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Quebrada de Humahuaca and Purmamarca

Name: Quebrada de Humahuaca and Purmamarca
Brand: Tangol
SKU: 5674SLAHUMA
Price: 80.73 USD
Rating: 4.0 (71 reviews)

Salta, Argentina

Quebrada de Humahuaca Day Trip from Salta Including Purmamarca

12 hours
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Discover the unusual landscape of Quebrada de Humahuaca on this full-day excursion from Salta. Travel along an ancient Incan route through multicolored canyons to this gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Stop at small indigenous villages like Humahuaca, Purmamarca and Tilcara to view historical adobe churches and ruins. Visit San Salvador de Jujuy, a small city situated among the wooded lowlands, before returning to Salta on Route 9.

Full-day tour of the Quebrada de Humahuaca
Visit Purmamarca, Tilcara and Humahuaca, and learn about indigenous cultures
See the Cathedral of San Salvador de Jujuy and Flag’s Hall
Round-trip transport from most Salta hotels included

What's Included

Hotel pickup and drop-off
Professional guide
Air-conditioned vehicle

Food and drinks
Gratuities
Entrance fee to Tilcara Ruins

Meeting and Pickup

You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup

Meeting point

Salta, Salta, Province of Salta, Northern Argentina
The pick up transfer is only from selected centrally located hotels.

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Start time

07:00 AM

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Pickup details

The pick up transfer is only from selected centrally located hotels. If your hotel is outside the geographic area, we will confirm you the closest meeting point. Indicate the name and address of your hotel.

What To Expect

After pickup at your hotel in Salta, board your comfortable coach for the scenic drive to the 95-mile-long (155-km) valley of Quebrada de Humahuaca. Through your guide's commentary, learn about how the Incas once used this gorge as a caravan road and later as a commercial route during the colonial period.

Arrive in Purmamarca to see Cerro de los Siete Colores (Seven Colors Hill,) a large natural formation looming over the town. Stroll through the streets of the small village, visiting the cacti-covered church and perusing handicrafts at the local market.

Continue toward Tilcara, where you will visit the archaeological museum and the town square. First, stop at a scenic viewpoint on the way into town to see some pre-Incan ruins. Pass through Huacalera, admire the colorful La Pollera de la Coya, and see paintings dating from the 1600s in Uquía.

Stop in Humahuaca, the most densely populated city in the area, for a stroll midday. See the Monument of Independence, the local cathedral, and admire paintings from the Cuzco School. Enjoy lunch at your own expense.

Heading back toward Salta, you'll pass La Paleta del Pintor (Painter's Palette) and stop in San Salvador de Jujuy. Visit the town's cathedral and the French Baroque–style Flag's Hall before moving on to the Government House.

Continue south on winding Route 9, which provides stunning views of local vegetation, the Santa Laura Pass, Campo Alegre and Vaqueros. Arrive back in Salta after your day-long adventure for hotel drop-off.

Salta (Pass By)

Quebrada de Humahuaca

2 hours • Admission Ticket Free

Purmamarca

1 hour • Admission Ticket Free

Cerro de los Siete Colores

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Pucara de Tilcara

1 hour • Admission Ticket Free

Huacalera

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Tropic of Capricorn - Sundial (Pass By)

Cerro Pollera de la Coya

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Uquia

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Humahuaca

2 hours • Admission Ticket Free

Las Paletas Del Pintor

1 hour • Admission Ticket Free

Dique La Cienaga (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
It is recommended that you wear comfortable clothes and shoes and bring a jacket/sweater and sunscreen
You may bring your own food and drinks

Not wheelchair accessible
Most travelers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 30 travelers

Operated by Tangol

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Anne_H

This tour os a great way to explore the magic of Quebrada de Humahuaca and Purmamarca! Our tour guide. who spoke both Spanish and Eng;ish, was friendly and shared a wealth of information about the history of the towns and landscape. The small van was comfortable.

Reviews

4.0

71 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-10 of 71 reviews

Brilliant scenery

Hayfa_A, Mar 2024

Brilliant landscape and scenery, good guide but could explain more in English. The guide and driver were friendly and helpful

Good Service

Wilson_F, Mar 2023

The guide has done a very good job and the driver was considerate. I was the only English speaker in the tour and the guide arranged me to sit next to her for easy communication. During lunch, she came to assist me in ordering food. She also stop at a location for me to take a few photos upon my request. Overall it was a good service.

