Lima
Puente de la Paz & Costa Verde, Miraflores, Lima
Time spent: 28 days; 13 Dec 2025 - 10 Jan 2026
Elevation: 505 ft (154 m)
Currency: Peruvian Soles
Lodging Cost: $18.93 per night; Airbnb
Why Lima Sucks
I'm going to be blunt. As much as I love Peru, I fucking hate this town. I think it is incredibly over-romanticized because of one extremely overhyped fact. Everything I read about this place was about how INCREDIBLE the food was, making it sound like there is world-class dining on every corner. I admit, it does have three restaurants that are on most "Top 50 in the World" listings, but other than those, it is just like any other city. Another major gripe is the traffic. I would put it on a short list of the worst traffic in the world. Now, I didn't drive, of course, but any site I wanted to see took major planning because a five-mile Uber ride was going to take at least 45 minutes.
Now, that said, I promise this whole page isn't going to be me bashing Lima. Every city is what you make of it. I didn't think the food was bad by any means, and it still has plenty of the huariques I love so much. But I honestly feel like most travel guides just parrot shit from other guides. I didn't eat at any of those restaurants. They all average around $300 a plate and have a month-long waiting list. I am sure they are great and not pretentious at all.
Cathedral of Lima in the Plaza de Armas. Lima is so big and spread out, the Plaza de Armas isn't as much of a central focal point like it is in many Latin America cities.
But I would bet a lot of people raving about the food didn't eat at any of them either. They just rave about the dinner they had in Miraflores because that is what they think they are supposed to say. It is like that movie Donnie Darko. No one actually likes or understands that turd of a movie. People just feel like they should call it a masterpiece because everyone else does. Even though they don't see the big deal or even understand the fucking thing, they hop on the bandwagon anyway.
The Bridge of Sighs (Puente de los Suspiros). It's a very famous landmark in Lima, but mostly because of the romanticized folklore behind it. Supposedly, when crossing the bridge for the first time, if you make a wish and hold your breath the entire way across, your wish will come true. It's a fairly easy feat to accomplish considering the bridge is just a 44-foot (13.5-meter) walkway over a street.
Why Lima Doesn't Suck
Lima is one of a few megacities in South America. Is there shit to do and see? Of course there is.
There is quite a bit of historical stuff in town to see, so you don't even need to sign up for a day trip.
It also has a great boardwalk to walk along and take in the ocean. Interesting note: even though Lima is on the Pacific Ocean, it is actually further east than Miami, Florida. Most people picture South America as being directly south of North America, but the entire continent is actually east of Atlanta, Georgia.
Most tourists stay in Miraflores or Barranco, and those are the districts I'd recommend staying in, too. I usually try to stay a little outside of city centers, but this time I think I stayed a little too far outside in Surco. It's close to Miraflores, but not quite walking distance.
However, a great option for getting around is Citybike Lima. It's a bike-rental app where bikes are locked up at stations around the city, and you get a code to unlock them. It is very affordable: I signed up for the one-month plan for 21 soles (about $6.25) and got unlimited usage. They also don't do an automatic renewal like you'd expect from a service like this, so you don't have to worry about forgetting to cancel.
If you are looking for a sunshine destination with a great beach, Lima may seem like it on paper since it sits right on the Pacific. But while it has some great scenic walkways on the cliffs above, the beaches aren't very accessible, and the ones that are happen to be covered in rocks, not sand. There were quite a few surfers out there, but essentially zero families or sunbathers just hanging out. Also, due to the Humboldt Current coming up from Antarctica, the water is chilly year-round. Even in the hottest months, it rarely gets over 72°F (22°C), that's about as cold as a spring-fed river.
This just doesn't look pleasant... at all. This is the beach in La Punta, right near the Fortaleza del Real Felipe.
Stay on top of the cliffs to check out cool spots like this butterfly sanctuary, and enjoy the views from above.
Fortaleza del Real Felipe
I like seeing and learning about military history, so this was probably my favorite thing in Lima. It is 12 soles ($3.50) to enter and, as far as I could tell, it was mostly a self-guided tour. I read there were often guides hanging around the entrance, but I didn't see any.
The fort was built around 1774 and sits at the westernmost edge of Lima, pretty much exactly where you'd recommend building a fort if you were looking at a map.
