48 Hours in Lima: Where to Eat, Stay and Explore

Start in Lima’s historic center, a short taxi ride from Miraflores, for the Cathedral and the catacombs beneath the Monastery of San Francisco. Back in Miraflores by afternoon, the clifftop parks along the Costa Verde give an easy hour of walking with the Pacific below, and the Larco Museum’s pre-Columbian collection is worth the detour even for travelers who plan to see Machu Picchu later in the trip.

Barranco moves at a slower, more bohemian pace than Miraflores, and a morning spent walking from the Bridge of Sighs through its street art and galleries covers most of the neighborhood on foot.

Afternoons are for wandering rather than sightseeing, small independent shops, a coffee stop, or whatever the neighborhood happens to be doing that day.

Central and Maido, Lima’s two most internationally recognized kitchens, both require reservations arranged two to three months ahead, so these are worth booking before anything else on a Lima itinerary.

For a more spontaneous evening, Barranco’s smaller restaurants, several run by chefs who trained under the city’s better-known names, serve a version of the same Nikkei cooking without the lead time.

Belmond Miraflores Park sits on the clifftop edge of the neighborhood, within walking distance of the parks and restaurants, and its rooftop pool makes it a convenient base for both days without needing to change hotels for the Barranco half of the stay.

Two days is enough to leave Lima with more than a stamp in a passport, without stealing time from Cusco, the Sacred Valley, or Machu Picchu further into the trip.

For travelers extending north to the Amazon or south to Lake Titicaca, Lima works just as well as a closing stop as an opening one.