Rio Sagrado, A Belmond Hotel, Sacred Valley sits at the heart of the Incas' Sacred Valley in Peru, right on the bank of the Urubamba River, which gives the hotel its name: in Quechua it means Sacred River. This is Belmond's most Andean property, about an hour to ninety minutes from Cusco airport, and its lower altitude makes it an ideal place to acclimatize before the climb to Machu Picchu. The whole hotel is built to resemble a traditional Andean village, its stone-and-timber casitas scattered through riverside gardens and shaped to merge with the valley. There are 21 rooms and suites, plus two villas, each with three bedrooms, its own living and dining rooms, and a kitchen, sleeping up to six. Interiors are dressed in alpaca wool and bright local color, each with a private terrace and floor-to-ceiling windows, beds angled toward the valley, and no television, so only the river and the wind keep you company. On arrival, a doorman sounds a conch shell, the pututu once used to welcome Inca royalty.
At Rio Sagrado, the valley sets the pace. Step out of your casita in the morning and the resort's baby alpacas greet you on the lawn; feeding them, at eight and four, is the softest memory many guests carry home. The Mayu Willka Spa, Sacred River again in Quechua, draws only on Andean herbs, minerals, and botanicals, with two warm pools, one indoors and one on a deck above the river. Dining turns on Inca superfoods and produce from the hotel's own garden, and El Huerto serves trout from the Urubamba and highland ingredients passed down for generations. You can ride through the villages, raft the river, or begin morning yoga with a shaman's tribute to Pachamama, Mother Earth. Best of all, the hotel has its own private station, and from January to April the legendary Hiram Bingham train departs the grounds directly for Machu Picchu. This is a place for those who want to slow down and draw close to the land.