2 Week Peru Itinerary - Highlights of Southern Peru
You’ll have been dreaming of Peru’s highlights long before you arrive here: from the color and spice of some of Latin America’s finest food in Lima, through the ancient etchings in the desert near Nazca that have become one of the world’s greatest-ever mysteries, and up to South America’s star attraction, the ruined ridge-top citadel of Machu Picchu, cradled high in the Andes.
This itinerary covers all these highlights, and much more. But Peru is a vast country (over 1,750 miles from northwest to southeast) and its tricky topography – hundreds of miles of arid coastal desert, mighty Andean mountains, and dense jungle – mean it’s often 24 hours or more to travel overland between key destinations.
So a 2-week highlights trip cannot cover everything. Yet this itinerary, covering the capital of Lima, Peru’s second city Arequipa, and the ancient Inca stronghold of Cusco, gives you a sense of the breadth of Peru’s diversity.
You’ll get to see the nation’s slick contemporary side as you begin in Lima’s Miraflores district, then discover its abundance of pre-Columbian cultures as you head through the Nazca Lines in the desert, and then ascend to the Inca ruins scattered through Cusco’s Sacred Valley.
And you’ll also explore the arid sandy coast, followed by dramatic canyons around Arequipa, and then Andean mountains that shoot out of the bristling jungle below.
More Peru travel info:
For more info on travel in Peru, check out our guide on how to plan a trip to Peru and this list of 19 beautiful places to visit.
And if you could use some one-on-one help planning your itinerary, consider scheduling a Peru travel consultation!
Table of Contents
Day 1: Lima
Day 2: Paracas & Reserva Nacional de Paracas tour
Day 3: Islas Ballestas boat trip, Huacachina, and Nazca
Day 4: Nazca Lines flyover, Cantalloc Aqueducts, Chauchilla Cemetery
Day 5: Arequipa - Monasterio de Santa Catalina, Museo Santuarios Andinos, and Mirador de Yanahuara
Day 6: Colca Canyon day tour
Day 7: Puno & Sillustani
Day 8: Lake Titicaca: Islas Uros & Taquile
Day 9: Train, tour bus, or bus to Cusco
Day 10: Cusco - Historic Center, Qorikancha, and Saqsaywamán
Day 11: Sacred Valley - Chinchero, Maras & Moray, train to Aguas Calientes
Day 12: Exploration of Machu Picchu
Day 13: Sacred Valley - Ollantaytambo and Pisac
Day 14: Cusco day trip - Rainbow Mountain/white water rafting/Ruta del Barrocco Andino
Local help with your planning
We’ve tried to put together a comprehensive two week itinerary that hits all the highlights and covers a good chunk of the country, but Peru is huge and there’s so much to see. The itinerary here is a good jumping off point, but you should think about your goals for the trip and adapt the plan accordingly.
If you could use some help sorting through all your options, consider scheduling a Peru travel consultation with one of our Local Experts!
These are one-hour Zoom calls where you can chat with a Peru-based travel pro about the trip you’re planning and they’ll share their tips and advice, answer your travel questions, and help you perfect your itinerary.
Day 1: Lima
Peru’s capital Lima is one of Latin America’s biggest cities and presents a dramatic impression, fanned out along clifftops that plunge down into the Pacific Ocean. It is a treasure trove of colonial architecture, wondrous museums showcasing pre-Columbian artifacts and arguably South America’s finest culinary offerings.
With the one day you have here, you will only have time to experience a snapshot of its potential – but what a snapshot it will be.
Morning
Begin your trip to Peru in Lima’s coastal suburb of Miraflores, where most of the city’s good accommodation for travelers is situated. In the morning, take a stroll along the clifftop walkway known as el malecón to get a sense of Lima’s vastness as its meets the sea. The whole “boardwalk” is tree-lined and verdant, making for a very pleasant wander.
Starting your walk at the LarcoMar shopping center is a good idea. You can then walk for several miles, stopping at sights like the colorful mosaic-decorated Parque del Amor (lovers’ park) and along to Lugar de la Memoria, Peru’s post-modernist tribute to the many that lost their lives during the violence of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) era of the 1980s and 1990s.
At Parque Itzhak Rabin, two miles along the Malecón, head six blocks inland (on foot or by taxi if you are tired) to Fundación Museo Amano, for a riveting look into artifacts from the Nazca, Chancay, Chavín, Moche and Chimú pre-Columbian cultures. Alternatively, the nearby Museo Larco also offers a stunning collection of pre-Columbian pottery and gold artifacts.
For lunch you absolutely have to try Peru’s national dish ceviche – citrus-marinated fish with red onions, cilantro, sweet potato, and chunks of corn. Standout cebichería (ceviche restaurant) La Mar, owned by celebrity chef Gastón Acurio is just five blocks west of the Museo Amano. On the same street (Avenida Mariscal La Mar) you’ll find many good seafood restaurants and on a parallel street you also have the excellent El Mercado, run by renowned chef Rafael Osterling.
