40 Best things to see & do in Peru

Even if you’ve seen the view in a thousand pictures, you will be blown away: clouds drifting up the lush valley, the newly-risen sun burning them away and drawing the veil from the face of Huayna Picchu mountain and the cascade of ruin-strewn terraces below.

Welcome to one of South America’s most iconic sights: the remarkable Inca citadel that lay undisturbed for centuries, only to come to international attention after a National Geographic expedition in 1911.

This Inca City was lost for centuries in the cloud forest, until it was romantically ‘re-discovered’ by explorer Hiram Bingham (with the help of locals who always knew it was there). Straddling a high mountain ridge, it was famously bult as the Inca’s secret final refuge – but you can’t help thinking they chose the location for the view.

It was abandoned around the time of the Spanish Conquest, and remains relatively intact because it was never discovered by the Conquistadors.

Plunging valleys dripping with waterfalls, snow-capped peaks looming overhead, Inca ruins cresting high mountain ridges surrounded by hummingbird-filled cloud forest – and the mist rising off Machu Picchu itself, warmed by the rising sun; the Inca Trail truly is one of the world’s greatest treks. 

But it’s no walk in the park. The four-day route follows an ancient Inca road for 43km; rising and falling over passes and valleys and reaching a maximum elevation at the ominously-named Dead Woman’s Pass at 4200 metres. It’s breathy, muscle-aching work, but the views of lost Inca ruins and spectacular scenery make it an unforgettable experience. 

The standard trek takes four days; however, some operators offer the option of five days on the trail. This allows for a more leisurely pace and time to linger and explore some of the Inca ruins along the way.

Travel deep into the humid rainforest on a small expedition boat to explore the headwaters of the Peruvian Amazon, one of the most inaccessible areas on the planet.

Most expeditions start in Iquitos and take you to the wildlife-rich Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, sailing along broad, muddy rivers, the bottle-green forest stretching in every direction, scarlet macaws flying overhead and occasionally, pink river dolphins swimming alongside the ship.

Expert guides lead forays ashore in search of three-toed sloths, howler and capuchin monkeys, while flat-bottomed skiffs take you along the skinny, snaking waterways of this flooded landscape to look for caiman, turtles and piranhas.

There are frequent encounters with indigenous tribes, offering a fascinating cultural insight. Kayaking, piranha fishing and swimming in freshwater river pools are all on offer.

An intrepid spirit is essential for these adventurous expeditions, which tend to attract a well-travelled crowd.

The Santa Cruz Circuit is the gold standard of short Andes hikes, and one of the most beautiful walks in South America. The landscapes are magnificent and the 50km trail – which takes three or four days – is doable for the moderately fit.

You won’t see long ridges of 5,000m-high, snow-capped peaks hiking on the Inca Trail around Cusco. But you will on the Santa Cruz hike, which cuts through the heart of the Cordillera Blanca – the highest range of mountains in the tropics. The trail runs through plunging valleys dotted with clear-water lakes, climbs over breathy passes, and passes by the giant 6,768m peak of Huascaran – the tallest mountain in Peru.

The Santa Cruz trek is the short counterpart to the even more spectacular, but longer and more challenging, Huayhuash circuit. Opt for Santa Cruz if you’ve only one week to spare and have concerns about altitude sickness.

If there’s one reason to stop over in Lima it’s the food. The city has some of the finest restaurants in the world – with chefs like Virgilio Martínez, Jaime Pesaque and Gastón Acurio ranked in the World’s ‘Fifty Best’ on the exclusive San Pellegrino list.

What makes Lima chefs so exciting is their virtuoso fusion of unique national ingredients with Asian and European techniques. Star chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino has a plate on his degustation comprising only potatoes arranged to look like beach pebbles – all from different Andean locations with astonishing, divergent flavours.

Peruvian-Japanese Micha Tsumura serves fiery tiger milk tuna tiraditos alongside river-fish sushi, and 50-hour-cooked Amazonian beef.

You could spend a week in the gastro-hub suburbs of San Isidro, Miraflores and Barranco and get a mere taste of the exciting scene. But be sure to dine in Astrid y Gaston – the pioneer of Lima gastronomy and Central, by Michelin-starred Virgilio Martínez.

For a sense of the huge variety of ingredients Lima’s top chefs draw on visit Mercado No1 de Surquillo – packed with exotic fruit, vegetables and medicinal plants. It’s also a good spot to sample simple ceviche, but don’t focus on the street food – Lima’s all about fine dining.