A 15 hour tour waiting for other groups to be done!

Gustavo_M, Feb 2023

This tour runs 3 different tours in one coach. Most unfortunately, the Viator tour is the shorter of the three, so you simply have to wait until the other two tours are finished. Over four hours wait in Humahuaca while part of the group visits other sites, or, of couse, if you do want to be left waiting you way an extra USD23 to join the others! The tour also went twice into the town of Purmamarca to collect and/or deliver other passengers but the scheduled visit never happened. Briefly if you buy this tour you are getting a pig in a poke.

Fantastic and Informative Tour

Anne_H, Jan 2023

Great place bad company.

Fabian_L, Oct 2022

Van broke down and we waited over 2 hours for a replacement. Company provided not real time of replacement arrival. Very bad communication. Would had like to spend more time in Purmamarca and no time in the others. Viator charged me in USD and Arg taxes applied 70% extra in taxes even though we paid deposit in ARS with ARS debit card. No response from company they washed their hands. Do not use Viator and look for local provider.

Not value for its price

Elena_A, Feb 2020

We took 4 tours from Salta and this one was the most boring (and expensive!). No stops at view points, no photo-stops except of towns, very poor and lazy translation into English (like 20% of all the info that guide told in Spanish).

Response from Host, Jul 2020

Dear Elena Avrutina, We are very sorry that the excursion did not meet all your expectations. For the regular tours we have specific areas where the bus stop and guides explains the most important and relevant points. The guide who made the excursion is graduated and has received intensive training in our tours.However, we take this feedback and forward it to the guide as an opportunity to improve our services. We hope you enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of Salta and Jujuy. We hope to have you back so that you can enjoy the quality of our services and thus reverse your opinion. We appreciate your comments as they help us to improve our services. Kind regards.

Trip was OK, but waaay too long pick-up time, very unnecessary

kate, Feb 2020

There was one important point which made the trip not that appealing: it is lack of organization while picking up the guests from the hotels. We were informed to be ready outside the hotel at 7:00 a.m. (not from... to..., but exactly at that time) as the bus will come to pick us up. We ended-up waiting 45 minutes for the bus. We thought something happened, started even calling the main agency in Buenos Aires. Others said they wasted 1.5 hour waiting for the bus to come, althought it was not that early in the morning. It is very easy to estimate the pickup time and just update the guests, so they do not need to wait so long. So we were picked-up the last and then we were dropped to the hotel also last. In consequence we spend 1.5 hour in total for extra pick-up / drop-off time. Very unefficiently organized.

Response from Host, Jul 2020

Dear Kate! We're sorry to hear that the pick up/drop off took so long. As it is a regular transfer, there are other passengers who are taking the same vehicle. For this reason, passengers must wait at the hotel reception. In case you need a specific pick-up time, we have private transfer services. Our first voucher indicates an estimated pick up time, but then we send through the web site an approximate schedule. We apologize if it wasn't clear enough. Despite your disappointment, we hope you enjoyed the experience. Thank you for taking the time to write a review, it helps us to improve our services. Kind regards!

Good day out

Allan_P, Nov 2019

A long day but well worth it. We booked with viator and the travel company was Uma travel. Our guide Maria made all the difference. She was so much fun and made sure English speaking guests were involved as much as spanish. Good driver. Highly recommended for colourful hills and markets.

Excellent guide, bad food

katieesims, Nov 2019

Really enjoyed the tour guide! However there were too many rushed visits. Also the food at the restaurant was not great, if you book this tour then eat somewhere else than the recommended restaurant.

Response from Host, Jul 2020

Dear Katie We are pleased to know that you enjoyed the knowledge of our guide. About the food, we recommend places where you can have a quality lunch during the tour, we regret that it did not meet your expectations, and we will send your comments to improve the services and recommendations. We really appreciate your time to write this review! Will be a pleasure to assist you in your next visit! Kind regards!

Terrible tour. Waste of time and money

robertQ508BR, Oct 2019

This tour booked by me from Canada through Viator that was operated by Tangol tours out of Salta was terrible. Our guide only spoke Spanish which meant we had no way of understanding any relevant information provided to the wholly Spanish speaking tourists with whom we were joined up. The restaurant that we were herded into in Humahmarca was horrible. The food was terrible and I was served uncooked chicken. Lunch was not included in the tour price and we had to pay for the horrible meal. We would have done better finding our own restaurant of which there were many. Our tour returned to Salta 2 and 1/2 hours late due to a health issue with one passenger. If we had spoken Spanish there may have been some value to the tour.Overall a terrible experience. I wont be using Viator or Tangol in the future.