Afternoon
You shouldn’t leave Lima without seeing its colonial center, so get a taxi or take the El Metropolitano express bus system’s Ruta Troncal to the Plaza Mayor: the city’s central square and historic heart.
Here, take in the cathedral, still standing on the ground city founder and conquistador Francisco Pizarro set aside for the city’s church in the 16th century. The lavish Baroque building contains one of South America’s loveliest wooden choirs and Pizarro’s tomb.
A few blocks east is lemon-colored Basilica de San Francisco, an impressive 17th-century monastery with a beautiful library and thrilling catacombs to explore.
Walk or take a taxi 1.25 miles south of the square to tour the city’s best art museum, MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima) in Parque de la Cultura for a breadth of Peruvian art from the pre-Columbian to the mid-20th century.
Evening
Miraflores has the greatest choice of restaurants in Lima, in Peru, and possibly in South America. The city has a host of restaurants that have earned spots on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurant lists and several that have even made it onto the World’s 50 Best. Virgilio Martinez’s famed “Central” still holds first place in the entire world, but the options are truly endless.
There are also great bars for trying Pisco, Peru’s famous grape brandy, such as Antigua Taberna Queirolo which also serves good food.
For some more ideas on where to eat, check out our guide to Lima’s best restaurants.
After dinner, grab a taxi and head next-door to the Barranco neighborhood for drinks at the trendy bars around Puente de los Suspiros and the Parque Municipal. Barranco is slightly more bohemian than Miraflores, and you have lots of live music bars of every type and some good peñas (clubs that play live traditional music).
Overnight in Lima
Day 2: Paracas & Reserva Nacional de Paracas
Today you will travel down the south coast to Paracas and in the afternoon explore the coastal desert reserve of Reserva Nacional de Paracas
Morning
Take a south-bound bus down the South Coast of Peru with a company like Cruz del Sur (their terminal is on Javier Prado in La Victoria neighborhood) to the traveler hub of Paracas (also known as El Chaco). The ride takes about 3.5 hours.
Paracas is a busy coastal village that serves as the base for wildlife-watching boat trips to the Islas Ballestas and visits to the desert reserve of Reserva Nacional de Paracas, where interesting geographic formations, beaches, and wildlife-watching spots line the shore.
Once you get into town, go grab a good lunch that will hold you over for your afternoon exploring. One of the best spots for seafood on the entire South Coast, Inti-Mar, is the obvious choice for lunch among several options on the town’s seafront.
Afternoon
After lunch, you’ll have ample time to explore Reserva Nacional de Paracas. This hammerhead-shaped peninsula south of Paracas is an interesting opportunity to explore Peru’s coastal desert landscape on a more in-depth level.
You can go wildlife-watching at the park’s visitor center (for flamingos), in Punta Arquillo (for sea lions and seabirds), or at Playa Yumaque (for birds and even dolphins), swim at beaches like Playa La Mina, and observe the area’s intriguing geology at red-sand beach Playa Roja and bulky sea stack La Catedral.
You can take a tour, averaging around three hours, arranged on the day (or, for more peace of mind and to save time, in advance) with an agency in Paracas.
Alternatively, you could explore some of the peninsula-hugging reserve on a bike ride, via a 20-mile loop along minor roads that takes in sights like the reserve visitor center and its adjoining museum (which displays interesting artifacts found at nearby ancient sites), Playa Roja, and Playa Yumaque.
Evening
Return to Paracas town from the Reserve and relax along the shoreline, where there are several low-key, lively restaurants.
Or, since you’re in pisco country here (this is one of the biggest areas for cultivating the crop), you could instead taste some of Peru’s best Pisco sours in the place the drink is named after - the town of Pisco. It’s just a 20-30 minute taxi ride away.
In Pisco, you can visit any number of bars serving this famous drink, but legendary artisan joint Taberna Don Jaime is one of the best.
Overnight in Paracas
Day 3: Islas Ballestas boat trip, Huacachina dunes, and Nazca
Enjoy a boat trip to the wildlife-rich Islas Ballestas before heading over to try sand sports on some of Peru’s mightiest dunes at Huacachina. End the day in Nazca.
Morning
Take a morning boat trip to the offshore island chain the Islas Ballestas. To visit, you’ll need to go on an organized tour with one of the many Paracas-based agencies. Tours typically last about 2 hours and they start running from around 8:00 AM.
On the way to the islands, which are known as the “poor man’s Galápagos”, you’ll see the huge and striking geoglyph (ancient land drawing) of La Candelabra on the Reserva Nacional Paracas.
Around the islands themselves, wildlife you can spot includes sea lions, pelicans, and penguins.