Hikers in the know call this the greatest alpine trek in the world. Mountain scenery just doesn’t get better – steep valleys of jagged snow-capped peaks reaching heights of over 6,000m, dotted with icy blue lakes; fiery razor-sharp ridges caught in the setting sun, high glaciers, condors flying over fields of grazing vicunas…

On the way you pass some of the most spectacular peaks in the Andes including Siulá Grande, site of Joe Simpson’s epic ‘Touching the Void’; and 6634 metre-high Yerupajá, the second-tallest mountain in the tropics.

Be aware that Huayhuash is a long, tiring high-altitude walk that makes the Inca Trail look like a stroll. Most hikers do the circuit itself in around 11-12 days. You’ll need at least two weeks including essential acclimatisation.

Cusco was the Inca capital, laid out in the shape of a giant puma, sitting at the heart of an empire that stretched to Ecuador and Bolivia. It was from Cuzco that the Incas administered their vast empire and the city centre’s tight grid, laid out in the 1400s, still bears their mark – as well as that of their conquerors, the Spanish.

Inca foundations are capped with Mediterranean-style structures, and the sun temple has an adjacent baroque church. Inca ruins litter the city – the bell-shaped Qoricancha temple, hulking Sacsayhuaman fort with its massive ramparts and Inca walls everywhere – jigsaw-pieced together from huge boulders, cut into bewildering geometric shapes. There are Spanish treasures too – magnificent churches and convents decorated with art made by indigenous Peruvian artisans.

Today, Cusco is the official ‘historic capital’ of Peru and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yet many visitors use Cusco merely as a base for Machu Picchu, and miss out on all these sights.

Two kilometres deep, surrounded by steaming volcanoes, and with condors soaring on the thermals, Colca Canyon is one of Peru’s great natural wonders. It’s twice the depth of the Grand Canyon, far wilder and has wonderful views at every turn.

Day-trippers come to peer over the rim and spot condors. Trekkers hike the rugged trails, stopping to soak in the hot springs or swim in the icy Colca River, which ribbons the canyon floor. And farmers still till the soil on the ancient valley terraces cut long before the Spanish arrived.

If you’re not hiking the Inca Trail, this is the way to reach the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in comfort and style. Starting from the former Inca capital at Cusco, you’re whisked through the Sacred Valley of the Incas, past the towering Inca fortresses of Pisac and Ollantaytambo before entering the rainforest-shrouded Urubamba Valley.

Named after the man who rediscovered the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911, this specially built narrow-gauge train has opulent carriages redolent of 1920s Pullman cars, with comfortable armchairs surrounded by varnished wood and brass fittings. Food is served in the dining car on fine white linen; dishes feature local ingredients in unfamiliar ways (with abundant Pisco Sours). A band plays Peruvian music with the cajón and tambourines in the bar car.

There are wonderful views en route – misty mountains, forgotten Quechua villages, distant ridges of serrated snow-capped peaks. The open observation car at the back of the train is the perfect place to soak in the views.

Transfers, guides and tea at the exclusive Sanctuary Lodge are included in the price.

Founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro – audacious conqueror of the Inca Empire – Lima was the capital of most of Spanish South America for nearly 300 years. The affairs of an empire were once managed from its narrow, low-slung streets, but today the city’s colonial heart is choked with traffic and soot.  

However, to understand Peruvian history, this 500-year-old grid is a must-see, housing extravagant baroque churches, historic buildings, the presidential palace and the cathedral where Pizarro is buried. Look out for the San Francisco church with its bone-filled catacombs, the filigree-carved balconies of Torre Tagle mansion and the opulent, rococo archbishop’s palace.

Elsewhere, there are fascinating museums dedicated to Peru’s history. The best museums sit in the colonial centre. They include MALI, a Lima Art gallery, with 7,000 pre-Columbian and Spanish pieces, all housed in a beautiful art nouveau building set in gardens. The Gold Museum has glittering artefacts from the country’s principal ancient civilisations.

The city also has a renowned world-class dining scene and some of the finest restaurants in the world, serving up a virtuoso fusion of unique national ingredients with Asian and European techniques. Book ahead for the best restaurants.

Most trips to Peru inevitably involve a stop in Lima – thankfully there’s plenty worth seeing for a day.

