23 Best places to stay in Peru

Sitting in the bottom of one of the deepest canyons in the world, with condors soaring overhead and pre-Columbian terraced fields climbing the steep sides of the valley, Colca Lodge is set in spectacular surrounds.

The biggest treat is the location: at the head of the Colca Canyon, it’s the perfect base for exploring one of the world’s deepest ravines, and for joining in on the many activities and tours.

A close second is the on-site spa, including three thermal spring pools, built in natural surroundings and fed by a main spring, which emerges from the ground at 80°C. There is also a separate Eco Spa, with Jacuzzi, steam room and treatments.

Bristling with boutique restaurants, swish bars and galleries, Barranco is one of Lima’s most fashionable suburbs. And no hotel more perfectly captures the spirit of the neighbourhood than this former home of renowned Peruvian sculptor Victor Delfín.

The building and its shady gardens are filled with his creations and with his collection of modern art. Bronze bulls sit next to leafy flowerbeds, a team of neo-Etruscan horses hovers at the edge of the cliff, the blue Pacific as a backdrop. Book one of the six west-facing rooms for sunset-over-the-ocean views.

Sitting in a beautifully-restored colonial-Spanish Carmelite monastery in the heart of old Cusco, filled with priceless antiques and with its own restored baroque chapel, the Nazarenas combines the romantically historical with the intimate and lavish.

Rooms sit in cloisters around a fountain-filled garden and a gorgeous sapphire pool. Beds are draped with luxurious Egyptian linens. Cusqueño – Spanish-indigenous art and crafts – adorn the walls.

The hotel’s restaurant, Senzo, serves a menu of modern Peruvian cooking by Peru’s top chef, Virgilio Martinez and is one of the best in the city. The Plaza de Armas is a stroll away.

Stays in this gorgeous Republican-era millionaire’s mansion in Barranco – Lima’s most fashionable neighbourhood – give a taste of the city’s modish high life in intimate boutique hotel comfort.

The house looks like the kind of place the Great Gatsby would have rented out as his holiday home in Peru. The brilliant-white neoclassical shuttered facade belongs to the French Riviera.

Rooms inside are clean and contemporary – with whites offset with strong blocks of colour, heavy drape curtains, marble bathrooms and big abstract art and mirrors on the walls. Book one of the high-ceilinged period rooms in the old house rather than the garden-facing rooms in the modern annexe.

The hotel serves great Pisco sours – a precursor to a night out in the great restaurants and bars beyond the door.

Close to Cusco’s main square and with rooms set in the colonial-era cloisters of the city’s old market, El Mercado offers value-stays in a slice of old Cusco, a stroll from the city centre.

The décor fuses Spanish-era grandeur with modern design (from renowned Peruvian architect Jordi Puig). Rooms come in warm creams with abstract textile carpets, Philippe Starck-inspired drapes and bright modern art on the walls. They sit over a large central atrium with a fire pit and lounge chairs.

The Plaza de Armas and Cusco’s best restaurants and bars are two blocks away.

Reachable from Iquitos in less than an hour, and with a swimming pool, water slide and Jacuzzi. Ceiba Tops is a popular choice for visitors looking for a brush with the rainforest rather than wilderness immersion. It’s very popular with families from Iquitos – who flock here at weekends.

Rooms – simple air-conditioned cubes housed in bungalows – feel more hotel than jungle lodge. Tours are family-friendly and include light rainforest walks, boat trips on smaller creeks and a full-day excursion to the Explorama Canopy walkway, owned by the hotel and one of the longest in the Amazon.

With wonderful views from rooms and public areas, a first-class modern Peruvian restaurant run by famous chef Rafael Piqueras and a great location in the gastronomic hub of San Isidro, the Westin is the best contemporary high-rise hotel in Lima.

Bedrooms are bright, with huge wall-high windows, framing the best views of Lima’s skyline from any hotel. There’s a huge, sumptuous blue-mosaic indoor pool fed by indoor waterfalls, and a Buddha-filled spa, offering an array of massages and hydrotherapy.

Run by star chef Rafael Piqueras, the Maras restaurant is a destination in its own right. Be sure to try the Causa Trio – uniquely Peruvian pureed vegetables with ceviche, ciringuito and dill-infused salmon.

Blending nature (the hotel sits at the base of a rainforest-covered cliff), with modern nurture, this is the Aguas Calientes hotel to base yourself at for that 5.30am bus – guaranteed to get you to Machu Picchu before the crowds. The departure point is minutes from the lobby. So are the town’s best bars and restaurants.

Rooms are decorated in modish off-whites with wall-high glass overlooking the lush surrounds. Public areas covered with living walls of moss and ferns, screened from each other by faux-Inca wattle partitions. There’s a beautiful spa with a heated indoor pool and valley views for tired post-Machu Picchu legs. The bar serves great cocktails.

This sprawling, salmon-pink colonial style hotel sits in a lovely parkside location, fifteen minutes from the main sights in Arequipa city.

