Visiting The Famous Rainbow Mountain of Peru

Locally known as Vinicunca, most international travellers know it better as the Rainbow Mountain. This impressive mountain is no longer Peru´s best kept secret, hidden in the Andes, it has become almost as famous as the magnificent Machu Picchu, and today, it’s becoming one of the top activities to do in Cusco. You will have seen a million pictures of Rainbow Mountain on Instagram and, if you’re already in Cusco, its unmistakable stripes of red, yellow, and orange will now be a popular sight all over the city’s travel agencies and hostels. This remarkable stripey mountain is also known as Vinicunca, Winikunka, Montaña de Siete Colores, and Montaña de Colores, and has exploded in popularity in the last few years and is now well on its way to becoming the second most visited attraction in all of Peru, after the Machu Picchu trip. Me sure your trip to Peru includes a visit to the incredible Rainbow Mountain!

What to Expect

Travelers should be physically prepared to climb to 5200m in elevation which can be a difficult task for inexperienced hikers who are short on time and who have not acclimatized properly. It is recommended travellers take longer tours to acclimatize and to also visit other destinations like the Ausangate mountain, local communities, and to take a moment to appreciate the wildlife to get the best out of your trip to Peru. Make sure that you spend at least a couple of days acclimatizing in Cusco if you do plan to do this trip in one day.

The higher elevation also means much colder temperatures, so be prepared. If you decide to take a one-day tour, make sure to wear very warm clothes. Also take coca leaves to fight off altitude sickness and pack lightly to ease the hike. There is also a chance that you’ll meet many groups of tourists by the time you arrive at the mountain, which can be some time before noon. This one -day excursion will have you back in Cusco just in time for dinner at around 6:00 pm.

You Take A Tour From Cusco

Previously, most tours to Rainbow Mountain involved a long early morning bus ride from Cusco and then 15-kilometer round-trip. However, with a bumpy new road now carved into the hillside, specifically for tour buses, the actual ‘hiking’ portion is now a much shorter round-trip distance of about 7 km. However, the early morning bus ride remains! Although some tours may leave earlier or later, the standard day trip to Rainbow Mountain on your Peru vacations, will involve the following:

General itinerary

Hotel pick-up between 4 a.m. – 5 a.m.
Drive for two hours
Breakfast stop for 30-45 mins
Drive for 1.5 hours to Rainbow Mountain car park
Walk along trail to the mirador / viewpoint (1.5 – 2 hours)
Stay at viewpoint for 30 minutes
Walk the trail back to tour bus (1 hour)
Drive for 1.5 hours to a lunch stop
Drive back to Cusco.

As you can see, it’s a long day with most of the time spent driving to and from the mountain, during which you can appreciate some stunning Peruvian countryside. Tours on some travel packages to Peru, leave earlier in the morning but are less common, will provide you with the best opportunity to skip the enormous crowds that accumulate later in the day. Unless you have your own transport, it really is not worth trying to do Rainbow Mountain independently as the transport connections required are too few and too unreliable and will work out more expensive for it to make any sense.

Practical Information

The Rainbow Mountain is located in the Vilcanota range, also home to the majestic sacred mountain, Apu Ausangate. The minerals in the Rainbow Mountain caused the sandstones to acquire a red rust-like colour that contrasts the yellow, dep red and turquoise stripes, caused by the presence of other minerals combining with the extreme weather conditions. A true geological wonder! Rainbow Mountain was once covered in glaciers that melted due to global warming, thus its recent touristic discovery.

Getting to the top of the Rainbow Mountain involves a steep hike that are extremely challenging for individuals who are not fully acclimatized to the altitude. It’s recommended that you spend at least a couple of days in Cusco prior to the Rainbow Mountain visit. Tours leave Cusco really early by bus at 5 AM and arrives 3 hours later to the town of Quesiuno situated at the bottom of the mountain. From here you will hike for five hours with a lunch stop along the way. It sounds easy, but it’s actually so difficult due to the high elevation and local people rent horses to take you and your equipment up the mountain.

Do One day tour or Do The combined Ausangate and rainbow Mountain ?

Private Peru adventure treks can also take six days because, aside from visiting the Rainbow Mountain, you get to hike around the Ausangate Mountain, one of the Incas’ most sacred mountains. In those six days of the Ausangate trek, you can see ice caverns, the mountain’s glaciers, lesser-visited Andean landscapes and crystal-clear lagoons. You also get to experience the life of the native people who are llama herders, visit ancient hot springs and see animals such as condors, foxes and vicuñas. Whether you choose the full day trip to the rainbow mountain or the six-day adventure, visiting the Ausangate mountain range, you will be visiting a cosmic Andean world, mostly unexplored that will be an incredible addition to anyone’s Peru trip and trekking itinerary in the Cusco region.