Machu Picchu sells out first. Peru is a great deal bigger.
Which train reaches the ruins in a day and which one costs a month of rent. What the Rainbow Mountain climb really feels like at 5,000 metres. Where the Amazon starts. Reviews of the tours you can book in Peru, with prices.
Four days that decide a Peru itinerary.
The bookings everything else gets arranged around. What each one costs, what time it drags you out of bed, and what the people who took it say.
01The long dayMachu Picchu Day Trip from CuscoCusco to the citadel and back between sunrise and dark. Expensive, exhausting, and the reason most people came.
02The valley dayMoray, Maras Salt Mines & Chinchero Weavers TourMoray, the Maras salt pans and the Chinchero weavers. The cheapest good day in the Sacred Valley by some distance.
03The altitude dayHumantay Lake Tour with Breakfast and Buffet LunchA turquoise glacier lake two hours above Cusco. Do it after three nights at altitude, never on arrival.
04The desert dayParacas and Huacachina Oasis Full Day Guided TourLima to the Ballestas boats and the dunes at Huacachina, back after dark. One very long day out of the capital.
Train in, trek in, or sleep in Aguas Calientes. Pick the arrival.
Everything about a Machu Picchu booking follows from how you get there. The day trip runs on the train timetable, the trek runs on a permit issued months ahead, and the overnight buys you the empty first hour on the terraces.
Six Peruvian bases, and the best day out of each.
The Inca capital on its ridge, the capital on its cliff, a white city under three volcanoes, a lake shared with Bolivia, a fishing port beside a bird island, and a river town where the road ends.
Peru keeps its best colour above 4,000 metres.
Striped rock at Vinicunca, a glacier lake the colour of antifreeze, a canyon twice the depth of the Grand and condors riding the morning thermals out of it. Every one of these days starts in the dark and ends with a headache if you skipped the acclimatising.
The days out more travellers book than any others in Peru.
Every Peruvian tour we have reviewed →The days out that fill up first in every season, with what each one costs and why it holds its place.
1
Humantay Lake Tour with Breakfast and Buffet Lunch
Leave Cusco before dawn for Humantay Lake with bilingual guides such as Jonathan, Eduardo, Kevin, or Waldir. After breakfast in Mollepata, hike from Soraypampa to the 4,200-meter lake, with horses available for 80 PEN one way. Expect steep paths, changing weather, big Salkantay views, and a generous buffet lunch.
From · $22
Read our review →
2
Sacred Valley & Maras Salt Mines Tour with Lunch
from $28
3
Moray, Maras Salt Mines & Chinchero Weavers Tour
from $15
4
Paracas and Huacachina Oasis Full Day Guided Tour
from $59
5
Full-Day Group Tour of Machu Picchu
from $321
6
Machu Picchu Day Trip from Cusco
from $336
7
Half-Day City Tour with Sacsayhuaman and Q’enco
from $13
8
Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain ATV Tour with Meals
from $76
South of Lima the map turns to sand for 400 kilometres.
It almost never rains here. The Ballestas rocks are loud with sea lions and Humboldt penguins, the dunes behind Ica swallow buggies whole, and somebody drew animals the size of football pitches into the Nazca plain before anyone could fly over them.
Every day out on the coast →
What a day out in Peru actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Peru is cheap until the moment a train or a permit is involved, and then it is not.
City walks, the Uros boats, valley ruins, dune buggies and most of the cooking classes.
The full days: Colca and back, the Ballestas run from Lima, a flight over the Nazca plain.
Machu Picchu with the train included, the multi-day treks and the Amazon lodges.
- 1Full-Day Group Tour of Machu Picchufrom $321
- 2Machu Picchu Day Trip from Cuscofrom $336
- 3Full-Day Tour from Cusco with Optional Lunchfrom $283
Three things that happen in Peru and nowhere else.
Mountains and lakes are everywhere. A mineral-striped ridge, a plain drawn on by hand, and a nation living on floating reeds are not.
Vinicunca
The stripes are iron, copper and sulphur in the sandstone, uncovered when the ice above them melted back barely a decade ago. The summit stands at 5,036 metres, which is higher than any point in the Alps, and the walk up is short but slow. Vans leave Cusco around three in the morning to beat the cloud that closes in by midday.
- 1Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain ATV Tour with Meals★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,060 reviews
- 2Rainbow Mountain Tour and Red Valley Hike (Optional)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 149 reviews
- 3Private Rainbow Mountain Full Day Tour from Cusco★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 129 reviews
The Nazca Lines
A hummingbird, a monkey, a spider and a figure with its hand raised, scratched into the crust of the plain between 500 BC and 500 AD and readable only from the air. The Cessnas seat six, bank hard over each figure so both sides get the view, and are back on the ground inside 40 minutes. Skip breakfast.
- 135-Minute Flight Over Nazca Lines★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 583 reviews
- 2Ballestas & Huacachina Day Trip w/ Nazca Lines Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 117 reviews
- 3Private Tour to the Astonished Nazca Lines and Huacachina Oasis★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 84 reviews
The Uros Islands
Forty-odd islands float on the bay outside Puno, each one a mat of totora reed layered over root blocks and re-laid every few months as the underside rots away. Families have lived out here since long before the Inca took the lake. The ground gives under your feet like a mattress.
- 1Uros, Amantaní & Taquile Islands 2-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 452 reviews
- 2Floating Islands of the Uros Half-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 394 reviews
- 32-Day Tour Colca Canyon in Arequipa with end in Puno★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 248 reviews
Four Peruvian bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast on the day. These four run on government permits, aircraft seats and train timetables that were decided long before your flight was.
- 014-Day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with AccommodationThe classic trail is capped by permit and the permits are sold by the season. Sell-outs four to six months ahead are normal, and there is no queue to join on the day.
- 02Full-Day Group Tour of Machu PicchuEntry is by timed ticket on a fixed circuit, and the trains up the valley carry a fixed number of seats. Both sell out in the dry months well before anyone reaches Cusco.
- 0335-Minute Flight Over Nazca LinesThe Cessnas seat six and fly in the calm morning air. Afternoon flights get cancelled for wind often enough that a same-day booking is a coin toss.
- 04Tambopata Peruvian Amazon Jungle for Three Days/Two NightsLodge stays run on set arrival days and one boat up the river. Turn up mid-week without a booking and the next departure may be two days out.
Cusco sits at 3,400 metres and it will tell you so.
The city is a kilometre higher than anything most visitors have slept at. The stairs hurt, the first night is broken, and a trek booked for the morning after landing is a wasted trek. Spend the first two days low and flat: Inca stonework in the old streets, the market, a kitchen, the valley floor at Pisac. The mountains keep.
Lima is the reason people come back to Peru.
Ceviche cured in the time it takes to carry it to the table, a grill culture built on skewers of beef heart, and pisco poured in bars that have not changed since the 1930s. Book the market walk for the morning, the class for lunch, the bar for after.
By place — coast, sierra and jungle
By kind of day — ruin, ridge, river or table
Lima to Cusco the slow way, the route most first trips end up taking.
Nazca
ColcaThe newest Peruvian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
“Waqra Pucara, The Majestic Fortress Revealing Secrets of the Andes”.
Read our review →
3-Day Iquitos Amazon Jungle Adventure at Heliconia Lodge
Read our review →
City Tour by Panoramic Bus – Walking & Catacombs
Read our review →
Chinchero, Moray, Maras, Ollantaytambo and Pisaq
Read our review →
Adventure Day in Arequipa: Pillones Waterfall + Rock Forest
Read our review →
