Passport to Peru 🇵🇪

We finally made it to Peru! The pandemic delayed our first trip to South America by four years. We had booked this in June 2020, but of course it didn’t happen given the world’s shutdown. Then we got married and honeymooned in Tahiti. We started to plan it last year, but then a family trip to Paris happened instead. So we felt thrilled to finally visit Peru! From the mystical ruins of Machu Picchu to the bustling streets of Lima, here’s our nine day guide to Peru:

Budget and planning | To Tour Group or Not?

Originally, we considered visiting more cities. We thought of taking a group tour with Costco Travel too. After considering what we wanted to do and the travel time in between cities we built our own agenda. Though looking at these group travel itineraries and asking ChatGPT for travel tips is a great way to start planning. After tons of research, I did find a customizable tour group that we used and loved called Exploor. They offered reasonable prices, had friendly bilingual staff, and provided private car transfers for all our needs. Which I didn’t expect but, it was a nice surprise.

We paid $1,338 for both of us ($670 per person). That included:

• Private car transfer from the Lima Airport to our hotel
• Day trip to Ballestas Islands and Paracas National Park from Lima
• Airport transfer from our hotel to the Lima Airport (before our flight to Cusco)
• Airport transfer from the Cusco airport to our hotel in the Sacred Valley
• Day trip around the Sacred Valley
• Transferring our luggage from the Sacred Valley to Cusco while we stayed in Aguas Calientes
• Day trip to Machu Picchu with a private guide and all tickets
• Final airport transfer to Lima airport from Airbnb

Considering the distances and that the transfers were private this was a great deal. The drive from Cusco into the Sacred Valley is nearly 2 hours for reference. They also coordinated very well after I gave them the guidance of how we wanted to do everything. While there, they used WhatsApp and clearly communicated pick up times and daily itineraries. Note: This doesn’t include flights, Ubers, accomadations and food costs.

Flights and Transportation

We took the direct flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Lima (LIM) on LATAM. It was a great flight both ways, the planes seemed newer, had tall ceilings, and great service. The flights felt surprising quick compared to a similar flight time for Tahiti. We also used LATAM for the quick flight from Lima to Cusco. The tour group recommended it for it’s reliability and multiple flights per day. Cusco is apparently one of the world’s trickiest airports due to the high altitude and location between mountain peaks. So chances for delays are high.

It’s good to know that Uber is safe and reliable in Peru. Our first transfer pick up shared that with us and recommended using Uber over regular taxis for safety. They are also very inexpensive! For instance a ride from Miraflores to Baranco was about $3-5 dollars for a 15 min ride.

Telecommunications

Check your phone plan before leaving. My T-Mobile plan offered unlimited texting and data, which was super handy! Admittedly, I hadn’t checked before and it was a nice surprise. Wifi was also plentiful so don’t forget your phone charger and you’ll be fine.

Day 1 | Exploring Lima

Our flight arrived late our first night so we checked in and went to sleep. We woke up well rested the next day and ready to explore Lima!

We stayed at the Aloft Miraflores, a great modern hotel with a ton around it. We could quickly walk to Kennedy Park and the main boulevard, Larco, which leads straight to the coast. We started with breakfast at La Lucha Sangucheria Criolla, we shared a ham and egg sandwich combo. It was good, but maybe a little heavy for breakfast. I was looking for something more like a coffee and savory pastry which we later learned was empanadas and I was so happy! So I wouldn’t recommend La Lucha for breakfast, it was a big fast food vibe for me. But worth a stop for lunch or a quick dinner.

After, we walked towards the Malecón to walk through the famous Parque de Amor. The views of the costa verde are stunning!

From Parque de Amor we walked up and around Santa Cruz Blvd to the ancient pre-Inca ruins of Huaca Pucllana. Warning: if you’re planning on visiting (and you totally should!) it’s really hot and sun exposed when touring the pyramid. Have a hat and sunscreen ready, and reapply. Cover your legs too because the back of mine got burnt. Otherwise, it’s an awesome ruin in the middle of the city and a must to add to your list. We’ve also realized that we’re most interested in archaeology so we’ll always bump an ancient site high on our list. You can call us the modern Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood.

After exploring Huaca Pucllana and spending time in the sun, we were ready for lunch! We were both craving Peruvian (duh?) so H found El Bodega nearby. It was absolutely delicious! We saw a plate of Cuasa walk past and asked the waiter what he recommended which was the Longosta Cuasa and Ceviche it made for the perfect crisp lunch as the sun burn settled in.

