What a Rainbow Mountain ATV tour costs, line by line
Pricing for Rainbow Mountain is quietly one of the murkiest things in Cusco. The same mountain is advertised at $25 on a sandwich board on the Plaza de Armas and at $200 in a hotel lobby, and almost nobody tells you which parts of the day are in the number.
This page is our full rate card with nothing taken out. The figures below are what we charge, what they include, and the one cost you will hand over in cash on the day.
The short version
Three numbers cover the whole product.
| What you book | Who rides | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Quad for one | One rider on the machine | $65 per machine |
| Quad for two | Two riders share the machine | $120 per machine — $60 each |
| Private service | Your group only, any layout | $260 per person |
All figures in US dollars. Entrance fees are paid separately at the gate — see below.
Why the price is per machine
Most Cusco day tours are priced per head, because what you are buying is a seat in a van. Here you are renting a vehicle, and the cost of putting one quad on that mountain — fuel, maintenance, helmets, safety gear, the guide who can supervise it — does not change with how many people are sitting on it.
Pricing per machine is also the only way to let you make the choice honestly. Two travelers can share one quad for $120, or take one each for $130. The first is cheaper; the second means you both get your own throttle. We show you both rather than quietly defaulting you to the dearer one.
A party of any size is just a pile of machines
There is no minimum. One traveler takes one quad. Five travelers might take three singles and one double. The booking form lets you build any combination and prices it live.
What the rate covers
Everything below is in the price above, on every departure, with no upgrade tier.
- Hotel pickup and drop-off anywhere in central Cusco, in a private tourist van.
- Round-trip transport Cusco – Cusipata, roughly three hours each way.
- Your quad bike, single or double as you chose, with helmet, gloves and safety equipment.
- The 20-minute safety briefing and a practice loop on flat ground before you leave.
- A professional bilingual guide riding with the group, plus support behind it.
- Breakfast and lunch in Cusipata, vegetarian on request.
- First-aid kit and oxygen, carried on every departure.
What it does not cover
One real cost sits outside the price, and we would rather you read it here than discover it at the gate.
Entrance fees: 30 soles per person, cash, on the day
Vinicunca and the Red Valley are owned and ticketed by the communities of Pampachiri and Chillihuani, not by us. They set the tariff and they change it without notice. You pay 30 soles per person in cash at the gate — roughly $8, covering both viewpoints. Bring it in soles; the gate takes nothing else.
The rest of the exclusions are the ordinary ones.
- Travel insurance. We strongly recommend it and we do not sell it.
- Tips for the guide and the ATV team — customary, entirely optional.
- Dinner, accommodation, and anything not on the itinerary.
- Souvenirs, alpaca photographs and personal spending.
Why there is no group discount
We get asked this every week, so here is the straight answer: ten travelers cost us ten travelers’ worth of machines, fuel, meals and guide attention. There is no economy of scale to pass on, so there is no discount to give.
What we will not do is inflate the published rate so that a “group discount” can be subtracted from it later. The number on this page is the number, whether you are one person or fourteen. If you want the arithmetic: a group of ten on five two-up machines is $600; the same ten on ten separate machines is $650. Mix freely.
Above 14 travelers we cannot put you on one departure — that is a safety cap, not a sales one — so message us and we will run a second one.
See your exact total before you decide
The booking form prices every combination of machines live, with the 20% deposit shown next to the total.
From $60 per person
Check availability Ask on WhatsAppHow this compares with the walking tour
The trekking version of this day is genuinely cheaper, and it should be: it is a van, a guide and a trail, with no vehicle to rent per person. If budget is the only variable, take the trek.
What the extra buys is the five-minute walk instead of the three-hour climb, the Red Valley in the same day without a second ticket, and arriving at the top with enough energy to look at it. Whether that is worth the difference is a real question, and we wrote a whole piece on it rather than answering it in one line here.
What you actually pay today
You do not pay the full amount up front. A 20% deposit holds the date and the machines; the balance is cash in Cusco on the day we collect you. On a two-up quad that is $24 today and the rest later.
Card data goes straight from your browser to Izipay, a Peruvian PCI-DSS Level 1 processor — we never see it, store it, or ask for it over WhatsApp. If anyone ever asks you for card details in a chat, it is not us.
Cancelling 30 or more days ahead costs you nothing at all.
Questions travelers ask us
Is the price per person or per quad?
Per quad, on the shared departure: $65 for a machine with one rider, $120 for a machine carrying two. The private service is the exception — that one is priced per person at $260.
What is the cheapest way for two people to do this?
Share one machine: $120 in total, which is $60 each. Taking one each costs $130. The difference buys you your own throttle, which some couples want and some do not.
Do children pay a different rate?
There is no child rate, because the price follows the machine rather than the person. A parent riding with a child books one quad for two at $120. Message us with their age before booking so we can tell you honestly whether the day suits them.
Can I pay the whole thing in cash in Cusco?
No. The 20% deposit has to be paid online to hold the machines, because a date held with nothing behind it is a machine that sat idle. The remaining 80% is cash on the day, in soles or US dollars.
Are there hidden booking fees?
No. There is no booking fee, no card surcharge and no fuel supplement. The only money you spend beyond the quoted total is the 30-sol community entrance fee, which is stated on this page, on the home page and on the booking form.
