Top 10 Things To Do in Peru (City Guides) Wimup

Quick answer · where to go in Peru

Cusco is the anchor: the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and enough Inca stonework to fill a week, at 3,399 metres. Fly in through Lima and give the capital two nights for the food. Then add one more region rather than three: Arequipa for volcanoes and the Colca Canyon, Puno for Lake Titicaca, or Puerto Maldonado for the Amazon, a short flight from Cusco. May to September is the dry window that decides most itineraries, and altitude decides their order.

All regions The Coast The Andes Lake Titicaca The Amazon

Jump to City guides Fun fact Stereotypes Famous Peruvians Food FAQ

3 Peru city guides

Sorted by what travelers are saving this month.

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

Machu Picchu is one of the few places UNESCO lists twice over. It was inscribed in 1983 as a mixed site, protected for its Inca architecture and for the cloud forest and wildlife of the sanctuary around it.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to fit in.

"Peru is Machu Picchu with a country attached"

The realityMachu Picchu is one morning. The Sacred Valley, the Moche pyramids outside Trujillo, the Nazca lines, Kuelap in the northern cloud forest and the Colca Canyon are all Peru, and most of them are close to empty.

"Everyone speaks Spanish"

The realityQuechua and Aymara are official languages where they are spoken, and in the southern highlands they are what people use at home and in the market. For millions of Peruvians Spanish is the second language, not the first.

"Peruvian food means ceviche and guinea pig"

The realityCeviche is real and cuy is a highland celebration dish, but the everyday kitchen runs on Chinese, Japanese, African and Andean lines at once. Chifa and nikkei are not fusion experiments here, they are Tuesday lunch.

"The altitude is fine if you are fit"

The realityIt is not a fitness test. Cusco stands at 3,399 metres and Puno higher, and soroche takes runners as readily as anyone else. Time is the only prevention that reliably works.

"Peru is cheap, so everything in it is cheap"

The realityThe set lunch, the local bus and a family hostal cost very little. Machu Picchu entry, the train to Aguas Calientes, Amazon lodges and the Lima tasting menus are priced in another currency altogether.

Llamas posed for photographs at every ruinChullo hats and alpaca ponchos in market stallsPisco sours poured at sunsetThe Nazca lines seen from a small planeThe queue up Rainbow MountainGuinea pig served wholePanpipe covers in every tourist restaurant

Cultural notes that actually help

Greet before you ask. A buenos días to the room, the shopkeeper or the driver comes first, and skipping it reads as rude.
Lunch is the real meal. The menú, two set courses at midday, is what most of the country eats and the best value on any street.
Ask before photographing people, especially in markets and highland villages. Where a llama and a costume are on offer, a small tip is the arrangement.
Coca leaves and coca tea are legal and ordinary in the highlands, and offered for the altitude. Taking any of it home is not.
Bargain in craft markets, not in shops with printed prices, and stop once you have agreed a number.
Social time is elastic and commercial time is not. Buses, trains and tours leave when they said they would.
Gringo is usually descriptive rather than an insult. Tone tells you which one you are hearing.

Famous Peruvian faces

The names behind Peru's history, letters, cinema, music, sport, science and kitchens. Pick a field.

Mario Vargas Llosa

Won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in Lima in April 2025, aged 89

Gastón Acurio

The chef who turned Peruvian cooking into a national export

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

United Nations Secretary-General from 1982 to 1991

César Vallejo

Poet of Trilce, and the voice Spanish-language poetry keeps returning to

Sofía Mulánovich

Took the world surfing title in 2004, the first Latin American woman to do it

Juan Diego Flórez

Tenor, a fixture at La Scala and the Met, and founder of Sinfonía por el Perú

Pachacútec

The ninth Inca, who turned Cusco into an empire and is credited with Machu Picchu

Yma Sumac

Soprano of extraordinary range who took Andean song to 1950s Hollywood

Túpac Amaru II

Led the largest indigenous rebellion against Spanish rule in 1780

Atahualpa

The last Inca ruler, captured by Pizarro at Cajamarca in 1532

Miguel Grau

Naval commander of the War of the Pacific, remembered for his conduct as much as his seamanship

Santa Rosa de Lima

Canonised in 1671 as the first saint of the Americas, and Lima’s patron

José María Arguedas

Novelist and anthropologist who wrote Peru’s Quechua world from inside it

Ricardo Palma

Invented the tradición with Tradiciones peruanas, half history and half gossip

Blanca Varela

The major Peruvian poet of the twentieth century’s second half

Claudia Llosa

Won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2009 with The Milk of Sorrow

Mario Testino

Fashion photographer whose archive is held at a museum in Lima’s Barranco

Chabuca Granda

Wrote La flor de la canela, the waltz that stands in for Lima itself

Susana Baca

Latin Grammy winner who put Afro-Peruvian music back on record

Teófilo Cubillas

Scored five goals at both the 1970 and 1978 World Cups, the first player to do it twice

