Okay. So we’re going to Peru this summer. Like in 6 weeks and we don’t have any plane tickets booked (talk about last minute, wouldn’t recommend). That being said, shoutout to posting on Instagram and having friends HELP A GIRL OUT!

The trip is built around a track meet in Lima (a story for another day), and then we’re tacking on a week in the Andes, because when will my husband and I be back down there with a plane ticket already half-paid for? Never. The answer is never.

If you know me, you know I will research a thing into the GROUND. Never have I bought something for my business without analyzing, researching, asking friends, reaching out to the creator, etc. I had the tabs open. Cusco this, Machu Picchu that, seventeen blog posts about which mountain to hike. Helpful! Sort of. It was also a lot of strangers on the internet telling me a lot of conflicting things.

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So I did what I tell my clients to do when they’re overwhelmed and spinning out: I stopped Googling and asked actual humans. Specifically, four friends who have actually been. Kendra, Kaitlyn, Teresa, and Michelle. They sent voice memos and novel-length texts, and honestly? Better than any guide. So I’m writing it all down in one place. Partly for me, partly for Sam, partly for you (if Peru is rattling around on your someday list).

Grab a coffee. Here’s everything they told me.

Lima is a food city, full stop

The track meet Sam and I will be at is in Lima, so we needed things to do.

Teresa put it best: Lima is a foodie city, so don’t wing the restaurants. Her move is to look up which chefs have James Beard nominations (although they don’t evaluate in Peru), see what Eater is writing about, and book the good ones early. (She said the saddest part of her trip was the list of places she didn’t get to. Plan ahead so that’s not you.)

She also stayed in Miraflores and recommended it without hesitation. Safe, artsy, walkable. Touristy in the good way, not the gross way.

Kaitlyn added the tip I’m most excited about: book a cooking class or a food tour through Viator. She did a chocolate-making workshop and loved it, and it’s a perfect thing to do in Lima before the mountains. (A running joke in our house is that I “relax” by signing us up for activities. This tracks.)

Get to Machu Picchu the right way (and chase the sunrise)

This is where Kendra and Teresa basically finished each other’s sentences.

The route: fly Lima to Cusco (short flight, allegedly a wild landing into the valley), spend time in the Sacred Valley, then catch the train from Ollantaytambo to the little town of Aguas Calientes, the gateway to Machu Picchu.

Kendra is a big fan of the train itself. She took the Inca Rail Voyager (the one with the giant windows) and said watching the landscape change from valley to tunnels to actual jungle was half the fun.

(If you’ve got more time and a backpacker streak, Michelle skipped the flights entirely and bussed the whole way on Peru Hop, a hop-on hop-off service that runs Lima to Huacachina to Arequipa to Cusco. Not our plan this trip, but a fun, budget-friendly way to see more of the country if your calendar is roomier than ours. More on the bus-everywhere option, and Michelle’s full route, further down. ↓)

And then Teresa said the thing that sold me completely. Stay the night IN Aguas Calientes so you can catch one of the first buses up in the morning. She got up there for sunrise, watched it come up over the mountain peaks, and called it one of the top three days of her entire life. Top three. Of her LIFE. I don’t need any more convincing than that.

Two non-negotiables they both hammered:

• Reserve your Machu Picchu tickets in advance. They cap how many people get in each day, and the hiking permits cap even faster. (Speaking from very fresh experience: the popular peak sold out for our dates 10 weeks prior to the trip and 6 weeks out from our trip ALL routes were gone…)
• You can add a mountain hike to your entry. We wanted to do Machu Picchu Mountain (about two to three hours round trip) which puts you way up above the ruins looking down on the whole thing, but like I said our options got limited when everything was gone. TBD on what we decide to do since our options are looking slim.

What to Do in the Sacred Valley (Beyond Machu Picchu)

Kendra’s favorite part of the whole trip wasn’t even Machu Picchu. It was the Sacred Valley.

She and her family used a town called Yucay as their home base (loved a hotel there) and took day trips out to the little high-up towns. Her hit list: Pisac for the ruins and the market, Chinchero for the gorgeous high-mountain views, and Ollantaytambo, which every single person in this group told me they loved.

