• 4 Dinner (D)
• 12 Breakfast (B)
• 6 Lunch (L)

• Nazca: Take to the skies on your Peru tour to see the iconic Nazca Lines, archaeological enigmas scratched in the ground 500 B.C. and A.D. 500. Gaze down in awe of these massive designs and patterns you can only view from above. Your private flight will show you many of the lines, complete with their names and a bit of history. From above, you’ll observe the different types: straight, geometric (such as triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, spirals, arrows, zigzags, and wavy lines), and pictorial (including a spider, hummingbird, cactus plant, monkey, whale, llama, duck, flower, tree, lizard, dog, and even a mysterious humanoid figure). Some of the animal geoglyphs are up to 1,200 feet long! You’ll also learn why the Nazca culture created these lines in the desert plains of the Rio Grande de Nazca River basin and how the Nazca people were able to carve out such massive designs.
• Lima: Take in the highlights of Lima, the ‘City of the Kings,’ including a panoramic view of the ancient districts. Join a local specialist for a visit to the UNESCO-listed Historic Center. Learn how before it was destroyed by earthquakes in the mid-18th century, observing how the historic buildings display a collaboration between local craftspeople and others from the Old World. Then drive along the coastline as you learn more about the fascinating history of Peru’s capital city. 
• Lima: Dive into the rich history of Casona San Marcos, an ancient building in Lima now part of the property of a university. Learn to play the “cajón” (meaning “box” or drawer”) box-shaped percussion instrument played by slapping the faces with the hands, fingers, or sometimes implements. Continue your musical discovery trying the basic steps of “musica negra”, a dance that originated in Chincha (near Paracas) that is popular during over the Christmas season. Over your lesson, try a snack from a “pregonero”, a vendor who specializes in selling a typical snack through boisterous advertising in the city streets.
• Sacred Valley: We’ll Dive into Culture and meet a Quechua Shaman who will perform a ceremony welcoming you to Peru.
• Machu Picchu: Discover how Peru’s most famous cocktail, the Pisco Sour, is prepared with a Local Specialist. You’ll explore the ingredients, techniques and secrets behind the drink, as well as its cultural importance in Peru.
• Cusco: Visit the mystical Incan stronghold of Ollantaytambo. These famous ruins are a massive Inca fortress made of large stone terraces stretching out across a hillside. Walk among the stone platforms, the sun temple of six monoliths and the Princess Baths fountain ? the Baño de la Nusta at the base of the ruins flowing from carved stone into a pool. Over your exploration, learn how the old town is an Inca-era grid of cobblestoned streets and adobe buildings.
• Machu Picchu: Soak in every moment of your Machu Picchu tour in style as you descend to the Lost City in the clouds aboard the Vistadome train. Travelling the Inca Trail, you’ll traverse dramatic landscapes with a panoramic view of the soaring peaks, river, and ruins. Sit back and relax as you enjoy this multi-sensory journey complete with background music, an informative audio commentary highlighting interesting sites, and an included light snack.
• Machu Picchu: Take a shuttle to the top of the mountain where you’ll meet your local specialist for a guided hike of Machu Picchu. You’ll learn about Machu Picchu’s history and the use of each section of including ceremonial, storage, agriculture, temples, astronomical, and observatory as well as the possible reasons why the Incas left Machu Picchu.
• Machu Picchu: The ruins of Machu Picchu beckon yet again and we enjoy one final opportunity to reconnect with its story. Journey to take in the ruins at sunrise spending some time on your own to explore the hill-top fortress. Soak in every moment at this iconic site, making stops at points of interest while your guide shares their insights on the archaeological sites.
• Cusco: Begin your day at the ruins of the UNESCO-listed Sacsayhuamán fortress overlooking Cusco. With zig zagging walls and ruins of giant stones, see how the shape and harmony of the landscape is similar to Machu Picchu. Stroll through this Incan architecture of sacred buildings such as residential buildings, towers, shrines, warehouses, roads and aqueducts. And while you may not be able to take in the grand scale, the complex design is based on the shape of the head of a puma, a sacred animal in Inca spirituality.
• Cusco: Join your Local Specialist for a guided walk through Cusco’s colonial centre, including the nearby 13th-century Incan settlement of Koricancha. Here in Cusco’s Golden Temple of the Sun dedicated to the Sun God Inti, view the trapezoidal and irregular shapes and rounded edges. Note how the stones fit together and were built simply by placing them on top of each other without using any mortar. This staggered placement also enables them to withstand earthquakes.
• Puno: Bring Peru’s culture to life as you decorate your own torito de Pucará – a colourful ceramic bull steeped in Andean tradition. Found on rooftops across the region, these painted icons symbolise protection and prosperity, offering a hands-on way to connect with local heritage through creativity.
• Lake Titicaca: Cruise the deep blue waters of Lake Titicaca with a Local Specialist, discovering its floating islands constructed from reeds by the Uros Indians. 
• Paracas: Explore Paracas, a town on Peru’s west coast known for its beautiful beaches. Named after the Paracas people who were fishermen and farmers of beans, maize and red peppers, Paracas is now the gateway to the Paracas National Reserve. In this pristine desert you’ll find colonies of sea lions and sea birds. With an afternoon at leisure, explore Paracas Bay where restaurants and shops line the boardwalk and fishermen’s boats gather at the docks.
• Paracas: The Museum of Ica traces the stories of Peru’s earliest civilisations. Through ancient pottery, textiles, skulls and mummies, you’ll discover how the Paracas, Nazca, Wari and Inca peoples lived, created and connected with the land. Exhibits highlight the cultural identity and traditions that defined these Indigenous communities long before Spanish colonisation. 
• Paracas: Visit Cultur Pisco, a winery dedicated to preserving Peru’s national spirit. Tour the property with a Local Specialist to learn how Pisco has been produced through generations, exploring the history, grape varieties and distillation process. Then sample a curated selection of Pisco styles that showcase the care, tradition and expertise behind this celebrated drink, deeply rooted in local culture. 
• Ballestas Islands: Connect with nature, cruising around the uninhabited Ballestas Islands, a “mini-Galapagos” teeming with wildlife. See the mysterious Candelabro in Pisco Bay. Gaze up where birds including the guanay cormorant, Peruvian booby and Peruvian pelican cruise above. Colonies of sea lions gather on rocky isles, barking as they welcome you to their home. Smaller gray or tan South American fur seals lounge on rocky shores shaded by the cliffs. Even Humboldt penguins – who only populate the coast of Peru and northern Chile – waddle along the shore.

• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• Standard regional accommodation
• Deluxe coach, cruise and train travel, and select flights

Trafalgar

Explore the Inca fortress of Ollantaytambo, where broad stone terraces rise above a Sacred Valley settlement beside the Urubamba River. Walk among the platforms and examine the scale and precision of the hillside construction.

The site includes the remains of ceremonial spaces and water features, while the town below preserves an Inca-era street layout. Together, they show how this mountain stronghold was also part of an inhabited and carefully organised landscape.

Choose to explore the Maras Salt Mines and Moray terraces near Cusco. See the salt pans spread across a hillside and the striking concentric forms of Moray, two markedly different landscapes shaped by human ingenuity.

The excursion adds depth to a Sacred Valley visit by focusing on the region’s long relationship with its terrain and resources. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Travel Director for the visit details.

Choose to walk through Cusco after dark on an organised tour. Experience the historic centre in the evening, when illuminated streets and plazas offer a different perspective on the former Inca capital.

Walking rather than driving lets you notice the character of its stonework and public spaces at a slower pace. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; your Travel Director can confirm the route, availability and booking details.

Explore Lima with a Local Specialist, taking in the UNESCO-listed Historic Centre and the history surrounding its Main Square. Visit Casona San Marcos to hear the story of this historic building and try a snack from a traditional street vendor.

Join a hands-on cajón workshop, learning the rhythms of Peru’s box-shaped percussion instrument and introductory steps of música negra. The music and dance offer a lively connection to the country’s Afro-Peruvian heritage.

Meet a Quechua Shaman in the Sacred Valley for a ceremony welcoming you to Peru. Surrounded by Andean peaks and the valley’s cultivated slopes, take part in a moment centred on local spiritual traditions.

The ceremony offers an introduction to the enduring relationship between Andean communities and the natural world. Rather than viewing the Sacred Valley only as a landscape of Inca sites, you’ll encounter a living tradition shared by a local practitioner.

Meet Sacred Valley farmers over a locally hosted Be My Guest lunch and learn how they grow Peru’s Giant White Corn. Hear how cultivation combines inherited farming knowledge with newer techniques, while sharing food and conversation with your hosts.

This distinctive crop is closely associated with the valley’s fertile fields. Seeing its production firsthand gives the meal a deeper connection to local agricultural life and to the families maintaining it.

Watch a Marinera performance in the Sacred Valley, following the dancers’ graceful footwork and swirling handkerchiefs. This partnered dance conveys courtship through movement, with gestures and timing that make the exchange as expressive as the music.

Although encountered in the Andes on this tour, the Marinera is a celebration of Peru’s coastal culture. Its Spanish, Indigenous and African influences reveal the intertwined traditions that have shaped the country’s performing arts.

Roll up your sleeves for a hands-on Peruvian cooking class in the Sacred Valley. Work with local ingredients and techniques, experiencing regional food as something to make and share rather than simply taste.

Learn to prepare a Pisco Sour with a Local Specialist, exploring the ingredients and method behind Peru’s signature cocktail. Together, the kitchen and cocktail lessons offer two approachable ways to connect with the country’s culinary traditions.

Travel aboard the Vistadome train through the Urubamba Valley towards Machu Picchu. Panoramic windows frame the river, steep green slopes and mountain scenery, making the rail journey an experience in its own right.

Watch the landscape change along a route associated with journeys into the Inca heartland. A light snack is included aboard the train, leaving you free to take in the Andean views throughout the ride.