Assuming you set off on an early tour, you should return from the trip by late morning, giving you time to gather your belongings and have a light lunch back in Paracas before leaving for Huacachina, Peru’s ground zero for sandboarding and sand sports more generally.
Afternoon
For getting to Huacachina from Paracas, you have two options: taking a taxi/private transfer all the way to the sand dunes in Huacachina (about 1.5 hours driving), or taking a taxi or colectivo (shared taxi) to Pisco, then catching a bus from there to Ica (which is the gateway to Huacachina), before finally taking a 20-minute taxi ride on to Huacachina.
The latter option is significantly cheaper, but will take about 3 hours in total. I’d suggest taking the direct taxi/transfer to save time.
Huacachina is a palm tree-flanked enclave of tourist hotels and restaurants gathered around an oasis that sits below some of Peru’s mightiest sand dunes.
Agencies and hotels along the main street can offer both sand board rentals for sandboarding, where you climb one or many more of the nearby sand dunes independently and then slide down them, or dune buggy rides, for which you’ll have to sign up to a tour.
After a few hours of sandy thrills and some refreshments in Huacachina, it’s time to continue on to the town of Nazca, where you’ll be staying tonight.
To get to Nazca, you can either return to Ica, where you can catch a bus running the 2.5-hour route, or hire a driver/taxi to take you directly there.
You should arrive by around 8pm if you’ve travelled by bus today, or likely a fair deal earlier if using taxis/private transfers for either or both legs of your journey.
Nazca, close to mystery-steeped ancient sand drawings the Nazca Lines, will
be your base tonight.
Evening
Nazca has plenty of decent places to eat and drink, with lots of restaurants clustered in the blocks around Plaza Bolognesi, such as La Encantada with its Peruvian-European menu.
Overnight in Nazca
Connect with Nicho, our Lima-based local expert, for help perfecting your itinerary, answers to all your travel questions, and fabulous local tips for a better visit!
Day 4: Nazca Lines flyover, Cantalloc Aqueducts, Chauchilla Cemetery, & night bus to Arequipa
This is a busy day, but one that perfectly maximizes your time. In Nazca, fly over the Nazca Lines before seeing other important archaeological sites Cantalloc Aqueducts and Chauchilla Cemetery. You’ll then take an overnight bus to Arequipa.
Morning & Afternoon
This morning, when visibility in the desert is at its optimum, it’s time to see the Nazca Lines, the striking collection of 1200-odd huge lines, figures, animal and plant drawings etched in the desert.
The line drawings date back some 1500 years, and are a Unesco World Heritage Site. The lines have become one of the world’s greatest mysteries, for they are on a scale that can only be appreciated from the air, which begs the question as to how a culture living well over a millennium before human flight as we know it was possible could ever make these astonishing shapes in the stony sand.
Do a flyover to see these lines in the detail they deserve. Aeroparacas have a Nazca-based office and a good reputation, but you will need to have your tour booked in advance.
The flyover itself only takes 30-40 minutes, so afterwards there will be a good amount of time to see some of the other fascinating nearby sights left by ancient civilisations in the desert around Nazca.
Just 2 miles outside Nazca are the Cantalloc Aqueducts, some 30-odd wood- and stone-built waterways built for irrigation purposes by the Nazca culture during the first millennium AD.
Chauchilla Cemetery, 17 miles south of Nazca, is a collection of bones and mummies attributed to the Nazca civilization and in existence for around 1000 years.
You can either hire a private taxi to take you to the aqueducts and the cemetery, or sign up to a group tour in Nazca. Allow a few hours to see both.
Evening
In early evening, board an overnight bus (luxury operator Cruz del Sur is always my recommendation) to take you southeast through Peru to the beautiful colonial city of Arequipa, gateway to some of the world’s most incredible canyons.
Overnight on the Nazca to Arequipa sleeper bus!
Day 5: Arequipa: Monasterio de Santa Catalina & Museo Santuarios Andinos
Your 5th day in Peru is dedicated to exploring the delightful colonial city of Arequipa, home to some of Southern Peru’s finest sights, such as the city’s Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a colorful 16th-century monastery.
Arequipa looks starkly different from both Lima and Cusco (as well as other Andean cities) and it also has historically been somewhat separate from the rest of Peru, both politically and geographically. The city’s defining feature is its white stone construction. The stone, called “sillar”, is volcanic in origin and gives the city an elegant, almost glistening aesthetic.
Dominating the horizon are a series of volcanoes, and the city feels more desert-like than what you’ll see as you head into the Andes.
Morning
Your overnight bus should have you arriving fairly early in the morning into the delightful colonial city of Arequipa, which will be your base for the next two nights.
On arrival, deposit your luggage/check in to your accommodation (ideally, you’d stay in the Unesco-listed city center) and then set off on foot within the city for some exploring.
