LimaTravel Guide
Peru's clifftop capital on the Pacific: a world gastronomy capital with grand historic hotels, bohemian Barranco, and ocean-view Miraflores.
Is Lima right for you?
December to April (sunny coastal summer)
Around 28°C by day in February, 19°C in August — recorded at the local weather station.
It depends where you stand. There is a cheap version and an expensive one — the guides below say which is which.
No hour-by-hour route here yet — the guides below cover it by subject instead.
December to April (sunny coastal summer)
Average daily highs, recorded at Lima (Jorge Chavez International Airport), 13 m, 1991-2020 normals.
Where this comes from
Deutscher Wetterdienst; Meteo Climat — Southern hemisphere - warmest Jan-Mar. Rainfall is near-zero year round (coastal desert with garua fog).
Mixed
Typical cost profile for visitors
- Cusco580 km
half a day's travel · but their best months do not overlap with this one · a different price level (mid)
CuscoFinding Lima
Reading Lima
Where to Stay in Lima: Neighborhoods and Classic Hotels
Miraflores clifftops, bohemian Barranco, stately San Isidro, or the historic centre — Lima's best neighborhoods and its famous grand-dame hotels.
Breakfast to Midnight: Eating Your Way Through Lima
One of the great food cities on earth, ordered by the clock. Sandwiches at dawn, ceviche strictly at lunch, and pisco after dark.
Cross Lima Once a Day, Not Four Times
Lima's sights sit in four clusters separated by up to an hour of traffic in each direction, so the only itinerary that survives contact with the city takes one cluster per day, in this order.
The Backstreets and Local Markets of Lima
Past the Miraflores clifftops: a pre-Inca pyramid between apartment blocks, a market that supplies the famous kitchens, and Barranco after dark.
Lima, framed
What we'd do in Lima
See and do
- Barranco s back lanes
Barranco is the small bohemian district south of Miraflores, and it repays walking.
Read: The Backstreets and Local Markets of Lima - Mercado No. 1 de Surquillo
The market that supplies a good number of Lima s serious kitchens sits a short walk across the expressway from Miraflores.
Read: The Backstreets and Local Markets of Lima - Barrio Chino and the Mercado Central
Lima s Chinatown, near the central market downtown, is the birthplace of chifa, the Chinese-Peruvian cooking that shaped the national palate.
Read: The Backstreets and Local Markets of Lima - The pyramids in the suburbs
Huaca Pucllana, an adobe pyramid built by the Lima culture long before the Inca, rises straight out of a residential grid in Miraflores, with apartment blocks on all four sides.
Read: The Backstreets and Local Markets of Lima
Eat and drink
- The quick facts
Capital of Peru, on the Pacific coast, with Miraflores and Barranco as the main visitor districts
Read: Breakfast to Midnight: Eating Your Way Through Lima
Where to stay
- Miraflores — the clifftop classic
For first visits, Miraflores is the default for good reason: the malecón clifftop parks, paragliders over the Pacific, safe walkable streets, and endless cafés and cevicherías.
Read: Where to Stay in Lima: Neighborhoods and Classic HotelsCheck ratesad · Booking.com - Barranco — bohemian and beautiful
South along the cliffs, Barranco is Lima's artists' quarter — a compact grid of colorful 19th-century mansions, street art, and the lovers' Bridge of Sighs (Puente de los Suspiros).
Read: Where to Stay in Lima: Neighborhoods and Classic HotelsCheck ratesad · Booking.com - San Isidro — the stately garden district
Leafy, quiet, and moneyed, San Isidro is Lima's financial and diplomatic quarter, built around an ancient olive grove.
Read: Where to Stay in Lima: Neighborhoods and Classic HotelsCheck ratesad · Booking.com - Centro Histórico — for the romantics
Lima's UNESCO-listed historic centre, around the Plaza Mayor and Plaza San Martín, is where the viceroyalty's balconied palaces still stand.
Read: Where to Stay in Lima: Neighborhoods and Classic HotelsCheck ratesad · Booking.com
Practical essentials for Peru
Peruvian sol (PEN)
Spanish, with Quechua and Aymara also official where they prevail; English is limited outside hotels and tour operators.
Type A/B/C, 220V 60Hz
Long-distance buses and domestic flights cover the distances, PeruRail and Inca Rail run the tourist trains to Machu Picchu, and cities have their own networks — Lima has the Metropolitano busway.
Tourist restaurants often add 10% as servicio; otherwise about 10% is normal, and taxi drivers are not tipped.
Tap water is not safe to drink; use sealed bottled or purified water and avoid ice you cannot vouch for.
Right-hand side; a photocard national licence is valid for a tourist stay, though rental firms often ask for an International Driving Permit.
105 police, 116 fire, 106 ambulance (SAMU); a unified 911 is being phased in from Lima
Country-level guidance, checked against official sources. Currency, fares and entry rules change — confirm anything time-critical before you travel.
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