At a glance
The country, before you go.
Population
34,922,000
May 2026 estimate. About 59% urban; median age 29 years. Spread across coast, highlands, and Amazon basin.
Currency
Peruvian Sol (PEN)
About 1 PEN = 0.41 AUD (May 2026). USD widely accepted in tourist hubs, Lima, Cusco. ATMs available in major cities.
Climate range
Three zones
Coastal desert 18–26°C (rarely rains, warm dry). Andes 5–20°C (dry May–Sept, cold nights, altitude 2,000–4,500m). Amazon 22–30°C (hot humid year-round, wet Dec–May).
Main economy
Mining · farming · tourism
Mining 48% of exports: copper (world #2), gold, silver, zinc. Agriculture: coffee, asparagus, quinoa. Fishing, tourism (Machu Picchu). Q1 2026: exports +33.5% year-on-year.
Signature festivals
Inti Raymi · Fiestas · Mistura
Inti Raymi June 24, Cusco (Inca Sun Festival). Fiestas Patrias July 28–29 (independence). Mistura food festival Lima September. Virgen de la Candelaria February, Puno (UNESCO Intangible Heritage).
Cultural foods
Ceviche · lomo saltado · pisco
Ceviche is the national dish (raw fish, lime, chilli). Lomo saltado (stir-fried beef). Ají de gallina, anticuchos. Pisco sour. Peru has >4,000 potato varieties. Cuisine ranked top 10 globally.
Figures verified May 2026.
The country
Peru is not one place — it's three. The coast (Lima and desert). The mountains (Cuzco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca). The jungle (Tambopata and Iquitos). Most first-time travellers do Lima 3 days, Sacred Valley 4, Machu Picchu 1, and leave whole regions untouched.
The single rule: do not fly into Cuzco at 3,400m and trek. Start in the Sacred Valley at 2,800m. Let your body breathe. Then move up. We sequence every itinerary this way, and it changes everything — no headaches, no sickness, no wasted days recovering from altitude.
Places to visit
Six regions. Six entirely different Perus.
Swipe through. Lima for food. Sacred Valley for acclimatisation. Machu Picchu for the trekking or the train. Lake Titicaca for silence. Arequipa for the canyon. The Amazon for the wild.
Lima
The world's food capital, right now.
Central, Maido, Mayta, Astrid y Gastón — Lima has replaced Tokyo and Copenhagen. Book restaurants six months out. Spend three days eating and tasting your way through Miraflores, Barranco, and the fish markets.
Talk about this →Sacred Valley
Where to acclimatise — not in Cusco.
Ollantaytambo, Urubamba, Pisac. Start here at 2,800m, spend two nights, then move to Cusco at 3,400m. Your body needs this transition. The villages themselves are stunning — Quechua markets, Andean weaving, coca tea on every corner.
Talk about this →Machu Picchu
The Inca Trail, or the train via Aguas Calientes.
Four days trekking (best experience, but permits book 6 months out and February closes for maintenance) or the train from Cusco. Either way, arrive at dawn. The mountain breathes only once a day — at sunrise.
Talk about this →Lake Titicaca & Puno
The highest navigable lake on earth.
Uros floating islands made of reeds, Taquile with no motorised vehicles — your own pace, your own silence. Puno sits at 3,820m, so acclimatise through the Sacred Valley first. The sunsets over the water are worth the altitude.
Talk about this →Arequipa & Colca Canyon
The second city, and the deep Andes.
Arequipa is lower than Cusco (2,300m) and a gentler base. Colca Canyon — deeper than the Grand Canyon — is the easiest Andean trek from here. Condors dive past you at eye level. Impossible to photograph. Go for the moment.
Talk about this →The Amazon
Tambopata or Iquitos for the true jungle lodge.
Not Cusco-to-jungle day trips. Fly to Puerto Maldonado or Iquitos, lodge deep. Macaw clay licks, anaconda nighttime searches, pink river dolphins. The river moves slower than you expect. The animals move faster. Stay three nights minimum.
Talk about this →When to go
Four seasons. Each has its own Peru.
Dry season
May to September.
Peak season — clear skies, coldest nights (5°C in Cusco), the Inca Trail permits are competitive and the trails are packed. But this is the only window for the trail in February (maintenance closure). Book everything six months ahead if you're set on May–September trekking.
Wet season
November to March.