First up, head to the central Plaza de Armas, where you will see the spectacular cathedral – the only one in Peru to occupy an entire city block – made out of white stone.
Pasaje Catedral behind the cathedral has lots of good (if touristy) places for coffee and breakfast, or you could visit a quality nearby café like Coffee Roaster – Kaffeehaus on Calle Melgar a couple of blocks further out.
Easily occupying your time between now and lunchtime will be Museo Santuarios Andinos, where the highlight is gazing at the mummy ‘Juanita’, a body almost perfectly preserved in the ice from the Inca Empire’s heyday in the 1450s. Expect to spend a few hours in the museum.
Afternoon
Lunch in Arequipa is an experience in itself, as it is the center of the must-try picantería culture: cheap, set-menu communal restaurants where diners all sit together at long tables, sampling local specialties like ocopa (cooked potato doused in spicy, creamy sauce) and rocoto relleno (stuffed peppers). Try La Nueva Palomino picantería in Yanahuara district (take a taxi here).
After this iconic experience, head to arguably the city’s premier sight, the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a mighty colonial monastery dating from 1580, full of beautiful cloisters and offering many interesting insights into how the nuns lived their lives.
Round off the afternoon with a pre-sunset walk up to Mirador de Yanahuara, a viewpoint offering a panorama of the historic city center, with the 19,100-ft El Misti volcano rising spectacularly behind. For a treat to accompany the view, the square behind the viewpoint often has a vendor or two selling queso helado, a local ice cream. It’s wonderful.
Evening
The historic center has some great venues for eating out. These days, even celebrity chefs have been attracted to Arequipa. The famed-restaurateur Gastón Acurio now has a restaurant here, Chicha, where the menu mainly reflects the cuisine likely to have dominated meals in Inca times (alpaca carpaccio, ceviche, river prawns). It’s expensive, but fantastic.
After dinner, head to Avenida Dolores, 2.5 miles south of the Plaza de Armas, which is a great place for a lively local night out with plenty of salsa clubs. But be warned – your day trip to the Cañon de Colca starts early tomorrow, so don’t stay out too late!
Overnight in Arequipa
Day 6: Colca Canyon day tour
Today you’re headed on a day trip to one of Peru’s standout sights: the exquisite and enthralling Cañon de Colca, one of South America’s deepest canyon systems.
Morning & Afternoon
Today you’re headed on a day trip to one of Peru’s standout sights: the exquisite and enthralling Cañon de Colca (Colca Canyon), one of South America’s deepest canyon systems. Here, river-laced passages snake through sheer rock walls for more than 60 miles, with dramatic scenery changes along the way.
Sign up with an Arequipa agency (reserve in advance) for a tour that will enable you to see some of the key sights in a short space of time.
You’ll begin in the early hours of the morning (often 2-3am!) for the 14-hour tour, heading from Arequipa across the edge of the Reserva Nacional de Salinas y Aguada Blanca, where you will spot vicuñas and perhaps Andean foxes on a starkly beautiful volcano-dotted tract of protected Andean plain.
The tour will continue to the lofty viewpoint of Paso de Patapampa at in excess of 16,000 feet of altitude and on to Chivay, gateway town for the canyon, where you’ll perhaps get to bathe in the hot springs.
The furthest the day tour gets into the canyon is the Cruz del Cóndor viewpoint – the day’s highlight – where you’ll likely get to spot Andean condors, the world’s largest birds of prey, swooping on thermals with the plummeting 3900-foot rock walls of the canyon beneath.
It will then be time to turn back from the canyon and return the same way to Arequipa.
Evening
After a thrilling day in the canyons, you will likely want to stay close to your lodgings in central Arequipa this evening. An excellent choice for food (burgers), drinks, and live music all in one venue is Woodstock near Monasteiro de Santa Catalina.
Overnight in Arequipa.
Day 7 - Puno and Sillustani
Depart Arequipa early in the morning and make your way through the vast Altiplano as en route to the city of Puno, gateway to Lake Titicaca. If you take an early bus, you’ll have time to see a bit of Puno and explore one of the Altiplano region’s most interesting archaeological sites, Silluststani.
Morning
This morning, leave Arequipa on one of the earliest daylight departures (6-7am) for the 5-hour bus journey to Puno, a city of about 120,000 people sitting right on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The ride through the Altiplano (high plateau) is beautiful, so enjoy the views and relax after the previous busy days.
Also prepare yourself for a change in altitude. From Arequipa’s relatively mild 2,300 meters, you’ll be climbing to a breath-busting 3,800 in Puno.
Afternoon
Assuming you get the first bus, you’ll be arriving into Puno around midday. Drop your luggage/check in to your accommodation and then immediately set out to explore.
