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Machu Picchu from above the citadel, the terraces and stone houses on their ridge with Huayna Picchu rising behind under low cloud
The citadel from the upper terrace, Huayna Picchu behind it. Entry is on a timed ticket for one of ten fixed circuits, and this view is on Circuit 1 or 2, not 3.
Country brief · 12.0464°S 77.0428°W

Peru

Machu Picchu is rationed to 4,500 people a day. The rest of the country is not, and most of it is empty.

How long
Ten daysa fortnight to go wider
Getting around
Fly the long legsand the train to Machu Picchu
When
May to Septemberin the Andes; the coast runs opposite
Language
Spanishand Quechua for one in seven
Money
The soland cash outside the cities
Airports
Lima LIMCusco CUZ for the Sacred Valley
How long

How many days do you need in Peru?

Ten days for Lima, Cusco, the valley and Machu Picchu; a fortnight adds Arequipa, the Colca or Titicaca. Give Cusco two slow days first: it sits at 3,400 metres and about a third of arrivals feel it

Getting around

Do you need a car in Peru?

No. Fly the long legs with LATAM, Sky or JetSMART, take PeruRail or Inca Rail from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu, and Cruz del Sur along the coast. A hire car makes sense on the coast and nowhere in the mountains

When

When is the best time to visit Peru?

May to September is dry in the Andes and June to August the busiest. The Inca Trail shuts every February. The coast runs the other way: Lima is grey from May to October and bright from December to March

Language

What language is spoken in Peru?

Spanish, with Quechua the mother tongue of 13.9 percent and Aymara of 1.7 percent, on the 2017 census. English is moderate, 52nd of 123 on the 2025 EF index, and lives in the Cusco tourist trade and the Lima hotels

Money

What money does Peru use?

The sol. Cards in Lima, Cusco and Arequipa; cash for markets, taxis and the valley villages, from an ATM inside a bank. Tip about ten percent in restaurants

Airports

Where do you fly into Peru?

Lima Jorge Chávez LIM, in its new terminal since June 2025. Cusco CUZ for the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, Arequipa AQP for the Colca, Juliaca JUL for Titicaca, Puerto Maldonado PEM and Iquitos IQT for the Amazon

Why you should visit

Ninety seconds on the country

Peru is three countries stacked west to east: a desert coast that never rains, the Andes, and half of it Amazon. The Incas ran all three from Cusco, and the country still does.

4.16 million people visited in 2025, and most of them flew one line, Lima to Cusco and out again. Machu Picchu is now sold in timed circuits with a hard daily cap, which is the correct response to that, and also the argument for going wider.

Wider means the Colca and its condors, the reed islands on Titicaca, a white city built of volcanic stone, a desert oasis, the lines at Nazca, and the highest tropical mountains on earth. None of them is rationed. A fortnight gets three of them on top of the core.

The mistake is altitude. Cusco is at 3,400 metres and the airport is at 3,300, so arrival is straight into thin air; sleep the first nights in the Sacred Valley, 600 metres lower, and come back up for the city. Lima is the other surprise: the best restaurant in the world is here, and so is the best ceviche, at lunchtime, for a tenth of the price.

Five Ways to Travel It

Pick how you want to travel. The towns, the things to do and the map all change with it.

The cathedral of Cusco across the Plaza de Armas under a heavy sky, its two towers and the arcaded square in front with people crossing it
The cathedral on Cusco's Plaza de Armas, built on the palace of the Inca Viracocha with stone carted down from Sacsayhuamán. Corpus Christi enters through those doors in June.

Culture

The Best Places to Visit for Cultural Travel in Peru

The Spanish built their churches directly on the Inca walls, so one street in Cusco holds both. Lima and Cusco carry the most of it, then Ollantaytambo, Pisac and Arequipa. That is 169 places across 30 towns, from the Inca core to Moche pyramids on the north coast and a Wari city nobody visits.

Machu Picchu is sold in ten fixed circuits with a daily cap, booked months out. Choquequirao, Chan Chan, Kuélap and the Lord of Sipán are not rationed at all, and each is a bigger site with a fraction of the people.

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