Response from Host, Jun 2020

Dear Robert Kallird, We are very sorry to hear about your disappointment. We would like to apologise for what happened. Our reservation team in Salta did a mistake when they were confirming the language guide. We sincerely understand your position. Unfortunately, we had not been notified of the mistake so we could change the vehicle and guide immediatly. We hope that you will have the opportunity to visit us at another time so that you can reverse your opinion of our company. We appreciate your comments as it helps us to improve the quality of our services. Kind regards, Tangol Travel Agency

Interesting and organised tour

James_A, Aug 2019

Overall an enjoyable tour, there are lots of varied stops packed in and they are organised so you stop at the areas one one side of the valley out and the other side on the return to get the best from the sunshine. The tour was billed as in English but was mainly Spanish speakers. It felt like most was translated reasonably faithfully. Time on the minibus was worth it overall even though the return leg felt quite long.

We really enjoyed this tour : it was...

mark_l, Apr 2018

We really enjoyed this tour : it was well organised and rythemed with many stops which was important considering it was a full 12 hour tour ! Only qualm really was the last leg of the drive back where we lost a lot of time in traffic dropping off people in San Salvador de Jujuy Beautiful landscapes : strongly recommended!

The tour was to some really good...

Darryl S, Jul 2017

The tour was to some really good locations and the town markets were good and cheap compared with Salta and BA. The day was well timed for most of the day but we missed some of the places that were advertised in the afternoon returning to Salta. We booked to be with an English speaking tour but were on a bus full of Spanish people. The guide spoke really good English but by the time she told all about things in Spanish we were past some things before she got to the English translation. The highlight of the day for me was the rock formations and the people but my family it was the markets. We speak a little Spanish so we had a great day.

The tour guide was an amazing...

Glen P, Jun 2017

The tour guide was an amazing character, the locations were fantastic and, despite being all crammed into one long day it was an emotional experience of local culture that I am never going to forget. Totally recommended! Picked up and dropped off at your hotel, all you need to do is pay and be available on the day and bring a little spending money for food.

The several pictouresque and...

Martin V, Feb 2017

The several pictouresque and historical places covered by this tour are so great Tilcara, Uquia, Paleta de los Pintores, as well as Purmamarca and Humahuaca and the tour guide NOEMI of UMA TRAVEL made a remarkable task being so kind. However, weak points in this your are that entrance fee for the Pucara de Tilcara botanical garden is not included in the tour fare and the fact that the lunch featuring local Jujuy food is not included either. To become outstanding this tour should cover both things: the entrance fee to Pucara de Tilcara botanical garden as well the lunch in El Fortin restaurant in Humahuaca.

Response from Host, Nov 2020

Dear Martin Thank you for sharing your experience with us The north of our country is one of those hidden treasures of South America. The colors, the climate, and the landscape are the memories that the traveler brings with him when he visits this part of the country. We are pleased to know that you enjoyed the knowledge of our guide. Your words make us very happy. Thank you for leaving us your comments about the food and the entrance to the botanical garden. Your suggestion helps us to get closer to the preferences of our customers. We look forward to hosting you on a future visit.

Excellent guide Amazing scenery in...

MARIE E, Nov 2016

Excellent guide Amazing scenery in this UNESCO world heritage site

We loved the tour - so many beautiful...

Valerie G, Sep 2016

We loved the tour - so many beautiful sights to see! Eva was a fantastic tour guide.

Great tour, knowledgeable guide...

Evangelos K, Mar 2016

Great tour, knowledgeable guide. Would've preferred to have spent a bit more time in the two main towns we visited but would certainly recommend this tour.

Good tour, but I was bored. There...

Sharit L D, Mar 2016

Good tour, but I was bored. There could have been more commentary on landscape, history and culture.

Response from Host, Jan 2021

Dear Sharit Thank you for your comments, The most attractive part of this tour are the landscapes of northern Argentina, our guides give space for passengers to enjoy the scenery. However, we appreciate that you have taken the time to write this review, we send your comments to the guides, so they can improve their services and the customer has a complete experience. We hope you have beautiful memories of your trip and allow us to assist you on your next visit.

Guide very friendly, good english...

Christian H, Nov 2015

Guide very friendly, good english explanations and a lot of information about the places and the history of the area

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