Puno is the jumping-off point for exploring the shimmering Lake Titicaca, one of the planet’s highest navigable bodies of water, South America’s largest lake, and one of Peru’s best places to discover ancient indigenous cultures and traditions. The city also has several other worthwhile sights, but you can see these later on during your stay.
For now, grab a quick lunch and sign up in one of Puno’s many travel agencies for an afternoon tour of Sillustani.
Sillustani is a collection of ancient chullpas or funerary towers, likely erected by the pre-Columbian Colla culture to remember their dead. Some of the towers are almost 40 feet tall and the effect, backed by wild Andean plains (altiplano) and a lake that attracts a variety of birdlife is impressive: it’s the Titicaca shoreline’s most impressive ancient site.
Tours here take around three hours, with about half of that being out-and-back travel time (45 minutes each way).
Once back in Puno, it’s time to get an insight into the city that bills itself as the folklore capital of Peru. A great place to do this is the Museo de la Coca y Costumbres, where you can learn about the importance of the coca plant to Andean culture and see many traditional regional costumes - worn both in daily life by indigenous peoples here and at festivals.
There’s not a ton to see in Puno as the city is modern and, frankly, pretty nondescript. Go for a walk down the main street, take a peak at the docks if you want, or climb up to the Kuntur Wasi viewpoint for a gorgeous view over the lake. The viewpoint involves a climb of 620 steps, but you can also take a cheap cab.
Evening
In the evening, take it easy and have a leisurely dinner. Jirón Lima, the street heading north and south from the eastern side of the Plaza de Armas, has most of Puno’s restaurants and bars. La Table del Inca is an interesting and atmospheric choice for Andean-European fusion cuisine.
Overnight in Puno.
Day 8: Lake Titicaca: Islas Uros & Taquile
Enjoy a day on Lake Titicaca exploring the floating Uros Islands and lovely Taquile. In the afternoon, you’ll also have time to visit the archaeological site of Ichu near Puno.
Morning
Today, take an early morning ferry boat (6-8am) or join an organized tour for the highlight of a Lake Titicaca trip: visiting the islands in the middle of the lake.
To support tourism that benefits the communities here, it is best (and perfectly straightforward) to go independently, though the advantage of taking a tour is that you may learn more of the history and cultural traits of the islands. Be sure to ask before taking photographs of the people who live on these islands, and take some snacks/drink with you for the voyage.
Boats leave regularly from around 6am to Islas Uros. When you disembark on Islas Uros, ask about boat times on to Isla Taquile, as schedules change, but there are always boats going on there. Similarly on Isla Taquile, ask upon arrival about the boats heading back again to Puno, as schedules change.
Your first port of call should be the Islas Uros – human-made islands constructed from the tortora reeds that grow on the lake. The reeds are also used to build the island houses and make the islanders boats.
After this, get one of several boats onward to Isla Taquile in late morning.
Afternoon
Placid and pretty Isla Taquile is a lovely place to walk around, with steep terraces shelving up to a conical hilltop. It’s also known for its textile production and has added interest as being Quechua-speaking (most surrounding communities speak Ayamara). When you arrive, be sure to check return boat times to Puno, which change frequently.
The best walk is the climb up to the viewpoint in the middle of the island giving incredible views of the lake backed by Andean peaks.
After spending some time here, return by boat to Puno. Arriving in Puno by around 3pm, you’ll have time before sundown for an afternoon walk around the pre-Columbian temple of Ichu just outside the city. Get a taxi to take you out to the beginning of the 15-minute climb up to the ruins and ask the driver to wait for the hour while you explore the site.
Evening
With a long onward journey to the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco on the cards for tomorrow, you won’t want to make tonight too late of a night. Soak up the special atmosphere of a restaurant like Mojsa on the Plaza de Armas, where Lake Titicaca trout is a menu highlight.
Overnight in Puno.
Day 9: Train, tour bus, or regular bus from Puno to Cusco
You have 3 different options for how to get from Puno to Cusco. Know in advance that no matter which means of transportation you use, most of your day is going to be spent in transit.
The fastest journey between Puno and Cusco still takes 7-8 hours, while the tour bus and train are full-day journeys. If you opt for the regular bus, figure that you’ll get into Cusco in the late afternoon.
Morning & Afternoon
Today, it’s time to head north on a long journey to the marvelous city of Cusco. To get there, you can take a public bus, a tour bus, or the train.
Whichever option you choose to negotiate the next leg of your Peruvian adventure, you’re going to take the majority of the morning and afternoon doing it, so you might as well embrace it and enjoy the journey as much as possible.
The options are headlined by one of Peru’s and South America’s few remaining long train journeys, courtesy of either the PeruRail Titicaca train or the Belmond Andean Explorer. Both trains follow the same route, which runs across the altiplano along one of the world’s highest regularly-used set of tracks and train stations.