Explore Machu Picchu with a Local Specialist, walking among its stone terraces, ceremonial spaces and temple remains high above the Urubamba Valley. Hear how different parts of the Inca citadel may have served agricultural, religious and observational purposes.

A second visit offers time to experience the hilltop site at your own pace and look more closely at its setting. The combination of guided insight and independent exploration gives room to appreciate both its engineering and its mountain surroundings.

Meet native Andean weavers near Ollantaytambo and watch a traditional weaving and natural-dye demonstration. Learn how colour and textile-making skills are passed through communities, with techniques rooted in the plants and materials of the region.

Visit a family-run chichería to taste chicha, a drink with a longstanding place in Andean social life. This community-focused experience supports local cultural traditions and the people who continue to practise them.

Visit Sacsayhuamán with a Local Specialist and examine the immense fitted stones and zigzagging walls overlooking Cusco. The complex’s commanding position reveals the scale of Inca construction in the former imperial capital.

Continue on a guided tour of Cusco, where Inca foundations and colonial-era streets reveal successive chapters of the city’s history. Seeing these layers together helps explain why Cusco remains such an important centre of Andean heritage.

Visit Qorikancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun, and look closely at its precisely fitted stonework. Once among the most important sacred sites of the Inca Empire, it provides a striking encounter with Cusco’s pre-colonial history.

Discover Cusco Cathedral, identified among the tour’s landmark visits. Together, these sites reflect the city’s Inca and colonial heritage and the profound changes that followed the Spanish arrival.

Explore Raqchi, an archaeological site on the route between Cusco and Puno. Walk through the remains of a settlement that held an important position along the Inca road network, and consider the movement of people and goods across the highlands.

The site offers a perspective beyond Peru’s best-known citadels: a glimpse of the infrastructure and communities that connected the wider Inca world across difficult Andean terrain.

Visit a local family home in the Peruvian highlands to share lunch and conversation. Take part in a torito de Pucará painting workshop, decorating your own colourful ceramic bull while learning what the figure means to local communities.

Often placed in pairs on rooftops, these bulls are associated with protection and prosperity. The hands-on activity turns a familiar regional sight into a personal introduction to the traditions behind it.

Cruise across Lake Titicaca with a Local Specialist to the Uros Floating Islands. Meet a local family and learn how totora reeds are used to build and maintain the islands and their homes.

Seeing the reed structures up close brings an unusual way of life into focus. Against the lake’s broad blue expanse, the visit connects the practical skills of the Uros community with a tradition shaped by life on the water.

Cruise to Taquile Island on Lake Titicaca and meet members of its Indigenous community. Learn about the island’s UNESCO-recognised textile traditions, including knitting and weaving skills sustained across generations.

Share a home-cooked lunch as you discover how textiles can express cultural identity and social status. This community visit offers a direct connection with the artisans preserving those traditions and supports greater opportunities for local people.

Explore the Regional Museum of Ica and examine artefacts associated with the Paracas, Nazca and Inca cultures. Displays of pottery, textiles and other archaeological finds reveal aspects of life on Peru’s southern coast and beyond.

The museum provides context for the region’s ancient civilisations, whose artistic and material traditions developed long before Spanish colonisation. It is a chance to see the objects behind names encountered throughout a journey through Peru.

Tour a winery near Ica to learn how Peruvian Pisco is produced, from the grapes used to the distillation process. Explore the production site with a specialist and discover why this grape spirit holds such a prominent place in the country’s food and drink culture.

Sample a selection of Pisco styles to notice their different characteristics. A lunch of regional dishes rounds out the visit, connecting the tasting to the flavours of Peru’s southern coast.

Cruise with a Local Specialist around the Ballestas Islands, watching for sea lions, seabirds and Humboldt penguins among the rocky shores. The islands’ wildlife-rich cliffs make this a close encounter with Peru’s Pacific coast from the water.

See the Paracas Candelabra, a large geoglyph etched into the coastal hillside near Pisco Bay. Its origins remain uncertain, adding an archaeological point of interest to a cruise focused on the region’s marine life.

Choose to walk through Lima’s Miraflores district with a local expert. Discover this coastal neighbourhood on foot, with highlights including the Larcomar shopping centre and the area around Kennedy Park.

The walk offers a closer look at contemporary Lima beyond its historic centre, from its lively public spaces to its Pacific-facing setting. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Travel Director for availability and details.

Choose to visit Cusco’s Choco Museum for a closer look at chocolate and the cacao from which it is made. The visit offers a food-focused alternative to the city’s Inca and colonial sightseeing.

Cacao has deep roots in South America, giving this stop a connection to regional ingredients as well as a chance to explore something sweet. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; specific activities and availability can be confirmed with your Travel Director.

Choose to join a Peruvian cooking class in Cusco and practise preparing classic local recipes. The hands-on format offers time to focus on ingredients and kitchen techniques rather than simply sampling a finished dish.

Cusco’s food culture draws on the produce and traditions of the Andean highlands, making a cooking lesson a rewarding complement to its historic sites. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; check the menu and availability with your Travel Director.