include porridge, eggs, fresh bread, fruit, and hot drinks. Dinners are three-course affairs cooked on gas burners in a tent kitchen at altitude, featuring local ingredients including quinoa, potatoes from the Andean highlands, fresh vegetables from Cusco market, and proteins that vary by day. Every dietary requirement is accommodated with advance notice.
We only do the Salkantay. This is not a company that runs tours to the Amazon, Sacred Valley day trips, and city walking tours alongside its trekking operation. We do one route. The depth of knowledge and the quality of logistics that come from that focus are not replicable by a generalist operator.
Small groups. Our maximum group size is 12 people on the camping routes and 8 on the lodge route. These are not arbitrary numbers. They are the sizes at which the experience still feels personal, the guide can maintain genuine attention to every member of the group, and the campsite doesn’t feel like a festival. We will never increase these limits for commercial reasons.
Honest pricing. The price you see on our website is the price you pay. Machu Picchu entrance, train, bus, meals, equipment, and 24/7 support are all included. We do not operate loss-leader pricing that conceals the real cost of the trek in a list of extras revealed after booking.
Genuine local operation. Every sol paid to Salkantay Horizons stays in Cusco. Our guides, porters, cooks, and office staff are all local. Our food is sourced from Cusco markets. Our transport is provided by local drivers. This is not a marketing position. It is simply how we are structured.
Corporate backing, personal service. As part of My Peru Destinations Group, we have access to resources, infrastructure, and operational experience that most small trekking operators simply do not. That means better equipment, more reliable logistics, and a support team that is reachable around the clock. It also means that if your Peru trip extends beyond the Salkantay, our sister companies within the group can handle luxury itineraries, Sacred Valley tours, volunteer programs, and multi-country circuits across South America at the same standard you experience on the trail with us.
The Salkantay is not just a trekking route. It is a living landscape with communities, ecosystems, and a cultural significance to the Quechua people of the region that predates the tourism industry by several centuries.
We operate under a strict Leave No Trace policy on every departure. All waste is carried out of the mountain. Fires are not permitted at campsites where they are not already established. Water sources are treated with respect. Campsite selection follows established sites only. These are not aspirational commitments. They are operational requirements that every guide and porter is trained on and held accountable to.
We work with the farming communities along the route, sourcing produce locally where possible and directing trekkers toward community-owned services in Santa Teresa and Aguas Calientes. Several of our guides are involved in a local conservation project monitoring glacial retreat on the Salkantay massif. The mountain is changing and we think the people who bring visitors to it have a responsibility to be part of the response.
Salkantay Horizons operates under full authorization from the Regional Directorate of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Cusco, and as part of My Peru Destinations Group, we comply with all current Peruvian regulations governing adventure tourism operations. We are registered members of APAVIT, the Peruvian Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies.
Our guides hold current certifications in wilderness first aid and are recertified annually. All departures carry emergency oxygen and a complete first aid kit, and every guide carries a satellite communication device on routes above 4,000 meters.
We ask every trekker to read our Responsible Travel Policy before departure. It covers conduct on the trail, interaction with local communities, wildlife and plant life, waste management, and our expectations around cultural sensitivity at Machu Picchu and along the route.
The short version: the mountain was here before us and will be here after us. Walk accordingly.
Salkantay Horizons is proud to be a member of My Peru Destinations Group, a Cusco-based tourism corporation with brands covering luxury travel, adventure trekking, volunteer programs, and multi-destination circuits across Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. If your journey extends beyond the Salkantay, our group has the expertise and the people to make every part of your trip as good as the trek itself.
Explore the full group at myperudestinations.com
SUSTAINABILITY
At Salkantay Horizons we believe that tourism done right leaves a place better than it found it. That is not a tagline. It is the standard we hold ourselves to every time a group sets foot on the mountain.
As a brand within My Peru Destinations Group, our sustainability commitments extend beyond the trail. They shape how we hire, how we operate, how we source, and how we invest the revenue generated by the people who trust us with their time in the Andes.
Sustainable Tourism Certification
Salkantay Horizons operates in full compliance with Peruvian regulations governing adventure tourism and sustainable travel practices. We are registered members of APAVIT and operate under authorization from the Regional Directorate of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Cusco. We are actively working toward formal sustainable tourism certification and hold ourselves to the standards that certification requires regardless of its current status. Every operational decision, from campsite selection to porter pay to waste management, is evaluated against those standards before it is implemented.
