Let’s go to Peru!

Peru! It’s been on my travel list for a couple of years now, mostly because I wanted to check off a visit to South America, which would help me get closer to my bucket list of visiting all 7 continents. I had originally planned to go in 2020, but with all of the COVID restrictions around travel, I was forced to put off the travel plans. As I turned 39 in June of 2021, I made a promise that I would go somewhere for my 40^th birthday, with or without COVID travel restrictions. And so I decided to finally plan that trip to Peru. It’s been a month or two since my trip but I wanted to write down all of the places that I absolutely loved while visiting Peru so that I can share these places with all of you who are planning a trip of your own. I hope you find the following useful and reach out if you need any help.

I decided that I was going to go with or without a travel companion; that I wanted to check off traveling to continent #5 and finally get to Peru. Of course, Machu Picchu was also a motivating factor in the decision, with it being one of the wonders of the world, but I also couldn’t wait to shop the incredible markets for new exotic home goods. My first order of business was to send an invite to friends near and far in hopes that someone would join me on this incredible trip. But in order to do that, I needed to decide on the length of the trip and have a basic itinerary planned out. So I started out with a very initial day by day plan of all of the places I wanted to see in Peru. I knew that I had to fly into Lima and I absolutely wanted to take a drive down to Paracas, about a 3 hour drive south of Lima, because I had seen the sand dunes featured on a sand boarding date on an episode of The Bachelor. And then of course, Machu Picchu, which required a flight from Lima into the Andes mountain region of the country as well as a few days to acclimate to the elevation. I decided those were the top 3 spots and from there I developed a daily outline, here’s what it looked like.

Day 1: Arrive Lima, Lima day/night

Day 2: Drive to Paracas, Paracas day/night

Day 3: Paracas day/night

Day 4: Drive to Lima Airport, Fly to Cusco, Sacred Valley night

Day 5: Sacred Valley day/night

Day 6: Sacred Valley day/night

Day 7: Sacred Valley day/night

Day 8: Sacred Valley day/night

Day 9: Sacred Valley day/night

Day 10: Fly from Cusco to Lima, Travel home

Why 10 days you ask? My birthday falls a few days before July 4 so I could take one week off of work and come back the day after July 4 giving me 10 days. 10 days felt like enough time to be away and I was definitely happy to come back home, however, our time in Lima did feel rushed and we wished we had a bit more time. I would recommend another night stay at the end of your trip in Lima as the transfer from Cusco to Lima and then to home is a long layover and a long day of traveling.

Once I had the basic itinerary, I decided to rent a house since we would spend the most time in the Sacred Valley and that would allow me to cover the lodging cost for all of my guests for that portion of the trip. Putting my plan to action really got me excited about planning the trip. I immediately emailed my friends to see who would be interested in accompanying me. I made sure to have at least 4 friends confirm that they were in before I booked the house. I found the house on VRBO and booked it for the 6 nights we planned to be in Sacred Valley. The house was in Urubamba, a small city about an hour and a half drive from Cusco, both of which are in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Urubamba sits north of Cusco and is closer to Machu Picchu than Cusco, although Cusco may be more popular to stay while visiting this tourist destination. I decided on staying in the Sacred Valley because it offered closer proximity to daily excursions that I planned for us to do as well as offer us a large enough space for a group to really enjoy a long stay. It also sits 2000ft in altitude lower than Cusco and because this was a birthday trip, I didn’t want to spend it fighting altitude sickness. Of course, where you stay is personal preference, and I would recommend staying a night or two in Cusco as it is quite a charming city. If I were to plan this trip again, I would book a hotel to stay instead of a house rental for the pure reason that a hotel offers more convenience and amenities for all travelers.

Now that I had the house booked and a basic itinerary, I got to work on booking the details. First I booked my flight. I found a nonstop flight from LAX to Lima on LATAM Air. I was able to book my flight using my miles through Delta Airlines as they are codeshare partners. I booked about 6 months out and I was able to book a roundtrip nonstop flight for 50,000 miles which is a really good deal. If you have miles and can snatch up a flight that works with your schedule, I would recommend this route.

