Top 10 Best Things to Do in Peru

The Inca capital of Tawantinsuyu, conquered by Francisco Pizarro in 1533, sits at 3,400 metres and contains the most concentrated collection of Inca and Spanish colonial architecture in the Americas -- including the Coricancha temple complex, built with such precise stonework that a sheet of paper cannot be inserted between stones. The Sacred Valley of the Incas stretching from Cusco to Aguas Calientes contains Ollantaytambo, Pisac, and Moray (a set of concentric circular terraces used as an agricultural laboratory) within 80 kilometres.

The geoglyphs etched into the Nazca Desert between 500 BC and 500 AD -- covering 450 square kilometres with figures of animals, plants, and geometric shapes up to 370 metres long -- are so large they can only be fully appreciated from the air, creating one of archaeology's enduring mysteries about their purpose. UNESCO inscribed them in 1994, and the Peruvian government built a metal viewing tower over three figures; however, the lines can only be fully seen by taking a light aircraft flight over the pampa.

The world's highest navigable lake at 3,812 metres above sea level, Lake Titicaca straddles the Peru-Bolivia border and contains the Uros people's 42 floating reed islands, constructed from totora reeds that require constant replenishment as the bottom layers rot. The Uros have lived on floating islands since the 15th century to escape the Inca expansion, and their way of life -- sleeping on reed matresses, cooking on reed stoves, fishing from reed boats -- is one of the most distinctive in the world.

Iquitos, the world's largest city inaccessible by road (reachable only by boat or plane), is the gateway to 700,000 square kilometres of Peruvian Amazon -- the most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth, containing 10% of all species on the planet. Riverboat cruises from Iquitos through pink river dolphin habitat, piranha-fishing villages, and canopy walkways above primary jungle representing 55 million years of continuous forest cover offer access to an ecosystem that is disappearing at a rate of 270,000 hectares per year.

Lima has been named the world's culinary capital at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards in 2012, 2013, and 2014, with Central (ranked number 1 in the world in 2023), Maido (number 7), and Astrid y Gaston all in the global top 50. The city's cuisine fuses Inca, Spanish, Japanese (Nikkei), Chinese (Chifa), African, and French influences into a food culture so vibrant that 30% of all Peruvian employment is in the food sector -- representing a culinary diversity matched only by Tokyo and New York.

The Colca Canyon near Arequipa is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon at 3,270 metres -- one of the deepest canyons in the world -- and is home to the Andean condor, the world's largest bird by wingspan at up to 3.3 metres, which riders the thermal currents rising from the canyon walls daily from dawn. The colonial villages lining the canyon rim -- Chivay, Yanque, Coporaque -- have been continuously inhabited since pre-Inca times and maintain traditional irrigation terracing systems built 1,000 years ago.

A lagoon surrounded by 100-metre sand dunes in the Ica Desert -- one of the driest places on Earth -- Huacachina is the only natural desert oasis in South America and has been inhabited since at least 1700 BC, when the Paracas culture used it as a ceremonial site. Today its dunes are used for sandboarding and dune buggy racing, activities that have made it the most visited inland attraction in Peru after Machu Picchu, and the green lagoon surrounded by palm trees and Art Deco villas is one of South America's most photographed landscapes.

The adobe brick city of Chan Chan on Peru's north coast was the capital of the Chimu Empire from 900 to 1470 AD and at its peak housed 60,000 people in a complex of nine royal compounds covering 20 square kilometres -- the largest pre-Columbian city in South America and the largest adobe city in the world. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1986 and immediately placed it on the Endangered list due to erosion damage from El Nino flooding, making urgent preservation one of archaeology's most pressing challenges.

The mountain of seven colors near Cusco, whose mineral stripes of red, yellow, green, and violet were only revealed when permanent snow cover melted due to climate change between 2010 and 2015, has become one of South America's most photographed landscapes despite its discovery being so recent that it does not appear on maps before 2015. At 5,200 metres above sea level, the trek requires altitude acclimatization and passes through high-altitude grassland inhabited by vicuna -- the wild ancestor of the alpaca.

