We arrived late into Lima and thankfully our hostel provided an airport transfer. It was more expensive than getting an Uber/Cabify or taking the public bus (60 soles compared to 20 soles for the bus), but it was chaotic at the airport so it was well worth the extra £5.00.

We stayed at Parawina hostel in Miraflores. Miraflores is the trendy/touristy part of the city where most foreigners stay. It was a nice space to walk around with a couple of parks (Kennedy park is full of cats for some reason?) and lots of trendy bars and restaurants.

The hostel was nice, clean and the staff very helpful – one thing to note is that it has a bar on the top floor which plays music until 12am, but if you have earplugs you’ll be alright.

The next morning we were up early due to jet lag (and the cars honking outside our window), so we headed out for some breakfast and grab some cash.

We went to a restaurant called Milenaria about a 10 min walk from the hostel They did good food and coffee, although a little pricey. Once we were fed and watered, we went to find a cash point – most of the ATMs in Peru charge you between 20-40 soles to withdraw which is a lot, and they don’t let you withdraw a large amount in one go – most we found was 700 soles (~£170). If you can find a GlobalNet or National Bank these are the ones with the lowest chargers.

I also bought a Peruvian SIM card from the hostel, for ~£10, I got unlimited everything and it ran until the end of the month which was perfect. If you are staying longer, I think you can add more money onto the card by replying to the text they send you before the end of the month – I would highly recommend getting a sim if your provider doesn’t give free roaming in Peru. We found a lot of the restaurants we were recommended didn’t have, or had very small, signs so were very hard to find and it made calling Ubers a lot easier.

Downtown (Historic) Lima

Later that morning we did a free walking tour around Downtown Lima (the historic centre). We used the company suggested by the hostel (Free Lima Walking Tour) as they pick you up from the hostel. If your hostel/hotel doesn’t have a company, you can join the free walking tour from 2 pick up points and there are different tours you can choose from. We chose to do the classic historical tour as we didn’t know much about Lima’s past.

The tour starts in Miraflores and they take you on the public bus (3.60 soles each), into Downtown Lima. The bus itself is an experience! Once you reach your destination, the tour takes you around the key sights in Lima and they guides give helpful recommendations for restaurants and things to do, the whole tour lasts ~3 hours. The guides work for tips and the average a person gave was 20 soles per person (~£5).

Once the tour was done we were starving so took one of the guides recommendations and went to the central market. This is a proper working food market but don’t be put off by the fishy smell, if you walk to the back of the market there are a couple of tiny restaurants, well more like counters. We went to La Chiclayana – we were the only non-Peruvians there but the owner was lovely and helped us order and gave us free drinks to try and an extra portion of ceviche – we had the ceviche de peccadilloes (fish ceviche) and Seco de Pollo (chicken and rice). The food was delicious and inexpensive, I would highly recommend.

Now that we were full, it was time for some Pisco Sours! We walked back to the main square and had our first Pisco in Peru at the ‘Pisco Museum’ – don’t be fooled, it is a bar and not a museum!

We had some time to kill so bar hopped for the rest of the afternoon until walking down to the Circuito de Magico del Agua – the Magic Fountain show. If you’re in town and want to see this, i would suggest getting an Uber as its about a 30min walk down a highway, so not the most picturesque.

The 20 minute show runs every night 7:15, 8:15 and 9:10 and costs 4 soles to enter the park. There are restaurants on the street parallel and a lot of street vendors so my advice would be to go down in plenty of time and make a night of it. The show uses lights and lasers combined with an actual fountain to tell a story – I have no idea what the story was but it was fun to watch!

After all of that we were exhausted so headed back to the hostel for a beer (local beer Pilsen is lovely!) and an early night.

Miraflores & Barranco

On our second day in Lima, we had a quick breakfast in the hostel before walking down through Miraflores to the coast. They have a lovely coastal walk where you can get a coffee, watch the surfers and paraglides, have lunch or go shopping if you fancy. We walked all the way along to the lighthouse, through Parque del Amor and then back up into Miraflores.

Using another one of our walking tour guide’s recommendations, we went to La Luhca Sangucheria for lunch. As the name suggests its a sandwich shop, but they are really good – we also had the frozen drinks, the passion fruit one is to die for!

In the late afternoon we got a taxi to Barranco – the artsy, hipster part of Lima. Here there is a lot street art to see, stalls to browse and galleries to wander through. It’s a really nice area of town.

If you have time head to El Muelle for dinner. It’s a non-imposing local seafood restaurant but it shuts at 6pm so you need to go early! Their Pisco were cheap and the food lovely – I had a combination of ceviche and then fried calamari, delicious!

Lima Summary

• Length of stay: 2 full days/ 2-3 nights depending on arrival and departure times
• Where to stay: Anywhere in Miraflores but Parawina hostel was great
• Itinerary: Day 1 – Downtown Lima, Day 2 – Miraflores & Barranco
• Top tips: Get cash from Banco de la Nation, have spare USD if you can, get a Peruvian sim & enjoy as much of the food as you can!