One major thing to note when planning a trip to Peru, you must visit Machu Picchu. Because it is a popular tourist destination, it gets a lot of visitors each year. And now they have started to limit the amount of daily visitors allowed; that means you must buy your ticket as soon as you plan your trip. Do not delay on this step; as soon as you decide on the date that you will visit this destination, buy your tickets. Tickets are required in advance and you cannot purchase tickets at the site regardless of whether you find an online tour company that tells you otherwise. Due to COVID restrictions there were 4 circuit options to book when we were booking our trip. Each circuit is an organized path to follow through the archaeological site. They created these to limit the amount of people in close proximity with each other. I had read while planning our trip that Waynapicchu was a coveted hike within Machu Picchu and that they only sell 200 tickets a day. It’s an intense, steep hike, up about 134 flights of ancient stone steps. However, buying a ticket into this circuit does not allow you access to tour the famous picture taking spots within the site. So make sure to read up on each path carefully. There are many travel blogs available to read about each path and what you will see along it. In Jan 2022, we purchased Circuit 4 Montana Waynapicchu and Circuit 2 Llaqta de Machupicchu. I purchased directly on the Machu Picchu website. There are tours that you can book for your visit as well but you can easily tour the site on your own and hire a tour guide in town as an option and that is what we did. It is required that you have a guide take you into Machu Picchu and they do check that you have one at the entrance when showing your ticket. There are plenty of guides hanging around town when you exit your train that you can hire, we found ours this way and he was great.

Now that you have your ticket to Machu Picchu and your lodging location locked in, book your train ticket to Machu Picchu. There are two main train operators that go to Machu Picchu – Peru Rail and Inca Rail. After doing some research, I had heard that Inca Rail was less reliable and cancelled often but I do not know how accurate that is, but since we were going on our own, I decided to not take a chance and we booked on Peru Rail. Your Machu Picchu ticket will have an entrance time on it. You want to arrive into Aguas Calientes at least an hour prior to that entrance time. You can book the train from Cusco or Ollantaytambo into Aguas Calientes. Allow for 2 hours in Machu Picchu for each Circuit ticket that you purchased. Plan to bring a packed lunch and allow for an hour to eat that in between the Circuits you plan to visit if you bought more than one. You can book your return train ticket accordingly. Aguas Calientes is a very touristy town and you can easily find a place to grab some food and drinks once you have completed your tour of Machu Picchu. You will take a bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu entrance, tickets can be purchased in town and your hired tour guide can assist you with purchasing the bus tickets. The bus ride takes about 15-20 minutes from the town center up the hill to Machu Picchu. Some say you can walk up the hill but it’s very steep, plan on taking the bus. Also, one tip we were not told was the preferred method of payment is with USD currency if you are American, both to your tour guide and for your bus tickets.

Here is what our day looked like at Machu Picchu. This should help you plan your day in whatever Circuit you decide to visit. After a long day, we would have preferred to get back to our lodging earlier, so take that into consideration as the train ride is quite long. Ollanytambo also looked like a very cute town and we didn’t have enough time to visit the town itself, I would have chosen to have dinner there instead of Aguas Calientes if I did it again. I also thought Aguas Calientes would be flooded with people and it would be hard to get a table at a restaurant but most places had plenty of availability so you can find a dinner or snack spot during your visit vs making a reservation in advance.

7:00 am train from Ollanytambo to Aguas Calientes

8:30 am arrival into Aguas Calientes

8:45 am hired guide, bought bus tickets, grabbed coffee in town

9:00 am bus ride uphill to Machu Picchu entrance

9:30 am arrived at Machu Picchu, rented storage locker, used restroom before entering the park

10:00 am entered Circuit 4

10:30 am entered Montana Waynapicchu entrance, logged in to start our hike

12:30 pm completed Circuit 4

1:00 pm sat at the outdoor café at the main entrance to enjoy our packed lunch (you can purchase food and beverages at the café but the prices are very inflated)

2:00 pm entered Circuit 2

5:00 pm completed our tour of Machu Picchu, rode bus back down the hill into town

5:30 pm visited a café to have a drink to celebrate our day

7:00 pm dinner in Aguas Calientes

9:30 pm train back to Ollanytambo

Keep in mind, our dinner was late and you could easily have dinner at 5:30 pm and catch a 7:30 or 8:00 pm return train or book a 6:00 pm return train and have dinner in Ollanytambo at 8:00 pm. Also, if you plan to hike the Inca Trail instead, your train bookings will be different. We did not hike the Inca Trail but met some hikers on Waynapicchu and hearing their experience it sounded well worth doing. I believe you gain access into Machu Picchu with that hike so your ticket purchases may be different as well. Look into details of that hike before deciding on any of the Circuits but Waynapicchu will be an additional ticket either way.

