Fly over the Nazca Lines for an aerial view of the immense designs etched into Peru’s desert. Look for geometric forms and figures such as the hummingbird, spider and monkey, whose full outlines are best appreciated from above.

Created by the Nazca culture over many centuries, these UNESCO-listed geoglyphs continue to prompt questions about their purpose. The flight reveals their remarkable scale against the arid plateau and includes interpretation of the shapes below.

Cruise around the Ballestas Islands with a Local Expert to observe wildlife and wave-cut rock formations off the Paracas coast. Watch for sea lions, fur seals, pelicans, seabirds and Humboldt penguins in their natural habitat.

Cold, nutrient-rich waters help sustain the area’s abundant marine life, making these rocky islands an important refuge for coastal species. Seeing the colonies from the boat offers a close view of a lively ecosystem without stepping ashore.

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

• 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.

• 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.

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 and drinks in Lima. This hosted gathering offers a relaxed introduction to the people who will share your journey through Peru.

Conversation begins in a capital known for its influential food scene, where coastal ingredients and Andean traditions meet. It is an opportunity to settle in, ask questions and get to know your group around the table.

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

Founded as the Spanish colonial capital in 1535, Lima retains layers of viceregal architecture beside the workings of modern government. The mansion’s long family history offers a more intimate perspective on that colonial past.

Explore Museo Larco with a Local Expert in Lima’s Pueblo Libre district, discovering ceramics, textiles and other objects that illuminate Peru’s pre-Columbian cultures. Enjoy lunch at the museum café in the gardens of an 18th-century viceregal mansion.

The collection brings ancient beliefs, artistry and daily life into focus, while bougainvillea-draped terraces provide a distinctive setting for regional Peruvian dishes. Museum and meal together connect the country’s deep cultural history with its living culinary traditions.

Discover the Sacred Valley on a scenic tour through the Andean landscape near Cusco. Pause at viewpoints to take in the mountains and broad valley before enjoying lunch at Altar Inca, chosen for its views across the region.

Known for its fertile land and enduring Quechua communities, the valley was central to Inca life. Its fields, settlements and surrounding peaks offer a sense of the landscape behind the archaeological sites visited across this part of Peru.

Visit the Maras Salt Pans with a Local Expert and look across thousands of shallow pools stepped down a mountainside in the Sacred Valley. Learn how mineral-rich spring water is directed into the pans and left to evaporate.

Salt has been harvested here for centuries, using a system associated with the area’s pre-Inca and Inca past. The pale terraces form a striking pattern against the Andean slopes, while their continued use makes this a living working landscape.

Explore Moray’s circular Inca terraces with a Local Expert on a high plateau near the Sacred Valley. Look down into the concentric stone-lined depressions and consider how their different levels create varying growing conditions.

Moray is commonly understood as a site of agricultural experimentation, reflecting the Incas’ close attention to altitude, temperature and crops. Its geometry is compelling in its own right, while the surrounding mountains place this ingenuity firmly in an Andean setting.

Meet a traditional Quechua weaver in the Sacred Valley for a private presentation of Andean textile techniques. See how knowledge is passed through practiced hands, and learn how patterns and colours can express personal and regional identity.

Weaving remains a significant part of cultural life in many Andean communities, rather than simply a craft from the past. This visit creates a personal exchange with a local maker and directly supports the tour’s community-focused travel initiative.

Experience a pachamanca lunch at Laguna Piuray, where food is cooked in the earth with heated stones. Enjoy the traditional feast accompanied by local musicians, and try playing the zampoña, an Andean panpipe.

Pachamanca draws on a long-standing relationship between food, community and the land. Learning a few notes on an instrument heard across the Andes adds a hands-on musical element to this gathering beside the lagoon.

Explore the Inca ruins of Ollantaytambo with a Local Expert, walking among imposing terraces and stonework above a town whose old streets preserve an Inca layout. Visit a local home to meet the family living there.

The archaeological site reveals the scale and precision of Inca construction, while the household visit offers a more personal view of contemporary village life. Together, they show Ollantaytambo as both a historic stronghold and a lived-in Andean community.

Travel aboard IncaRail’s The Prime between Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu Pueblo. Settle into the premium train service for an Andean-inspired tasting and live music as the route carries you through the changing mountain scenery.

This is more than a transport connection: local flavours and onboard performance make the rail journey part of the cultural experience. Watch the Sacred Valley give way to steeper, greener landscapes on the approach to the cloud-forest town.

Explore Machu Picchu with a Local Expert in a small group, walking through the 15th-century Inca citadel high in the Andes. Examine its precisely fitted stone walls and learn about the roles of its ceremonial spaces and carefully designed water channels.

Set among steep peaks and cloud forest, this UNESCO World Heritage Site demonstrates the Incas’ command of engineering and their close attention to the surrounding landscape. Expert interpretation brings purpose to structures that might otherwise remain mysterious.

