A Perfect Week in Peru
The Perfect Week in Peru
Itinerary & Tips!
DO: Spend plenty of time in Cusco & Sacred Vally!
DON’T: Book just one day at Machu Picchu!
Is Macchu Picchu on your Bucket List? If so, this is the perfect way to spend your time getting there! Peru was a country we chose that was out of our comfort zone, but MP was on our Bucket List and when I started researching, I knew we had to go! This is a long post, so feel free to jump to specific destinations by clicking below!
Peru Itinerary:
Day 1: Lima
Day 2-4: Cusco
Day 5: Day trip through Sacred Valley & overnight Aguas Calientes
Day 6: Machu Picchu (back to Cusco for one last night)
Day 7: Late night home
Below you will find:
A day by day itinerary with places to go & things to see!
Top Tips for each destination!
A pretty funny story about Nate :)
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Stop 1: Lima
Do: Schedule a Food tour on your first day in a foreign country!
Don’t: Schedule your time in Lima on a Sunday!
Day 1: Lima
We, unfortunately, had just over a 24-hour delay on our way to Peru, so our time in Lima was cut short & felt like a whirlwind. (See our post: The Duhls Do: Houston on a 24-hour layover!) We arrived really late the night before so headed straight to our AirBNB in Miraflores and tried to get a good night’s sleep.
We started the morning with a Food Walking Tour in Barranco with Food C’s. (Our Tripadvisor Review). Food tours are such a great way to start a trip in a foreign country because they’re usually lead by a local, and you can get some insider tips on what to see & do. Not to mention, you then know what to order the rest of the trip! The food on this particular trip was so good. One of the highlights was we got to learn how to make ceviche (and of course eat it) and also try one of the most famous Peruvian Dishes-Lomo Saltado-think Stir Fry on French Fries. We also had our first Pisco Sour-we were hooked from day one!
That afternoon, we took some time to Explore Miraflores Highlights where we were staying. Miraflores definitely had more of a “big city” feel to it. In hindsight, if choosing between staying in Miraflores & Barranco, we would choose the latter-it just had more character & charm. In all honesty, we may have skipped Lima all together. Part of our disenchantment with Lima was in part due to the fact that we only had a short day, it was really overcast/cool/rainy, and it was also a Sunday, so the city essentially shut down around 3-4 p.m., so it could be all of that!
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Our Favorite Lima Spots
Malecon- a good place to have a cocktail or lunch, but pretty commercial. This was about a 5-minute walk from our Airbnb.
Love Park-Gaudi inspired & gave us some fun reminders of our trip to Barcelona. It was fitting to take a stroll through here since it was our wedding anniversary that day.
After walking around by the water, we walked up to Parque Kennedy to try and find a brewery, but as mentioned above, everything was starting to shut down for the day.
Luckily our Airbnb host had some recommendations for places that were open on Sunday evening & we had a great anniversary dinner at Donatello’s Italian. Nate surprised me by somehow convincing the restaurant to play our first dance song.
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Stop 2: Cusco
DO: Have a Pisco Sour on the Plaza!
DON’T: Forget your rabies shot--we spent an afternoon in the “Clinica Medical”
Where to Stay:
Tierra Viva San Blas-We absolutely loved our hotel & would highly recommend it. They readily had coca tea and offered a complimentary breakfast buffet with a great variety every morning. It had a courtyard where you could enjoy some tea or a snack, and a little “business center” where we could print tickets, etc. What really set this place apart was the service. They knew us by name by the time we left & helped us when Nate got bit by the dog (more below)-they even paid for our taxi to the urgent care.
“This is Peru!”
As soon as we landed in Cusco (after yet again, another delay-only an hour this time thankfully) we both were thinking “this is Peru.” We fell in love with the city right away-it had so much charm and so much culture.
Day 1: Cusco
Our first day we took a trip with a guide through the San Pedro market, which literally has everything you could ever want (or not want to see..). We sampled some interesting foods and bought some alpaca wool souvenirs. Our guide then took us to have a Pisco on the plaza before getting on a bus heading to the planetarium to view the stars. In hindsight, we probably wouldn’t have booked this, and could have left this night open to just explore the city. When we got out to see the stars it was pretty cloudy, cold, and the altitude (plus a morning at the airport) had started to catch up with us! Once we got inside it was warm & really hard to stay awake for the presentation. Our guide was very friendly and told us all about the city and then took us to a “traditional dinner” which kind of reminded me of a KFC-we had fried chicken and french fries. By this time we were starving & ate every last bite, but If I could have done it over again, I would have just gone to a restaurant I had researched!