Now that our biggest day was planned, I worked to fill in the rest of our details. First I planned our itinerary and lodging in Lima. It was recommended to me to stay and visit the Miraflores neighborhood and I found the Barranca area just next door had adorable, historic mansions converted into hotels. I found the charming Villa Barranco by Ananay Hotels and booked 4 of their 9 rooms for our group. It’s a historic mansion that was converted into a boutique hotel and our stay was not long enough. The staff was very helpful during our stay, helping us book a driver to Paracas and giving tips for visiting Lima. Adorable rooms that provided incredible hospitality for our stay. We all wished we could stay longer! If we didn’t stay at this hotel or if they do not have any availability for you, my second option would have been Hotel B which is one street over. Make sure to walk over to the Puente de los Suspiros where you can make a wish while crossing the bridge. During your walk from these charming hotels to the bridge, you will pass by art galleries, coffee shops, and small cafés, do not miss visiting this neighborhood. There is also a market called La Feria in Barranca that was on my list but I did not get a chance to visit. I read the market has vintage goods, handmade artwork, live bands, and food. The reason we ran out of time to visit that market was because we spent too much time at Inka Market and the 4 blocks it spans. After a while you’ll notice that many of the market stalls feature the same things – pillow covers, rugs, blankets, sweaters – but do not miss the unique shop of mirrors across the street from the Inka Market entrance. We did not see these gold ordained, stained glass mirrors anywhere else we shopped in Peru so if you are a lover of mirrors snatch one up here. We finished our evening by having dinner at Huaca Pucllana, I had the squid ink risotto and it was the most delicious thing I have ever had. The restaurant is mostly outdoors with the entire outdoor patio overlooking the ancient adobe and clay pyramid that served as a ceremonial center for the advancement of the Lima culture in 200-700 AD. Book a table at this restaurant! You may think it is a tourist trap and there are so many top 50 restaurants in the world in Lima that you will definitely have your pick of culinary spots but this place is not to be missed. The way the pyramid is lit up at night is breathtaking. Plan to stay in Lima for more than one night, we wished we had more time to discover all of the food destinations that the city had to offer. If you do decide to try one of the top restaurants in the world, make a reservation early in your trip planning as those restaurants book up months in advance. Restaurants recommended to me were Central and Isolina and many others as well.

The staff helped us book our driver down to Paracas and we took a private car service down there. I was not able to find anyone to book online so I do recommend that you plan to rent a car or hire a driver through your hotel. I did not check with our hotel in Paracas but I imagine that they would also have been able to assist us. The drive from Lima to Paracas is about 4 hours. It’s long and not much scenery to view along the drive. However, do not let that deter you! Paracas is not to be missed! I organized a stop on our drive to visit the Tambo de Tacama winery. This winery is located in the city of Ica where Pisco is made. We enjoyed lunch outdoors overlooking their vineyard and beautifully maintained land. Their lunch menu was extensive and the food was exceptional. After lunch we took a tour of the winery and their villa, booking both the Tour Tradicional and Tour Hacienda and we were able to taste a variety of their wines and pisco too. The grounds are very beautiful, do not miss touring the hacienda, you cannot access it from taking only the Tour Tradicional.

I have not seen much written about Paracas and have not met many that have visited this little town so I would say it is an underrated destination. Paracas is a very small fishing town on the Pacific. There are a number of hotels in this small little town that cater to tourists. We stayed at Hotel Paracas which is a Marriott property. It’s a beautiful property right on the ocean, we booked ocean view rooms and suites. The suite has 2 separate rooms, great for a family or group of friends. There are two pools on the property, one that bridges the main restaurant with the ocean view bar that is adults only, and the other pool is family friendly with an infinity view out into the ocean. Some reviews of the property do comment on the sulfur smell from the sand. There is a small stretch of beach with a fishing pier to take kayaks out from as well as some hammocks set up on the sand and there is indeed a strong, foul smell almost resembling sulfur once you stand out on the pier. I did not smell it while sitting out at the infinity pool or at the beach bar so it did not affect our experience at this property. There is an extensive food menu, including continental breakfast, and their famous food item to order is their ceviche!

