Choquequirao: The alternative Machu Picchu

Looking for the lost city of the Incas? Turn your back on Machu Picchu, drive 100 miles over the mountain, and lace your boots for an assault on the “Cradle of Gold”.

Never discovered by the conquistadors, Choquequirao was the very last refuge of the “Sons of the Sun”, a spectacular citadel tiptoeing along a skinny ridge 5,000ft above the Apurimac gorge.

Getting here is quite a trip: a testing two-day mule trek through frothing canyons and virgin cloudforest. But that’s exactly why fewer than 10,000 visitors clap eyes on Choquequirao each year — about 1% of those who swarm all over its celebrated sister. And what a reward: a rambling complex of mansions, temples and terraces, still only 30% excavated, and spiking straight up out of the jungle.

The 5 most over-rated tourist sites

A new book laments over-rated ancient and historical sites and suggests some alternatives to savour

• Your view: the world's most over-rated tourist sites

• Alternatives to the world's worst tourist traps

Alternatives to the world's worst tourist traps

Why endure crowds in Eypgt when you can have pyramids all to yourself in Sudan? Six alternatives to the tourist traps

50 inspirational travel adventures

From huskie sledding, motorcycle riding to white river rafting, we bring you the top 50 adventures from across the globe

Related Links

• The 5 most over-rated tourist sites

Do it: go quick, before the Peruvians get round to building a proposed cable-car link up the mountain. April to October is best, the Andean dry season, and the reliable local outfit SAS Travel (sastravelperu.com) offers guided five-day expeditions to Choquequirao from its base in Cuzco.

A few UK adventure companies offer group treks, including Wilderness Journeys (0131 625 6635, www.wilderness journeys.com), whose 12-night trip takes in both Choquequirao and Machu Picchu. Prices start at £1,195, and the next departures are on May 2, July 11 and October 10. Or try Last Frontiers (01296 653000, lastfrontiers.com).

Wat Phou: The alternative Angkor Wat

We’re not going to pretend it’s remotely the size of Angkor Wat, but this Laotian outpost of the Khmer god-kings trounces Angkor every time for mythic atmosphere — and it’s 100 years older, by the way.

Crumbling charismatically under sacred Phu Khuai (Mount Penis), within strolling distance of the Mekong, Wat Phou has been a temple site since the 5th century. What survives is a mile-long masterpiece of stairways, shrines and stupa, just about held together by tree roots.

It is reassuringly tricky to get to, so the tour parties come in sprinkles not spades, leaving you free to maraud Tomb Raider-style among the ruins. Spiritually speaking, it’s all a million miles from the motos and megaphones of Angkor, and you’ll never forget the view back across the Mekong, taking in the serpent-staked causeway and the baptism ponds where buffalo now bathe.

Do it: the gateway town is Pakse, 30 miles upriver, served by flights from Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Vientiane, Laos’s capital.Catch a bus from there to sleepy Champasack, in tuk-tuk range of the ruins. Or arrive in style on a two-night Mekong cruise from Pakse with Asian Oasis (asian-oasis.com), taking in Wat Phou and the super-chilled “Four Thousand Islands” of Si Phan Don: from £271.

Explore’s 18-day group tour of back-country Laos visits the site; departing on February 20 and April 3, it starts from £1,899 (0844 499 0901, explore.co.uk). Or try Kumuka Worldwide (0800 929595, www.kumuka.com).

Times recommends

• The 10 best bits of travel gear
• Soho's classy, cheap new townhouse
• Germany's perfect Christmas city