Lima travel guide
Where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Things to do in Lima, planned over three days
Best time to visit Lima
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Summer: warm days, blue skies, late sunsets, and excursions and paragliding running most reliably.
The garúa: low fog and drizzle, grey skies and cooler days. Museum and food season, with softer hotel prices.
Shoulder months are the locals sweet spot: milder light, thinning fog, fewer crowds and better restaurant availability.
Best months overall: February to April for the sunny city, October for the festival city.
Worst window: mid July to August combines the thickest garúa with peak international crowds.
What's on
- National Pisco Sour Day first Saturday of February
The national drink's official day, with tastings and parties across Miraflores and Barranco.
- Peruvian Paso Horse Festival April
The national breed's championship week at Mamacona in the Lurín valley, pairable with Pachacamac.
- National Ceviche Day 28 June
Ceviche's official day, followed by San Pedro fishermen's processions at Chorrillos on 29 June.
- Fiestas Patrias 28-29 July
Independence week with the Great Military Parade, fairs and concerts in every district.
- Festival de Cine de Lima August
Latin American films take over the PUCP cultural centre and cinemas across town.
- Señor de los Milagros October, with the big processions on 18, 19 and 28 October and 1 November
South America's largest Catholic procession turns central Lima purple for a month, with seasonal food everywhere.
- Día de la Canción Criolla 31 October
Lima's Creole music night, celebrated harder than Halloween at the end of the Señor de los Milagros season.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Lima
Museo Larco
Five thousand years of pre-Columbian art in a mansion with gardens, open storage and an erotic pottery gallery.
Plaza Mayor de Lima
The UNESCO colonial core with the Cathedral, Government Palace and carved wooden balconies, best seen with a guide.
Huaca Pucllana
A huge adobe pyramid of the Lima culture rising from a Miraflores street, toured only with the site guides.
Puente de los Suspiros
Barranco's wooden Bridge of Sighs, the start of a slow walk past murals and mansions down toward the sea.
Malecón de Miraflores
Six miles of clifftop parks from Parque del Amor to Kennedy Park, with paragliders above and surfers below.
Museo de Arte de Lima
Peru's art story from pre-Columbian to modern in one grand exhibition palace, strong on colonial painting.
Circuito Mágico del Agua
Thirteen interactive fountains and a laser show on a giant water screen, a warm evening favourite with local families.
Mercado de Surquillo
The chefs market for a guided tasting walk and cooking class covering ceviche, lomo saltado and a pisco sour.
Where to stay in Lima
Miraflores
first trip, all-round base
The clifftop malecón, Kennedy Park and the widest spread of hotels at every price, with easy evening walking.
Barranco
couples, food trips and a second visit
The bohemian quarter with top restaurants and bars within walking distance, quieter and more romantic than Miraflores.
San Isidro
quiet, polish and business-grade calm
The financial district around the El Olivar olive grove, widely rated Lima's most secure, but quiet after office hours.
Pueblo Libre
museum-led second trip
The quiet district that holds the Larco Museum, with good local restaurants and lower prices, but rides needed elsewhere.
Think twice about
- Historic Centre
Magnificent by day with a guide, but many streets empty after dark and protests can close streets. Sightsee here, sleep elsewhere.
- Callao
The port and airport district has higher robbery rates and no visitor infrastructure beyond the airport. Pass through in an official transfer only.
- La Victoria
The Gamarra garment district and bus terminals are crowded and pickpocket heavy. Pass through for a bus, do not sleep there.
- Rimac and Barrios Altos
Historic districts flanking the centre with high street crime and little for visitors after dark. Visit with a guide by day, sleep elsewhere.
Best restaurants in Lima
Maido
Mitsuharu Tsumura's Nikkei tasting menu of Peruvian ingredients through Japanese technique, ranked world number one in 2025.
Central Restaurante
Virgilio Martínez's altitude by altitude journey through Peru's ecosystems, the icon of modern Peruvian cooking.
Kjolle
Pía León's freer, more colourful expression of the Peruvian pantry, upstairs at Casa Tupac beside Central.
Mérito
A tiny Barranco counter where Juan Luis Martínez cooks Venezuelan Peruvian food that punches above its size.
Mayta
Jaime Pesaque's polished contemporary Peruvian flagship, with alpaca, duck, Amazonian ingredients and serious pisco.
Cosme
A relaxed San Isidro dining room doing ingredient led Peruvian comfort at a level its casual room does not advertise.
La Mar Cebichería
Gastón Acurio's benchmark cevichería, a no bookings lunch room for ceviche, tiraditos, causas and grilled octopus.
