Grand Tour of
Peru
Rate price per person from: 3590 USD
21 Day Tour
ITINERARY
Day 1 Arrival in Lima
Peru begins in Lima, a capital that faces the Pacific and rarely gets the credit it
deserves. After clearing formalities at Jorge Chavez airport, a representative
meets you and transfers you to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours to settle
into the time change and, if you feel up to it, to start sampling the cooking that
has made this city a culinary reference across the region. Rest is time well
spent before the long journey ahead.
Day 2 Lima to Paracas
A tourist coach heads south along the desert coast, where the Pan-American
highway runs a thin line between the Pacific and the dunes, to Paracas and its
wide, calm bay. The afternoon is free to take in the sea air and the light on the
water, a gentle start before the interior. Paracas sits at the edge of a national
reserve where desert meets ocean, a contrast unlike anywhere else on the trip.
Day 3Paracas to Ica: the Ballestas Islands and
Huacachina
An early boat trip to the Ballestas Islands, rocky outcrops crowded with sea
lions, Humboldt penguins and vast colonies of seabirds, so full of life they are
often called the poor man's Galapagos. On the way out you pass the
Candelabra, a giant figure etched into a coastal dune whose origin is still
debated. Later the coach continues a short way inland to Ica and the oasis of
Huacachina, a palm-fringed lagoon set among towering dunes.
Day 4 Ica and Huacachina: dunes and vineyards
A day of two very different pleasures. In the dunes, a ride by dune buggy over
the crests and the chance to try sandboarding down the slopes, best in the
cooler light of morning or late afternoon. The rest of the day turns to the vine,
with a visit to the bodegas around Ica where pisco, Peru's national spirit, is
distilled, and a tasting that explains the difference between one grape and the
next.
Day 5 Ica to Arequipa
A tourist coach back up the coast to Lima, and then a flight south to Arequipa,
Peru's graceful second city beneath its ring of volcanoes. The change is total,
from desert coast to a highland city of pale volcanic stone. The evening is free
to settle in.
Day 6 Arequipa city tour
A day for the White City, built largely of sillar, the volcanic stone that gives it its
glow in the afternoon light. The tour takes in the Santa Catalina monastery, a
walled town in miniature that sheltered its nuns for centuries, the arched
viewpoint at Yanahuara framing the volcano El Misti, and the streets of the
historic center.
Day 7 Arequipa: a day to acclimatize
A free day, and a useful one. At 2,335 meters Arequipa is a sensible place to
pause before the higher country ahead, and the day can be as full or as quiet as
you like, whether more time in the old center and its museums, an unhurried
lunch, or simply rest before the climb to Colca and Titicaca.
Day 8 Arequipa to the Colca Canyon
The road north climbs onto the altiplano, crossing the Salinas y Aguada Blanca
reserve, where vicuna graze on the high plain and lagoons draw flamingos and
Andean birdlife, before descending toward Chivay at the head of the Colca
Canyon. The afternoon leaves time at the thermal springs, a welcome soak after
the drive and the gain in altitude.
Day 9 The Colca Canyon and on to Puno
An early start for the Cruz del Condor, the canyon's most celebrated viewpoint,
where Andean condors ride the morning thermals and pass close overhead on
wings that can span three meters. Afterward the road turns toward Puno, a long
and scenic crossing of the altiplano, climbing over high passes before dropping
to the shore of Lake Titicaca as evening falls.
Day 10 Lake Titicaca: Uros and Taquile
A full day on the water, on the highest navigable lake in the world. The boat first
calls at the floating islands of the Uros, built and rebuilt from totora reed, where
families live on a surface that gives underfoot and has to be renewed again and
again. It then crosses to Taquile, a natural island whose community keeps a
weaving tradition so refined that UNESCO has recognized it, and where by
custom the men knit and the women spin. Lunch on the island is included, most
often fresh trout from the lake.
Day 11 Puno to Cusco along the Ruta del Sol
The journey to Cusco follows the Ruta del Sol, a full day aboard a tourist coach
that turns the transfer into a route of its own. It stops at the pre-Inca site and
small museum of Pukara, climbs to the La Raya pass at more than four
thousand meters, then visits the great Inca temple complex of Raqchi and the
painted church of Andahuaylillas, so lavishly frescoed it is often called the
Sistine Chapel of the Americas. A buffet lunch is included, and you reach Cusco
in the evening.
Day 12Cusco to the Sacred Valley: Chinchero,
Maras/Moray and Ollantaytambo
The classic run through the Sacred Valley, beginning at Chinchero, a village of
weavers whose colonial church sits on Inca foundations and where the
backstrap loom is still in daily use. Then to Moray, with its concentric
agricultural terraces, and the salt pans of Maras spilling white down the hillside,
before ending at Ollantaytambo, where the original Inca town and its terraced
temple still stand. Lunch is included, and the night is spent in the valley.
