Curated Itinerary
Qhapaq Ñan: the Great Andean Road
Six anchors of the Qhapaq Ñan across Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina: temples, provincial capitals and frontier forts strung along the Inca royal road.
This itinerary follows the Qhapaq Ñan, the Andean road system of the Inca, inscribed by UNESCO in 2014 across six countries — the largest transnational listing ever attempted. Our route selects six archaeological anchors from north to south: Ingapirca in Ecuador, Huánuco Pampa, Vilcashuamán and Raqch’i in Peru, Incallajta in Bolivia, and the Pucará de Tilcara in Argentina.
The order is the road’s own: each site is a node the royal road was built to connect — a temple showcase, a provincial capital, a garrison at a junction, a sanctuary, a frontier fortress, a hilltop watchpost. Walked or driven, the sequence reads as the empire intended: administration by distance.
Treat each country as its own chapter. Acclimatise before the high sites, travel in the May–September dry season, and wherever a walkable stretch of original road survives near a stop, take it — the paving underfoot is the monument.
Before you go
A word from your host
You will not walk the whole thing — nobody has since the sixteenth century. Pick a country, pick two or three anchors, and hike the surviving road sections between villages. The stonework underfoot is original, and that is the point.
Getting around
Each cluster has its own base: Cuenca for Ingapirca, Cusco for Raqch'i, Ayacucho for Vilcashuamán, Cochabamba for Incallajta, Salta or Jujuy for Tilcara. Most sites sit above 2,500 metres — plan acclimatisation days.
Step by step
Download for tour navigation
GPX for Garmin / Komoot / OsmAnd. KML for Google Earth and Maps.