Stick to a road less traveled if you prefer culture over crowds during an Andean hike. The Lares Trail is a good alternative to the Inca Trail or Salkantay Trail. It doesn’t end up at Machu Picchu but instead passes by villages full of weavers and craftspeople of the Sacred Valley. The itinerary is not standardized and can take between three and five days, with spectacular mountain views each day and a window into how the locals live, work and farm day to day. Between villages, the path winds by fields of barley and quinoa, llamas helpfully placing themselves in the path for perfect photo ops. Beginning in late 2014, Mountain Lodges of Peru will officially open places to stay on this route, too, offering comfortable lodges as base camps in areas where they were difficult to come by before.