Meet Peru

A coastline shaped by desert. Cities layered with centuries. Peru rewards those who look closely.

Lima

Peru’s capital rises above the Pacific on coastal cliffs, where colonial balconies, pre-Columbian huacas and celebrated kitchens share the same horizon. A city best discovered slowly.

1-3 Barranco Boardwalk

A cliffside promenade tracing the edge of the Pacific, where locals walk at sunset and paragliders drift above the coastline.

2-3 Lima's Historic Center

The colonial heart of the city, gathered around the Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral and the Government Palace. Carved wooden balconies and arcaded streets still frame the place where Lima began.

3-3 Huaca Pucllana

A pre-Inca adobe pyramid standing in the middle of modern Miraflores, built by the Lima culture centuries before the Spanish arrived. It is the clearest proof that the city’s story began long before the viceroyalty.

Cusco

Once the capital of the Inca Empire, Cusco still carries its past in plain sight: precisely fitted stone walls beneath colonial churches, and narrow streets that climb into the Andes.

1-3 Machu Picchu

A fifteenth-century Inca citadel set on a ridge above the Urubamba River, surrounded by cloud-wrapped peaks. Its terraces, temples and stone stairways make it one of the most remarkable places in the Andes.

2-3 Sacsayhuaman

A ceremonial and defensive complex above Cusco, known for its colossal stone blocks fitted together without mortar. At sunset, its zigzag walls look out over the red rooftops of the city below.

3-3 Inca's Sacred Valley

A fertile valley of terraced hillsides, markets and Inca towns such as Pisac and Ollantaytambo. It is the quiet, green counterpart to Cusco’s stone streets.

Arequipa

Known as the White City, Arequipa is built from volcanic stone and watched over by the Misti volcano, with sunlit arcades, quiet courtyards and a cuisine entirely its own.

1-3 Colca Canyon

One of the deepest canyons on Earth, carved by the Colca River through terraced valleys and Andean villages. At the Cruz del Cóndor viewpoint, condors rise on the morning thermals.

2-3 Santa Catalina Monastery

A walled citadel in the heart of Arequipa, founded in the sixteenth century and built in volcanic sillar. Its blue and terracotta alleys, quiet cloisters and courtyards remain as calm as the nuns who once lived here.

3-3 Yanahuara Viewpoint

A viewpoint of sillar arches in the neighborhood of Yanahuara, overlooking the city’s rooftops and the Misti volcano. It is the classic place to watch Arequipa at sunset.