The Huaraz Plaza de Armas is beautiful, especially when the peaks above are pink with sunset.
Huaraz is postcard perfect everywhere you turn.
I’ve seen lots of people compare the Cordillera Blanca, the mountain range that towers above Huaraz, to the Swiss Alps, but honestly there’s no comparison. The Cordillera Blanca has the most tropical glaciers in the world and is home to one of South America’s oldest (and most psychedelic) cultures, Chavín de Huántar. It is truly unique for its topography, history and modern culture.
Huaraz is in the Peruvian region of Áncash, a spectacularly beautiful place and my third favorite of the 22 regions I’ve visited in Peru. (My favorite is Cusco, for obvious reasons. San Martín and Amazonas are tied for second. I love them so much I honestly couldn’t choose).
This blog covers: 1. What to do 2. Where to eat 3. Where to stay 4. How to get around and 5. How to get to Huaraz
Most places in Huaraz have this impressive view of Mt Huascarán.
Huascarán National Park
The first part of this guide “What to do in Huaraz,” is mostly about Huascarán National Park. The park is in the Cordillera Blanca and covers 340,000 hectares/840,000 acres, larger than Yosemite National Park in California. It has over 700 glaciers and more than 30 peaks above 6,000 meters/19,685 feet above sea level, including Huascarán at 6768m/22,205ft. There are dozens of day hikes and almost as many multiday trek options.
The snowy peaks of the Cordillera Blanca, as seen from the dry Cordillera Negra.
Cordillera Blanca vs. Cordillera Negra
The names of these two mountain ranges are best explained together. The Cordillera Blanca “White Range” has dozens of peaks that sparkle with white snow and its underlying white granite. The Cordillera Negra “Black Range” is much lower, so its black basalt peaks rarely get more than an occasional dusting of snow. Between the two is a valley called the Callejón de Huaylas (pronounced ka-yay-hon de why-lass).
This map of Huaraz shows where to evacuate during a flood, or an earthquake which would likely cause a flood.
Huaraz City
Huaraz is more of a large town than a city, but locals call it a ciudad, so I’ll humor them on this one. It wasn’t an important place in Peru’s past, so it lacks impressive Inca and Spanish colonial architecture. The buildings are low because the Cordillera Blanca is an active mountain chain and earthquakes are frequent.
Most of my recommendations for where to eat and where to stay are in the city of Huaraz, though the airport is about 40 minutes away.
Wilkacocha is the first hike you should do and it has a fantastic view of the Cordillera Blanca.
1. What to Do
Most people go to Huaraz for hikes, treks and camping in the Cordillera Blanca, drawn by the turquoise lakes and massive glaciers. Below are some of my favorite day hikes, day trips and the most popular multi-day treks that involve camping or mountain refuges. This is a guide for hikers, not serious mountaineers and I don’t have any information for summiting the Cordillera Blanca’s formidable peaks.
No matter what you do in and around Huaraz, take the time to acclimate properly. Altitude sickness is a real risk in the Cordillera Blanca and most hikes are well above 4,000m/13,123ft. Spend a day resting in Huaraz at 3,052m/10,013ft before you start hiking at higher elevations. Do several day hikes before you attempt any multi-day trekking and camping trips. Take a wilderness first aid course and learn the symptoms of cerebral and pulmonary edema, which can be fatal.
I highly recommend hiking with professional, experienced, local guides. In the case of emergency, local guides know how to evacuate people in need and how to get more help quickly. In June 2026, I was part of a 5-day course in Huaraz that was Peru’s first helicopter evacuation training for guides, rescuers, paramedics, firefighters, police and the military.
Many hikes have views of Mt. Huascarán, like this view from Wilkacocha. The triple peak left of Huascarán is Huandoy and the perfect triangle on the right is Pisco.
Day hikes around Huaraz
There are lots of fantastic day hikes that you can do from Huaraz.
Most hikes are impractical or impossible to do with public transportation. If you don’t have a vehicle, you should sign up for a tour. If you want a guide to walk with you and be helpful, go with a company like Explorandes. If you want to do it on your own, go with a cheap tour because you’ll end up walking alone. Cheap tours have so many people in the group that the guide is unable to help everybody.
Wilkacocha has a fantastic view of a dozen peaks south of Huascarán.
Wilkacocha is the first hike you should do because it’s easier than almost everything else and has great views of Huascarán and many other peaks in the Cordillera Blanca. Wilkacocha means Sacred Lake in Quechua and it’s a shallow lake with lots of ducks and grebes. From Huaraz: 20 minutes in the E combi bus then a 3 hour hike or drive yourself up to the lake in half an hour and walk around the lake for half an hour. Altitude: 3,725m/12,222ft
Pastoruri is higher altitude than Wilkacocha but in some ways an easier walk because it’s a paved path and you can ride a horse most of the way. Pastoruri used to be Peru’s only ski resort and where all Limeñians learned to ski. The glacier melted so much in the 1990s that the resort closed and the chairlift was removed. The Pastoruri tour is now sold as the Ruta del Cambio Climatico “Climate Change Tour.” From Huaraz: It’s a 3-hour drive each way to the trailhead and then a 1.5km/1mi walk on the path up to the glacier. Depending on how well you’re acclimated, the walk could take 20-45 minutes each way. Altitude: 5,250m/17,225ft
Click on photos to enlarge them.