Butterflies float through the flower-filled gardens, the hotel has the largest (and loveliest) pool in Arequipa and the fuming cone of El Misti volcano can be spied at every turn.

Rooms in warm ochres are furnished with antiques. Public spaces include a regal lilac living room with ample sofa space, a spa with a steam room and sauna and the Los Robles, serving classy Peruvian food. It’s one of the best restaurants in the city.

The hotel is family-friendly with a playground, kids activities and resident alpacas.

This family-run small hotel set in a historic townhouse on a steep cobbled street in hilly San Blas is a great spot for a quiet, cozy stay in one of Cusco’s up-and-coming arty neighbourhoods, with superb views.  

San Blas is village-pretty: whitewashed buildings coloured with brightly-painted eaves, window-box flowers and old Spanish balconies look out over tiles and bell towers to central Cusco.

The hotel has genuine local character. Rooms and public spaces are painted in the Spanish-indigenous floral and organic rococo patterns of traditional Peruvian altarpieces, by San Blas artisans. Walls and beds are adorned with indigenous art.

There are bars and restaurants on the doorstep and the welcoming staff are genuinely helpful.

This sleek tower, tucked away in a cul-de-sac on a clifftop overlooking the Pacific, houses one of Lima’s most luxurious stays.

It’s all about location and views at the Miraflores. Standard rooms are city-facing and small for a luxury hotel. In this location it’s worth an upgrade for an ocean view suite. Rooms (and the gorgeous rooftop pool) are positioned to catch legendary over-the-water sunsets.

With a rooftop ocean-view pool and an onsite Asian-Peruvian restaurant that’s a fine-dining destination in itself, this luxurious clifftop oasis is an exquisite place to begin or end a stay in Peru.

This elegant colonial hotel has it all. There is a great location, no more than a few blocks from Arequipa’s principal historic sites. Sip a cocktail on the roof deck and you can admire views of the cathedral and the El Misti volcano in the distance.

Then there’s the art and architecture: a lovingly-maintained baroque mansion – once the old mint – that fills up almost half a city block. Historic works of art decorate the public areas.

And there are the gracious touches, such as the sweet chocolate coins deposited bedside in the evenings. A few nights here and it can be hard to go back to contemporary life.

This sprawling 16th Century monastery, built on the foundations of an Inca palace, now serves as one of Cusco’s most resplendent hotels.

Four cloisters (now housing guest rooms) surround picturesque arched courtyards, one of which contains a 400-year-old cedar.

Rooms are furnished with heavy dark-wood, colonial-era beds and wardrobes, and the whole hotel is adorned with priceless art – gilt rococo finials rescued from Spanish-colonial churches and exquisite Spanish-indigenous paintings from the Cusco school. 

The hotel’s restaurant – sitting under a colonnade of arches – is one of the city’s best; white-tie waiters pour Pisco sours in the low-lit bar hung with huge mirrors, and there are dreamy views out over the terracotta roofs and bell towers of Cucsco at every turn. 

The hotel is located in Cusco’s historic centre, close to the cathedral, Qorikancha and the key sights. Although the entire complex lies just a few blocks away from Cusco’s busy main square, it feels remarkably meditative and restful.

As a place to base yourself by the beach in Paracas, La Hacienda is hard to beat. The hotel sits on the best stretch of sand – right on the edge of Paracas National Reserve.

The hotel’s infinity pool (one of the largest in town and with a poolside bar) is poised for views of the sun sinking orange over the Pacific and the hotel can organise, kite-surfing, ocean-kayaking and excursions.

White and cream rooms are spacious and bright with tall French windows, and mock-colonial dark terracotta tiled floors. Peruvian indigenous art hangs on the walls and textiles on the beds. The spa is the best in Paracas.

Paracas city has lots of anonymous, package-holiday beach hotels catering to vacationing Peruvians. This large, family-friendly oceanside resort in palm-tree shaded gardens, with two big pools, is one of the few exceptions. The main building is a striking neo-art deco pavilion in concrete and glass, set in palm-tree-dotted lawns overlooking the beach.

Big, bright contemporary bedrooms  open onto sea views or the large garden area with sizeable outdoor pool and sundeck, littered with wooden sun loungers and shady sitting areas.

The spa boasts a huge indoor pool and steam rooms, and specialises in Ayurvedic therapies, with an excellent choice of couple’s treatments. Of the four restaurants, the modern-Peruvian Ballestas comes with wonderful sunset views, while the alfresco seafood Chalana is set on a pier right over the water.

Visitors are mostly here for the tours and the hotel has an in-house tour operator offering high-end boat trips to the San Blas Islands (boats leave out front), the Paracas desert and National Reserve and the Nazca lines.

This 16th Century Spanish-colonial mansion overlooking a plaza in arty, boho San Blas, is so steeped in history you can imagine a conquistador stepping out of the front door, sword in hand.

The house was built over the training ground for Inca officers; Diego de Almagro (the conqueror of Chile) and Simón Bolívar – liberator of Spanish South America – are previous guests.