Day 2: Open Day & a Trip to the Clinica Medical
Usually when we stay in a city for 3 days (which we’ve found to be “the sweet spot”) I try to leave a day open to explore any recommendations we’ve gotten from locals or other travelers. This ended up taking a turn for the worse pretty quickly.
Nate & I were exploring on foot & took a wrong turn down a dead end road. One thing to note when traveling to Cusco is there are dogs...everywhere! We are both “dog-people” and for the most part this was not a big deal….to us...to the not-so-happy-with-travelers dog, he had other plans. We had passed the dog just before we turned around, and as soon as we did, he didn’t like it and lunged right at me. Nate jumped in front of me and took a bite right behind his knee. Luckily we were able to quickly and the dog didn’t chase us. But not so luckily, the bite had broken skin. As soon as we got WIFI back at our hotel we called a friend back home who is a doctor & recommended we get Nate a rabies shot. Overall, it was more of a scare than anything! Their urgent care was very clean, they got us in right away, and it cost less than $100 dollars. Our big takeaway was that if we would have done the same at home, a trip to the ER would be MUCH longer & MUCH more expensive. Nate did follow up with his shots at home & recovered just fine. He does have a little scar to remember it by.
Once this whole fiasco was done, we really just wanted some food and a cocktail so we spent the afternoon exploring some of the local spots around town.
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Day 3: Cusco
On day three of Cusco, I had pre-booked a half-day ATV tour to the Sacred Valley through Viator called “4X4 Cusco Maras & Moray Quadbike Adventure”. If you are in Cusco for more than a day, definitely DO THIS! It was beautiful and the ATVs were a really fun way to see the valley. This has, to this day been one of our favorite organized tours ever. We usually book our tours through our Chase Reserve Ultimate Rewards Points. At the time, they had a partnership with Viator & the tour was called “Sacred Valley 4X4 Quadbike Adventure from Cusco”. There are a lot of tours offered like this, so I did quite a bit of research in picking the right one for us. The operator we went with is called “Bamba” & I would highly recommend it! They picked us up from the Cusco main square around 1 p.m. We knew we had a really early day the following day on our trek to Machu Picchu, so the afternoon tour worked out great! Once you were on the tour, you got to choose from a few routes, and we went with the one that visited Maras & Moray Salt Mines-we were very happy with our choice. The other group got to go to a scenic lake, and their pictures were also incredible. The views everywhere were breathtaking and unlike anything we had ever seen. It was especially cool to see little towns along the way and all of the friendly people. We were in Peru in July, so it was a little chilly & I definitely recommend bringing some gloves and layers if you choose this tour at this time of year! I didn’t have any gloves, but there was a market at Maras & I bought some alpaca wool gloves for around $2 USD!
Our Top Cusco Duhls & Don’ts
Just walk the city & take in the sights. The main square is bustling with people watching & sightseeing.
Visit the Choco Museum and do the shortest tour-we got a quick overview of the chocolate process and got to make three pieces. Definitely try the Maras Salt in dark chocolate!
Have a Pisco Sour overlooking Plaza de Armas. Try a Passionfruit variation!
Try the Guinea Pig or Cuy!
Take an ATV tour of the Sacred Valley through Viator -we chose a ½ day afternoon tour called “4X4 Cusco Maras & Moray Quadbike Adventure” & it was perfect. We got to visit Maras & Moray.
Spend some time in the Sacred Valley! More on this in our post about the trek to Machu Picchu!
Eat all of the potatoes you can! Causa Rellena was our favorite!
Where to Eat & Drink: Cusco
Uchu-a great Peruvian Steakhouse. We recommend the lamb, beef & alpaca trio! We had appetizers, each had an entree and a nice bottle of wine for under 100USD!
Pachapapa-this is where we tried Cuy! It has a great ambiance and the option to sit outside. We found this moderately priced, and the food was great! We enjoyed having some Peruvian craft beer at their cozy bar while waiting for our table.
Hanz Homeade Craft Beer & Food-If you like craft beer, you have to check this out! They have flights to try & we each had a really great burger with potato wedges.
Limbus Restobar-If you are ready for a climb (and don’t forget the altitude) the view from this bar is phenomenal. Tip: Go for the sunset, but get there early for a seat!
Cholos Craft Beer Cusco-they have a great patio to drink some local crafts!
Stop 3: The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu
DO: Spend time in the Sacred Valley on your way! Sometimes it really is about the journey!
DON’T: Only book one day at Machu Picchu-this is probably the main reason you’re visiting Peru, don’t cut your time short!
The Journey to Machu Picchu
Getting to Machu Picchu isn’t easy. A typical route (if you choose not to hike like us since we were on limited time):
Cusco→ Drive through Sacred Valley→ Catch a train in Ollantaytambo→ Stay overnight in Aguas Calientes→ take a bus up to Machu Picchu (very windy roads!)