Lake 69 is the most popular day hike from Huaraz because the lake is exceptionally pretty. It was the 69th on the initial inventory of lakes when Huascarán National Park was first established. Read my blog post about the two times I hiked to Lake 69 and why I think it deserves a name. From Huaraz: It’s a 3-hour drive each way to the trailhead at Cebollapampa and a 15km/9mi hike each way from the trailhead to the lake. Altitude: 4,604m/15,092ft
Laguna Consuelo
Literally named “Consolation Lake” this is where people stop on the way to Lake 69 if 4,297m/14,098ft is enough altitude and going higher would be too much.
Camping with Explorandes
The second time I hiked to Lake 69 in 2026, I camped the night before with Explorandes and it was a much more pleasant trip than the first time in 2022.
The squarish peak above Churup Lake is also named Churup. Churupita is above but hidden from this angle.
Churup is my favorite hike near Huaraz because the lake is beautiful, few people go there, the hike is fun but also challenging and it’s possible to get there by public transportation without a tour. Most of the trail is normal single-track but some parts have cables to help climbing up sheer rock faces and to walk along steep, sloping rock walls. Be back down at the trailhead before 3pm because that’s when the last colectivo leaves to go back to Huaraz. There is no other transportation.
If you get up to Churup before noon, you should have time to hike the last bit up to Churupita. This is a much smaller lake that gets even fewer visitors than Churup. The trail goes around the left side of Churup and is part single track part scramble up a loose moraine. From Huaraz: Take the Pitec colectivo van to the Churup trailhead. From the Pitec trailhead it’s a 3.5km/2mi hike to Churup and another 1km/half mile hike to Churupita. If you hike from Llupa it’s 7km/ Churup Altitude: 4,450m/14,600ft Churupita Altitude: 4,584m/15,040ft
I was the first person to summit Mateo that morning and I had a perfect view of Huascarán behind me.
Mateo is the best beginner climb for people who have never used crampons or an ice ax before. Mateo was my first time using crampons and an ice ax but not my first time being roped up since I’ve rock climbed a fair amount. If you’re curious about mountaineering or acclimating for a big summit climb, Mateo is the place to start.
Angel Pacco is a certified mountaineering guide trained at the Huaraz Casa de Guías.
ONLY climb Mateo with mountaineering guides certified by the Casa de Guías, not with regular mountain guides. Mountaineering guides are trained for all kinds of accidents and disasters involving glaciers and high altitude. Mountain guides are trained for hiking and trekking. I can’t overstate the difference. From Huaraz: It’s a 2.5 hour drive to the Punta Olimpica tunnel, where you start climbing up to Mateo. The climb can take one to two hours, depending on how many people are on the mountain that day and how big and fast your group is. Altitude: Climb starts at 4,735m/15,535ft; Mateo summit: 5,150m/16,896ft
Day trips around Huaraz
There are plenty of fun day trips that you can do from Huaraz without hiking.
Parón is a long drive and a short walk up to the top of a glacial moraine. It’s a low key way to experience high altitude and to see the white granite that makes the Cordillera Blanca white even without snow. You can hike up the moraine but most people stay by the lake where you can rent kayaks or rowboats. From Huaraz: Unless you have a vehicle, sign up for a tour because there’s no public transportation and it’s a 3-hour drive each way. Altitude: 4,185m/13,730ft
Carhuaz is a small town most famous for ice cream that’s worth a day trip if you want to visit another town, a rest day between hikes or even if you just want to taste some odd ice cream flavors. The Porvenir ice cream shop has palta (avocado), borgoña (burgundy), rocoto (spicy chili pepper) and cushuro (algae) along with plenty of normal flavors. There is plenty of public transportation if you don’t have a vehicle. From Huaraz: Drive an hour north, about 20 minutes past the airport. Altitude: 2,688m/8,819ft
Chancos Hot Springs are one of several hot springs in the Callejón de Huaylas, since it’s such a seismically active area. Chancos has several options, from a big pool of naturally hot water to small pools you can rent individually by the hour to caves. Each cave is naturally a specific temperature and when you pay for an hour in a cave you can wait in line outside any cave. The coolest is 33C/91.4F and hottest is 54C/129F but each cave also has an attached small changing room with a shower and benches. I tried the cave that is 45C/113F (below) and managed to stay inside about 15 minutes before I needed a cold shower.
The 45C/113F Cave
The hot water hisses and steams directly out of the natural rock walls of the cave. The floor is part solid rock and part gravel, so the hot water doesn’t accumulate in deep pools under the platform.
Inside each cave is a platform and bench, which didn’t feel hot to the touch but I recommend sitting on a towel anyway.
Above ground Chavín isn’t much to look at but the tunnels underground are some of the trippiest things I’ve ever seen.
I’ve been to Chavín de Huántar twice and absolutely loved it. The place is so fascinating I’m sure I’ll go back again. Read my blog about why I loved Chavín so much. Take a tour because public transportation is extremely limited. From Huaraz: It’s a 3-hour drive each way, and tours usually pause for a break halfway there, at Qerococha Lake. Altitude:3,180m/10,433ft.
