Cruise around the Ballestas Islands with a Local Expert off the coast of Paracas. Look for sea lions, fur seals, Humboldt penguins and seabirds among the rocky outcrops; wildlife sightings depend on conditions and animal movements.

The islands’ cliffs and nutrient-rich Pacific waters support a dense concentration of marine life. Viewing this habitat from the boat combines close-up coastal scenery with an introduction to one of Peru’s most active wildlife environments.

Discover Museo Larco with a Local Expert in Lima’s Pueblo Libre district. Explore its collection of pre-Columbian objects to learn about the art, beliefs and daily lives of civilizations that flourished long before the Inca Empire.

Dine in the museum’s 18th-century garden, beneath bougainvillea-draped terraces in the grounds of a former viceregal mansion. Regional Peruvian dishes and the museum’s historic setting bring food, art and archaeology into one distinctive Lima experience.

• 12 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Dinner (D)
• 7 Lunch (L)

• Experience enhanced hygiene protocols to align with the latest guidance following COVID-19.All Travel Directors, Well-Being Directors and Drivers have completed training in enhanced well-being and hygiene protocols.
• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

• Sacred Valley: Learn to play the zampoña at Laguna Piuray, where local musicians introduce one of the Andes’ most recognizable instruments. As you try the panpipe for yourself, the workshop offers a direct connection to the music and traditions still heard across the region.
• Machu Picchu: Travel to Machu Picchu aboard IncaRail’s The Prime, where spacious seating, attentive service and premium finishes bring added comfort to one of Peru’s most memorable rail journeys. Along the way, enjoy an Andean-inspired tasting made with local ingredients and live music on board as the landscapes of the Sacred Valley begin to unfold.
• Cusco: Visit Cusco’s planetarium to learn more on how the Incas interpreted the stars. After a reception with hot wine (or tea) and appetizers, Local Experts will explain and share stories about the influence the stars had on Andean culture. You’ll then be led to a room specially accommodated to view the ancient night skies, weather permitting.
• Paracas: 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.
• Paracas: In Paracas, meet a local fisherman who will share how traditional practices are passed down through generations. Gain insight into daily life at sea, learn how small-scale fishers contend with industrial fleets and discover what a day’s catch is worth in a community where the ocean still shapes survival.

Insight Vacations

• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays
• Business class coach with extended leg room, train travel and select flights

Meet your Travel Director and fellow small-group travellers over dinner with drinks in Lima. It is a hosted introduction to the people who will share your journey through Peru.

Settle into the capital’s dining atmosphere and hear what lies ahead, from Andean heritage to the Pacific coast. Lima’s food culture draws on Indigenous ingredients and centuries of migration, making the city a fitting place to begin exploring Peru together.

Explore Lima’s historic centre with a Local Expert, taking in the Cathedral of Lima, Government Palace, Archbishop’s Palace and City Hall around the city’s principal square. Visit Casa Aliaga, a colonial mansion associated with the same family for 17 generations.

The streets and buildings reveal Lima’s former role as the centre of Spanish rule in South America. Casa Aliaga offers a more intimate perspective on that history through a family home maintained across centuries.

Visit the Maras Salt Pans with a Local Expert in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Look across thousands of small terraced pools, where mineral-rich spring water evaporates to leave salt that local families continue to harvest.

The patchwork of white, cream and ochre pools traces a practice with roots in the pre-Inca Andes. Learn how the water is channelled across the hillside and why this working landscape remains an important source of livelihood and local identity.

Explore the circular terraces of Moray on a high plateau near the Sacred Valley. See the concentric stone rings descending into the earth and learn why they are believed to have helped the Incas investigate growing conditions for different crops.

Differences in elevation and exposure create distinct conditions within the terraces. Moray offers a striking view of Andean agricultural ingenuity and the careful attention Inca communities paid to their mountain environment.

Meet a traditional Quechua weaver near Laguna Piuray for a private presentation of Andean textile techniques. Watch skilled hands work with patterns and methods passed between generations, and learn how woven designs can express community and personal identity.

Against the Sacred Valley’s mountain landscape, this encounter connects craftsmanship to living culture rather than presenting textiles solely as historic objects. The visit also directly supports the local artisan and her work.

Experience a traditional Pachamanca lunch beside Laguna Piuray, where food is cooked in the earth using heated stones. Local musicians accompany the meal and introduce the sounds of the Andes.

Try playing the zampoña, an Andean panpipe, with guidance from the musicians. The hands-on workshop adds a musical dimension to a regional feast, connecting the flavours of an earth-cooked meal with a tradition still heard across Andean communities.

Explore Ollantaytambo’s Inca ruins with a Local Expert, examining the monumental terraces and stonework that rise above this Sacred Valley town. Its surviving street layout offers a rare opportunity to picture an Inca settlement still inhabited today.

Meet a family in their village home for a personal perspective on daily life in Ollantaytambo. The combination of archaeological remains and a living neighbourhood shows how the town’s history remains part of its present.

Travel aboard IncaRail’s The Prime between Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu Pueblo, enjoying spacious seating and attentive onboard service. An Andean-inspired tasting made with local ingredients and live music turn this rail journey into an experience in its own right.

Watch the scenery change along the route through the Sacred Valley towards the cloud-forest setting of Machu Picchu. The views, regional flavours and music offer an introduction to the landscapes and culture surrounding the Inca citadel.

Explore Machu Picchu with a Local Expert as your small group walks through the 15th-century Inca citadel. Examine its precisely fitted stonework and learn about the ceremonial spaces, engineering and mountain setting of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

High above the Urubamba Valley, terraces and buildings sit among steep Andean peaks and cloud forest. Your guide brings context to the sanctuary’s design and significance while giving you time to take in the scale of its setting.

