There is so much to do in Peru, that it can be difficult to choose how to spend your time. Allowing extra time to acclimatize to the altitude also makes it tricky. Here is a itinerary for 2 weeks in Peru, to give you ideas of what you can do there on your trip there!
Short on time? Here’s a breakdown!
- Day 1: Arrive in Lima
- Day 2: Lima
- Day 3: Travel from Lima to Paracas (day 1 of Peru Hop tour)
- Day 4: Boat Tour in Paracas & Sand-boarding in Huacachina (day 2 of Peru Hop tour)
- Day 5: Huacachina and bus ride to Nazca/Cusco (day 3 of Peru Hop tour)
- Day 6: The overnight bus trip to Cusco (Day 4/last day of Peru Hop tour).
- Day 7: Cusco
- Day 8: Pisac Ruins, Market and Animal Sanctuaries Day tour from Cusco
- Day 9: Machu Picchu 2 day hike
- Day 10: Machu Picchu hike continued and hiking up Wayna Picchu
- Day 11: Ollantaytambo, Maras Salt Flats and Moray
- Day 12: Alternative Rainbow Mountain Hike
- Day 13: Lima
- Day 14: Last day in Lima and flight home
Itinerary for 2 weeks in Peru: the details of what to do!
Day 1: Fly into Lima.
Almost all flights arrive in Lima at about midnight, so we arrived at our apartment late at night and then went to sleep.
To get from the Airport to our AirBnB we booked a direct taxi with Taxidatum. This saves you the hassle of negotiating a taxi rate with a driver, and is much safer!
Where we stayed: We stayed in the Milaflores district. A very safe neighbourhood, and close to the water and main sights.
Day 2: Explore Lima.
I personally found that one day in Lima is pretty much all you need to see all of the main areas. We walked along the waterfront, through “Love Park”, and visited the cats in Kennedy Park.
If you time it right, you can eat ceviche for lunch, and then go to the water park at night. We saved these for the next time we were in Lima.
Day 3: Bus ride from Lima to Paracas.
We decided to go to Cusco by bus with a company called Peru Hop. They take you along what they call the “Gringo Trail.” So at 7:00am the next morning, we began our journey towards the small sea-side town of Paracas.
We arrived in Paracas at around 1:00pm. We went for lunch, checked into our hostel and then wandered around Paracas. You can’t really walk around on the beach with your bare feet because of broken glass, and you can’t go swimming there. So if it’s a hot day you would need to swim at your hotel’s pool instead.
There’s a few markets along the waterfront and some restaurants. We went to a café which was SO good (Café Paracas), and then watched the sunset. It’s quite a small town, so one day is plenty of time to spend there. A few other people in our group went on a sunset buggy tour instead (which you can book in Paracas when you arrive).
Day 4: Boat Tour in Paracas & Sand-boarding in Huacachina.
This day was our busiest day. It started off with breakfast at our hostel, and then a boat tour of Barresta’s Island (also known as the “Poor Man’s Gallapocos”) from 8am-10am. We saw sea lions, a couple of penguins, and lots of birds. It can get chilly on the water, so bring some layers!
After the boat tour, we had 45 minutes to grab lunch before our scheduled tour of the Paracas Reserve site at 11am. This isn’t a lot of time, so we were quite rushed. Make sure to bring some snacks!
We arrived back in Paracas at 12pm, and had our scheduled drive to Huacachina at 1:00pm. Again, not a lot of time to eat. It gave us enough time to pick up our luggage at our hostel and then get back on the bus towards Huachachina.
Once we arrived in Huachachina at 2:30pm, we had until 4:00pm for our scheduled Sand Boarding and Buggy outing. This gives you a bit more time to eat, but it had to be fast!
We went Sandboarding and Buggying which was SO much fun (even for someone who is usually scared of that type of thing). We got back to Huacachina at supper-time for finally a proper meal.
Day 5: Huacachina and bus ride to Nazca/Cusco.
The next day we had the morning to explore Huacachina. In the morning we walked up one of the giant Sand Dunes that surround Huacachina. It took almost 1 hour to get to the top! The view was so cool, and going back down the sand dune was a lot of fun too.
