Things to do in Peru
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El Hada
Served in fresh-made cones with a hint of vanilla or lemon peel, these exotic ice creams are ecstasy. Flavors like Indonesian cinnamon, bitter chocolate or roasted apples do not disappoint. Cap it off with an espress – Café Bisetti, Peru’s best roaster, is offered.
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El Ayllu
This old-fashioned cafe is beloved by Peruvians. Longtime staff chat up clients and serve traditional pastries like lengua de suegra and pork sandwiches. Traditional breakfasts are worth trying and coffee is roasted the traditional local way – with orange, sugar and onion peels.
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Divina Comedia
With sopranos singing live arias, this unusual upscale eatery fills a small niche of romantic dining with entertainment. The food combines Peruvian ingredients with Mediterranean influences; start with tapas, a notable specialty is duck, slow-cooked to utter tenderness, or maybe that’s what you’re feeling just before the music stops.
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Deli Monasterio
Crusty, authentic baguettes are the highlight here (come early) but you can also get nice lunchboxes (perfect for day excursions) with gourmet and veggie options. The mini pain au chocolat and passion fruit cookies aren’t bad either.
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Cusco for You
Highly recommended for horseback-riding and trekking trips from one to eight days long. Horseback riding day trips go to Moray and Salinas. Ask about special rates for families and groups.
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Cusco Aventuras
Local legend of loconess Luchín will give you the ride of your life.
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Club Royal Inka
Ideal for families, this private recreation area is a fabulous place to while away an afternoon. A day pass allows access to an Olympic-sized indoor pool that’s decked with fountains, grassy areas and an ornamental duck pond. There’s also a restaurant, a trout pond and facilities for barbecues, billiards, table tennis, volleyball, tennis and sapo.
It’s about 1.5km out of town.
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Choco Museo
The wafting aromas of bubbling chocolate will mesmerize you from the start. While the museum is frankly lite, the best part of this French-owned enterprise are the organic chocolate-making workshops (S70 per person). You can also come for fondue or a fresh cup of fair-trade hot cocoa. It organizes chocolate farm tours close to Santa María. It’s multi-lingual and kid-friendly.
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Chaski Ventura
Pioneer of alternative and community tourism, with quality itineraries and guides, also involved in community development. Offers package trips to the jungle, overnights in Sacred Valley communities and Machu Picchu. French, English and Spanish spoken.
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Ceremonial Baths
If you continue straight into the ruins instead of climbing to the hut, you pass through extensive terracing to a beautiful series of 16 connected ceremonial baths that cascade across the ruins, accompanied by a flight of stairs.
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CBC Bakery
The best chocolate croissants in town, plus other scrumptious baked goods, are made in this charitable foundation that capacitates local at-risk youth as bakers
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Café de Paris
We don’t know how these Frenchmen got here, we’re just thankful. This open-air stand sells pain au chocolat, fresh croissants and desserts. The upstairs bakery offers community classes, which should leave an interesting cultural imprint on the rural Andean baking.
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Apu’s Peru
A recommended outfitter.
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Apu's Peru
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Antipode
An attentive, French-run outfit offering classic tours, treks and shorter local adventure outings.
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Andina Travel
Adventure tour operator with classic tours and treks.
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A Mi Manera
For a reasonably priced night out, this romantic restaurant serves up traditional Peruvian cuisine and pasta. Offerings like steak in port sauce, spicy yucca or mashed muña potatoes comfort and satisfy.
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Amaru Village
If you are interested in textiles, it’s worth visiting this weaving community that’s a 40-minute trip by taxi.
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Alain Machaca Cruz
Recommended for interesting alternative city tours where you can make chicha or see cuy farms, and hikes and visits to surrounding communities. Quechua and English spoken.
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Adam Weintraub
A native of Seattle, Adam has many years’ experience in Peru and guides custom high-end photography tours and workshops over all of Peru, as well as shorter trips out of Cuzco.
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Lima Open-Top Sightseeing Tour with Optional Callao Tour
Varies (Departs Lima, Peru)
by Viator
Discover Lima's rich history and beauty on this exciting sightseeing tour by open-top bus! Choose from four sightseeing options, each giving you the chance to…Not LP reviewed
from USD$24.99 -
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Café Paris
A hip little joint that favors Nirvana over Andean music and is frequented by trendy young huancaínos (Huancayo residents). It does elaborate coffees and cakes, among other snacks.
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Panadería Koky
This modern bakery-coffee shop is a contender for the best breakfast stop in the Central Andes, serving tasty sandwiches, pastries, empanadas, real espresso and other coffees. It’s lively from morning until evening and now even does a line in pizzas and other more substantial fare. There’s live music sometimes from the upstairs balcony.
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Wari Ruins
An attractive 37km road climbs about 550m to Quinua, 20km along which you will pass the extensive Wari ruins sprawling for several kilometers by the roadside. The five main sectors of the ruins are marked by road signs; the upper sites are in rather bizarre forests of Opuntia cacti. If you visit, don’t leave the site too late to look for onward or return transport – vehicles can get hopelessly full in the afternoon. Note that you have to pay the full fare to Quinua and remind the driver to drop you off at the ruins.
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Tambopata Hostel
Tambopata Hostel can arrange fun salsa classes, basic Spanish lessons and Peruvian cookery classes for very reasonable prices.
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