Start with Machu Picchu. Then keep going.
Which Machu Picchu ticket actually gets you where you want to stand. What a Rainbow Mountain sunrise really costs. How many nights to sit in Cusco before you climb anything. Every tour in Peru, reviewed and ranked.
Cusco is at 3,400 m. Start low and start slow.
Altitude sickness does not care how fit you are, and it is the single most common thing that ruins a Peru week. Cusco sits at 3,400 m; the Sacred Valley runs 600 m lower and most people feel better down there on day one. Rainbow Mountain tops 5,000 m — leave it until you have had two or three nights up high. Walk slowly, eat light, drink water, and keep the first afternoon flat.
Machu Picchu: the ticket decides the day.
All 273 Machu Picchu tours →
Entry is capped every day and sold by timed circuit, so the hour printed on your ticket sets the shape of the whole trip. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how you get there.
The rail line up to Aguas Calientes
One narrow-gauge line runs up the Urubamba, and everything here uses it: a single very long private day out of Cusco at one end, and at the other the treks that walk in over the passes and ride back down.
The Inca Trail, permit and all
Cloud forest, the passes and the Sun Gate on the last morning — over four days, or on the two-day short trail from km 104. Permits are capped to protect the route and go months ahead; the whole trail closes every February for maintenance.
Salkantay, when the permits are gone
Over a 4,600 m pass under the Salkantay glacier, down into coffee country and into Aguas Calientes on foot. Harder than the Inca Trail, and open when the Inca Trail is not.
Machu Picchu, Vinicunca, the Uros: the shortlist.
The citadel, the striped mountain, the reed islands, the canyon, the oasis and the valley in between. Six places most Peru trips get built around, and the best way to book each.
Cusco is more than half of everything here.
Inca stone under a colonial city at 3,400 m, and the departure point for the citadel, the striped mountain, the salt pans and the seven lakes. Most Peru itineraries spend more nights here than anywhere else. There is enough to fill them.
Peru’s biggest sellers are its cheapest days.
Every review →Ranked by how many travellers have actually booked and rated each one. The Cusco day trips at the top run under $30 with meals thrown in; the list gets more expensive as it goes down.
1
Classic Inca Trail Trek 4D/3N to Machu Picchu (Group Service)
A classic Inca Trail trek from Cusco to Machu Picchu with expert local guides, great campsite meals, and a smooth group setup.
From · $795
Read our review →
2
Premium Paracas & Huacachina Day Trip from Lima with Sunset Toast
from $99
3
Rainbow Mountain and Red Valley Day Trip with Meals
from $23
4
4-Day Inca Trail Trek with Panoramic Train Ride
from $756
5
Salkantay Classic Trek 5 Days from Cusco
from $750
6
Full Day Tour From Lima: Paracas and Huacachina Oasis
from $57
7
4-Day Salkantay Trek with Sky Camp Stay
from $695
8
Short Inca Trail to Machu Picchu 2D/1N
from $550
The valley sits 600 m below Cusco, and that matters.
Pisac’s terraces, Ollantaytambo’s stairways, the salt pans at Maras and the circular beds at Moray, with Chinchero’s weavers in between. It is the standard first full day out of Cusco, and the easier air is most of the reason.
Four price steps, from a Cusco walking tour to a five-day trek.
Every published tour here, bucketed by what it actually costs. The picks inside each band are the most-reviewed at that price.
City walks, market mornings, the ossuary under San Francisco, a cooking class. Cusco and Lima at their cheapest.
The full-day classics: Rainbow Mountain with meals, the Sacred Valley loop, the Ballestas boat, the dune buggies.
Machu Picchu by train, Colca overnight, the Nazca flight, small groups and private drivers.
Four and five-day treks, Amazon lodges with the transfers included, and private circuits built around one party.
Nobody plans a Peru trip for Lima. Then they eat.
The capital is the one city here that rivals Cusco for bookings, and most of what people book is food: ceviche in Barranco, a market walk before a cooking class, tasting menus that fill weeks ahead. Around the eating there is the ossuary beneath San Francisco, the Larco’s collection and the cliff path at Miraflores.
- 1Premium Paracas & Huacachina Day Trip from Lima with Sunset Toastfrom $99
- 2Full Day Tour From Lima: Paracas and Huacachina Oasisfrom $57
- 3Lima Ultimate Peruvian Food Tourfrom $105
Machu Picchu counts heads. Book these first.