These are both luxury trains (the Belmond even more so) and prices for the journey are as steep as the altitudes you’ll be passing through. Nonetheless, if you have the budget for them, they’re a pleasure.
Of the two companies/routes, PeruRails ten-hour train journey, departing Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, is the only feasible option for this itinerary. The Belmond Andean Explorer is far more expensive and departs much less frequently.
Alternatively, tourist buses such as the Inka Express service, also cover the Puno to Cusco route in about the same amount of time and they are a far cheaper, though less spectacular option. These buses stop off at several sights along the way, such as the beautiful church in Andahuayillas.
Whether you opt for the train or tourist bus, lunch is included with both experiences.
Finally, for the cheapest option, you can also take a standard direct bus (no touristic stops or lunch), which runs the route in 7-8 hours. Many buses will stop at a roadside rest stop (which may or may not have a simple restaurant) about halfway through the journey.
Evening
Depending on what time you depart from Puno, you could arrive in Cusco as early as 4pm (if you take the standard bus), and between 5 and 6pm if you take the train or tourist bus.
Cusco served as the ancient capital of the Inca empire from the 13th to the 16th centuries, and after your long journey you’ll likely be in the mood for a good dinner. Thankfully, Cusco’s range of eating options are second only to Lima.
After a stroll around the Plaza de Armas to get a feel for the city, dine in one of the prettiest and best restaurants in town, Ciccolina, a block northeast of the Plaza de Armas. There, you can enjoy inventive Italian-inspired dishes made with Andean ingredients in a lovely colonial property.
For more ideas on where to eat, check out our guide to dining in Cusco.
Overnight in Cusco.
Day 10: Cusco - Plaza de Armas & city center, Qorikancha, and Saqsaywamán
A stunningly preserved colonial gem, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire is a highlight of any trip to Peru. The city is a paradise for walkers with pleasant streets, charming squares, and lots of alleyways to duck down. Hints of the city’s Inca past can also be seen all over, chiefly in the massive stone foundations of countless buildings.
After you explore the city center and get your fill of the colonial core, venture out into the surrounding hills to look at atmospheric Inca archaeological sites.
Morning
Spend this morning discovering some of Cusco’s historic central sights. Despite the abundance of places to see, you will be able to take in quite a lot on a dedicated exploration this morning.
This should begin with the 16th and 17th-century cathedral, with its stunning collection of escuela cuzqueña (Cusco school) art – a style combining European religious painting with indigenous Peruvian motifs. Be sure to check out The Last Supper with cuy (local delicacy, roasted guinea pig) as the Disciples’ choice of meat.
You could also visit the Museo Machu Picchu, displaying many of the archaeological finds from Machu Picchu, get in a walk through the pretty San Blas neighborhood, and admire the striking archaeological site of Qorikancha, once the most important temple in the entire Inca world and now a Dominican monastery.
Afternoon
Gather a picnic lunch together and get a private taxi to whisk you out to some of the Inca sites in the green hills around Cusco. The most important of these is Saqsaywamán, site of the annual Inti Raymi festival of the sun, and a 15th-century Inca citadel.
With enough time this afternoon, you could also fit in visits to Q’enqo and Tambomachay. Q’enqo is a ceremonial rock plastered in symbols such as the puma, condor, and llama that were of importance to Inca culture, while Tambomachay is a stone bath thought to be connected to worship of an Inca water deity.
Evening
Head back to Cusco’s city center and spend some time in atmospheric Plaza San Blas for your evening tonight. Start off at one of the many inviting cafes like Monkey Café with its selection of coffees made with Peruvian beans, and finish at somewhere like Limbus Restobar, a lively bar-restaurant with some of the city’s best views.
Overnight in Cusco.
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Day 11: Sacred Valley: Chinchero, Maras & Moray, and evening train to Aguas Calientes
Today is all about the Sacred Valley. Your first stop is Chinchero, a pleasant town with a strong tradition of textile production. After, you’ll see some of the valley’s most interesting ruins, Maras and Moray, before you take an evening train up to Aguas Calientes town at the base of Machu Picchu.
Morning
Hire a private transfer this morning to maximise your time in the alluring Sacred Valley which stretches northwest beyond Cuzco through verdant mountainsides speckled with traditional towns and villages and ancient Inca ruins.
With an 8am start, you’ll be in Chinchero within an hour. This fetching little Andean town was known to the Incas as the birthplace of the rainbow and is known to tourists today for its excellent textile making. You can see this being done at the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales in the center.
There are also Inca ruins and a pretty colonial church to see. Chinchero is also the base for visiting Moray: the fabulous series of concentric Inca depresses shelving up from a depression in the ground, and the next stop on your trip.
What exactly Moray was is up for debate, but one commonly offered theory is that the terraces were a sort of agricultural testing ground for growing crops from around the Inca empire in a single location. The different levels may have mimicked growing conditions and altitudes of different areas in the empire.
