We are fresh from the most expensive, most touristy, and most impressive site I'll be visiting in my travels this trip and I can't say enough how important it is that everyone visit Machu Picchu at some point soon.
I'm aware that I sound like a broken record, the same album played by the Peruvian-born, San Francisco-raised woman bringing her son along on her sixth trip there, but Machu Picchu is becoming more official, more expensive, more built up every year and while it will only help the preservation of the town, it continues to lose the magic. I loved it, but I am very much in-tune with the fact that I took a train for over $100, a bus up a hill with 50 other foreigners, and followed arrows around a rocky hillside for 10 hours in order to feel that my $50 entry was well-spent.
What I mean to say by all this realism is this: amazing sites are expensive, can be busy, and likely will continue to be limiting in the freedom they allow travelers, but they are popular for a reason. Machu Picchu is an incredible demonstration of the history of this amazing region, of the agricultural research and feats of engineering of the Inka times. It's a must-see for anyone interested in history, nature, rocks, or the most amazing places in the world.
There are so many llamas to feed bananas to and adorable chinchillas pooping on the rocks. And despite the lack of bathrooms inside the site, it also has some really great nooks that I would have loved to use as a bathroom, so I recommend not doing the visit with my mum.
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