We then hailed an Uber to take us across town to the Plaza de Armas, also called Plaza Mayor. Said to be the center of the Spaniards continent wide empire and filled with impressive colonial-style architectural gems. We grabbed an afternoon coffee to combat the jet lag as we wandered around the square’s surrounding until we headed back to catch the sunset at the Larcomar cliff-side mall. We also got dinner at Punto Azul!

Day 2 | Ballesta Islands and Paracas Day Trip

If you want to see a unique ecosystem, look no further than Paracas National Park and Ballestas Islands. Paracas is where the desert and the ocean meet and it looks straight out of a Star Wars movie. People consider Ballestas the mini Galapagos Islands.

The start time from Lima is 4:30 a.m. since it’s a long drive and our group put us on the first boat to Ballestas Islands. We saw everything from the mysterious Candelabra geoglyph to humboldt penguins. We even spotted baby sea lions, vultures, and humpback whales. If you want to see Henri swimming in the open ocean with humpbacks, check out our trip to Moora.

After the boat ride to Ballestas, they took us on a minivan group tour to the Paracas National Park. This huge desert oasis looks unreal, especially when you see the coastline meeting the otherwise dry environment. They say Paracas was once the ocean floor.

After a full day of exploring and driving in what felt like a world away, we felt absolutely exhausted by the time we got back to Lima around 7:30 pm. We wanted a simple meal and found a low key pasta spot near Kennedy Park that did the trick. It was nothing to write home about but it worked.

Day 3 | Cusco Bound

We leisurely snoozed and stumbled upon Che Cha, just down the road from where we were staying for a pre-Cusco brunch. It was so cute and trendy and the food was great! I am putting this on my must-stop list. We had a midday flight so we were able to go on a walk thru Miraflores before heading back to the airport to catch our flight.

If you have time to kill at the airport, like we did since our flight was delayed, 10/10 recommend you grab a snack from Tanta. It was probably one of the best airport foods I’ve had. We shared an empanada and a pie de limon.

Once we landed in Cusco, our guide and driver from Exploor greeted us and transferred us to our hotel in the Sacred Valley. We specifically stayed in the town of Urubamba for its lower altitude and proximity to the Sacred Valley for our tour the next morning. Many stay in Cusco and take day trips to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu; personally, I wouldn’t recommend that. Things are really far apart, and the drive from the Valley up to Cusco can be winding. I also read that this way is an easier method to acclimate by starting at a lower level. It wasn’t until I started doing research that I realized Machu Picchu isn’t the highest point; Cusco is. Unless you’re doing tours that take you higher, like Rainbow Mountain. We arrived around 7 pm at the San Agustin Urubamba. After a light dinner at the hotel restaurant we fell asleep watching Emperor’s New Groove.

Day 4 | The Sacred Valley

We had a light bite at the complimentary hotel before Exploor picked us up at 9 am for the Sacred Valley tour. We also check out of our hotel since we were going to spend the night in Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu. Our guide also took our luggage since they were going to drop it off at the next hotel we were staying at in Cusco which was really helpful!  

We set out to explore the Sacred Valley! Our guide and driver were careful about checking in on how we were feeling with the high altitude. We started the day by making our way to the Salt Mines. Stopping in the town to learn about the artisanal methods the local families who own the mines use. It was fascinating to learn how this natural salt is harvested. We also stopped in the local shop to taste some salted chocolates and different roasted salts — which were a great souvenir to bring home.  

After, we reached the highest point in the entire trip — the Inca Ruins of Moray at 11,500 feet above sea level. That’s right, Machu Picchu is not higher, Cusco and this area of the Sacred Valley are. Or if you choose a hike like Rainbow Mountain. We opted out once someone put into perspective that its’ 17,060 ft elevation is about the same as Everest Base Camp. So know what you’re signing up for if you choose that excursion. Us sea-level folk, were not about it.

Once we wrapped walking at Moray we made our way back down into the valley for lunch. Lunch took place at a beautiful property, called Tunupa, that used to be an old Colonial house. The lunch was a buffet so it was a good way to taste foods like Alpaca. Which to no surprise I did not like. But there was soup that made a great lunch!

Our last stop on the Sacred Valley tour was the ruins at Ollantaytambo. This small village sits along the Urubamba River and includes an Inca-era neighborhood of cobblestone streets and adobe buildings. While, the steps can be steep the views are worth it. It started to rain on our tour and we were in a bit of a rush as it was almost time to board the train to Aguas Calientes.