Paolo Guerrero

Peru’s all-time leading scorer, and the captain of its 2018 World Cup return

Kina Malpartida

WBA world super featherweight champion from 2009 to 2013

Pedro Paulet

Engineer whose 1890s rocket-motor experiments are Peru’s claim on the space age

Daniel Alcides Carrión

Medical student who infected himself in 1885 to prove the link behind the disease that carries his name

Virgilio Martínez

Central, his Lima restaurant, was named the world’s best in 2023

Pía León

Named the world’s best female chef in 2021, and cooks at Kjolle in Lima

Must-try Peruvian food

The classics first, then what each band of the country cooks. Pick a category.

Ceviche

White fish cured in lime with chilli, red onion and sweet potato. A lunch dish, never an evening one.

Lomo saltado

Beef stir-fried with onion, tomato and soy, served over chips and rice. The chifa influence on one plate.

Ají de gallina

Shredded chicken in a creamy yellow chilli sauce, thickened with bread and walnut.

Causa limeña

Cold whipped yellow potato layered with chicken, tuna or crab and cut like a terrine.

Anticuchos

Beef heart marinated in ají panca and grilled on skewers at the kerb after dark.

Papa a la huancaína

Boiled potato under a cheese and yellow chilli sauce. The starter every set lunch opens with.

Pollo a la brasa

Charcoal-roasted chicken with chips and three sauces. The country’s standing Sunday habit.

Tiradito

Ceviche’s Japanese cousin: sliced raw fish, no onion, and the sauce poured at the last moment.

Tacu tacu

Yesterday’s rice and beans fried into a crisp cake, usually under a steak or an egg.

Arroz chaufa

Peruvian Chinese fried rice, and the proof that chifa is a cuisine rather than a novelty.

Rocoto relleno

Arequipa’s red chilli stuffed with spiced beef and cheese, and hotter than it looks.

Juane

Rice and chicken wrapped in bijao leaves and steamed. The jungle’s travelling lunch.

Picarones

Squash and sweet potato rings, fried and drenched in fig syrup, sold from street pans.

Pisco sour

Pisco, lime, sugar, egg white and bitters. Peru’s national drink and its oldest argument with Chile.

Chicha morada

Purple corn boiled with pineapple, clove and cinnamon. Served cold, everywhere, all day.

Leche de tigre

The lime, chilli and fish marinade left in the bowl, drunk on its own as a cure.

Arroz con mariscos

Seafood rice seasoned Peruvian rather than Spanish, with ají and coriander doing the work.

Chupe de camarones

River-prawn chowder with milk, egg and corn. Arequipa’s Friday lunch.

Cuy

Guinea pig, roasted whole for celebrations. Older than the Inca and still a Sunday dish.

Pachamanca

Meat, potatoes and herbs cooked under hot stones in the ground. A gathering more than a meal.

Adobo arequipeño

Pork slow-cooked in chicha and panca chilli, eaten on Sunday morning to settle Saturday.

Tacacho con cecina

Mashed plantain with pork crackling, served with cured smoked pork.

Paiche

One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, farmed now and grilled in Iquitos.

Suspiro a la limeña

Manjar blanco under a port meringue. As sweet as that sounds, and worth it once.

Mazamorra morada

Purple corn pudding with fruit, usually served beside rice pudding in two colours.

Inca Kola

The bright yellow soda Peru drinks with everything, sweet and unmistakably its own.

Peru travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Peru?+

Twelve to sixteen days covers Lima, Cusco and the Sacred Valley with one more region attached, whether that is Arequipa, Lake Titicaca or the Amazon. Ten days works if you take Cusco and the coast alone. Under a week means one region and no flying between them.

When is the best time to visit Peru?+

May to September is the Andean dry season, and it is the window that matters because most trips are built around Cusco. June to August is the driest and the busiest at once. The coast runs the other way, with its warm clear months from December to March.

Do you need a visa for Peru?+

Most Western passports do not. The law allows up to 183 accumulated days in any 365, and immigration usually stamps 90 at the border, so read the number you were given. Extensions are open to few nationalities, so plan around the stamp rather than on extending it.

How hard is the altitude in Cusco?+

Cusco stands at 3,399 metres and Puno higher still, high enough that soroche affects plenty of fit people on day one. Arrive and do very little for a day, keep the first dinner light, and leave the trek until later in the trip. Flying straight up from Lima, at sea level, is the hardest version.

Do you have to book Machu Picchu in advance?+

Yes. Entry runs on timed circuits with a daily cap, tickets come from the Ministry of Culture portal, and the popular routes sell out weeks ahead in the dry season. The Inca Trail needs its own permit and closes every February for maintenance.

Top 10s across Peru

When to visit Peru