Peru for every type of traveler
The holidays are here!
If you are still looking for a present for the traveler in your life, including yourself, I have a suggestion for you: Peru!
This blog is for foodies, adventurers, historians, birders, couples, families and more. I’m writing for almost every type of traveler – except bucket list chasers and people who just want to count one more country on their list. Peru is too amazing and diverse for that shallow of a trip.
You know I love Peru, and I honestly think this diverse country has something for every kind of traveler. Read on for all the different kinds of travelers that I know will love Peru.
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Peru For Foodies: Lima, Arequipa & the Sacred Valley
Does the city you live in have a Peruvian restaurant? If it doesn’t yet, it will soon. Peruvian food is delicious, diverse and very creative. Every year, Peru has more restaurants rated in the global top 50 than almost any other country. Foodies must start in Lima, where most restaurants are phenomenal. Also book a cooking class with a local chef through Traveling Spoon. I did a cooking class with Sandro and loved it! Another city with a fabulous food scene is Arequipa. Check out the list of my favorite restaurants in Arequipa. The Sacred Valley has some truly amazing restaurants, though most are associated with the fancy hotels you’ll find throughout the valley. If you want a place that’s not part of a hotel, try to get a reservation at Mil.
Peru For Adventure Seekers: Huaraz, Puerto Maldonado & Colca Canyon
If you love mountains, you can’t do better than Huaraz. This small city is your access to Huascarán National Park, which has 712 glaciers, 434 glacial lakes and more than 30 peaks over 6,000 meters above sea level (19,685 ft). There are more hiking trails around Huaraz than you could possibly do in a full year. If the rainforest is more your style, head to Puerto Maldonado where you can pick from dozens of lodges that will whisk you from the airport directly out to the rainforest. You’ll see more wildlife than you thought possible and traveling on the rivers you’ll get a sense of how vast the rainforest is. Colca Canyon rated as one of the top 25 places to go in 2025 by Fodor’s – and I couldn’t agree more. The canyon is amazing for hiking, for seeing condors and for experiencing the culture of rural Peru.
Peru Off the Beaten Path: Ayacucho, Huanchaco & Oxapampa
As much as I love Cusco and the Sacred Valley, they’re saturated with international tourism. If you want a great tourist destination that’s only popular with Peruvian tourists, go to Ayacucho, Huanchaco and Oxapampa. My only caveat with these three destinations is that it will be easier if you speak some Spanish. You are unlikely to find many English speakers traveling off the beaten path in Peru. Head to Ayacucho for a city that’s similar to Cusco in terms of Andean culture and Inca ruins, but that gets almost no international tourists. I recently spent a week there and saw hundreds of Peruvian tourists and only five international tourists, not counting me. Huanchaco is your coastal destination if you want to see Peruvian tourists and a handful of foreigners. Besides me, the week I was there the only international tourists I found were ones who had come through as surfers, then stayed to live in Huanchaco and work in surf shops or teach surfing. Oxapampa is the jungle destination for off the beaten path travelers and one of the few places I haven’t been yet in Peru, and yet my Peruvian friends love it so much that I have to include it. Like Ayacucho, it gets lots of tourists, but they’re Peruvian tourists. Oxapampa has all the tourism infrastructure you need (hotels, restaurants, tour guides and things to do) but without the international tourists who flock to Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado.
Peru For Culture Seekers: Cusco, Lima & Paucartambo
Cusco is the undisputed capital of Andean culture, both past and present. Inca and pre-Inca cultures are visible in archeological sites and museums, while modern Quechua culture is alive literally everywhere you look. Cusco is full of art, music, fashion, theater, food and much more. Coastal and modern Peruvian culture, leave the airport in Lima. The city is full of restaurants, museums, theaters, churches, fashion, plazas full of art and dance, and every cultural representation you can think of for modern Peru. Paucartambo is the capital of folklore, a sleepy little place most of the year, but in July it comes to life with the festival for the Virgin of Carmen July 15-18. The dances and parades you’ll see in Paucartambo are a fascinating representation of the European, African and Indigenous Andean cultures that met in this small town between the jungle and the high mountains.
Peru For Historians: Lima, Cusco, Huanchaco & Ayacucho
Peru is so full of history I would put ten places on this list if I could. Lima has the best museums in all of Peru and they rival most other South American capitals. Anybody interested in history must make a stopover in Lima and if you have time, drive a couple hours north of Lima to Caral-Supe, the first city in South America, which was inhabited 5,000 years ago. Cusco is the best place to learn about Inca history, and the colonial history that tried to erase Quechua culture and clearly didn’t succeed. Ayacucho is where South American history began, at the Pikimachay cave where archeologists found evidence that people were living 20,000 years ago. That’s about 4,000 years earlier than the first recorded settlements in North America. Archeologists have found evidence that people were surfing on the Peruvian coast near Huanchaco more than 4,000 years ago, thousands of years before the first evidence of surfing culture in Polynesia.