Circular Operations
We run a lean operation by design. Food for each trek is sourced fresh from Cusco markets, prioritizing local producers and minimizing packaging where possible. We do not use single-use plastic in our camp kitchen. Cooking equipment, tents, and gear are maintained, repaired, and reused rather than replaced on a cycle driven by appearance rather than function. Organic waste from camp kitchens is managed according to established composting and disposal protocols. Nothing is burned or buried on the mountain.
Our vehicles are maintained to reduce emissions and routes are planned to minimize unnecessary fuel consumption. When trekkers return to Cusco by train rather than by road, that choice reflects both logistical efficiency and a lower environmental footprint per person than the road alternative.
Supporting Local Communities
Every sol spent with Salkantay Horizons stays in Cusco. Our guides, porters, cooks, drivers, and office team are all from the region. We pay above minimum wage across every role, provide proper equipment to our porter team, and invest in the professional development of staff who want to grow within the company.
We direct our trekkers toward community-owned businesses along the route, including the community-managed entrance to Humantay Lake, locally operated hot spring facilities in Santa Teresa, and family-run restaurants in the towns the route passes through. These referrals are not incidental. They are deliberate decisions to ensure that the economic benefit of tourism reaches the communities closest to the mountain rather than being captured entirely by outside operators.
We source coffee, cacao, and fresh produce from farms in the Santa Teresa valley when possible, creating a direct supply relationship that supports the agricultural communities along the lower section of the route.
Glacier Conservation
The Salkantay glacier is retreating at a documented and accelerating rate. For the Quechua communities living beneath it, this is not a future risk. It is a present reality affecting water supply, agricultural cycles, and the spiritual relationship with a mountain that has been central to Andean life for thousands of years.
We take this seriously in two ways. First, our guides include accurate, science-based information about glacial retreat as a core part of the narrative on every trek. Visitors who understand what they are witnessing are more likely to carry that awareness home and act on it than visitors who simply photograph the ice without context.
Second, members of our guide team participate in community-based glacier monitoring initiatives in the Cusco region. We make time and logistical resources available to support that work. The mountain sustains our business. Monitoring its health is the minimum we owe it in return.
Environmental Education on the Trail
Every Salkantay Horizons guide is trained to deliver environmental and ecological content as a natural part of the trekking experience. The flora and fauna briefing that begins on Day 1 is not a separate module bolted onto the trek. It is woven into how our guides talk about the landscape from the first hour on the trail to the last.
Trekkers are briefed before departure on Leave No Trace principles, the ecological sensitivity of the route corridor, and the cultural significance of the sacred sites they will pass through. The goal is not compliance. It is understanding. A trekker who understands why the cushion plants at 4,200 meters grow one centimeter per year, or what the offerings at the Salkantay Pass represent to the Quechua community, will treat the landscape differently than one who has simply been told the rules.
Apu Tui Tun — Education for Children in Need
Among the projects we are most proud to support is Apu Tui Tun, an education initiative for children in vulnerable communities in the Cusco region. The project is an initiative of My Peru Destinations Group and provides direct educational support to children who would otherwise have limited access to quality learning resources.
The name Apu Tui Tun carries the same reverence for the Andean sacred peaks that shapes everything about how we operate in this landscape. The project is rooted in the conviction that the communities living beneath these mountains deserve the same investment in their future that the mountains themselves receive in conservation effort.
A portion of the revenue generated by every Salkantay Horizons trek contributes to Apu Tui Tun. Beyond our own initiative, My Peru Destinations Group actively supports additional education and community development projects in the Cusco region. We do not publicize every project by name, but the commitment to reinvesting in the communities that make this business possible is not optional and not seasonal. It is built into how we operate year-round.
If you would like to know more about Apu Tui Tun or contribute directly, contact us at info@salkantay-trail.com and we will connect you with the project team.
Sustainability is not a section of our website. It is the reason we built the company the way we did.
Local trekking company based in Cusco, specializing in small‑group, sustainable Salkantay & Inca Trail expeditions.
Salkantay Horizons – part of My Peru Destinations Group © 2026 All rights reserved