The original colonial brick masonry has been fully restored, baroque art adorns the walls, statues of saints sit on plinths next to modern sofas-to-sink-into in the lounge. The best rooms are the upper floor balcony suites overlooking the central atrium, with faux-antique furnishings and chunky wooden beds.

The spa is modest, but offers excellent massage treatments for guests who are feeling the altitude.

This long, bone-white concrete sliver set on a peninsula overlooking Lake Titicaca, is walled almost entirely with glass.

Rooms are not all equal; some are in need of an upgrade. All are simply fitted out in white, dark wood and teal fitted carpets. The best face east, away from Puno and have wall-high glass for spectacular dawn-over-the-water views.

Stays here are all about the views – of wetlands filled with waterbirds extending into the Uros reed archipelago, the lake itself and distant mountains. There are viewpoints everywhere – the cocktail bar is the place for sunsets, the restaurant for golden dawns.

It’s also an immersion in nature. The lake laps at your feet, the skies are immense, sunrises and sunsets are magnificent, and the stars at night in the high-altitude air, overwhelming.

There’s only one reason to stay at the Sanctuary Lodge: this is the only hotel on the mountain next to the Machu Picchu ruins. At the tip of a cloud forest peak, the Sanctuary Lodge has an unrivalled position: the entrance to the Inca citadel is, quite literally, just a few steps away.

During the busy high season, this can offer the distinct advantage of being first at the gate in the mornings. You’ll get to see Machu Picchu at dawn (its best time) without the crowds – who have to bus-up from the valley below. And you can leave long after everyone else has gone. 

Few guests, therefore, care that the rooms are three-star simple, cubic-shaped, with space for little more than a bed, with plain wooden ceilings and French windows opening onto a modest terrace and shared lawned garden. For the price, rooms are small and plain, but there’s a decent restaurant serving a hearty pre-ruin early breakfast, and glorious Andean views throughout. 

A room with view? They don’t get better or scarier than these glass-walled pods pinned to the side of a sheer cliff-face above the spectacular Sacred Valley of the Incas. 

No one notices the room interiors – which are all-glass and with little more than a bed and bathroom. It’s all about the views – if you can get over the vertigo. The Urubamba River winds below, ridges of snow-capped peaks hover above, and the ancient Inca fort at Ollantaytambo clings to the face of the mountain opposite. 

Stays are not for the faint of heart. Arrival is by a breathy mountain climb followed by a harness ride to the pod itself (wearing a hard hat and gloves). Guests return to earth via zipline.

This upscale rainforest hotel with beautiful views out over the Madre de Dios river (a tributary of the Amazon proper) is only a 45-minute boat ride from the hub town of Puerto Maldonado.

Though set in its own recovered, secondary forest preserve, it’s too close to human settlements to be pristine: there are jungle lodges in wilder Amazon settings – even nearby. But none are more comfortable than Inkaterra: huge, airy and secluded high thatch-roofed wooden cabanas/bungalows, some with their own plunge pools, soft cotton sheets and hypoallergenic pillows. There’s even a spa.

Standing majestically in one of Lima’s more opulent neighbourhoods, this Mediterranean-style, grand Twenties town house channels all the pomp and circumstance of the Spanish viceroyalty.

There are wood-beamed ceilings, authentic colonial-era paintings and a demure wood-lined bar that’s been stirring up masterful pisco sour cocktails for decades. The airy patio restaurant, Perroquet, serves excellent ceviche.

The hotel’s central location – between Lima’s historic downtown and the dining hotspots of Miraflores – makes it convenient too. Guests can also enjoy special rates at San Isidro’s private 18-hole Lima Golf Club.

Lodge locations don’t get much better than this – rooms are perched on the upper branches of giant trees and connected by rope bridges. All have 360-degree viewing balconies and the largest is big enough for a family – with three separate bedrooms. You’ll wake up to sunrise over the Amazon rainforest, and capuchin monkeys and macaws eating fruit from the trees right outside your window.

The lodge itself sits next to a small Amazon tributary, the Yarapa, on the edge of the 2-million-hectare Pacaya Samiria national reserve – the biggest protected area in Peru.

Set on a diminutive, windswept peninsula on Lake Titicaca’s western shore, this sleek Andean gem offers a break from all that Spanish colonial decor.

Just a 40-minute drive from the bustling highland city of Puno, it’s a chilled-out retreat where ambient noise consists of little more than the gentle lapping of water against the reeds. 

Public areas and rooms have wall-to-ceiling glass to bring the glorious scenery in. The best bedrooms with a view are those facing east and at the corners – positioned for sunrise over the water.

Excursions (kayaking, bird-watching, visits to floating islands) and all food are included in the price. 

Titilaka is all about the views; the high mountain air is interstellar-clear, and you could stare transfixed for hours over Titicaca – which stretches mirror flat to distant islands and mountains.

Plan to spend one evening on the hotel’s deck, watching the lake turn brilliant shades of orange and purple as the sun dips below the horizon. The sunsets on Lake Titicaca are legendary. The stars are magnificent.