The reason that I chose this hotel was because it had a private tour group located in the lobby called Venturia whom we used to book a few excursions. One of these excursions our favorite experience of the entire trip, including our time at Machu Picchu, and that is their desert adventure! Do not miss this excursion. Just outside of the town of Paracas is a desert oasis spanning 450sq km. The landscape resembles something you would see in the Middle East. Sandboarding and dune buggying are popular activities in this area and I imagine that you can book these excursions in town as well as a day trip excursion from Lima. However, our excursion was a private tour for just our group which included an ATV ride through the desert dunes, sandboarding, and a private dinner under a tent! It was exhilarating to say the least, the ATV popped over sand dunes like it was a kangaroo, twisting and turning along the side of the dunes, seemingly almost flipping! The sand boarding was fun too but my favorite part was when the ATV dropped down a 90 degree angle dune that overlooked our pitched dinner tent surrounded by lit tiki torches. We pulled up to champagne flutes welcoming us into a night under the stars to sit and have a private dinner in the sand. This is a must do! The other Venturia excursion was a boat ride to the Ballestas Islands. Sure you can book a boat ride from town but that boat will be packed with many people (which we witnessed on a neighboring boat while out on the water). Venturia boats are limited to 12 people or less for a more comfortable experience. The Ballestas Islands have wildlife similar to what you would see in the Galapagos and we even saw penguins on our trip! It’s only a two hour excursion and is taken in the morning, do not miss doing this, it’s a way to see the landscape surrounding your hotel.

From Paracas, we travelled to the Sacred Valley. This required a drive back up to Lima airport and an hour flight from Lima to Cusco. A very long travel day! If you have the time, stay another day in Lima to break up the driving. Here are some of the things that we did while in Sacred Valley and that I highly recommend.

Pisac – We visited this colorful, local town filled with cobblestone streets and local markets. Take a picture with some llamas and shop the unique finds in this town to take home. You will be in sensory overload with all of the colors.

Cerveceria Willkamayu – If you are staying in Urubamba or visiting Urubamba, find this brewery. It’s hidden down a walkable street with just a sign outside the closed wooden door. You have to ring the bell to get in, and once rung, you will be greeted by a welcoming owner who may just give you a tour. You may even have the courtyard to yourself. Visit in the afternoon, open 4pm to 10pm.

Horseback Riding – To break up all of the driving we were doing, I booked a tour on horseback to see the landscape near our house. We booked this excursion through Salineras Ranch, who also rents lodging and other tours, but we booked only the horseback riding. We booked the 4 hour Salinas de Maras and Moray ride. It was breathtaking to ride through the Urubamba mountain range. The horses are well trained and can carry all levels of riders. The tour even included a picnic lunch overlooking the mountains. This is definitely not to be missed and really allows you to connect with nature and the surroundings.

Humanatay Lake – We booked a tour through our house to hike this glacier lake. It sits at 13,000ft in the Sacred Valley. It’s an hour and a half hike up to the lake and another hour and a half back to base, a 3 mile loop. You can hire a horse to take you up the hill if needed, but it is so incredibly rewarding to hike it on your own and to see the beautiful, crystal clear blue lake below when you finally get there! Definitely take some time to make this hike if you have the time for it.

Rainbow Mountain – We booked a tour through our house to hike this multi-colored mountain. It sits at 17,000ft in the Sacred Valley. The mountain draws a crowd because of its’ marbled, layered hues of pinks and blues that tower into the sky. It is a 2 hour hike up to the summit, some may get a strong headache from the altitude so be prepared. The hike is a 5 mile loop from start to finish. There are also horses for hire on this hike as well.

Peru is a magical place with a strong cultural influence. Their people take great pride in their community and in their crafts which ultimately become their livelihood. A beautiful place to visit, I hope you make it there. And please let me know if you end up visiting any of my recommendations!