Two Weeks In Peru: Our Top Tips For The Best Travel Itinerary
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Two Weeks In Peru: The Best Itinerary
Our first stop in our South American travels was Peru, the exotic land where Paddington came from haha. This is pretty much all we knew about Peru before going, we had no idea what to expect- would it be warm or cold, what would the nature and the people be like, what about the food? Pretty much our only must-see was Machu Picchu (obviously) but other than that we were totally open! What we discovered both blew our expectations out of the water and, at times, also didn’t meet them. Here we’ll set out what we saw for you, what we recommend and our tips for visiting them for the perfect 2 week Peru itinerary!
the best places to go in peru
We compiled our itinerary of the best places to go in Peru based off of other travellers’ advice we met along the way, Lonely Plant and other blog posts.We truly loved the path we chose because it covered all the main bases and included such a wide variety of landscapes and nature!
In total we went to:
These places covered the south of Peru, the north is greener and equally as beautiful we’ve been told, so also definitely worth a trip! The south is more desert-like and then gets greener as you head closer inland, towards Machu Picchu. There’s some really amazing scenery and wildlife, especially at Islas Ballestas. The temperature was quite mild (except in the desert of course)- we had to buy wool ponchos to keep us warm! Overall we found Peruvian people to be very friendly but as tourism is a budding industry, sometimes you are simply seen as another ‘gringo’ with dollars in their pocket, but overall it wasn’t too bad. They are extremely accommodating and open, and something that really touched us was how happy everyone is even with so little at times. We also loved how proactive everyone is with their livelihoods- if you want to make or sell something, or have an idea about some way to make money then you can do it!
One major tip we learnt with the food in Peru is to ask your hostel for advice or better yet: ask a local. We simply stopped to ask people in the street and were never disappointed (whereas times when we followed advice online the food was always mediocre and overpriced). The more filled with local people, the better! There’s some interesting fruit to try as well, and don’t forget to indulge in some street food. One thing you will see a lot of is different types of corn, they have over 100 varieties! And a must is to not leave without trying their world-famous ceviche, it really is worth the hype.
arriving in LIMA
This was our first stop in Peru, we landed directly from London for about £400 each one way (this will be much cheaper overall if you book a return directly but we didn’t know where we would be flying back from). It was cloudy and muggy when we arrived, and it was an overnight flight so, needless to say, we were pretty disorientated. The airport itself is quite chaotic but we had organised with our hostel beforehand for a pickup so we could ease ourselves into it a bit more calmly. We’d booked to stay for 3 nights, which is something we’d recommend doing if you’re travelling for the long-haul so you can keep yourself open to new ideas- you never know where your adventures will take you! Even 1 night is good enough so you can check if you like a place before being locked in for too long. We did all of our planning and reserving the night or a few days before leaving each place (and on the day of on more than one occasion!) always through Booking.com, which worked well for the whole of South America. We also did a bit of Couchsurfing and Workaways, which we’ll go into more detail on other posts.
Lima was slightly more chaotic than we were expecting. The area around Miraflores on the coast was nice though, it’s really good for a walk and they have an open-air mall with some sculptures and a cool up-and-coming dining area further down. There’s also an awesome cat park right in the centre! The main square has beautiful Spanish architecture, although be careful with the indoor food market nearby if you’re squeamish about meat!
Overall we’d say 2 days is more than enough to get you settled in before moving on to other parts of Peru.
visiting PISCO/ PARACAS + THE ISLAS BALLESTAS
We decided to go here next because it’s only a 4-hour bus ride from Lima and is dubbed the “Poor Man’s Galapagos”, and we were definitely impressed! We stayed in Pisco because we had seen in Lonely Planet that this was the recommended place to stay but we personally wouldn’t recommend it. To get to the Islas Ballestas you leave from Paracas anyway and from what we saw it seemed quainter and more charming there. It’s a small fishing town but has everything you need for the couple of days you’ll be there. As Pisco (and cuisine from Peru in general) was becoming more and more popular in London at the time, we thought it would be cool to see where the drink originally came from. Apparently, you can do tasting tours around the area but we didn’t find the town itself very impressive.
There are lots of tours in the town offering excursions to the Islas Ballestas, but your hostel probably organises one too, and as they’re all more or less the same price (i.e. affordable) it might work out easiest for you to book it through them directly. If you do stay in Pisco, we stayed at the Hostal Tambo Colorado which was super cute.
You’ll usually be picked up from your hostel and brought directly to the boat for the tour. On the way out you’ll pass the Candelabra lines on the side of the rocks, potentially dated before the Nazca lines! The indents in the sand aren’t very deep at all and have only remained for so long (over 2000 years) because it has never rained there!! Not far in, you’ll soon start seeing the islands and all the THOUSANDS of birds flying around. Seriously. There. Are. So. Many. Birds. Also, because of this fact, the smell is pretty intense at times. Our favourites were also the group of penguins in the middle of all this madness looking like they had just been teleported there accidentally. You will see A LOT of seals too, including bull seals! We absolutely loved their sass, and you can get quite close to them (always on the boat, it’s a protected island so you can’t get off). There is one man that lives there to protect the wildlife and see that no one tries to steal the guano, which is ‘harvested’ about every 8 years or so and sold for crazy amounts of money.
After a good while touring around the islands for all your photo and awe-ness needs, you’ll be taken to the red beach in Paracas, which feels like you’ve suddenly landed on another planet! Plus, there’s a flamingo beach which is always cool. This was one of our favourite activities we did in Peru.