We then went for a swim at our hotel, and had lunch before going on our overnight bus to Cusco. The first half of the bus tour was great, we got to have a tour of the slave tunnels. But we missed the Nazca viewpoint because of Peru Hop losing our reserved bus seats.
Day 6: Overnight bus trip to Cusco.
This was pretty much the day from hell. This was because Peru Hop lost our seat reservations and put us on a public bus instead. We had a guide with us the entire time luckily! The public bus was late, takes you on a very windy road, and they aren’t as comfortable as the Peru Hop buses. There was also a strike, so the roads were blocked off and we had to wait for this to clear up.
After a long night and day of being on the bus, we arrived in Cusco at 5:30pm. Not much happened that day, except we got lost in Cusco because our Airbnb gave us the wrong address, so we spent ages wandering around Cusco asking people where to go. We also felt out of breath/sick from the altitude. We were glad to finally be in our apartment!
Where to Stay in Cusco: I would recommend staying in the San Blas neighbourhood. A very charming neighbourhood with cobblestone streets, restaurants, beautiful viewpoints, marketplaces, and the signature blue door on the majority of buildings.
Tip: Bring an external charger with you so that you will NEVER be without a cell phone, it was our saving grace that day! Buy a local SIM card too so that you don’t have to rely on finding wifi!
Day 7: Day in Cusco
Finally a nice, relaxing and leisurely day in Cusco! Since we were acclimatizing to the altitude, we took it easy this day. We slowly wandered around the San Blas neighbourhood (this is where our apartment was, and a very nice area). We also walked around the main square in Cusco, and went to the market. We also stopped by our Alpaca Expeditions office to pay the balance for our trek to Machu Picchu and get our briefing.
Day 8: Day tour to the Pisac Ruins, Market and Animal Sanctuaries.
We took a day tour with Taxidatum to the Pisac Ruins, Pisac Market and two animal sanctuaries. We opted for the private day tour with Taxidatum, because we were able to explore at our leisure. I would highly recommend this tour! It was safe and the cost of the tour is set (so no negotiating needed!).
Day 9: Hike to Machu Picchu.
Since the 4 day Inca Trail hike for May sold out literally 3 weeks after bookings became open, we decided to do the 2 day hike with 1 night spent in a hotel. I personally didn’t mind because we got to see Machu Picchu on two different days, in the afternoon and again in the morning. If you REALLY want to do the 4 day hike, then book your tickets as soon as possible.
Suggest Reading:
- What to pack for the 2 day/1 night Inca Trail Hike
- My experience on the 2 day Inca Trail Hike: what to expect
Day 10: Machu Pichhu, hiking up Wayna Picchu and Ollantaytambo.
On the second day of the hike you take the bus to Machu Picchu. After watching the sunrise, we went on a guided tour of Machu Picchu for about 2-3 hours.
When you book your hike with Alpaca Expeditions, you have the option to hike up Hyuana (Wayna) Picchu. You must reserve ahead of time because they only allow a certain number of people to do this hike per day. I was initially scared to go on it, but this hike was probably my favourite hike that I did! I liked it more than the Inca Trail (read about the hike here). It only took 2 hours round trip to complete, and we took our time.
At 1pm, we caught our bus back to Aquas Calientes so that we could take the train back to Cusco. Almost everyone in our group opted to go back to Cusco, but we asked in advance if we could stay in Ollantaytambo instead. So we got off earlier than everyone else so that we could spend the night in Ollantaytambo. (read why you should stay in Ollantaytambo here!).
What a beautiful town! For an itinerary for 2 weeks in Peru I would highly recommend spending at least one night here. I wish I would have spent more time here to be honest. It’s a small, safe town with a market, the Ollantaytambo ruins, and little alleys with small rivers rushing through them. It is surrounded by tall mountains, and is very relaxing.
We arrived in Ollantaytambo at 5:30pm and spent the next 3 hours getting dinner and relaxing before going to bed.
Day 11: Ollantaytambo, Maras Salt Flats and Moray.
