Peru Beyond Machu Picchu: Lima, Nazca, Arequipa, Colca Canyon and Amazon Iquitos Complete Guide 2026
Browse more guides: Peru travel | South America destinations Peru Beyond Machu Picchu: Lima, Nazca, Arequipa, Colca Canyon and Amazon Iquitos Complete Guide 2026 TL;DR Most travelers fly into Peru, take the train to Machu Picchu, snap the postcard photo, and leave. I did that on my first visit and felt I had skipped the country. The second time I gave Peru twelve days and discovered a place far bigger than one Inca citadel. Peru holds twelve UNESCO sites, the western Amazon basin, the world's deepest road-accessible canyon, and a capital city of twelve million people that became the gastronomic centre of South America. Lima alone justifies four days with ceviche, the Larco Museum, the cliffs of Miraflores, and the streets of Barranco. South of Lima, the Nazca Lines stretch one thousand geoglyphs across the desert, carved between 100 and 700 BCE and visible only from the air. Inland, Arequipa rises in white sillar volcanic stone beneath El Misti at 5,822 metres. Beyond it, the...