Isolina Taberna Peruana
José del Castillo's taberna of Lima home cooking, with huge sharing plates of the Creole canon.
Outdoor things to do in Lima
Paracas
A long day combining Ballestas Islands wildlife by boat with pisco, the Huacachina oasis and dune buggying at sunset.
Islas Palomino
A morning boat from Callao to swim in a wetsuit with a colony of several thousand curious sea lions.
Parapente Miraflores
Tandem paragliding off the Miraflores cliffs over the Costa Verde when the afternoon sea breeze is up.
Playa Makaha
The classic beginner surf beach under the Miraflores cliffs, with schools renting boards and wetsuits.
Pachacamac
A vast adobe oracle and pilgrimage complex in a desert valley by the sea, topped by the Temple of the Sun.
Malecón de Miraflores
Cycle or run the clifftop bike lanes from San Isidro through Miraflores to Barranco, best early in the morning.
Los Inkas Golf Club
A historic 1945 parkland course in the Andean foothills, playable only by member introduction or advance request.
Best hotels in Lima
Miraflores Park, a Belmond Hotel
The grand clifftop address with ocean view rooms and the service benchmark in the city. Ask about the 2026 facade and pool works before booking.
AC Hotel Lima Miraflores
A modern, good value clifftop hotel by Larcomar with ocean view rooms and no grande dame pricing.
Atemporal
A small boutique in a converted 1940s house run like a private residence, the couples pick in Miraflores.
Souma Hotel Lima
A newer five star hotel on the malecón for travellers who want a contemporary full service stay.
Pariwana Hostel Lima
The benchmark budget bed in Miraflores by Kennedy Park, with dorms, privates, a rooftop bar and walking tours.
ibis Lima Larco Miraflores
A clean, predictable budget chain room on Avenida Larco, a few minutes from the malecón.
Hotel B
A restored belle epoque mansion run as an art hotel, the special occasion stay in Lima.
Villa Barranco by Ananay Hotels
A restored 1920s casona with a garden near the Bridge of Sighs, quieter and more residential than Hotel B.
Is Lima expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | PEN 185 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | PEN 365 a person |
| Splurge | PEN 750 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Mercado de Surquillo: a few days ahead
- Lady Bee: a few days ahead
- Paracas: a few days ahead
- Islas Palomino: a few days ahead
- Parapente Miraflores: a few days ahead
- Los Inkas Golf Club: weeks ahead
- Maido: months ahead
- Central Restaurante: months ahead
- Maido, Central and Kjolle open reservations months out and are the trip's critical path. Mérito is nearly as tight.
- La Mar takes no reservations and is lunch only. Arrive before noon and queue.
- Huaca Pucllana closes Tuesdays and MALI closes Mondays. Larco is the reliable Monday museum.
- Book paragliding and Ballestas boats early in the trip because both are weather and wind gated.
Is Lima safe?
- Keep your phone off the street edge and out of car windows, and navigate from inside a doorway, not at a kerb.
- Pickpocketing is the pattern in crowds, markets and bus terminals. Use ATMs inside banks or malls and carry small cash.
- After 10pm ride between districts even for short hops. Detour around protest marches in the centre.
- Emergency numbers: police 105, ambulance 106, fire 116. Do not drink the tap water.
- Check your government's current travel advice before you go.
Lima travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Treating Lima as just a layover. The food capital deserves three days minimum.
- Larcomar as a destination: it is a mall in a cliff, fine for coffee with a view, while the malecón either side is the attraction.
- Concierge priced tours: the same Palomino Islands trip sells online for about US$77 and through one luxury hotel for US$210.
- The Gold Museum has a long running authenticity debate. Larco and MALI are better uses of the same hours.
- Ceviche at dinner: it is a midday dish from the morning's fish, and proud cevicherías close after lunch.
- Mistura no longer runs in its classic form. Check current Perú Mucho Gusto fair dates instead.
Getting around Lima: public transport and more
- Ride hailing with Uber, DiDi, Cabify or InDrive is cheap and the default. Use it instead of hailing street taxis.
- The Metropolitano BRT is the one piece of public transport worth a visitor's time. Avoid the small combi buses.
- Traffic is the real timetable, about 45 to 70 minutes cross town at peak. Cluster each day in one zone and never self drive.
- The new airport terminal opened in June 2025. Allow 45 to 90 minutes to Miraflores or Barranco and use official taxis or pre booked transfers.
Who Lima suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Lima your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
Get Swearby on the App Store