Lower altitude. Lush valleys. Far fewer travellers. The Inca Trail closes in February for maintenance. Lima is warm and dry (its winter is cool grey "garúa" fog). Good for flexible trekkers who can hike in the rain or pivot to lower regions.
Shoulder season
April and October.
The sweet spot — fewer crowds than peak dry season, weather mostly cooperative, good light for photography. Both trails and lodges are more available. If you can only go once and flexibility matters, aim for October.
Lima winter
June to September.
The coast gets the "garúa" — a cool grey fog that rolls in from the Pacific. Restaurants are less crowded, prices soften. It's not sunny, but it's not rain — locals walk around in sweaters and it's fine. Plan indoor food experiences here.
Culture & customs
What we tell travellers before they go.
Four things you'll meet in the first week. The altitude is real. The currency is real. The people are patient if you try their language. We brief every traveller on these before they fly so the first day in Cuzco doesn't become a lesson in what you should have known.
Altitude sickness is real.
Cusco is 3,400m. Don't fly in and trek. Start in the Sacred Valley at 2,800m, drink coca tea, take a slow first day. Soroche (altitude sickness) hits sudden and hard — headache, nausea, shortness of breath — but proper sequencing prevents most of it. We always send travellers to the lower elevation first.
Quechua greetings matter.
"Allillanchu?" means "Are you well?" Learning three Quechua phrases opens doors in the highlands. Guides, locals, market vendors — they notice. It's a two-hour lesson, and it buys you respect for the next two weeks.
Photographs of people mean payment.
If you want to photograph someone — an old woman at the market, a child with llamas, a local in traditional dress — ask first. A small tip (20–50 soles) is expected. Not optional. The dignity ask-first boundary is firm.
Tipping on the trail.
Inca Trail porters carry 20kg+ for four days. The minimum tip is $50–100 USD per porter. Guides expect 10% on top of the trek cost. Restaurants in Lima and Cusco: 10% of the bill. In villages, round up. These are real incomes in a mountain economy.
Food
Three things to know before you eat.
Lima's restaurant scene
Book six months ahead. Central (ranked best restaurant in the world some years) is hardest. Maido (Nikkei), Mayta (contemporary Andean), Astrid y Gastón (Peruvian fine dining) are all world-class and slightly more bookable. Three dinners here can anchor an entire trip.
Ceviche and tiradito traditions
Raw fish cured in lime — ceviche is chunky with sweet potato, tiradito is thinly sliced with a spoon. Both are Lima essentials and neither is safe to improvise — eat at established spots only. Ají (lime and chilli) is the secret. Spend one lunch hunting the best cevichería in your neighbourhood.
Andean altitude cuisine
Hundreds of potato varieties (not the white ones at home). Quinoa, cuy (guinea pig — try it once), alpaca, charqui (jerky). Food from the mountains tastes different — sharper, earthier. Cuzco and Sacred Valley locals eat what tourists skip. Eat what they eat.
Plan with us
Three ways our team helps with Peru.
Take the quick six-question quiz so we know how you travel — then pick whether we plan the whole trip, brief you on a call, or hand you the tools to do it yourself.
🇵🇪 Tell us how you travel
Six quick questions. Then we'll know how to shape Peru for you.
“When I close my eyes and imagine my perfect travel moment, I am…”
Helava Class
We plan, we book, we handle the suppliers
AUD $97 + AUD $55 per person
Our team designs your Peru trip with you in a planning session, then books every part of it. Office-hours support with a 24-hour reply window throughout your trip — because we made the bookings, we can call the supplier and fix things on your behalf.
Start the brief →Helava Standards
60-minute planning session, then yours to book
AUD $97
A live session with our team on Peru — routes, timings, properties to chase. You leave with the plan and book the parts you want via our affiliate links. Complex trips may need extra sessions, each at AUD $97.
Book a session →Do it yourself
DIY — sample itinerary
Free
Answer the Discovery questions on Peru — we email you AI-generated sample itinerary suggestions plus affiliate links so you can book the trip yourself.
Get your sample itinerary →The country, in nine frames
What Peru actually looks like.
Tap any photo. Nine frames across six regions and four seasons. None of these are the brochure shot — they're the hour before the brochure shot, or the hour after.
Ready when you are
Peru is the country travellers most often
underestimate, then never forget.
We listen first. Then we sequence your altitude correctly — Sacred Valley before Cusco, never first-day Machu Picchu. We book Inca Trail permits six months ahead. We reserve tables at Central and Maido. We move you through the country in the order your body can handle.
Design my Peru trip →