Since you have to go through the Sacred Valley to get to Machu Picchu, it is worth your time to do a day of exploring! We, booked a tour through Viator called “2-Day Tour: Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu by Train”
This took care of transportation from Cusco, a day tour of Sacred Valley including PIsac, Urubamba, and Ollantaytambo, the train to Aguas Calientes, hotel for one night and entry tickets to Machu Picchu.
When researching, trying to sync all of this up was becoming a headache and when I found this tour on Viator , I thought it was so nice to have all of this done. There were definitely some pros and cons to this, see below!
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We got to see some really amazing sites on the way:
Our driver stopped at a few lookout points that I wish I knew the name of!
Pisac & Markets-Pisac was absolutely beautiful and was one of those experiences where you just feel so small in the world.
Ollantaytambo-a great climb with some really interesting history. There are markets and a cute town here too. I think it would be really fun to spend the night here, but we were only there for an hour or so!
After exploring these sites, we got on the train to After exploring these sites, we got on the train to Aguas Calientes. It was a pleasant trip & went quickly because we sat with two friends from Germany and we chatted about our travels. They also fed us snacks and a drink. I remember during my planning and research I contemplated booking one of the really expensive trains, and I’m glad I didn’t. This ride was perfectly comfortable and was not long enough to have spent more money on this portion!
We got to Aguas Calientes after dark (which was a bit disappointing, but made it even more mystical the next morning) and checked into our hotel, and had a short meeting about our itinerary for day two. We then went for a late dinner at Inka Wasi Restaurant. The Lomo Soltado was great! We sat right by the window, (near a cozy fireplace) and listened to live music on the main walkway through the town. We knew we had a really early wake-up call, so went to bed as soon as we were done with dinner!
Our trip to Machu Picchu was a whirlwind. We waited in the rain for about an hour to get on the busses. I definitely recommend getting up early and getting in line! The line was significantly longer when we got on the bus! The bus ride up was an adventure in itself. We rode on a coach bus and I had to shut my eyes most of the time because I thought we were going to go flying off of a cliff. When we arrived, this is when we realized the clouds that we had woken up to were probably not going to go away. We made the best of it & enjoyed our tour through the archeological site. My favorite part was that there were Llamas everywhere! It was a really humbling experience being somewhere we had read so much about and done so much research on. We were actually at Machu Picchu! I can’t say enough that we wish we had another day here.
A Guided Tour of Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu Pros & Cons
Pros:
Tickets, planning, etc. were all taken care of-we didn’t have to worry about the logistics
Worry free driving-we didn’t have to use a GPS or figure out where to go
Our guide was very knowledgeable about all of the sites & Peruvian History!
We met some very interesting people!
Great sites & places we probably wouldn’t have known to go to on our own!
Cons:
Even though the logistics were taken care of, sometimes I like to have a little more control. For example, we didn’t know what hotel we were staying at in Aguas Calientes until they dropped off our tickets for the whole tour the day before we left.
Our hotel was not our favorite (Waman Hotel). We had two twin beds instead of a full or queen, the bathroom was tiny, and the noise outside our room was really loud and we had a really early wakeup call (4 a.m.)! Also, we got stuck in the elevator for a few minutes, which at the time was terrifying. They did have a great breakfast buffet that was open early for us to get us ready for a day of adventure. They also gave us a great recommendation for dinner (Inka Wasi)
Although it is fun to meet new people, sometimes spending a full 48 hours with them can be taxing, especially when there are some people who are on a different pace than you!
As most tours like this do, they take you to some local places to go “shopping” and you feel pressured into buying something. They took us to three of these over the course of the trip-first thing in the morning on the first day we stopped at a market, later in the afternoon we went to a jewelry factory and the last day on the route back to Cusco they stopped at a Guinea pig and textiles farm.
Time Constraints at Machu Picchu. Our train back to Ollantaytambo was booked for 2 p.m. We had booked a separate hike while we were at Machu Picchu & spent an additional $60 USD. When we got up to the site, we felt very rushed and there was no way we would have been able to enjoy the hike without worrying about missing our train. In hindsight we definitely would have booked a 2nd night in Aguas Calientes to avoid this & possibly a second day at Machu Picchu.
It was SO cloudy the morning we were there. It was an incredible experience but our pictures didn’t really show the beauty.
All in all, our trip to Peru was incredible. We met some amazing people, ate yummy food and conquered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It quickly made its way to the top of our favorite countries list!
Want us to Plan Your Trip to Peru? Click Below to find out more about our Curated Itineraries!
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