A broad alluvial plain in the southern desert contains one of Peru’s most enigmatic sights: dozens of 2,000-year-old glyphs carved into the earth, on a scale so gargantuan that they can only be seen from the air. These land drawings of a monkey, spider and other figures have drawn legions of archaeologists, conspiracy theorists and curious travellers since they were first discovered in the 1920s.

The designs were made by removing reddish stones from the desert terrain to reveal the grey ground beneath. The windless, near-lifeless landscape preserved the glyphs over the centuries.

They were probably created over more than a millennium by three different groups: the Paracas, the Nazca and the Huari; but no one knows why. Explanations vary; they may have been used as a giant astronomical calendar, a ritualised walking meditation or to communicate with the gods.

Towering snow-capped mountains, myriad Inca ruins, time-forgotten villages – the landscapes of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, which lies some 15km north of Cusco, are magnificent. Spending time here is a must.

The best way to appreciate this beautiful place is by getting active. Hike to the Inca ruins at Pisac for astonishing views; white-water raft on the Urubamba past the vast fortress at Ollantaytambo, horseback ride, mountain bike or zip-line over the valley; stay in a hotel room stapled to the side of a vertiginous cliff.

There’s a wealth of excursions – easily organised from Cusco as a day trip or multi-day stay.

Straddling the borders of Peru and Bolivia, Lake Titicaca is South America’s largest lake by water volume. According to Andean lore, the lake was venerated as the birthplace of the Sun God; located at a staggering 3,830m above sea level, it’s not hard to see why it would inspire such beliefs – and the sunsets are glorious.

The lake is also the cradle of the Incas and the ancient Tiwanaku Empire: archaeological sites litter its shores.

Belmond has become a byword for luxury train travel, and South America’s first luxury sleeping-car train has become the way to explore the austere beauty of the altiplano south of Cusco.

The two-night tour between Cusco and Arequipa takes in the journey takes in the floating reed islands of Lake Titicaca, cave art thousands of years old, and the World Heritage Site of Arequipa. Wild grasses cover the hillsides rising up to snowy summits until the train descends to more fertile country dotted with adobe villages.

As a new train, it’s beautifully designed and has every amenity, but it inevitably lacks that sense of authenticity from times gone by.

Dedicated to the sun and the moon, and with twin rooms once covered in solid gold and silver, the Qorikancha temple was the spiritual heart of the Inca Empire.

The building was literally laid out as a giant ‘Sun, star and moon dial’, used to physically track the movements of a diversity of astronomical bodies and to coordinate these with day-to-day planning and crop-planting across the Empire.

This was once the richest, most elaborate temple to Inti – the sun – in the entire Inca empire. ‘Qorikancha’ means ‘golden courtyard’. Unfortunately, the golden walls – and other gold-sculpted treasures – were looted and melted down by the Conquistadors on their arrival in the city.

Only the magnificent stonework remains; a curved, perfectly-fitted wall, inside which are the remains of the last Inca emperor: Tupac Amaru.

This ruined Inca fortress and ceremonial centre to the sun perches over Cusco – with magnificent views of the city from its massive walls. The masonry boggles the mind: boulders weighing hundreds of tons cut into strange geometric shapes – transported without the use of the wheel – are jigsaw-pieced together without cement or metal tools.

The ruins represent just a fifth of its original mass. Even so, it’s an imposing sight: a series of tri-level ramparts hundreds of metres long and overlooking a vast field. The scale of some boulders is truly monumental, a testament to the ingenuity of Inca masonry.

Of all the Inca sights in Peru, only Machu Picchu is more impressive than this huge fortress. It’s cut into the mountain above the Sacred Valley, with massive cut stones and vast terraces.

Machu Picchu was never discovered by the Spanish – instead, it fell through neglect. By contrast, Ollantaytambo was the last stronghold of the Incas near Cusco and the site of a famous victory. In 1536, Manco Inca diverted the course of the River Patacancha to wash away the advancing Spanish and their Amazonian Indian allies.

It was another thirty years before the Incas finally fell and the ruins – with crumbling walls and astonishing views – have an even greater poignancy than Machu Picchu.

These beautifully preserved Inca ruins straddle a high mountain ridge affording wonderful views over the Andes and the Sacred Valley.

The intricate Inca stonework – pieced together without cutting implements or mortar – is some of the best you’ll see. Pisac is one of the few places with an intact Inca Intihuatana altar – used for plotting the movement of the stars and for the veneration of the sun.

Pisac’s ruins can be reached easily by cab from Cusco, or you can opt for a breathy, spectacular day hike up the mountain from Pisac village below.

