Attraction
Plaza Mayor de Lima
Lima's main square, laid out when Francisco Pizarro founded the city in 1535 and framed by the cathedral, the Government Palace and the Municipal Palace.
Peru packs desert coast, high Andes and Amazon rainforest into one country, and few destinations offer such a range of history and landscapes. Most trips begin in Lima, the capital, known for its colonial centre and its food. From there travellers head to Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, and to Lake Titicaca, shared with Bolivia and the largest lake in South America. The Amazon basin covers most of the country's territory. South of Lima, the desert oasis of Huacachina and the Ballestas Islands make popular trips, and north of the capital lie the archaeological sites of Caral. Peruvian cooking, which blends Indigenous, Spanish, African and Asian influences, is a highlight wherever you travel.
Attraction
Lima's main square, laid out when Francisco Pizarro founded the city in 1535 and framed by the cathedral, the Government Palace and the Municipal Palace.
Attraction
The great Inca complex on the hill above Cusco, famed for zigzag terrace walls of huge, precisely fitted stones and a plaza still used for Inti…
Attraction
A private museum of pre-Columbian Peruvian art in an 18th-century viceroyal building in Pueblo Libre, known for its gold and silver gallery, erotic ceramics and walk-through…
Attraction
The Inca Empire's most important temple, dedicated to the sun god Inti, with fine stone rooms surviving inside the Dominican church and convent of Santo Domingo.
Attraction
A 17th-century Franciscan church and convent in Lima's historic centre, visited for its Baroque facade, tiled cloister, old library and the catacombs beneath the church.
Attraction
The Renaissance cathedral on the north-east side of the Plaza de Armas, built on an Inca palace and filled with Cusco School paintings and carved altars.
Café
Jonathan Day's bakery-café, founded in 2011, known for naturally fermented loaves made with local flours and grains, served with Peruvian coffee on Avenida La Mar.
Café
A women-led specialty café in a restored colonial house near the Plaza de Armas, buying from women coffee growers and listed among the world's 100 best…
Café
The specialty coffee brand of champion barista Harry Neira, whose original café on Calle Enrique Palacios in Miraflores serves beans from Cusco and Cajamarca.
Café
A specialty coffee company that grew from a small cart in San Blas into an award-winning Cusco café and roaster, ranked 22nd among the world's best…
Café
A long-running San Blas café known for generous all-day breakfasts, huevos rancheros, pancakes, sandwiches and soups, with queues at busy times.
Café
A Barranco café and roastery from a coffee business founded in 1958, roasting Peruvian beans daily from regions such as San Ignacio, Satipo and Villa Rica.
Hotel
An 87-room luxury hotel on the Miraflores clifftop with Pacific views, a heated rooftop pool, a spa and the Tragaluz and Observatory restaurants.
Hotel
An all-suite Belmond hotel in a former palace and convent on Plazoleta Nazarenas, with oxygen-enriched suites, a heated outdoor pool and Pía León's Mauka.
Hotel
A former 16th-century monastery built on Inca foundations, with a baroque chapel, cloistered courtyards, Cusco School art and the Oqre restaurant.
Hotel
A five-star 1927 hotel in San Isidro, recognised as a national monument, with 83 rooms, art on loan from the Museo Pedro de Osma and the…
Hotel
A large luxury hotel in a 16th-century Augustinian convent near the Plaza de Armas, with oxygen-enriched rooms, a spa and its own small museum.
Hotel
A large luxury hotel on the Malecón de la Reserva in Miraflores with ocean views, a seasonal outdoor pool, a spa and restaurants including the JW…
Bar
Alonso Palomino and Gabriela León's cocktail bar, now in Barranco, ranked ninth on The World's 50 Best Bars 2026 for its seasonal journeys through Peruvian ingredients.
Bar
The flagship of a small group of pisco bars, near the Plaza de Armas, offering guided tastings of Peru's grape brandy, pisco sour sessions and inventive…
Bar
Peru's first folkloric institution, founded in 1924, staging a daily show of Cusco's traditional music and dances on Avenida El Sol.