Kaitlyn seconded the valley and added the Chinchero Textile Center, where they did a weaving demonstration she’s still talking about. She was lukewarm on the Maras salt ponds (cool, but not a must if you’re short on time), which is exactly the kind of honest “skip it” intel you only get from a friend.

Then in Cusco, her recs got specific in the best way:

• Uchu for a great dinner that’s still shockingly affordable
• Mauka for a fancier night out (priced more like what we’d pay here, but worth it)
• The spa at Antigua for a couples massage, which she said is a steal and books up fast, so reserve ahead

The recurring theme: the food is cheap and genuinely incredible basically everywhere, so it’s hard to mess this up.

The hikes (and the case for not hiking at all)

Peaks are my number one priority for this trip. Alpine lakes a close second, ruins and culture right behind. So the hiking intel went straight to the top of my list.

Kaitlyn booked guided day treks and used two companies she’d recommend again: Salkantay Trekking and Killa Expeditions. She did the Humantay Lake day hike through Killa (that turquoise glacier lake you’ve definitely seen on Pinterest) and Rainbow Mountain through Salkantay Trekking.

We decided to do Humantay Lake through Viajes Peru! They are much cheaper than the other tour groups and have all the same amenities like hotel pickup, breakfast, lunch, transportation, and a guide (see our full itinerary below).

Her Rainbow Mountain review is the most “real friend” sentence in this whole post: it’s very touristy once you’re at the top, the elevation is genuinely nuts, and it was a challenge even for her… and she still says go. I trust a recommendation so much more when the caveats come attached.

Now, the other side of the coin, courtesy of Michelle, who loves to hike and still chose not to. The famous multi-day routes to Machu Picchu (like the Inca Trail) often need to be booked close to a year out and usually involve camping, which she didn’t want to deal with in a different country. So she just took the bus up instead. Train into Aguas Calientes, hop off, hop on the bus, and it carries you right to the entrance. Easy. Her words: she did not feel like she was missing out by not hiking, not even a little. So if a big trek isn’t your thing, or the booking window already closed, know that the bus-up route is a completely wonderful way to do Machu Picchu.

The Scenic Route: Bussing Peru From Coast to Cusco

Quick aside for anyone with a roomier calendar than ours (we’re flying straight to Cusco because of the meet). Michelle planned basically her entire trip through Peru Hop, a hop-on, hop-off bus that runs a set route down the coast and up into the Andes. You spend as much or as little time in each stop as you want, then catch the next bus when you’re ready. She raved about the company and said their website is a goldmine of planning resources. It’s how she mapped her whole trip.

Here’s the route she did, and roughly how much time each stop is worth:

• Lima to Paracas. A quick one, maybe two hours, but a gorgeous cliffside stop looking out over the ocean. Worth the pause on the way south.
• Huacachina. The famous sand-dune oasis town, and Michelle’s enthusiastic “highly recommend.” You obviously have to ride a dune buggy out into the dunes. Non-negotiable.
• Arequipa. A really pretty city, and the jumping-off point for a day trip to Colca Canyon (one of the deepest canyons in the world, condors and all).
• Cusco. The grand finale, with enough to do that you could easily fill three or four nights.

So if you’ve got the time, you could bus the whole coast-to-mountains route and still end up right where we’re ending up. Filing this one away for the someday return trip.

What to Pack and Know Before You Go to Peru.

The unglamorous stuff that actually matters

This is the section the pretty travel blogs skip, and it might be the most useful one. From Kaitlyn and Teresa combined:

• Bring a water bottle that filters water. You can’t drink the tap, so a regular bottle is basically a paperweight and you’ll spend the whole trip buying plastic ones.
• Pack wet wipes. In a lot of places you can’t flush toilet paper. You’ll be glad you have them.
• Book Machu Picchu 8+ weeks in advance. When I went to the online portal to book EVERY SINGLE CIRCUIT AND ROUTE was booked up (to say I was stressed is the understatement of the year). That’s 10 routes booked up 6 weeks in advance. If you want your choice at circuit and route, then you better start looking many months in advance.
• Pack LAYERS. We’re going in Peruvian winter, and the mornings (especially that Machu Picchu sunrise) are cold. Not big-puffy-coat cold, but layers-on cold.
• Take altitude seriously. Cusco and the Andes are HIGH. Bring whatever your doctor recommends and lean on the coca leaf tea, which apparently works wonders on both an unsettled stomach and the altitude.