From their our guide and driver dropped us off and took our main luggage back to Cusco. We only backpacked for the one night trip before Machu Picchu. The train is an experience in itself, as it whinds along the river and through mountain peaks. However, it takes close to two hours.

Once we arrived in Aguas Calientes, we were greeted by staff from our Airbnb stay at Panorama B&B who walked us thru the the night market and over to our stay. While it wasn’t far, it was helpful since it was dark once we arrived. They suggested dinner at Indio Feliz off the main square. It’s a fun place that looks like a Peruvian Pinocchio setting. We ordered the mushroom chicken and a quiche. The chicken was great, but I would say skip the quiche, it was a little heavy. Also, our family says I make a great quiche (try it!) so it’s not our favorite thing to order because I feel like we are always disappointed. We had to get some rest because we were getting up around 4 a.m. for the big Machu Picchu day!

Disappointed that we didn’t actually see the iconic Machu Picchu view, we asked a ranger if we could go thru again and he said no. We tried our luck again at the front gate and the kid said, “wait here, let me ask my boss” and kind of pretended not to see us when he came back. So… we walked back in with a group. And that’s how we snuck into Machu Picchu a second time. The lesson is: don’t go at opening time, book a slot that gives some time for the sun and clouds to move. It was around 8:30 a.m. for us when the sun peered thru. Look at the difference below!

Going before 10 a.m. will give you access to the Temple of the Sun, which is only open from 7 a.m. -10 a.m. daily due to damage from the amount of people visiting Machu Picchu. We had tickets for Circuit 1 or 2, but I believe they already have changed the way circuits are working since we went in April. You can see in the gallery below how the morning progressed from thick clouds to bright blue skies.

ICYW the iconic photo spot is on Circuits 1 and 2 from the “House of the Guardian.” After our quick sneak up to see Machu Picchu in all it’s glory, we took the bus back to town and grabbed an iced coffee and empanada to enjoy on our balcony before checking out at noon. We had a great patio looking over the roaring Urubamba river from our room at Panorama B&B.

After check out, we went back to the center off the Pueblo to get our Machu Picchu passport stamp! It’s an easy to miss table that just has the stamp and ink pad there to use one your own. We grabbed a second coffee and empanada along with a brownie to take on the train.

The train is 2 hours to Ollantaytambo. From there another one of our private transfers was waiting to drive us another two and a half hours to Cusco. Luckily, since it was just us in the car, we were able to nap a bit. However, that’s where I made one big mistake on the trip.

I took my fanny pack off and left it in the car when we got dropped off at the hotel. It was good we noticed quickly when we needed our passports to check into our hotel at San Blas Atoq. I panicked and called the coordinator from Exploor, who called the driver, who thankfully brought it back within 30 minutes. It took a while because he had dropped us off further because of traffic and we were staying off a walking street. But alas, all was resolved!

After the moment of fear of losing our passports and wallets wore off we walked to have dinner at Chicha, a Gaston Acurio restaurant. You’ll notice this name a lot, as Acurio is a renowned Peruvian chef. The food was delicious, had great presentation, and the setting had a certain elegant comfort to it. We slowly walked back up the our hotel, partially exhausted from the long day and the high altitude settling in. We were excited to sleep in our giant bed with no alarm! This hotel was one of our favorites on the trip. The room was spacious, the entire hotel was charming, and the views were stunning. But the cherry on top was the excellent staff!

Day 6 | Cusco  

We woke up well rested and enjoyed a light breakfast from the complimentary cafe which was just across from our room. It had a great view overlooking the city and the kitchen had a good selection of fruit and staff making made to order eggs. We set out to explore the city and planned to do one of our typical cafe crawls, sampling coffees and snacks along our route.

We had planned to go to the Machu Picchu museum and the Inca museum, but both were closed! That was a slip in planning as some museums are closed on Sundays. We stopped in for an avocado toast and coffee at Avocado, Toast, & More — it caught our attention for being avocado themed and if you know us or watch my Instagram Stories, you might have noticed we LOVE everything avocado. Since the other museums were closed, we visited the Cathedral in the main square and even caught a wedding on our way out.

After, we strolled to the Museo del Templo de Qoricancha, located in the patio of the Inca’s Temple of the Sun. It’s a small museum, but a neat building. I enjoyed the view and garden. Especially their fuchsia plants, which inspired me to plant my own when we returned home. After that we walked back towards our hotel and had a late lunch at Jack’s Cafe. The portions were so big that we took the leftovers to have for dinner at the hotel later.

