Cusco, Lima and the Sacred Valley: altitude, trains, when to go, traveler tips, and mobile data via eSIM.
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Peru is a plate of ceviche, a plaza at 3,400 meters, and a stone city in a saddle of jungle hills. Lima is the food capital people did not expect. Cusco is the altitude lesson. Machu Picchu is the reason the dates were booked, and the Sacred Valley is what you will remember when the postcard crowds fade.
Go slow on day one in the Andes. Coca tea is not a personality — it is a tool. Book the train and the citadel tickets early, and treat the Inca Trail as a permit, not a walk-up. The rest of the country — Arequipa, the Colca, Lake Titicaca, the Amazon — is there when you have more than ten days.
Eat in the market, eat in the tasting menu if you want the other extreme, and eat the potato that has a name you will not remember. Peru has thousands of them. That is not a metaphor.
Spanish helps. Kindness helps more. The country has been hosting visitors for a long time and still prefers the ones who look up from the checklist.
Essentials
Traveler tips
Real advice from people who have been to Peru, curated by our team with links to the original sources.
Cusco sits above 3,400 meters. Walk slowly, skip the pisco on night one, drink water, and consider a night in the Sacred Valley (lower) if you have had trouble before. The headache is the mountain, not last night's dinner.
Circuits are timed and capped. Book the official ticket and the train together, pick a circuit on purpose, and do not buy from a man in the plaza who can 'get you in.' He cannot.
Give it two nights. Miraflores and Barranco, a ceviche lunch, a sunset on the malecón. The food scene is a destination. Treating Lima as a layover is how you miss half the point of Peru.
Ollantaytambo, Pisac, a walk among ruins that are not on the same poster. Stay a night in the valley. Day-tripping everything from Cusco is how you spend Peru on a bus.
Markets, bathrooms and colectivos do not break a 200. Withdraw in town, keep a stash of 10s and 20s, and do not assume the mountain ATM has a backlog of notes.
TripAdvisor Forums
Cusco sits around 3,400 metres. Ollantaytambo and Urubamba sit hundreds of metres lower, and Machu Picchu is lower still. The regular advice is to leave the airport and go straight to the Sacred Valley for the first nights, then come up to Cusco after the citadel — sleep low, then high. Coca tea is hospitality, not a protocol. If you want acetazolamide, start it before you ascend, not after the headache arrives.
View sourceTripAdvisor Forums
Miraflores is the easy first night: the malecón along the cliff, Parque del Amor, and a proper ceviche lunch before anyone flies to Cusco. Barranco is the next neighbourhood south when you want a quieter lookout. The historic centre is a separate morning, not a taxi glimpse from Jorge Chávez. If you only have thirty-six hours, eat the fish and walk the edge of the city — that is Lima, not the jet bridge.
View sourceFAQ
You can. You will regret it. The city is above 3,400 meters — water, slow walks, pisco later. Unlocked iPhone XS / Pixel 3 / Galaxy S20+ run maps on an eSIM; screenshot Machu Picchu tickets before the citadel goes quiet.
Maps, messages and a lot of mountain photos: 1–2 GB a day, so 10–15 GB for ten days. Work days in Lima cafés push you up.
Aguas Calientes is okay. On the citadel and the trails, treat signal as a bonus. Screenshot tickets, the circuit map and your train time before you go up.
You can, with your passport, in a shop that is not at the airport. An eSIM skips the errand and is enough for a two-week visit.
Tickets can live offline as a PDF or screenshot. You will still want data in Cusco and Lima for everything else — hotels, maps, and the message that says the train is late.
eSIM plans
Train tickets, a pin for the lodge, and a translation of a menu that is better in Spanish: Peru is easier with data. An eSIM is online at LIM before you ride into Miraflores, without a passport queue at a mall SIM shop.
Download the Machu Picchu ticket and the valley map before you lose the signal. The mountain does not care that your eSIM is excellent in Lima.