The Inca capital of Tawantinsuyu, conquered by Francisco Pizarro in 1533, sits at 3,400 metres and contains the most concentrated collection of Inca and Spanish colonial architecture in the Americas -- including the Coricancha temple complex, built with such precise stonework that a sheet of paper cannot be inserted between stones. The Sacred Valley of the Incas stretching from Cusco to Aguas Calientes contains Ollantaytambo, Pisac, and Moray (a set of concentric circular terraces used as an agricultural laboratory) within 80 kilometres.

The geoglyphs etched into the Nazca Desert between 500 BC and 500 AD -- covering 450 square kilometres with figures of animals, plants, and geometric shapes up to 370 metres long -- are so large they can only be fully appreciated from the air, creating one of archaeology's enduring mysteries about their purpose. UNESCO inscribed them in 1994, and the Peruvian government built a metal viewing tower over three figures; however, the lines can only be fully seen by taking a light aircraft flight over the pampa.

The world's highest navigable lake at 3,812 metres above sea level, Lake Titicaca straddles the Peru-Bolivia border and contains the Uros people's 42 floating reed islands, constructed from totora reeds that require constant replenishment as the bottom layers rot. The Uros have lived on floating islands since the 15th century to escape the Inca expansion, and their way of life -- sleeping on reed matresses, cooking on reed stoves, fishing from reed boats -- is one of the most distinctive in the world.

Iquitos, the world's largest city inaccessible by road (reachable only by boat or plane), is the gateway to 700,000 square kilometres of Peruvian Amazon -- the most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth, containing 10% of all species on the planet. Riverboat cruises from Iquitos through pink river dolphin habitat, piranha-fishing villages, and canopy walkways above primary jungle representing 55 million years of continuous forest cover offer access to an ecosystem that is disappearing at a rate of 270,000 hectares per year.

Lima has been named the world's culinary capital at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards in 2012, 2013, and 2014, with Central (ranked number 1 in the world in 2023), Maido (number 7), and Astrid y Gaston all in the global top 50. The city's cuisine fuses Inca, Spanish, Japanese (Nikkei), Chinese (Chifa), African, and French influences into a food culture so vibrant that 30% of all Peruvian employment is in the food sector -- representing a culinary diversity matched only by Tokyo and New York.

The Colca Canyon near Arequipa is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon at 3,270 metres -- one of the deepest canyons in the world -- and is home to the Andean condor, the world's largest bird by wingspan at up to 3.3 metres, which riders the thermal currents rising from the canyon walls daily from dawn. The colonial villages lining the canyon rim -- Chivay, Yanque, Coporaque -- have been continuously inhabited since pre-Inca times and maintain traditional irrigation terracing systems built 1,000 years ago.

A lagoon surrounded by 100-metre sand dunes in the Ica Desert -- one of the driest places on Earth -- Huacachina is the only natural desert oasis in South America and has been inhabited since at least 1700 BC, when the Paracas culture used it as a ceremonial site. Today its dunes are used for sandboarding and dune buggy racing, activities that have made it the most visited inland attraction in Peru after Machu Picchu, and the green lagoon surrounded by palm trees and Art Deco villas is one of South America's most photographed landscapes.

The adobe brick city of Chan Chan on Peru's north coast was the capital of the Chimu Empire from 900 to 1470 AD and at its peak housed 60,000 people in a complex of nine royal compounds covering 20 square kilometres -- the largest pre-Columbian city in South America and the largest adobe city in the world. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1986 and immediately placed it on the Endangered list due to erosion damage from El Nino flooding, making urgent preservation one of archaeology's most pressing challenges.

The mountain of seven colors near Cusco, whose mineral stripes of red, yellow, green, and violet were only revealed when permanent snow cover melted due to climate change between 2010 and 2015, has become one of South America's most photographed landscapes despite its discovery being so recent that it does not appear on maps before 2015. At 5,200 metres above sea level, the trek requires altitude acclimatization and passes through high-altitude grassland inhabited by vicuna -- the wild ancestor of the alpaca.