Two Weeks in Peru Recap

Jul 14, 2025 | Travel

Two truly amazing weeks in Peru:

I highlyyy recommend visiting Peru. It’s such a beautiful and fascinating country!

We packed in a lot of adventure, and fully enjoyed doing things outside of a guided group setting. I don’t know why there’s so much talk of Peru being unsafe without a guide..we never once felt unsafe. The people are lovely, and renting a car to drive the Sacred Valley is a must! And I had always heard how wonderful the food is, but being a vegetarian I thought it didn’t apply to me…I was pleasantly surprised! There were vegetarian options everywhere we went, and each dish was like a work of art.

Here’s a recap of our itinerary (April is a great time to go..not hot, not cold..lots of sun):

April 18: Fly to Lima (DCA has a direct flight)
Spend the night literally across the street from the airport at the Wyndham Costa Del Sol Lima (this is because exploring Lima was saved for the end of the trip). Just be aware that in the cities, people will try to scam you by making you tip them for services they don’t even provide. For instance, there were fake bell hops outside of this Wyndham hotel, guiding us inside and asking for money. Annoying but harmless.

April 19: Fly to Arequipa in the morning (about 1.5 hour flight)
Stay at the Hotel Acolpacha Tambo Boutique (such a pretty hotel, in a great location)
Explore the city of Arequipa for a few days— be sure to visit the Santa Catalina Monastery (it’s like a whole city inside there).
View the Ice Girl, a well preserved mummy.
Some notes: Keep coins on hand to tip the cutie old ladies when you get a photo taken with the flooofy baby llamas, alpacas and sheep. Shopping here is probably more inexpensive than the other more touristy areas of Peru (I bought my poncho and hat here).

April 22: Fly to Cusco (1 hour flight)
Pick up rental car (we rented from Sixt, and they picked us up at the airport and took us to the rental office)
Drive to Pisac (this was one of my favorite places along the journey, and driving around the Sacred Valley in general was just amazing!)
Stay at the Hotel Inka Pisac (not to be confused with the Hotel Inca Pisac)– amazing location right on the square, and it has a roof deck area.
Hike the amazing Pisac ruins (and boop some llamas & alpacas roaming free)!! This was every bit as wonderful as Machu Picchu. The elevation is 11,000 feet, so just be prepared for that. We realized that they bus the people in during the late-afternoon, so we went late-morning and basically had the whole place to ourselves. We met Wayra along the hike and he was kind enough to walk with us for the journey down the mountain into town (the bus tours don’t get to go that far), explaining the history of the ruins as we walked part of the Inca Trail. Thanks, Wayra!
The town of Pisac is sooo adorable! See this IG post for shots of the hike and streets.

April 24: Drive to Urubamba (about 45 min)
Stay at the Taypikala Deluxe Valle Sagrado Hotel (A luxurious hotel in a magical setting!) See my IG posts for more, because their website does not do it justice.
Take a short taxi ride into the cute little town of Urubamba for dinner.
Visit the Maras salt mines.
Visit the concentric terraced of Moray

April 25: Drive to Ollantaytambo (about 1 hour)
Stay at Hotel Samanapaq. This hotel provided a little oasis right next to the hustle and bustle, and you can walk to everything in town, along with the famous ruins.
Explore the Ollantaytambo ruins and the cute town streets. See this IG post.
Visit the guinea pig farm in town and play with the little furballs
Also hike the Pinkuylluna Inca Archeological Site (directly across from the main Ollantaytambo Inca ruins)
Hike the less-toured archaeological site of Pumamarca! You can walk from town, or take a taxi to the top and walk down.We had this hike all to ourselves– the ruins were spectacular, and the hike down was absolutely beautiful. This blog post by Packing up the Pieces has a nice article on it.

April 27th: Leave your luggage with the hotel (pack in a backpack for two nights), and catch the scenic train to Aguas Calientes for the Machu Picchu portion of the trip.
Book the 1st class panoramic train— gorgeous views.
Stay at the Hotel Panorama B&B. Great location for walking around town and also catching the bus to Machu Picchu in the morning, and we had a room with a balcony overlooking the river.

April 28th: Hike Machu Picchu! Take bus from Aguas Calientes to the Machu Picchu entrance (purchase tickets beforehand for the bus and also the circuit number that you wish to hike)
The circuit hikes don’t take very long (I don’t think any of them last more than a couple of hours), but you can also book extra hikes on top of the circuit tour. They claim that you are required to have guide to enter Machu Picchu, be we totally didn’t. See this IG post.
Spend 2nd night at Hotel Panorama B&B

April 29th: Day two hiking Machu Picchu. It’s not necessary to spend two days hiking Machu Picchu, but I think they only allow you to do one circuit a day, so if you wanted to see that famous view point (circuit 1), you need a second day to do a tour of the ruins (circuit 2 or 3). And if you want to book one of the addition scenic hikes, along with a circuit, that could be spread out over two days, depending on how much you want to pack in.
Catch the train back to Ollataytambo after the hike/dinner
Stay another night at Hotel Samanapaq (where you left the luggage)

April 30th: Drive back to Cusco (driving the Sacred Valley region is a gorgeous experience).
Return the rental car and uber to the hotel.
Stay at the Palacio del Inka (absolutely wonderful hotel!)– it’s a 5 star luxury hotel, housed in 500-year-old mansion in the heart of Cusco. See this IG post for more.
My favorite part of Cusco walk exploring the San Blas neighborhood. It has cute, narrow streets with a bohemian vibe. See this IG post.
The one tour we booked was to the Saqsaywaman ruins, because we no longer had the car. Highly recommend this.

I flew home on May 3rd (working on the road is great, but it’s much easier at home ha), but the parents continued the journey..

May 4th: Catch the train to Puno
Stay at GHL Hotel

May 6th: Boat tour of Lake Titicaca
Tour the Taquile Islands

May 7th: Hotel Taypikala

May 9: Fly to Lima for a few days before returning home
I’m sad I missed the Lima portion, because I wasn’t able to join my parents on their visit to the hospital that my grandfather started (the reason that my mom was born in Peru and lived there as a kid)