Almost everything in Peru can be booked the night before from your hotel. These four cannot. They run on daily caps and permit quotas set to protect the sites — not on how far ahead you happened to plan.
- 01Classic Inca Trail Trek 4D/3N to Machu Picchu (Group Service)Entry is capped daily and sold by timed circuit: you choose a circuit and an entry hour when you book, and the morning slots go first.
- 02Classic Inca Trail Trek 4D/3N to Machu Picchu (Group Service)The classic trail runs on a daily permit quota that counts porters and guides as well as walkers. Permits routinely sell out months ahead, and the route closes every February for maintenance.
- 03Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu Full Day Private TourThe peak behind the citadel carries its own small daily quota on top of the Machu Picchu ticket, released in two or three timed groups.
- 044-Day Inca Trail Trek with Panoramic Train RideOne narrow-gauge line reaches Aguas Calientes and each service seats a fixed number. Peak departures go before the entry tickets do.
Reed islands, a canyon of condors, lines only a plane can read.
Ruins and high passes run the length of the Andes. These three belong to Peru on their own terms.
The Uros Islands
Forty-odd islands on Lake Titicaca, built and rebuilt from totora reed by the families who live on them. A visit is short and it is somebody’s home: you step onto a floor that gives underfoot, are shown how the reed layers are stacked and replaced, and are usually offered handwork to buy. Boats leave Puno through the morning. Taquile and Amantaní are a longer day, or an overnight with a host family.
- 1Uros, Amantaní & Taquile Islands 2-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 452 reviews
- 2Tour to Uros and Taquile Islands in a Fast Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 419 reviews
- 3Floating Islands of the Uros Half-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 394 reviews
The Nazca Lines
Hundreds of figures scraped into the Nazca plain between roughly 500 BC and 500 AD, and legible only from the air. Flights run 30 to 35 minutes in a small aircraft out of Nazca or Pisco, banking hard left then hard right so both sides of the cabin see each figure. It is a bumpy half hour. The roadside mirador shows three shapes for a fraction of the price.
- 12 Day Tour from Lima: Nazca Lines Flight, Paracas, and Huacachina★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 594 reviews
- 235-Minute Flight Over Nazca Lines★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 583 reviews
- 33 Day Tour from Lima: Nazca Lines Flight, Paracas, and Huacachina★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 468 reviews
Condors at the Cruz del Condor
Andean condors ride the morning thermals out of the Colca at a viewpoint two hours past Chivay, and the canyon under them runs more than 3,000 m deep — roughly twice the Grand Canyon. Day tours leave Arequipa around three in the morning to make the birds; the two-day version sleeps in the valley and skips the pre-dawn bus.
- 12 day 1 night trek / Colca Canyon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,069 reviews
- 2Colca Canyon Full-Day Guided Tour with Meals★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 982 reviews
- 3Colca Full Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 429 reviews
Between Lima and Nazca, Peru turns to desert.
All south-coast tours →Sea lions and Humboldt penguins on the Ballestas, a lagoon ringed by 100 m dunes at Huacachina, and geoglyphs the size of football pitches south of Ica. Most of it is done as a long day out of Lima or a slow two nights on the way to Arequipa.
Paracas, Ballestas Islands and Huacachina Guided Tour
Read our review →Premium Paracas & Huacachina Day Trip from Lima with Sunset Toast
Read our review →
2 Day Tour from Lima: Nazca Lines Flight, Paracas, and Huacachina
Read our review →Lima to Cusco the long way, stop by stop.
By region — where you are based
Cusco753 tours
Lima303 tours
Arequipa110 tours
Puno & Lake Titicaca55 tours
Paracas54 tours
Ica & Huacachina36 tours
Nazca17 tours
Iquitos23 tours
Puerto Maldonado28 tours
Huaraz15 tours
Trujillo9 tours- Every review →
By kind of day — what are you actually doing?
Latest from Cusco, Lima and everywhere between.
All recent reviews →
Lima Highlights! – City Tour & Miraflores, Barranco & San Isidro
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Private Tour Sacred Valley, Chinchero, Maras Moray, Ollantaytambo
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ATV Adventure to Moray and Maras Salt Mines – Half Day
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Full day Tour Paracas Ica & Huacachina from Lima.
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