I think it is officially a museum, so you don't really have to worry about getting in trouble wandering into any "secure" zones, but I was a little nervous anyway. There are some areas and modern buildings inside that are blocked off and tons of soldiers in the area.
Many of the bunkers were converted into museum exhibits, but there was surprisingly little explanation about the displays, in Spanish or otherwise. But bunkers and weapons are just cool. You don't need much of an explanation, right?
One of the towers from the outside of the fortress
Walking on the perimeter walls. I hope they had their cannons set up better than that during wartime.
There were several bunkers just like this with displays set up
Huaca Huallamarca and Huaca Pucllana Archaeological Sites
These two sites are neat because they are in the middle of a megacity like Lima. I took an Uber to Huaca Huallamarca and walked to Huaca Pucllana.
Huaca Huallamarca has an entrance fee of 5 soles ($1.50). It is essentially just a giant pyramid, but you can walk to the top and get some nice views of the city. If you want to stretch your legs and see some of what is mostly a residential neighborhood on the walk to Huaca Pucllana, that is really the only reason to go here. Otherwise, you wouldn't be missing much if you skipped it.
However, Huaca Pucllana is a different story. If you do like seeing these types of sites, Huaca Pucllana is the best one in town.
It is 15 soles ($4.50) and comes with a guided tour—a mandatory guided tour with an English-speaking guide. It is three times the cost of Huallamarca, but ten times the value.
The steep path up Huaca Huallamarca
What makes Huaca Pucllana interesting is that it is a relatively new find. As hard as it is to believe, it wasn't re-discovered until 1967. Lima was growing quickly during that time, and it was just an overgrown hill. Even cooler is that it's an active archaeological site, so it isn't completely finished being excavated. At the top, you can see the parts still covered, and regular discoveries are still being made about the site. You may think, "Yeah well, it's new-ish, but 60 years is still a long-ass time to not have uncovered the whole thing." I thought the same thing and asked the guide.
For one, archaeology is just naturally very slow-paced and delicate, they aren't bulldozing dirt out of there. Second is conservation: once it is uncovered, it has to be preserved when exposed to the elements. Then there's the main factor: funding and staffing. They need people, donations, and grants. The ticket prices help, but it isn't enough.
This was where you start heading back down, but all that dirt with no stairs is still a large section that has yet to be uncovered
I just think it is so unnecessary to have such a cool site like this and then think you need to add some cheap ass mannequins
Excavated sections of Huaca Pucllana
Museo Larco
There are a few smaller ruins in town that are free to enter, but they aren't nearly as good as the two listed above.
Museo Larco is probably the most famous museum in town and has several different archaeological sites just a few blocks away in all directions.
When you start researching Lima, Museo Larco is going to come up everywhere. I'm not saying it is a bad museum; I just don't get the hype. I feel like their own marketing team has turned it into the Gucci of museums, with a price tag to match. It is 50 soles ($15) to get in, and it is quite small. It does come with an audio tour included in that price, though. The audio tour device was cooler than some I have seen—instead of one long recording, it's like a cell phone where you can punch in a number listed on a display and hold it up to your ear.
If you're immature like me, you will love the Erotic Gallery. It's mostly a gallery of statues of things fucking: leopards, jaguars, snakes, gods, dragons, etc. They say they are for fertility, but I think it was just porn before photos and videos were a thing.
Another display they had that I found interesting was their "back room."
See, museums don't have the space to put every pot and tool on its own shelf, so they keep most of it in storage. The public doesn't usually get to see this because it's just hundreds of similar artifacts packed for utility rather than display. Well, here they let you walk through that section. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of items are on shelves with no real display layout, but you can still see the entire inventory.
Another issue with Museo Larco is it isn't really in a convenient spot. Wherever you are staying likely isn't within walking distance, and with Lima traffic, it will take at least a 30-minute Uber ride to get there. Besides the archaeological sites I mentioned, there isn't much else in the area. Even those sites are tricky because while they are all in walking distance of Larco, they are in completely different directions, so making a quick circuit to see them all is tough.
I honestly believe this place is totally skippable, but who am I to disagree with the thousands of glowing reviews?
The outside of the world famous Museo Larco.