Spend another morning exploring Machu Picchu at your own pace, with your Travel Director available to answer questions. A second visit gives you time to look more closely at the citadel’s stonework and its setting among the Andean peaks.

Changing light and cloud can alter the view of this mountain sanctuary from one visit to the next. The unhurried format offers space to reflect on its architecture and landscape without repeating a guided tour.

Walk through Cusco with a Local Expert, discovering Plaza Mayor, the 12-Angled Stone and Qorikancha, once the Inca Empire’s most important temple. See how Inca masonry and Spanish colonial buildings share the streets of Peru’s former imperial capital.

Qorikancha’s surviving stonework speaks to the city’s sacred Inca past, while the central square reflects its later colonial transformation. This guided walk makes Cusco’s overlapping histories visible in the fabric of the city.

Visit the Cusco Planetarium after hours to explore Andean interpretations of the southern sky. Learn about Inca constellations through expert-led stories and dome projections, with telescope viewing when conditions allow.

A reception with hot wine or tea and appetisers adds warmth to the evening. Rather than treating the stars solely as a scientific subject, this experience considers their place in Andean cultural knowledge and the way people have understood the night sky.

Visit Tambomachay, Puka Pukara, Qenqo and Sacsayhuaman in the hills above Cusco. Explore a group of Inca sites associated with ceremonial activity, water, movement and the protection of the imperial capital.

At Sacsayhuaman, vast zigzag walls of fitted stone overlook the city and demonstrate the scale of Inca building. Seeing the sites together reveals how architecture and the surrounding terrain formed a wider landscape of significance.

Explore Cusco’s San Pedro Market with a Local Expert as your included choice of activity. Browse stalls of colourful produce, grains and ingredients used in Andean cooking, and select essential food products for a donation to the local community.

The market is a working part of daily life, filled with the sights and sounds of local trade. Choosing items for donation makes the visit more personal while offering a practical way to support families in need.

Step inside Cusco Cathedral with a Local Expert as your included alternative to the San Pedro Market visit. See gilded altars, carved woodwork and paintings associated with the Cusco School of colonial art.

Built between the 16th and 17th centuries on the site of an Inca palace, the cathedral embodies the city’s complex history. Look for distinctly Peruvian elements in its religious imagery, including a local interpretation of The Last Supper.

Share a hosted celebration dinner at Inka Grill with your small group in Cusco. Sample dishes drawn from Peru’s varied culinary traditions, with examples on the tour menu including Ceviche Palteado, Quinotto and Ají de Gallina.

The meal brings travellers together around flavours that reflect coastal ingredients, Andean grains and well-loved Peruvian comfort food. It is a convivial opportunity to exchange impressions of the places and people encountered during the journey.

Meet a local fisherman in Paracas to hear how small-scale fishing supports families and shapes life along Peru’s coast. Learn about practices passed between generations and the economic realities behind a day’s catch.

The conversation also examines pressures from industrial fleets and the balance between long-held traditions and modern livelihoods. It offers a human perspective on the sea beyond Paracas’s beaches and wildlife, through someone whose community depends on it.

Visit a pisco distillery in the Ica region to learn how Peru’s grape spirit is made, and taste the finished drink. The tour highlights Hacienda La Caravedo, whose distilling history dates to 1684.

Ica’s vineyards are central to Peru’s pisco tradition. Seeing the production process and sampling the spirit gives context to a drink with a prominent place in the country’s culinary identity, from traditional methods to contemporary distilling.

Explore a small museum in the Ica area housing archaeological and natural-history collections. Examine ceramics, textiles, fossils and other objects associated with the region’s ancient cultures, alongside preserved human remains.

The displays offer a closer look at the communities that lived along Peru’s desert coast and the materials they left behind. This indoor visit adds historical context to the area’s striking landscapes and archaeological sites without relying on scenery alone.

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’s history is inseparable from the enslavement of African people and the labour on which the colonial economy depended. Encountering that history in Chincha, a region with enduring Afro-Peruvian cultural traditions, adds a necessary and thought-provoking dimension to Peru’s heritage.

Visit ChocoMuseo in Cusco on an optional experience focused on cacao and chocolate-making. Learn how cacao is transformed into chocolate and explore an ingredient with deep roots in the cultures of the Americas.

This is a hands-on way to look beyond Cusco’s monumental architecture and consider a flavour enjoyed across Peru today. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; specific activities may depend on the option available.

Explore Rainbow Mountain on an optional excursion beyond Cusco. See bands of mineral colour running through the high-altitude Andean landscape, with wide views of the surrounding mountain terrain.

The exposed layers create a distinctive contrast with the region’s pale peaks and open skies. This outing offers a landscape-focused alternative to time in the city and takes place at significant elevation. It is at additional cost and bookable on tour.