Spending the day out exploring in the high altitude made us ready for a nap — it was delightful. We looked into what else we wanted to do in Cusco and decided that we had seen just about everything we wanted to see, plus with the altitude we were ready to get back to sea level. So we changed our flights to go back to Lima a day early. It was still early enough that we went for an evening stroll to check out some of the souvenir shops. We wrapped up the last night in Cusco at the hotel to enjoy the complimentary wine we got at check-in and the staff kindly heated and plated our leftovers to enjoy from a little tables on the terrace.

Day 7 | Reroute back to Miraflores

Cusco was beautiful, but we were eager to be back near the coast. It was only about $35 to change our flights, and while we lost out on one night of hotel for checking out early, we were lucky to find a last minute Airbnb with an awesome view in Miraflores.

Once we arrived back in Lima, we dropped off our bags at the Airbnb since it wasn’t ready and went for a walk along the malecón. We stopped for a crepe and smoothie to share as a snack and walked down to the beach near the pier to scope out the surfing rentals for Henri. He surfed for an hour or so while I read our travel book and looked up spots for dinner. After, we checked into our Airbnb and enjoyed the stellar ocean view. Not only did it have an ocean view, but it was right over the Parque de Amor and an area where paragliders took off. After sunset, we walked about a mile and a half to the Barranco side of town to have dinner. We landed at a place right on the edge of Barranco called LA73, it was a hip restaurant with a nice patio and the food was great. H had their burger and a beer and I had Chaufa, aka Peruvian fried rice. You can check out everything we ate in Peru here.

Day 8 | Miraflores and Barranco

This was one of my favorite days of the trip! It included all our favorite simple things to do. Henri went to surf and I went on a morning run along the Costa Verde, then did yoga overlooking the ocean from our Airbnb. Then we found an amazing coffee spot called Kaldi’s, where we got great iced lattes and an empanada (skip the focaccia; it was good but bready, and the empanada was just so good!). We enjoyed those from the balcony before needing to switch Airbnbs because we had come back to Miraflores a day earlier. After dropping off our stuff at the front desk of next place we Ubered over to Barranco.

We went straight to an artsy shop I had saved on my Instagram for month called Delado and it did not disappoint. It was a fun shop with lots of different brands and products from home decor to clothes. It even had a cute cafe in the back. We bought a lot including really cute shirts and hats with embroidered llamas. And I got the last striped bag I had saved on Instagram months ago! They also had really cute postcards and stationary.

We continued to explore the colorful buildings of Barranco, popping in and out of shops, and stopped for great coconut ice cream at Helado de Lima. As we ur sightseeing through the art filled streets and eventually made our way to the beach. We were happy to find a sand beach, called Playa Los Yuyos. It was a little late in the day for a second surf session so we planned on coming back the next day.

Then Ubered from the sand to a restaurant called Mangos at the Larcomar that has an awesome view and good ratings. We snagged a great spot to enjoy the sunset and eat. We shared a classic Peruvian dinner of a causa and lomo saltado. After dinner we went next door to Tanta to get another pie de limon to take home. We watched a movie, which is one of my favorite things to do on vacation. We watched White Chicks and ohmygosh I was laughing so much my stomach hurt, like the real in your gut laugh.

Day 9 | Miraflores and Surfing in Peru

Our last day in Peru was a bit overcast and stormy. So we started the morning with a walk along the Malecón and stopped back at Kaldi’s for iced coffees and empanadas. I did a bit of yoga and then we went back to Barranco so Henri could watch the PSG game since he couldn’t get it to play in our Airbnb. We went to El Muelle, a popular no frills cevecheria. We got a pitcher of passion fruit juice and shared a combo plate of causa and ceviche. It was so fresh!

After we made our way back to Playa Los Yuyos, only to find the surf rentals was closing early for the day. So we asked where else there was boards and walk back towards the Lima pier and found a random break with rentals at Barranco beach by a restaurant called Cala where the Latin Surf school was. H surfed into the sunset while I enjoyed the views from the jetty and beach.

After, we picked up Punta Azul again to take back to our Airbnb. We had a feast in front of the TV and watched a movie before saying goodnight to Lima one last time.

Day 10 | LIM to LAX

Our flight left at 12:30 p.m., so we needed to be at the airport by 9:30 a.m., which gave us just enough time for one last coffee to Kaldi’s and a walk before heading back home.

Have questions on planning a trip to Peru? Let me know in the comments below.