Cuzco
A squatter on the site of Viracocha Inca’s palace, the cathedral was built using blocks pilfered from the nearby Inca site of Sacsaywamán. Its…
Must-see attractions in Peru
Cuzco
If you visit only one Cuzco site, make it these Inca ruins forming the base of the colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo. Once the richest temple…
Complejo Arqueológico la Huaca el Brujo
North Coast
This archaeological complex right on the coast, about 60km from Trujillo, consists of the Huaca Prieta site, the Huaca El Brujo, which has only been…
Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria
Amazon Basin
At 20,800 sq km, this is the most immense of Peru’s parks and reserves. Pacaya-Samiria provides local people with food and a home, and protects…
Cuzco & the Sacred Valley
This immense ruin of both religious and military significance is the most impressive in the immediate area around Cuzco. The long Quechua name means …
Pisac
A truly awesome site with relatively few tourists, this hilltop Inca citadel lies high above the village on a triangular plateau with a plunging gorge on…
Northern Highlands
The name Gran Vilaya refers to the bountiful valleys that spread out west of Chachapoyas, reaching toward the rushing Río Marañón. Abutting the humid…
Lima
Lima’s 140-sq-meter Plaza de Armas, also called the Plaza Mayor, was not only the heart of the 16th-century settlement established by Francisco Pizarro,…
Northern Highlands
Perched on a mountaintop overlooking the small town of San Pablo, these seldom-visited pre-Inca ruins are well worth the trip from Cajamarca. The site is…
Central Highlands
This white shrine visible on a hill 1.5km from Acobamba is one of Peru’s top pilgrimage sites, built around a rock etching of Christ crucified. A small…
Nazca & Around
About 4km southeast of town are the 30-plus underground Cantalloc Aqueducts, many of which are still in working order and are essential in irrigating the…
Lima
Housed in a pristine 19th-century mansion with Spanish tile floors, this worthwhile private museum showcases a vast collection of minerals, as well as…
North Coast
This museum, once the regional archaeological showcase, is now overshadowed by the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, but it still houses an excellent…
Central Highlands
Santuario Nacional Huayllay, aka the bosque de piedras (forest of stones), is the world’s largest and highest rock forest at a chilly 4500m+ with…
Central Highlands
Set around beautiful gardens and courtyards, this convent was originally built by Franciscans in the early 18th century as a center for missionaries…
Central Highlands
These extensive Inca ruins perch on a swathe of barren pampa (pampas grass) at 3700m. It’s a worthwhile two-hour trek on a steep path from behind the…
Huaraz & the Cordilleras
If you continue north from Caraz along the Callejón de Huaylas, you will wind your way through the outstanding Cañón del Pato. It’s here that the…
Cuzco
In Inca times, the plaza, called Huacaypata or Aucaypata, was the heart of the capital. Today it’s the nerve center of the modern city. Two flags usually…
North Coast
Located in Ferreñafe, this splendid museum displays replicas of the 12m-deep tombs found at the Sicán site at Batán Grande, among the largest tombs found…
Northern Highlands
This spectacular collection of rugged ruins sprawls over a windswept plateau at a dizzying 3600m. The 3km-long site dates from around 400 BC and has…
Iglesia de La Compañía de Jesús
Cuzco
Built upon the palace of Huayna Cápac, the last inca to rule an undivided, unconquered empire, the church was built by the Jesuits in 1571 and…
Central Highlands
The best known of the myriad archaeological ruins near Tarma, this was the capital of the Taruma culture and later a major Inca administrative center. The…
Ica
In the suburban neighborhood of San Isidro, Ica pulls out its trump card: a museum befitting a city three times the size. While it might not be the…
Amazon Basin
The wildlife-rich Río Tambopata is a major tributary of the Río Madre de Dios, joining it at Puerto Maldonado. Boats go up the river, past several good…
Amazon Basin
For three generations the Guerra family has been operating this traditional rum distillery in Yanamono, in the middle of nowhere in the northern Peruvian…
Central Highlands
Hemmed in by mountains, this body of water offers restaurants and boat rides. From the east shore a path climbs to a ridge for great valley views and the…
Central Highlands
The ghostly mines of Santa Barbara, high in the hills above Huancavelica, and accessed by a tough but rewarding 1½ hour hike, are the city's most poignant…
Machu Picchu
The Inca Trail ends after its final descent from the notch in the horizon called Intipunku (Sun Gate). Looking at the hill behind you as you enter the…
Cuzco
Inside a Spanish colonial mansion with an Inca ceremonial courtyard, this dramatically curated pre-Columbian art museum showcases a stunningly varied, if…
Northern Highlands
A tiered waterfall falling in four sections, Yumbilla, rather like Gocta, was not properly surveyed until the early 2000s. And with all the recent…
Central Highlands
The imposing hilltop site of Sondor, constructed by the Chanka people, stands a couple of kilometers past the end of Laguna de Pacucha. The Chanka were…
Parque Nacional Bahuaja-Sonene
Amazon Basin
About two hours south of the Río Madre de Dios and along the Río Heath (the latter forming the Peru–Bolivia border), Parque Nacional Bahuaja-Sonene has…
Huaraz & the Cordilleras
This outstanding museum, funded jointly by the Peruvian and Japanese governments, houses most of the intricate tenon heads carved with horror-stricken…
Francisco Grippa Studio-Gallery
Amazon Basin
In undeniably the most eye-catching edifice in Pevas, the art works of Francisco Grippa, one of Peru's most famous contemporary painters, are a sight more…
Cuzco & the Sacred Valley
The real ‘lost city of the Incas,’ Vilcabamba – also known as Espíritu Pampa – is what Hiram Bingham was looking for when he stumbled on Machu Picchu. The…
Choquequirao
Discovered only in 2002 by archaeologist Percy Paz, these steep terraces on the backside of the ruins feature unique stonework resembling that found in…
Ayacucho
Sprawling for several kilometers along a cactus-forested roadside are the extensive ruins of Wari, the capital of the eponymous empire, which predated the…
Casa Museo Joaquín López Antay
Ayacucho
This captivating little museum is really part art gallery and part an explanation of the process of retablo making. Retablos, ornamental, originally…
Central Highlands
These two villages on the east side of the valley, sometimes referred to jointly as Cochas, are the major production centers for the incised gourds that…
Central Highlands
Peaceful San Pedro, some 40km into the hills from Tarma, is the production center for the country’s finest tapices (tapestries). Most of the village is…