Day 13 A community day at Misminay
A day given over to the living Andes, in the community of Misminay high above
the valley. Here you take part in the work of the land rather than watch it,
joining the potato harvest with the chaquitaclla, the Andean foot plough, and
sharing in a pachamanca, a feast of meat, potatoes and vegetables cooked in
an earth oven heated with hot stones and opened at the table as the
centerpiece of the day. It is the kind of exchange that stays with people long
after the trip is over.
Day 14 Toward Machu Picchu by Vistadome train
The Vistadome train carries you down the valley to Aguas Calientes, the town at
the foot of Machu Picchu, following the Urubamba as the peaks close in and the
vegetation thickens into cloud forest. Its wide windows and glass roof make the
journey part of the spectacle. The night is spent in Aguas Calientes, within easy
reach of the citadel for an early start. The rail journey can be upgraded to the
Vistadome Observatory or the Hiram Bingham.
Day 15 Machu Picchu
An early bus climbs the switchbacks to Machu Picchu, and a guided visit follows
the circuit assigned at the time of booking, moving among terraces, temples
and the great green amphitheatre of the surrounding peaks. Arriving before the
middle of the day rewards you with softer light and thinner crowds. Afterward
the train and transfer bring you back to Cusco for the night.
Day 16 Cusco city tour
A day for the old capital itself. The tour begins at the Qoricancha, the temple of
the sun on whose stone walls the Spanish raised the convent of Santo Domingo,
and continues with a panoramic view of the Cathedral from the square. From
there you climb to the outskirts for the four nearby ruins: Sacsayhuaman with
its cyclopean walls, Qenqo, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay, with its enduring
worship of water.
Day 17 Palccoyo, the Rainbow Mountain
A full day to Palccoyo, the gentler of the region's rainbow mountains, where
bands of red, gold and turquoise mineral stripe the high ground above 4,900
meters. The walk is short and the crowds are few, which leaves you free to take
in the color and the great sweep of the altiplano. Lunch is included, and the day
ends back in Cusco.
Day 18 The Humantay Lagoon
Another full day in the high country, this time to the Humantay lagoon, a glacial
lake of an intense turquoise set beneath the snows of the Salkantay massif. The
climb from the trailhead is short but steep, and at more than 4,200 meters it
asks for a steady pace, though the color of the water against the ice and rock at
the top is reward enough. Lunch is included, and you return to Cusco in the
afternoon.
Day 19 An Andean cooking class
A hands-on session in the kitchen with a local chef, learning to prepare a
handful of Peruvian classics, from the ceviche of the coast to the lomo saltado
that married Andean ingredients with Chinese technique, and of course the
pisco sour. You sit down to eat what you have made, which is the best part, and
a fitting way to draw together the flavors of a country that has become one of
the world's great food destinations.
Day 20 Cusco to Lima
A flight to Lima, where the afternoon is free according to your schedule,
perhaps for one last meal in a city that deserves it, before the final night on the
coast.
Day 21 Departure
At the appointed time, a transfer to Lima airport for your international
connection, with the whole length of southern Peru, from the Pacific to the high
sierra, now behind you.
What the program includes
Included Not included
▪ 24/7 in-country support throughout your ▫ International and domestic flights,
trip including the Lima to Arequipa and
▪ Airport, hotel and airport transfers in Cusco to Lima legs
Lima, Arequipa, Puno and Cusco ▫ Meals not mentioned in the program
▪ Twenty nights' accommodation with ▫ Beverages
breakfast ▫ Gratuities for guides and drivers
▪ Lunch on Days 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18 ▫ Optional excursions
and 19, including the Misminay
pachamanca ▫ Travel insurance
▪ All listed tours and excursions with a ▫ Personal expenses
professional guide
▪ Ballestas Islands boat trip, with dune
buggy and sandboarding at Huacachina
▪ Tourist coach on the coastal legs (Lima,
Paracas, Ica and back to Lima)
▪ Colca Canyon excursion with the Cruz
del Condor
▪ Full-day Lake Titicaca navigation to Uros
and Taquile
▪ Ruta del Sol tourist coach from Puno to
Cusco
▪ Misminay community experience, full-
day Palccoyo and full-day Humantay
▪ Andean cooking class
▪ Round-trip Vistadome train between the
Sacred Valley and Aguas Calientes
▪ Round-trip bus between Aguas Calientes
and Machu Picchu
▪ Entrance to Machu Picchu and to every
site in the program
▪ All ground transfers indicated in the
itinerary