If Machu Picchu in the most spectacular of the Inca ruins, lost for centuries among the Andes, Choquequirao comes a close second. Surrounded by lush forests and jagged, icy peaks and perched on the side of a precipitous gorge, it’s breathtakingly situated – but while some 3,000 tourists a day come to Machu Picchu, Choquequirao receives just a few.

There are two ways in – on a five or nine-day mountain hike (with two nights camping at the site). If you’re fit and have time, opt for the longer walk, which follows an Inca road. The landscapes are spectacular: cutting through steamy cloud forests, over condor-soared mountain passes, overnighting in indigenous villages, visiting myriad ancient ruins including Choquequirao itself.

The walk finishes with a dramatic descent and climb through one of the world’s deepest river valleys, though you can also continue on to Machu Picchu.

While Choquequirao receives only 1% of Machu Picchu’s visitors, there will still be a few tour groups.

The coast around the little resort town of Paracas, including this 335,000-hectare reserve, is some of the most impressive in tropical South America: dune-rolling desert runs to caramel and blood-red crags that crumble over sheer cliffs. Powerful Pacific waves pound endless empty beaches of honey-yellow and coral-red sands.

Much of the region is protected: for its natural beauty, for the hundreds of barely-explored archaeological sites and for the abundant sea life. Sealions and Humboldt penguins bask on the sand. Just offshore, hundreds of thousands of Guanay Cormorants, boobies, terns and fur seals live on the Ballestas archipelago – a string of islands are scattered like desert rocks thrown into the blue of the Pacific.

Huddled under palm trees around a little lake set in a sand-sea of rippling dunes, Huacachina village looks like a film set for Dune.

Beauty alone makes it worth a special visit, but there’s plenty to do – from desert hiking and buggy rides to sandboard-surfing the wave-like dunes – which are the tallest in South America. There are plenty of operators in town offering classes and boards to rent, but choose carefully, the sport can be as dangerous for novices as snowboarding.

Over the last decade, Huacachina has become a backpacker hangout – with bars along the lakeshore pumping out music and serving cheap cocktails, and hostels lining the streets behind. But while accommodation in the village is backpacker-simple, Ica city, a ten-minute drive away has comfortable rooms and is connected with Lima by plane and bus.

Peru’s most impressive colonial building? It’s hard to beat this 16th-century, 20,000sq m convent founded in 1580.

Like a secret world – secured behind high walls and still perfectly-preserved – Santa Catalina was a complete village hidden in urban Arequipa; a Moorish hamlet of narrow alleys, avenues of arches lined with terracotta paint and whitewash, and secret, fountain-tingling orange-blossom-scented atrium-gardens.

The convent has innumerable works by Cusco School artists, a colonial movement fusing European and indigenous traditions. The painting of Saint Jerome in the convent museum, the Sala Zurbaran, is a treasured example.

Alongside the art, it’s as atmospheric as a Spaghetti Western and sits under a smoking volcano and a permanently blue sky. It also provides an intriguing insight into the life of the Arequipa elite during the colonial heyday.

If you want to see ancient Peruvian art and artifacts then MALI and LARCO are Lima’s two must-see museums. While LARCO is a 15-minute cab ride from anywhere, MALI is easy to visit on a walk around the colonial centre.  

There’s a lot to see – with more than 7,000 pieces dating from the time of the Paracas desert people in 800BC (ancestors of the Nazca civilisation) to the present day. There’s some fabulous indigenous-painted Cusco art and the collection is housed in a lavish art-nouveau-meets-neoclassical palace sitting in shady, lawned gardens.

Lima has two unmissable museums, the Museum of Art and the Larco; the Larco preserves one of the best collections of pre-Columbian and indigenous objects in Peru.

There are pieces from over 3,000 years of Peruvian history – from brilliantly-painted Moche ceramics to glittering Inca gold and intricately, hand-stitched textiles. This is the only museum anywhere to have an entire room of pre-Columbian erotica. These priceless pieces are kept in the vast, gleaming-white, fortified palace of the colonial viceroy; itself built over an ancient pyramid.

Protecting a huge swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, this landscape of meandering waterways – cutting through cloud-forest-covered mountains and spreading over a vast area of lowland jungle has one of the greatest biodiversity levels on Earth.