THE ICA DESERT + HUACACHINA OASIS
Our next stop in Peru was to the Ica desert and Huachina oasis, which were super cool! We had never been in the desert before so this was an amazing experience for us. Huacachina oasis is very small but cute (and a good base to have in the middle of the desert). We only a day trip to Huacachina and it was sufficient for experiencing but our friends also stayed longer, at the lovely hotel Hosteria Suiza, so this is an option if you’re interested too.
We got the bus from Pisco to Ica which took about 2 hours (the same one we had taken to get from Lima to Pisco). A word of warning about buses in Peru- make sure you do your research beforehand because the roads inland get notoriously bad. Up until this point it’s fine and you can probably just go for the cheapest option (ours was called Peru Bus), but once you start getting towards Cusco we recommend using Cruz del Sur for all your trips. The seats are spacious and comfortable and you have your own personal TV (definitely not a necessity haha but when the price is still cheap and you can be on there for 17+ hours why not!), but most importantly the drivers are reportedly safer. Peru Hop is another popular option because you can get on and off where you like for a fixed price. From Ica to Huacachina we took a tuktuk.
A must do in Huacachina is the dune buggying and sand boarding!! It is SO EPIC. Seriously, we had the time of our lives!
getting to CUSCO, AGUAS CALIENTES + MACHU PICCHU
After a pretty horrendous bus journey (I get car sick unfortunately), we finally arrived in Cusco in the Sacred Valley- the recommended place to stay to acclimatize before visiting Machu Picchu. And let us tell you, Altitude Sickness is a real thing. We had never really heard of it before, when we Googled it no mountain in the UK is high enough for this to be a problem so I guess that explains why…anyway three days is more than enough for you to acclimatize (you will just feel a bit crap for the first day or so- it’s basically like being hungover and incredibly unfit at the same time but people suffer to varying degrees). Most hostels have oxygen canisters if you need and offer free coca tea, which is said to help with it (high not included). If you decide to go on the Inca Trail trek, this is probably where your tour will pick you up from.
Cusco itself is very cute but pretty touristy- on our first venture out of the hostel to the main square I was immediately ambushed with a baby lamb by two women in traditional dress demanding money for having held it (note this is not a complaint, I loved holding that lamb haha). The streets are old and windy, you’ll have a great time wandering down them browsing through all the markets. This is where we wished we had put warmer things on our packing list and had to buy wool ponchos because we were so cold! If you decided to visit Rainbow Mountain, this is likely where you’ll leave from.
This is also where you should buy your Machu Picchu ticket. There is an official office just off the main square where you need to get it from. Then you need to choose an option of getting there. From what we gathered, the most popular/cheapest route was by combi bus to Ollantaytambo and then the train to Aguas Calientes, where we would recommend staying a night or two so you’re not too rushed. But there are several other options as well so it all depends on your budget (and availability- book as soon as you arrive!). All in all, it’s fairly expensive compared to everything else but, of course, 100% worth it.
Once at Aguas Calientes, you will have to get another bus up to the actual site. You can read about getting there and all the other information you need to know about visiting these awesome Inca ruins in a lot more detail on our post 48 Hours in Machu Picchu. You can also take the stairs up/down but it’s over an hour of walking, and you’ll already be doing plenty of that (although that didn’t stop us after 8 hours already of exploring, as it was getting dark, in the rain. I thought my kneecaps were going to break- so we don’t recommend that haha).
Aguas Calientes itself is, again, very touristy, as you would expect, but it’s also cute! It’s tucked right up in the hills and when the clouds descend it’s pretty awesome. Still, we wouldn’t suggest spending more than two nights here just because it’s so small. I also WOULD NOT recommend the hot springs. Lonely Planet described them as “scungy” and we can agree that that was an accurate word to use haha.
Overall, Cusco, Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu especially, are all some of our Peru highlights so we’re sure you’ll have a great time there.
AREQUIPA + COLCA CANYON tour
Our final destination in Peru was Arequipa, a small Spanish town surrounded by volcanoes, called the “White City” because it is built with this volcanic rock, giving it its pristine look. It was where we had our first Couchsurfing experience as well, which was definitely interesting! We took the bus again from Cusco to Arequipa and arrived at 6am. Then we had to wait about 4 hours for our host to turn up because he forgot we were coming and overslept (one of the reasons we didn’t do much Couchsurfing in the end haha). After briefly thinking we were going to be murdered, we were taken in by his amazing hospitality. Our host acted as a tour guide and brought us to see the engraved volcanic walls and another hot spring (this one not recommended either for reasons I won’t go into here haha). He also imparted on us loads of AWESOME knowledge about the Incans so we are eternally grateful to have him as our first Couchsurfing host.
Whilst there, we went on a bus tour through the Colca Canyon (the widest in the world). This one was specifically to see the condors, which we don’t think was worth it because you have to leave at 3am and they’re so far away they kind of looked like any other bird from that distance. If you have a higher quality camera than we did it would probably be better. The canyon, however, is immensely wide and beautiful, so definitely worth the trip. Ours had to be cut short sadly due to a fatal bus crash on the road (which is why we strongly recommend doing your bus research because this is a common occurrence in Peru).
Arequipa is very pretty to walk around but we were looking forward to getting back to a bit more nature. To leave Peru, we took the bus to cross the border over to Copacabana in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. Whilst here, we also visited the Uros floating islands. The journey stopped overnight in Puno, so bear that in mind if you go for this travel option. The bus station only has a few plastic chairs and sellers shout all through the night so you might not get much sleep!
Although we were sad to leave Peru and grateful for all that it had offered us, we were excited to discover Bolivia and continue with our travels! One day we’d like to go back to explore the north and jungle a bit.
Hopefully this Peru travel guide has been of some use to you; if you’ve ever been to Peru before what else would you add? Let us know in the comments section below :)
