Andean Explorer: Rail Travel from Cusco to Lake Titicaca

Between Cusco and Lake Titicaca lies one of the great railway journeys of the Andes: around 385 kilometres of track that climbs out of the valleys of the old Inca heartland, crosses a pass at over 4,300 metres, and runs for hours across the open, treeless plateau of the Altiplano to the shore of the lake. For many years the day train on this line was known as the Andean Explorer, and the name has stayed in travellers’ minds. On Day 13 of our South American Small Group History and Culture Tour, the group makes this journey from Cusco to Puno, a full day that turns the distance between two cultural regions into something you can see.

What is the Andean Explorer train in Peru?

The name has belonged to two different trains, which can be confusing. Until around 2017, the Andean Explorer was the scheduled day train between Cusco and Puno, operated by PeruRail. That service still runs, now under the name PeruRail Titicaca, with the same style of 1920s Pullman-inspired carriages. The Andean Explorer name passed to a new luxury sleeper train, the Belmond Andean Explorer, launched in 2017 with carriages that once ran in Australia as the Great South Pacific Express. The Belmond train runs multi-night journeys through southern Peru rather than a simple day crossing.

The tour uses the day train. It runs three times a week in each direction and takes about ten and a half hours. Its six carriages include dining cars and a bar car with an open-air observation platform at the rear. Lunch and afternoon tea are served on board, with live music and dances from the Cusco and Puno regions along the way.

Why the rail corridor matters

The line is part of the Southern Railway of Peru, one of the most ambitious engineering projects of nineteenth-century South America. Built under concessions held by the American contractor Henry Meiggs, the railway first linked the Pacific port region and Arequipa with Puno, reaching the lake in 1876. The branch from Juliaca to Cusco took far longer; begun in 1872, it was completed only in 1908. It is a standard-gauge line, unlike the narrower track that runs from Cusco to Machu Picchu.

The railway was built to move people and goods between the highlands, the coast and, by way of the lake, Bolivia. At Puno it met steamers on Lake Titicaca. The oldest, the Yavari, was built in Britain in 1862, carried over the mountains in pieces by mule and launched on the lake in 1870; it survives as a museum ship in Puno Bay. The railway was later run by the British-owned Peruvian Corporation, then by the Peruvian state, and was privatised in 1999, when PeruRail began operating it.

Reading the Altiplano from a train

The pace of a train suits this landscape. Leaving Cusco, the line follows farmed valleys of small fields, eucalyptus groves and adobe villages, then climbs steadily for about 160 kilometres. As it rises, trees disappear, and the land opens into the high grassland of the puna. From the observation car you watch the transition happen: the valley closes behind you and the horizon widens.

The highest point is the pass at La Raya, at about 4,300 metres, where the train makes its only scheduled stop, for around ten minutes. Snow-capped peaks rise directly above the pass, and local vendors set up a small craft market beside the track. Then the line begins its long, gradual descent across the Altiplano towards the Titicaca basin.

Landscape, settlement and highland scale

What the train shows above all is scale. The Altiplano is a vast, high plain between ranges of the Andes, and from the window it seems to go on for hours. The line passes through small highland towns, some with old stations now closed.

One of these is Pucará, a name that recalls one of the earliest complex societies of the Titicaca basin. The Pukara culture flourished on the north-western side of the lake many centuries before the Incas, and its distinctive pottery was at its height roughly between 200 BC and AD 200. Pukara preceded Tiwanaku, the great ceremonial city the tour visits in Bolivia a few days later, which later adopted elements of its architecture.

Towards the end of the day the train reaches Juliaca, the main commercial city of the region and the junction for the line to Arequipa. Here the railway runs through the middle of a street market, whose stalls are cleared back to let the train pass, a scene that reminds you the line is still part of everyday life. From Juliaca it is a short run on to Puno.

Rail heritage without the luxury-review frame

It is easy to describe this journey as a luxury experience, and the carriages, with their armchairs, white tablecloths and dark wood panelling, encourage it. But the real interest lies elsewhere. This is a railway built in the age of steam to tie the Peruvian highlands to the coast and the wider world. Riding it today, you trace the economic history of southern Peru as well as its geography, and see how far apart Cusco and Lake Titicaca really are.

How long is the train from Cusco to Puno, and is it tiring?

The journey takes about ten and a half hours, a full day. It is comfortable rather than strenuous: you can move between your seat, the dining car and the observation car, and meals are served on board. The main challenge is altitude. The train leaves Cusco at about 3,350 metres and climbs to around 4,300 metres at La Raya before descending to Puno at about 3,830 metres. By this point the group has spent several days in Cusco and the Sacred Valley, which helps, but drink plenty of water and move slowly when you get off at the pass.

Is the Cusco to Puno railway running normally?

Not always. In August 2026, landslides closed a short section of the line, and PeruRail began running the service as a combination of bus and train, with passengers transferring partway along the route until it was safe to reopen. Trains on the line were also suspended during protests in southern Peru in early 2023. Services can change at short notice, so the arrangements for this day are confirmed close to departure; our Tour Specialists can tell you the latest.

Arrival at Lake Titicaca and the next cultural cluster

The train arrives in Puno in the evening, after a day that began among the colonial churches and Inca walls of Cusco, including the Qoricancha, the Inca temple of the Sun. The next morning the group visits the Uros floating islands, built from totora reed, and in the afternoon the stone burial towers of Sillustani. The day after, it crosses into Bolivia. The railway, in other words, is the hinge between the Inca world of the Cusco region and the older cultures of the Titicaca basin.

Our overview of the South America cultural tour route shows how this rail journey fits into the wider route through five countries. On the South American Small Group History and Culture Tour, a Program Leader and local guides bring that history to life for a small group of up to 16 travellers.