There are eight different life zones with more than 150 species of tree, 100 species of mammal and 1,300 species of butterfly. Many endangered animals hunted to the brink of extinction elsewhere in the Amazon are still found here, including jaguar, Brazilian tapir, giant river otter and the Harpy Eagle – the largest eagle in the world.

Built on the site of a royal Inca palace razed to the ground by Pizarro, this hulking 16th-century baroque church houses some impressive Cusqueno art, which mixes indigenous and Spanish styles, including a Last Supper showing Christ eating guinea pig. 

The Inca-made reredos behind the solid silver altar is covered in intricate carving and the north tower houses the 6 tonne Maria Angola Bell, named after a freed slave who threw a handful of gold into the crucible when the bell was cast in 1659.

Travellers from all over Peru and the world descend on Cusco every 24 June for the Festival of the Sun, which marks the Winter Solstice. Still known by its Inca name Inti Raymi, it has been celebrated in some form for centuries.

The festival begins the night before with processions and makeshift stalls in the Plaza de Armas. Dancing parades move off from the Qorikancha temple at 10am, processing to the fort at Sacsayhuaman, where there is a full-scale re-enactment of an ancient Inca sun ceremony.

If you want to avoid the crowds, settle into one of the second-floor restaurants around the main square. Late in the afternoon the procession will come to you.

One of the most interesting parts of Inti Raymi is the impromptu dance party that takes place in Cusco’s main square after the official party is over – definitely worth staying for.

Once the capital of the ancient Chimu civilization, Chan Chan (built AD 850) is the largest adobe city in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Spanning over 20 square kilometres, it features intricate walls, plazas, temples, and dwellings made entirely of adobe bricks, showcasing the remarkable craftsmanship of the Chimu people.

Mercado No1 de Surquillo, Lima’s food market, is packed with exotic fruit, vegetables and medicinal plants. It’s also a good spot to sample street food – simple ceviche and Butifarra pulled-pork sandwiches.

With massive, imposing neoclassical bell towers framing a saint-encrusted baroque facade topped with the Virgin Mary, the capital’s first church, built in the early 16th century, is a joyless statement of religious authority in stone.

It’s appropriate then, that the battered corpse of Francisco Pizarro is entombed inside, in a modest chapel in the crypt. Francisco Pizarro was the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire, capturing its capital city Cuzco in 1533 and founding the city of Lima in 1535. Most people come to see him.

The nave is unremarkable – its baroque art was destroyed in an 18th-century earthquake. But look out for the silver-covered altars and Pizarro’s coat of arms (next to those of Lima) in passing.

One of the world’s largest collections of pre-Colombian Peruvian gold, more than 7,000 artifacts, includes items from Inca, Sican and Moche culture. The museum also houses an extensive collection of weapons from around the world, dating back to the 13th century. Open daily.

A UNESCO World Heritage listed Spanish-colonial monastery, dating back to 1674, with striking baroque architecture and bone-filled catacombs. The convent’s library possesses over 25,000 antique texts, including the first-ever Spanish dictionary and a Holy Bible edition from 1572.

This little village in the Sacred Valley near Cusco is a centre for traditional indigenous weaving in Peru. It has a lively market and ancient Inca agricultural terraces.

The remains of the oldest city in the Americas, dating back 5,000 years, with pyramids and plazas carved out of the desert. It’s well worth the drive to this little-visited spot, 180km north of Lima.

This archipelago of rocky islands off Paracas is a haven for rare sea birds, Humboldt penguins, sealions and fur seals. Daily boat tours operate from hotels in the Paracas Reserve.

Lima’s only pre-Colombian ruin of note is a giant adobe pyramid built in seven sections and sitting in suburban Miraflores. It served as an important ceremonial and administrative centre from 200AD to 700AD. Outside the colonial centre but unmissable.

This, the shortest and easiest of alternative Inca trails, takes three days from Cusco and offers wonderful mountain views, little-visited Inca sites and a final day at Machu Picchu itself.

Looking like bone-white Balinese rice terraces and surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery, these ancient salt pans, cut in Inca times, are still in use today. Accessed from the town of Maras in the Sacred Valley, 40kms from Cusco.

A mountain of striking, colourfully-striated rock bands, caused by layers of varying mineral deposits. It’s a 2-hour drive from Cusco, followed by 5km (3 mile) walk.

This vast ruined city in the rainforest overlooking the lush Utcubamba Valley in Peru’s northeast dwarfs Machu Picchu. It was built by the Chacapoyas in the 6th Century AD. Tours depart from El Tingo.