--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Peru (City Guides) | Wimup" description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across Peru, Lima, Cusco and more cities, mapped and ranked. When to go, how to handle the altitude, and where to start." url: https://wimup.com/country/peru type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-28 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Peru Desert coast, **high Andes** and Amazon rainforest, stacked west to east across one country. Peru holds the continent’s most complete run of **pre-Columbian sites** and, in Lima, its most serious kitchen. ## Quick answer **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, and only one: **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. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** May · Jun · Sep - **Ideal length:** 12–16 days - **Budget per day:** $45–100 - **Language:** Spanish - **Getting around:** Domestic flights & long-distance buses - **4** City guides - **34,157,732** People - **2** Video guides Peru travels in three bands and most trips take two of them. The coast is desert the whole way down, with Lima at its centre and the Moche and Chimu ruins north of it. The Andes carry Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, plus Arequipa and the Colca Canyon further south, and altitude decides how fast any of it can be done. East of the mountains the land drops into the Amazon basin, reached from Iquitos by river or from Puerto Maldonado by road. Flights link the three in about an hour and a half each; the long-distance buses are good and take a night. ## 4 Peru city guides 1. [Lima](https://wimup.com/city/lima.md): Peru · 10 picks 2. [Cusco](https://wimup.com/city/cusco.md): Peru · 10 picks 3. [Arequipa](https://wimup.com/city/arequipa.md): Peru · 10 picks 4. [Iquitos](https://wimup.com/city/iquitos.md): Peru · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 34,157,732 - **Area:** 1,285,216 km² - **Density:** 26.6 / km² - **Capital:** Lima - **Major cities:** Lima, Arequipa, Trujillo, Chiclayo, Piura - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Peruvian sol (PEN) Cards work in city hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. Markets, taxis, small towns and most of the highlands run on cash, and small notes are worth carrying because change is scarce. - **Language:** Spanish, Quechua, Aymara Spanish everywhere. Quechua and Aymara are official where spoken, and around Cusco and Puno they are the home languages. English is common in tourist Cusco and Miraflores, thin outside. - **Calling code:** +51 - **Power:** 220V · Type A/C - **Emergency:** 105 Dial 105 for police, 116 for the fire brigade and 106 for a SAMU ambulance. A single 911 line is being rolled out from Lima, so the three legacy numbers remain the reliable ones. - **Visa:** Visa-free for most · 183 days a year Most Western passports enter visa-free. The law caps stays at 183 days in any 365, and officers usually stamp 90, so read your stamp. Few nationalities can extend. - **Altitude:** Cusco at 3,399 m Cusco, Puno and Lake Titicaca all sit above 3,300 metres, and soroche ignores fitness. Give it a day or two before any trek, drink more water than feels necessary, and eat light. - **Getting around:** Flights & long-distance buses Flights link Lima with Cusco, Arequipa, Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado in about ninety minutes. Long-distance buses are good on the coast and main Andean routes, and take a night. - **Machu Picchu tickets:** Timed circuits, booked ahead Timed circuits with a daily cap, and popular routes sell out weeks ahead in the dry season. Buy from the Ministry of Culture portal. The Inca Trail needs its own permit and shuts each February. - **Tipping:** 5 to 10 percent Restaurants sometimes add a servicio line, so check the bill before adding to it. Guides, drivers and trek crews are tipped separately, and that is where it counts. - **Water:** Not from the tap Bottled or filtered water throughout, and the same caution with ice outside good restaurants. Most hotels keep a refill station in the lobby. ## When to visit - **Jan** - **Feb** - **Mar** - **Apr** (good) - **May** (best) - **Jun** (peak) - **Jul** (peak) - **Aug** (peak) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (good) - **Nov** (good) - **Dec** ## Fun fact 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 - **Myth:** Peru is Machu Picchu with a country attached **Reality:** Machu 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. - **Myth:** Everyone speaks Spanish **Reality:** Quechua 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. - **Myth:** Peruvian food means ceviche and guinea pig **Reality:** Ceviche 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 an ordinary Tuesday lunch here. - **Myth:** The altitude is fine if you are fit **Reality:** It 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. - **Myth:** Peru is cheap, so everything in it is cheap **Reality:** The 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. - 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 just descriptive. Tone tells you when it is not. ## Famous Peruvian faces - **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 as much for his conduct. - **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 Carrión's disease. - **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 - **Ceviche**: White fish cured in lime with chilli, red onion and sweet potato. Lunch, never dinner. - **Lomo saltado**: Beef stir-fried with onion, tomato and soy over chips and rice. Chifa 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 cheese and yellow chilli sauce. Every set lunch opens with it. - **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, sauce poured at the last moment. - **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 the Peruvian way, with ají and coriander doing the work. - **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 in its own right. - **Rocoto relleno**: Arequipa’s red chilli stuffed with spiced beef and cheese, and hotter than it looks. - **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 on hot stones underground. More gathering than meal. - **Adobo arequipeño**: Pork slow-cooked in chicha and panca chilli, eaten on Sunday morning to settle Saturday. - **Juane**: Rice and chicken wrapped in bijao leaves and steamed. The jungle’s travelling lunch. - **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. - **Picarones**: Squash and sweet potato rings, fried and drenched in fig syrup, sold from street pans. - **Mazamorra morada**: Purple corn pudding with fruit, usually served beside rice pudding in two colours. - **Pisco sour**: Pisco, lime, sugar, egg white, bitters. The national drink and an old argument with Chile. - **Chicha morada**: Purple corn boiled with pineapple, clove and cinnamon. Served cold, everywhere, all day. - **Inca Kola**: The bright yellow soda Peru drinks with everything, sweet and unmistakably its own. ## By theme - [Hiking & trekking](https://wimup.com/hiking.md) - [World wonders](https://wimup.com/world-wonders.md) - [Hidden gems of South America](https://wimup.com/hidden-gems-south-america.md) - [Carnivals of South America](https://wimup.com/carnival-south-america.md) ## Films - [Cusco Travel Guide](https://wimup.com/watch/cusco.md), 8:14 - [Lima Travel Guide](https://wimup.com/watch/lima.md), 18:16 ## FAQs ### 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. ### 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. ## Related countries - [Argentina](https://wimup.com/country/argentina.md) - [Colombia](https://wimup.com/country/colombia.md) - [All of South America](https://wimup.com/south-america) Part of [South America](https://wimup.com/south-america.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.peru.travel/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Visa](https://www.migraciones.gob.pe/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Machu Picchu tickets](https://tuboleto.cultura.pe/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.