And here’s the one I’m tucking away and actually planning around, from Michelle. Take the water thing dead seriously. Somewhere on her way to Cusco she and her travel partner got sick (the bad-water, watch-your-food kind, not altitude), and it knocked them flat for a solid 36 hours. They had Machu Picchu booked for the very next day, no wiggle room, so they sucked it up and went while fighting off nausea the entire train ride. The adrenaline of actually being there carried them through, and it still turned out incredible. But the lesson is loud and clear: be careful with water, ice, and food, pack stomach medicine and electrolytes, and do not schedule your trip so tightly that one rough day blows up your one shot at the big thing. A buffer day is a gift to your future self.

One more reassuring note, from Teresa: she did the Cusco and Machu Picchu part of her trip solo and felt safe the whole time. Trust your gut and do your homework, always, but that was good to hear from someone who’s been.

So that’s the plan

Fly into Lima, eat good food, climb a mountain (maybe three), watch the sun come up over Machu Picchu, and drink approximately one pisco sour (the National drink of both Peru) per scenic overlook.

I’ll report back after, with my own version of this list and a camera roll I’ll make everyone look at.

But here’s the real reason I wanted to write it down: the best travel advice I got didn’t come from an algorithm. It came from four friends who’d been there and wanted me to have the good stuff. That’s the whole thing, isn’t it? People who’ve gone a little ahead of you, turning around to hand back what they learned. (Which is basically how I feel about my whole job, but that’s a different post.)

Have you been to Peru? Tell me the ONE thing you’d add to this list. I’m still building the itinerary and I will absolutely steal your idea. 🇵🇪

My full Peru itinerary at a glance

Date	Plan
Jul 31	Bekah lands in Lima at 5 AM. Reunite with Sam, recover from the red-eye.
Aug 1–2	Meet / Lima. Sam is tied up with the track meet through Aug 2. Foodie city, so book a couple of standout restaurants and maybe a cooking class.
Aug 2 (AM)	Morning flight Lima → Cusco (9:30am). Then bus to Ollantaytambo and train to Aguas Calientes via PeruRail.
Aug 3	ATTEMPT TO GET MACHU PICCHU TICKETS bright and early + Sacred Valley acclimatization: Ollantaytambo (ruins + town) plus Pisac or Chinchero. Easy and scenic while we adjust.
Aug 4	MACHU PICCHU (goal is Circuit 2 and catching a first bus around 5 am to see the sunrise) then back to “O-Town” as Sam calls it.
Aug 5	Easy morning, then the scenic train from Ollantaytambo to Cusco. Waking up bright and early tomorrow!!
Aug 6	Humantay Lake, 4,200m, under the Salkantay peaks. We booked with Viajes Perú (for just $29 through Capital One portal!) Uchu for a great dinner, very affordable.
Aug 7	7 Lakes of Ausangate: a string of alpine lakes, snowcapped peaks, and hot springs to soak in at the end. Less touristy than Rainbow Mountain. Mauka for dinner = extra-nice, US-priced, unique and excellent.
Aug 8	Slow Cusco morning Spa at Antigua — couples massage, great value, book ahead. (Also go see the cathedral, San Pedro market, Sacsayhuamán if time), early-afternoon flight to Lima, farewell dinner, then the 12:10 AM red-eye home.

LOL THIS PLAN DID NOT GO HOW I THOUGHT… Here is how my itinerary ACTUALLY panned out.

Honest note: Humantay and Ausangate are two big high-altitude days back to back. The extra acclimatization nights up front makes it reasonable (and I am decently fit from running my 11th marathon a week ago), but I definitely need to go in rested, medicated, and ready to ease off if needed.

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