Bar
A speakeasy hidden behind a working tailor's shop on Avenida La Mar in Miraflores, with live Latin music and cocktails inspired by Peru's ingredients and textiles.
Bar
The bar of the historic 1927 Country Club Lima Hotel, famous for its pisco sours and named Lima's best bar at the Summum awards in 2012,…
Bar
A long-running live music bar and cultural space on Calle Plateros, with nightly bands playing rock, reggae, Latin and Andean music and free entry.
Restaurant
Virgilio Martínez and Pía León's tasting-menu restaurant in Barranco, named the world's best restaurant in 2023, built around ingredients from Peru's coast, Andes and Amazon.
Restaurant
Virgilio Martínez's restaurant and research centre beside the Moray terraces, serving a lunch tasting menu of Andean ingredients at around 3,600 metres.
Restaurant
Mitsuharu Tsumura's Nikkei restaurant in Miraflores, ranked first on The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2025, serving a 12-course tasting menu that blends Peru and Japan.
Restaurant
Chef Pía León's restaurant inside Palacio Nazarenas, celebrating Peru's farmers and landscapes with native grains, trout, alpaca and Sacred Valley herbs.
Restaurant
Gastón Acurio's Cusco restaurant on Plaza Regocijo, reinterpreting regional dishes such as adobo, trout ceviche and alpaca, with an open kitchen and pisco bar.
Restaurant
Pía León's own restaurant in Barranco, opened in 2018 and ranked second in Latin America in 2025, known for bold, colourful cooking with native Peruvian ingredients.
Thing to do
The Inca citadel on a ridge above the Urubamba, about 80 km from Cusco, visited on one of three official circuits reached by train and bus…
Thing to do
A walk through Barranco centred on the wooden Bridge of Sighs, first opened in 1876, with the Bajada de Baños path leading beneath it down to…
Thing to do
A walk along the clifftop boardwalk of Miraflores to the Parque del Amor, opened in 1993, with Víctor Delfín's sculpture El Beso and mosaic walls of…
Thing to do
A striped mountain of coloured minerals at over 5,000 metres south-east of Cusco, reached on a long day trip with a short but very high-altitude walk.
Thing to do
Lima's Chinatown in Barrios Altos, centred on Calle Capón and Jirón Paruro, with its 1971 Chinese arch, community temples and the chifa restaurants it gave the…
Thing to do
Terraced salt ponds in a canyon below the village of Maras, fed by a salty spring and worked by local families since Inca times.
Tour operator
A Cusco-based adventure company running the Inca Trail, Salkantay, Lares and Rainbow Mountain trips, with ISO certifications and community projects since 2013.
Tour operator
A family-owned Lima tour company founded in 2011, offering city, food, bike and shanty-town tours with hotel pick-up and supporting a sister charity.
Tour operator
A Cusco trekking company with more than 20 years of Inca Trail experience, known for small groups and its porter welfare programme.
Tour operator
A Miraflores-based food tour company with more than 14 years of experience, running morning and afternoon Lima food tours, a cooking class and private tours.
Tour operator
A Lima sightseeing company with over 15 years of experience, running red panoramic bus tours from Miraflores to the historic centre, Costa Verde and Magic Water…
Tour operator
A Cusco operator specialising in the Salkantay route to Machu Picchu, with classic, premium and dome-camp versions plus Inca Trail and day trips.
Distances are large and the Andes make road journeys slow, so most visitors fly between Lima and regions such as Cusco and the Amazon, and use buses or tours for shorter trips along the coast.
It depends on the region. Lima's sunny season runs from December to April, while its winter months are grey but almost rainless; the Andes and the Amazon have their own climates, so check conditions for each region on your route.
Cusco and the Inca sites around it, Lake Titicaca, the Amazon rainforest, and the desert coast south of Lima with the Ballestas Islands and the Huacachina oasis.