The next morning we had breakfast at our hostel, and then made our way to the Ollantaytambo ruins. Since we still had our backpacks from the Machu Picchu trek, we didn’t have any luggage to store at our hotel. At the ruins, we decided not to get a guide, and explored it at our own pace until 11:30am.
We then had a quick lunch before getting picked up from our hotel at 12:30pm. We went with Taxidatum again, and our experience was just as good the second time.
On our day tour, we went to Moray and the Maras Salt Flats, which were really cool to see! We didn’t get a guide, but for this tour I would recommend getting one since there isn’t as much to explore and you can learn about how they work.
We went arrived in Cusco at 6:00pm and went out for dinner.
Day 12: Alternative Rainbow Mountain Hike.
This was probably another one of my favourite hikes in Peru. We decided to go on the Alternative Mountain Tour to Palccoyo, instead of to the more popular Rainbow Mountain Tour. I can’t compare my experiences on each mountain, but the Alternative Mountain Tour is lower in altitude, has a later start-time and not busy at all! We were the only 5 people on the mountain! We were also served an amazing lunch before heading back to Cusco for about 6:00pm.
Day 13: Flight to Lima and Lima Water Show
Our flight back to Lima went surprisingly smoothly. Domestic flights are known to have delays/cancellations, etc. To give ourselves a buffer, we picked the first flight leaving Cusco to go to Lima just in case there were any issues.
Once we arrived in Lima, we had lunch, and then went to the water show! They have three different show times: 7:15pm, 8:15pm and 9:15pm. The shows are 15 minutes long.
How to get to the Water Show in Lima: We booked a cab with Taxidatum, but Uber would also be a good option. Give yourself a lot of time to get there, because rush hour traffic in Lima is CRAZY. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. Because of rush hour, we missed the first show. We could have stayed there for a lot longer, but our pick up to go back to our apartment was at 9:00pm. If you want to take your time, book an Uber instead.
Day 14: Last day in Lima and Flight Home
Since we didn’t have any flight issues coming from Cusco, we had an entire day in Lima. We had breakfast, ate ceviche, went to their local zoo, wandered around Lima some more, and had supper before catching our 9:00pm taxi back to the airport.
Taking the bus from Lima to Cusco: the pros and cons
To get to Cusco from Lima, you have the option of flying or taking the bus. Going on a bus to Cusco has it’s pros and cons, and is something to consider when travelling to Peru.
Pros: Gradually ascending in altitude makes it easy to adjust to the altitude, but if you get really sick from it you will be on a bus which isn’t pleasant. You also have to sit on the bus for long periods of time.
Cons: If you skip the “Gringo Trail” you won’t get to visit Paracas or Huachachina. They are very touristy areas, but Huacachina was so much fun and sandboarding was surprisingly one of my favourite activities.
Other Itineraries for 2 Weeks in Peru
If you are interested in other 2 week itineraries for Peru, here are a few other options for what you could do.
- Go to the Amazon Jungle before going to Cusco. For an excellent itinerary for what to do for 2 weeks in Peru, read Meghan The Traveling teacher’s post. She has a detailed 2 week itinerary which includes Lima, Iquitos, the Amazon Rainforest, Cusco and – of course – Machu Picchu!
- Fly into Cusco, and head towards the Sacred Valley. If you are planning to do the 4 day Inca Trail hike (instead of the 2 day one), then another option is to fly to Cusco, and head to the Sacred Valley after a couple of days acclimatizing in Cusco.
- Visit Lake Titicaca. If you fly into Cusco (instead of taking the Peru Hop bus), you will have the time to explore Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. The lake sits at 3810m, so allow yourself time to adjust to the altitude!
Hopefully my itinerary for 2 weeks in Peru helped give you ideas of what to do! Have you been to Peru before, or planning a trip there? What did you (or are planning to) do there? Let me know in the comments below!
This is an excellent Peru itinerary! I’m going next September and super excited to see all these interesting places! Thank you for the great info! 😁
Peru is at the top of my bucket list right now! I’m gonna be keeping this for later so I can refer back when I eventually plan my trip.
So many good tips & love how you include the pros and cons! Thank you… Peru is so high on my bucket list