Museo Larco

Museo Larco is the place in Lima to get a grip on the thousands of years of Peruvian history before the Inca and the Spanish. It opened to the public on 28 July 1926 as the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. The collection began when Rafael Larco Herrera bought around 600 ceramic pieces from his brother-in-law, Alfredo Hoyle, in 1925, and it was his son, Rafael Larco Hoyle, who turned it into a museum and kept adding to it, including 8,000 pieces from one collection and 6,000 from another. The first displays were in a small house on the family's Chiclín estate on the north coast; today the museum fills an 18th-century viceroyal building in Pueblo Libre.

The permanent exhibition is organised around the Andean view of the world rather than as a simple timeline, which makes it a good introduction before you travel on to Cusco or the north coast. The Gold and Silver Gallery holds jewellery worn by rulers of ancient Peru, including crowns, earrings and masks. One of the most unusual parts of the visit is the visible storage, where you can walk between shelves holding some 30,000 catalogued ancient pottery pieces. The separate Erotic Gallery, devoted to pre-Columbian erotic art, is the museum's best-known room and is worth seeing with an open mind; families may want to decide in advance whether to include it.

The building sits in gardens, and the museum runs a café-restaurant on site, so it is easy to make a half-day of it with lunch. There is also a gallery shop selling reproductions. The museum has published information for visitors with special needs and on accessibility, which is worth reading before you go.

Museo Larco is open every day of the year from 09:00 to 19:00, with shorter hours (to 18:00) on Christmas and New Year dates. Buying tickets online in advance gives a discount and preferential access, although the online shop is only in Spanish; you can also buy at the door. Note that the street address is Avenida Simón Bolívar but the entrance is on Navarra Street.

Pueblo Libre is a residential district between the historic centre and Miraflores, so most visitors arrive by taxi or ride-hailing app. Allow at least two hours for the galleries and storage. Pueblo Libre is also home to the historic Antigua Taberna Queirolo and a café of the Origen coffee roasters, so it is easy to turn a visit into a full day in the district.