Leaving Chinchero in late morning, allow an hour to drive here from Chinchero and two to three hours to look round the site and lunch at Peruvian celebrity chef Virgilio Martinez’s delightful Mil restaurant on the edge of the ruins, showcasing authentic Andean ingredients.
Afternoon & Evening
Continue in mid afternoon on to Salineras de Maras, one of the most impressive ancient sites in the Sacred Valley. It’s a half-hour drive from Moray above Urubamba.
Salineras are salt pans, and here a thermal spring at the valley top feeds into 3000-odd salt pans (wells), scattered down the valley slopes, from which salt has been extracted since at least Inca times. It’s a bizarre, impressive and refreshingly different site from the region’s myriad other ruins. Spend an hour or so looking around here.
After visiting Maras, you’ll continue to the town of Ollantaytambo. You won’t visit the town or archaeological site today (you’ll do that later), but should instead head straight to the train station to catch a late evening train (either at 7pm or 9pm depending on your preference) to the gateway town for Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes.
You can while away time waiting for the train with drinks, snacks, or dinner at one of the area’s best restaurants, El Albergue, or the attached Café Mayu, run by the same people.
It’s then a two-hour train journey to Aguas Calientes, your base for tonight, where you can check into your lodgings and get ready for another early start tomorrow for your visit to South America’s most famous attraction, Machu Picchu.
Overnight in Aguas Calientes.
Day 12: Explore Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu, for many the highlight of a trip to South America, really needs no introduction. Today is dedicated to exploring this imposing and spectacularly situated Inca citadel and hiking up to some of its best viewpoints.
In the evening, you’ll take the train back down to Ollantaytambo where you’ll spend the night.
Morning & Afternoon
Get an early start to Machu Picchu today. Buses for the 25-minute run up to the entrance to the site start running at at 5.30am and it’s worth getting there at the beginning of the day to see this exquisite historic sight early when there are fewer tourists. Separately, make sure you have purchased your tickets to Machu Picchu well in advance - at least several weeks before visiting.
Machu Picchu is an Inca citadel, built in the 15th century atop an Andean ridge and never discovered by Spanish conquistadors following its abandonment, or by anyone else, until American Hiram Bingham’s rediscovery of the site in 1911.
There is so much to see here: the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock, a formidable site overview, the Incas’ ceremonial baths and a triumvirate of temples including the Temple of the Three Windows, which prettily frames the mountains behind, and the Temple of the Condor with its condor head carving.
The list above is just covering the ruins, but many adventurous tourists like to take on the hikes up one of the two mountains flanking the complex. Top choice is the more precipitous mountain of Wayna Picchu, which limits its visitor numbers, but the higher mountain is Cerro Machu Picchu, which yields even better views.
To do justice to seeing the ruins and to take in one of the two viewpoints, allow at least five to six hours.
When you’re ready to go, head back down to Aguas Calientes (it will likely be mid-afternoon), where you’ll have time for an afternoon soak in the Las Termas hotsprings.
Evening
Take an evening train for the two-hour ride back to Ollantaytambo, your base for tonight. You have a few options for train class, and I always recommend the Vistadome which has big windows and offers lovely views.
Once in town, go for dinner close to the Plaza de Armas and enjoy a walk around the lovely little stone center. As you wander, you’ll hear the quiet babble of running water all around you; the town has a series of open irrigation canals that run along the sides of streets. It’s incredibly atmospheric, especially when surrounded by the Andes’ towering peaks. Enjoy it.
Ollantaytambo is also the location of some fascinating historic sights, some of which you will have time to explore tomorrow.
Overnight in Ollantaytambo.
Day 13: Sacred Valley: Ollantaytambo, Pisac, and Cusco
On your second full day in the Sacred Valley, you’ll get to explore the stunning archaeological sites of Ollantaytambo and Pisac, before returning to Cusco.
The vast majorities of visitors to these sites come first from Cusco, meaning that they visit Pisac in the morning and then Ollantaytambo in the afternoon. You’ll be doing the reverse, meaning that you’ll get to enjoy both sites with almost no other visitors.
Pisac. Photo: McKay Savage from London, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Morning
This is going to be a very busy day with a lot of sightseeing, so to do it all you will need to enlist a private driver/transfer service for the entire day.
After an early breakfast, take a few hours to climb west of the Ollantaytambo Plaza de Armas and explore the mighty Ollantaytambo Ruins, comprising a temple and fortress complex distinguished by flurries of steeply-shelving terraces that cascade down green mountainsides. The ruins were interestingly the site of one of the Inca’s relatively few victories over the Spanish conquistadors in 1536.
Afterwards, take a late-morning transfer for the 1.5-hour drive via Urubamba to Pisac. You will spend the rest of the day here in the Sacred Valley’s New Age-influenced colonial town, before returning to Cusco this evening.
