You are advised to book the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu as early as possible (6 months in the high season from April to August), due to limited availability of trekking permits. Permits cannot be changed or transferred so once they are sold out for a particular date, there is no way to obtain them (even if one person in your party cancels, their permit cannot be used by someone else).
The Peruvian Government issues 500 permits per day for the Inca Trail (except in February when it is closed for maintenance). These permits usually go on sale in early January for the whole year. For example, if you book your Inca Trail in September for June the following year, we will buy your permit when they go on sale in January. In this example from September to January your booking would be “On Request” status as it is impossible for us to confirm the booking until we have obtained your permit.
If permits are on sale for your chosen date at the time of booking, your booking status will be “On Request” from the time we receive your deposit until we obtain your permit (usually less than 2 working days).
We will change the status to “Confirmed” and send you an updated Booking Confirmation as soon as we obtain your Inca Trail permit.
Whether or not permits have yet gone on sale for your planned departure date, we will always ask you to approve a back-up departure date for your trek. This means that if your first choice date sells out before we are able to obtain your permit, we can immediately get you a permit for your back-up date, instead of contacting you to check and potentially missing out on permits for your back-up date too. In the unlikely event that we are unable to obtain a permit for your first choice or back-up dates we will offer you the choice of a full refund, or an alternative trek to Machu Picchu.