Peru For Couples: Sacred Valley, Arequipa & Iquitos
Romantic get-aways in Peru should start in the Sacred Valley. There are lots of places to get away from the crowds either at secluded hotels or lesser-visited trails and Inca sites. The Sacred Valley also has the country’s best selection of nice hotels that cater to couples and have spas where you can get a couple’s massage and your own private jacuzzi. Arequipa is high on my list for couples because of the volcanoes that make dramatic backdrops for photos and create lots of hot springs. Arequipa has lovely hotels and secluded restaurants, plus beautiful streets lined with buildings made of sparkling white pumice blocks. It’s the perfect place to wander around holding hands. Iquitos makes the couple’s list mostly for the quality of the jungle lodges and how well they cater to romantic trips and honeymoons. The lodges around Iquitos not only take you out to a secluded spot in the rainforest, they also are mostly small enough that you can have a private guide, rather than spend your vacation in a group tour. Treehouse Lodge is best because each treehouse is built for two and comes with your own guide, who will take you out to see wildlife when you want, and let you enjoy your private treehouse alone when you want.
Peru For Beach Lovers: Máncora, Huanchaco & Paracas
I have to admit that Peru isn’t famous for beaches. The coast drops off steeply, meaning that most beaches are narrow, and the water gets deep quickly. The Humboldt current brings cold water (and penguins) from Antarctica, so don’t expect Caribbean-warm waves. However, if you want beach on your vacation, start up north in Máncora. Up north, close to Ecuador, the water is warmer, and the beaches extend out farther than in the south. The best beaches for surfing on the Peruvian coast are around Huanchaco, where you can also learn to surf a reed boat called caballito de totora. Paracas has a series of small red-sand beaches that have relatively cold water but are still fun for birdwatching and wading out up to your knees.
Peru For Wellness Seekers: Rainforest, Sacred Valley & Máncora
I put the rainforest in general, because all the lodges in the Peruvian rainforest, from the north near Ecuador to the south near Bolivia, have fantastic spas and places for rest and relaxation. If you want to experience Peruvian plant medicine, from cacao to wachuma to ayahuasca, go to the jungle. The Sacred Valley is also full of spas, yoga retreats and honestly any kind of retreat you can think of. Máncora is a bit off the beaten path in terms of wellness, but it has a small and very strong community of yoga instructors and people who do a variety of kinds of wellness. If you want a retreat or spa on the beach, go to Máncora.
Peru For Fresh Air Fanatics: Huaraz, Colca Canyon & Sacred Valley
If you know anything about the Andes, it’s probably that they’re really tall. Peru has thin air but also very clean and fresh air. If you want high altitude valleys that are far from any factories or cities, Huaraz is your destination. Colca Canyon is also far, far away from cities and factories and any kind of air pollution. You’ll see plenty of condors soaring on the thin air, but no smog anywhere. The Sacred Valley is a little more confined than the peaks of Huaras and the high plateaus of Colca, but it’s an oasis of green where everything smells like it’s growing. I don’t recommend the rainforest just because the high humidity can feel suffocating and if you want fresh air, you want somewhere dryer than a jungle.
Peru For Birders: Puerto Maldonado, Iquitos, Cusco Region & Ballestas Islands
Peru is a hotspot for biodiversity in general, but especially for birds. On my birding trips around Peru, it’s common to see fifty species in a day and only takes a bit more effort to see a hundred species. Puerto Maldonado, in Peru’s southern rainforest, has lots of birding lodges that will pick you up at the airport and whisk you off to the jungle. Iquitos has similar lodges but different kinds of rainforest since it’s much farther north, so gets different species. Cusco’s birding is more diverse because it has bird habitats from 20,000 feet above sea level down to 800 feet above sea level. My favorite places for birding near Cusco are Huacarpay marshes, Ensifera hummingbird garden, just about anywhere in the Sacred Valley and the Manu road that goes from Paucartambo down to Pilcopata, where you can stay at the Manu Biological Station. The Ballestas Islands near Paracas are the biggest marine bird sanctuary in Peru.
Peru For Families: Sacred Valley, Paracas, Iquitos
I recently wrote an article about the best things to do with kids in Lima for Lonely Planet, but I don’t actually think Lima is that good for families because the traffic is truly horrendous. The Sacred Valley has lots of fun activities for families, from horseback riding and biking to rock climbing and hiking. My favorite place to take kids is Awanakancha, near Pisac, where you can feed alpacas and llamas. Paracas has a national park with red sand beaches, and it also has the Ballestas Islands nearby, which make a fun half day boat trip out to see a series of protected islands covered with wildlife. Iquitos is a fun place to take kids who like wildlife, especially if they like monkeys. Isla de los Monos, about an hour from Iquitos by riverboat, is a rescue center where monkeys are set loose on the island, after proper quarantine and medical are. Most are rescued from the illegal pet trade, so they often arrive with major medical needs. After they’re healed up, they’re ready to play with visitors and the other monkey residents of the island.