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As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words", so I have included some shots of Machu Picchu from our trip in May of 2024. I have tried to show the types of terrain encountered and steps on the elevation changes. If you take your time and watch every time you put a foot down you shouldn;t have any trouble. Just set your pace on the climbs to be consistent with your personal level of fitness. You will feel the 8000ft altitude if you really push it. But everyone took a beak on climbs to catch their breath. But everyone made it from the oldest to the youngest.

We went on this this trip in May, 2023. They gave us three choices: one was to stay on top and just walk around. I can't remember the second choice but do remember the third one and the group leader mentioned it was a difficult hike. I don't know why I decided to join the difficult one at my age but I walked my neighborhood which is all hills up and down four miles about five times a week. I was very lucky as one man ahead of me really helped and my husband was at the back and also had to help me. I should not have gone on this hike. There was one lady in the group that should have stayed on top due to the extra large steps and she was very heavy and had an extremely difficult time.

You won’t be walking straight up and down - we walked down some, through some ruins, and then up or down other steps. But unless you want to, you won’t be doing a full long flight at once as seen in the photo. There are smaller flights around the stones so it’s fine if you take your time. Some people found it a bit tricky but for the most part, everyone did fine. We had no issues with the altitude. The locals suggested drinking coca tea in the AM and muna tea in the PM to ward off altitude sickness! 😊 Our TD gave us coca candy when we flew into Cuzco, which actually has a higher altitude than Machu Picchu.

Hi, JaneP!

If you zoom into the photo, you can see the steps. I didn’t think they were too steep but they are uneven and you’ll want the walking stick that Tauck provides. That helps a lot to navigate the old steps.