Afternoon
Get lunch right when you arrive into Pisac and then start exploring the town, which boats the Sacred Valley’s biggest market. Pottery and weavings made with sheep and alpaca wool are important local handicrafts and you’ll see a lot of them here. Bargaining is expected at the market and know in advance that much of what you’ll see sold as alpaca and baby alpaca is actually made with synthetic or less valuable fibers.
After wandering through the market, turn your attention to the highlight of a visit here: the climb up to the Pisac Ruins, which will take the remainder of the day. It is a 2-hour hike up to this Inca citadel, but you can also get a taxi up most of the way, saving your energies for exploring the complex.
The steep-sided ruins, comprising terraces interconnected by Inca steps and bulky doorways and topped by a temple, are not only of interest in themselves, but also provide some of the Sacred Valley’s most beautiful panoramas.
Whenever you’re ready to leave, I suggest heading back down to the town on foot via the route that you may or may not have previously climbed up. It will likely be early evening by this point, so get back in your private transfer and continue the rest of the way to Cusco.
Evening
This will be your third night in Cusco and you may already be familiar with the parts of the city you like best by now. For dinner, you could try guinea pig (or lots of other wonderful treats) in the lovely outdoor courtyard of Pachapapa.
You might want to save your biggest night out in Cusco for tomorrow, however: the end of your epic tour around Peru!
For more restaurant ideas, check out our Cusco restaurant guide.
Overnight in Cusco.
Day 14: Cusco day trips - Rainbow Mountain, white water rafting, Ruta del Barrocco Andino
Seeing as you’ve already had a full day and a few evenings to explore Cusco, we set aside your last day in Peru for a day trip out of the city. You could just as easily spend the day lounging around Cusco and taking it easy. These are just some options.
If you’re feeling up for another active day, consider a visit to the brightly-colored Rainbow Mountain, try some river rafting in the pretty countryside near to Cusco, or tour some of the region’s stunning churches and chapels on the Ruta del Barroco Andino.
Morning & Afternoon
For the final day of your trip, it’s time to set out on one of the several fantastic day trips that Cusco offers away from the Sacred Valley sights. Any of the below will keep you entertained until evening, and can be booked with many Cusco agencies.
Rainbow Mountain
This popular trip entails a three-hour one-way drive to a trailhead near Pitumarca, where you begin the 6-mile out-and-back hike up to a viewpoint beneath the spectacular Rainbow Mountain, so called because its slopes are colored in the stripes of the mountainside’s 14 different minerals. The distance is not the tough thing with this trek, but the climb to over 16,400 feet means altitude fatigue can be a concern.
This is almost certainly the most popular non-Sacred Valley day trip from Cusco, so know that it can get very busy. Also, it’s unlikely that the colors you’ll see in real life match what you’ll have seen photos of. Many tour operators require a rather brutally early morning pick up time for tours as well, meaning that you won’t get much sleep.
It’s certainly not my favorite activity near to Cusco and we don’t typically recommend it, but it’s extremely popular, so we’ve listed it.
White water rafting
A fun, thrilling day’s excursion from Cusco is taking a short trip south of the city to some stretches of rapids on the upper Río Urubamba river. The Chuquicahuana section is the toughest with Class III to V rapids, while easier and closest to Cusco is the lovely Pampa to Huambutio section, a great introduction to rafting for families. Whichever section you choose, you’ll see relatively uncrowded and idyllic Andean countryside as you paddle.
A longer day trip for rafting would involve driving out to a section of rapids on the Apurimac river. It’s a long day though, so I usually think rafting the Urubamba makes more sense.
Ruta del Barrocco Andino
Another great and more leisurely option for exploring a different part of the Cusco region is to tour the Ruta del Barroco Andino, which combines several intriguing religious sights southeast of Cusco.
Sites include the magnificent churches in Huaro, Canincunca, and Andahuayillas – the latter known as the ‘Sistine Chapel of South America.’ All three occupy beautiful settings, especially the chapel in Canincunca, which stands next to a pretty lake.
Evening
For your last night in Cusco (and Peru) treat yourself to one of the city’s best meals at Morena in the Plaza de Armas. The food here is a mix of comida criolla (coastal food) and Andean, so you’ll find a bit of everything. The setting is lovely, the service excellent, and the food diving. Don’t skip dessert - they’re ice cream dish served inside a cacao pod is fabulous.
After dinner, head over to Museo del Pisco where you can sample myriad versions of Peru’s famous grape brandy. Raise a toast to a wonderful adventure in Peru: you’ve covered many of this South American nation’s finest highlights, and in just 14 days!
If you don’t have an early flight tomorrow, round things off with some live rock or salsa music at Ukuku’s, near the Plaza de Armas.
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