Walk through Cusco’s historic centre with a Local Expert, visiting Plaza Mayor, the famed 12-Angled Stone and Qorikancha, once the Inca Empire’s most important temple. Look closely at the stonework that remains woven into the city’s later buildings.

Formerly the Inca capital, Cusco preserves layers of Andean and Spanish colonial history in its streets and architecture. This guided walk helps make sense of that heritage at the landmarks themselves.

Visit the Cusco Planetarium after hours to explore how Andean peoples interpreted the night sky. Local Experts use dome projections and stories of Inca constellations to explain astronomy’s place in the region’s culture.

Enjoy a reception with hot wine or tea and appetisers, with telescope observation available when conditions allow. The experience draws attention to the dark shapes and celestial patterns that held meaning for communities living beneath the southern sky.

Visit Tambomachay, Puka Pukara and Qenqo in the hills above Cusco, exploring sites associated with the Inca capital’s ceremonial and defensive landscape. Continue to Sacsayhuaman, where enormous, closely fitted stones form zigzag walls overlooking the city.

These sites reveal different expressions of Inca building skill, from carved rock to monumental masonry. Their elevated settings also give a sense of how the empire shaped and approached its mountain capital.

Explore Cusco’s San Pedro Market with a Local Expert as your choice of included Insight Choice activity. Browse stalls of produce, regional grains and ingredients used in everyday Andean cooking.

Select food items for donation to a local community, adding a practical purpose to your visit. The market’s colours, conversations and familiar shopping routines offer an insight into contemporary Cusco beyond its celebrated archaeological sites. This experience is offered as an alternative to the guided Cusco Cathedral visit.

Step inside Cusco Cathedral with a Local Expert as your choice of included Insight Choice activity. On Plaza de Armas, examine gilded altars, carved woodwork and paintings associated with the Cusco School.

Built on the site of an Inca palace, the cathedral reflects the meeting of colonial religious art and Andean traditions. Look for the distinctly Peruvian interpretation of the Last Supper and the revered Lord of the Earthquakes. This visit is offered as an alternative to San Pedro Market.

Enjoy a slow-cooked Cusquenian lunch at Pacha Papa in Cusco’s San Blas neighbourhood. Dine al fresco in the courtyard of a historic mansion, with time to appreciate regional dishes in a setting closely tied to the city’s arts scene.

San Blas is known for its narrow streets and artisan traditions. The courtyard setting and locally rooted cooking make this a distinct introduction to Cusco’s food culture, rather than simply a pause for a meal.

Share a Celebration Dinner at Inka Grill with your fellow small-group travellers in Cusco. The menu brings together Peruvian flavours through dishes such as ceviche palteado, quinotto and ají de gallina.

Gather around the table to exchange impressions of the Andes and the places you have explored. As a hosted group occasion focused on regional cooking and conversation, the dinner offers a more personal experience than an ordinary evening meal.

Meet a local fisherman in Paracas to hear how the Pacific sustains the area’s small-scale fishing communities. Learn about working life at sea, practices passed between generations and the value of a day’s catch.

The conversation also addresses the pressures traditional fishers face from industrial fleets. This personal account brings depth to Paracas’s coastal scenery, showing how the ocean shapes livelihoods, family knowledge and the future of a living community.

Fly over the UNESCO-listed Nazca Lines for a view of the vast geoglyphs etched into Peru’s desert plateau. From the air, identify geometric forms and figures whose full scale is difficult to grasp from ground level.

Created by ancient peoples over many centuries, the lines remain the subject of archaeological study and debate. Aerial viewing reveals how their pale markings stand out against the arid surface and why these designs continue to inspire questions.

Visit a pisco distillery in the Ica region to learn how Peru’s grape spirit is produced, and sample the national drink. Discover the steps that turn locally grown grapes into pisco while tasting the result.

Ica’s dry coastal climate and long history of grape cultivation have made it central to pisco production. The visit connects a familiar Peruvian flavour to the agricultural landscape and distilling traditions behind it.

Explore a museum in the Ica region housing ceramics, textiles, fossils and other artefacts from the area’s past. Displays of preserved human remains offer a further, sometimes confronting, perspective on ancient burial practices.

The collection broadens the story of Peru beyond its best-known Inca sites, introducing cultures and communities connected to the southern coast. Time among the exhibits adds archaeological context to the region’s desert landscapes and historic settlements.

Visit Hacienda San José in Chincha, a 17th-century estate on Peru’s south coast. See its historic house, baroque chapel and underground tunnels while learning about the property’s colonial past.

The estate also bears witness to the enslavement of Africans in Peru’s colonial economy. Encountering this history in Chincha adds an essential perspective on the country’s Afro-Peruvian heritage and the people whose labour shaped the region.

Explore cacao and chocolate-making at ChocoMuseo in Cusco on an optional experience. Learn about the ingredient behind chocolate and the process that transforms cacao into the finished treat.

Cacao has deep roots in the Americas, making this a flavour-led way to consider a crop with a long cultural history. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; confirm the available visit details with your Travel Director.

Discover Rainbow Mountain on an optional excursion from Cusco. Travel beyond the city to see high-altitude Andean terrain and the mineral-coloured slopes that give the mountain its familiar name.

The exposed bands of colour offer a landscape markedly different from Cusco’s stone streets and valley settlements. Conditions at altitude can be demanding, so consider your comfort with the elevation. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Travel Director for practical details.