The whole museum is pretty much two side-by-side sections like this. I didn't find the place that interesting, so I didn't take many pics.
Centro Historico and the San Francisco Catacombs
This would probably be considered Lima's city center, although since the city is so large and spread out, it really isn't the main tourist area. That would be Miraflores, and this is a pretty long way from there (in time, not distance). But there are still plenty of crowds here and a lot to see.
It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and as the name implies, it has a lot of historic buildings and amazing Spanish colonial architecture like the Catedral de Lima and the Palacio Municipal de Lima.
If you wander a little outside of the area, you will stumble upon Chinatown. This surprised me because I didn't even know this place existed. One second there is all kinds of Latin street food, then you turn a corner and there are Chinese signs everywhere and vendors selling ancient Chinese dick powders and pills to make you last longer in bed. You should definitely try the food here, though.
Plaza Mayor de Lima
Lima Cathedral
Chinatown in Lima Peru
One of the places I was most excited about seeing was the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco, commonly called the San Francisco Catacombs. Here there is a huge network of underground tunnels that served as Lima's primary cemetery in the 1700s. This is the final resting place of 50,000+ citizens of Lima during that era.
Entrance to the monastery costs 20 soles ($6) and includes a mandatory guide. There may be a short wait for a guide, especially if you need an English one, but don't worry, it's still easy enough. There is no need to plan ahead; they told me it would be about 25 minutes, so I just did a lap of the area. There is a nice little park directly behind the monastery. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed anywhere on the tour, but I did sneak a few. The tour itself takes about 45 minutes.
I know it sounds a little macabre, and of course I wanted to see the catacombs, but the whole monastery is pretty cool. The library is a real hidden gem and maybe even cooler than the catacombs themselves. To me, this whole site was one of the highlights of my visit to Lima.
This is just a very small section of the catacombs. It really was a large maze of tunnels down there. Even without the bones, it is a really cool area to explore. There are even vents for ventilation where you can see up into the monastery and previous sections you already visited. I have to imagine the smell was horrible and was probably still wafting up in the middle of a church service back then. It would have been genuinely scary if the lights went out down there.
While these are obviously on display for tourism purposes, it wasn't that far off from how it was actually done. They would bury people in shallow graves and then, after decomposition, they would exhume them and arrange their bones in neat, sorted piles. There were several round pits with just skulls of different sizes in the catacombs.
Final Thoughts on Lima
I know I was pretty down on Lima and I really debated if I should lighten up on it. I thought it may hurt my credibility as a travel website—after all, how the fuck does one not love one of the most famous destinations in South America and a culinary capital of the world?
It's no secret I tend to prefer smaller, low-key destinations, but that truly isn't the reason. I still love seeing mega-cities like Buenos Aires or Santiago as much as the next guy, I just think Lima is severely overhyped. It is likely you are considering spending a few days here before heading to Cusco to see Machu Picchu. If you've got time for a second city in Peru, I would choose Arequipa over Lima.
I was here for New Years although I didn't do anything special, I just watched the fireworks from the roof of my building.
Getting from Lima to Huancayo (or just leaving by bus)
I highly doubt your next stop will be Huancayo, but wherever you go by bus will be pretty straightforward. Lima has a couple of large bus stations that are easy to navigate and you can buy tickets online.
I just wanted to warn you about my experience. Google says the ride is about seven hours and everyone knows a bus will take longer than that, but it took closer to 12 hours. I got on at one station and we had to ride across town to just one other bus station, and with Lima traffic it was a god-awful experience.
It took over three hours from when our bus left to get to the outskirts of the city, and that is with just stopping at the second station for only about 10 minutes.
Also, even though the bus was pretty modern, the ride was damn hot. While there was AC, I feel like the bus just never got going fast enough to really get it going (Haha I obviously have no clue about the workings under the hood of a bus, but that is the best way I can describe it). The windows on the bus didn't go down and while we were getting some slightly cool air, I'd go as far as to say if you were traveling with a baby, it would be above a safe temperature for a baby for three hours and at the very least, the child would be miserable the entire time. There weren't any babies on the bus and I think that is because everyone traveling already knew that fact.
But once you are out of the city and the bus gets going it did cool down, and if you are heading to Huancayo you will have a major elevation change. So much so that I started to get a pretty bad headache about halfway there.