Machu Picchu & Peru

Jorge Chávez International Airport is 45 minutes from Miraflores. Lima's Miraflores and Barranco neighborhoods — on the Pacific cliffs above Lima's brown ocean — are the city's most beautiful and livable districts. Miraflores has the Larcomar shopping center dramatically cantilevered over the Pacific cliffs, Parque del Amor with Victor Delfin's El Beso sculpture, and the Parque Kennedy with its community of resident cats. Lima is consistently rated among the world's top five food cities — ceviche (the national dish, raw fish marinated in lime juice with aji amarillo chili and onion) is the non-negotiable first meal. Try Pescados Capitales in Miraflores for the finest traditional ceviche or La Mar for the most creative interpretation. The Barranco neighborhood a short taxi ride south is Lima's bohemian and artistic quarter, with excellent restaurants and bars.

The Larco Museum (Museo Larco) in the Puré-Pueblo district is the finest private collection of pre-Columbian art in the world — 45,000 objects in a beautifully designed museum in an 18th-century vice-regal mansion, with a gallery of erotic Moche pottery that is simultaneously archaeological and surprisingly affecting. The collection spans 3,000 years from Caral (the oldest city in the Americas, 3,000 BC) to the Inca empire. The Historic Center of Lima — a UNESCO World Heritage Site of extraordinary Spanish colonial architecture, including the Plaza Mayor, the Government Palace, and the Archbishop's Palace — is 20 minutes from Miraflores. Dinner at Central (Chef Virgílio Martínez's flagship restaurant, repeatedly named the best in Latin America and the world) or Astrid y Gastón for the finest expression of Peruvian gastronomy. Book Central months in advance.

Fly Lima to Cusco (1.5 hours) and prepare for altitude — Cusco is at 3,400 meters, and altitude sickness (soroche) affects many visitors on the first day. Take it gently: no vigorous exercise, drink coca tea (the local remedy, brewed from coca leaves and widely available), and rest in the afternoon. The historic center of Cusco is extraordinary: every street in the old city has Inca stone foundations below Spanish colonial buildings, and in many places the Inca walls — built without mortar in precisely fitted polygonal stones that survived Spanish looting and earthquake intact — are still the most structural element of the building. The Plaza de Armas is flanked by the Cathedral and La Compañía de Jesus church. The Qorikancha (Sun Temple), destroyed and rebuilt as the Santo Domingo church, preserves the finest surviving Inca stonework in Cusco. Dinner at Cicciolina for Cusco's best Italian-Peruvian fusion.

The Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River runs northwest from Cusco at a lower altitude (2,800 meters) and contains the finest Inca agricultural terracing and fortress architecture outside Machu Picchu. Pisac Market on Sunday (or the daily artisan market) is one of the most spectacular traditional markets in South America — Quechua-speaking vendors in traditional dress selling textiles, ceramics, and silver in a market that has operated since Inca times. The Pisac archaeological complex above the town has extraordinary terracing and a citadel almost as impressive as Machu Picchu itself. Ollantaytambo at the head of the Sacred Valley is the best-preserved Inca town in existence — the original Inca urban plan of canals and stone houses is still inhabited, and the massive fortress above the town, with its 17 huge stone terraces and the unfinished Temple of the Sun, is one of the great Inca monuments.

Take the Vistadome train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (1.5 hours through increasingly spectacular valley) and check into your hotel. Wake at 4:30am for the first bus up to Machu Picchu, arriving at 6am when the citadel opens. The first hour in Machu Picchu before the day crowds arrive is the most extraordinary — the cloud moves through the ruins, the terraces emerge in the morning mist, and the scale of the achievement (1,200 stone structures built on a 2,430-meter ridge between two mountain peaks) becomes clear. The Sun Gate (Inti Punku) above the citadel, reached by a 45-minute hike, provides the classic postcard view of Machu Picchu in its mountain setting. Book a guided tour for the full context of the ceremonial, agricultural, and astronomical functions of the different zones. Machu Picchu Pueblo (Aguas Calientes) hot springs for the afternoon.

The second day at Machu Picchu is strongly recommended and dramatically different from the first. Huayna Picchu — the dramatic peak above the citadel visible in every photograph — requires advance booking (limited to 400 people per day) and takes 1.5 hours to climb via vertical stone steps cut into the cliff face. The view from the summit looking down on the citadel is extraordinary and unavailable from any other vantage point. Alternatively, the Machu Picchu Mountain circuit (Montagna Machu Picchu) is a longer, less vertical, and less crowded hike to an even higher viewpoint. The second afternoon: return to Cusco by train through the Sacred Valley, watching the landscape change as the altitude rises, and a final Cusco dinner at MAP — the Museo de Arte Precolombino's restaurant in a 15th-century Inca ceremonial courtyard.

Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ) is 3km from the city center. A final morning in Cusco: the Mercado San Pedro, the most complete traditional Andean market in Cusco, with stalls of aguaymanto (cape gooseberry), quinoa, chuño (freeze-dried potato, an Andean invention 2,000 years old), and artisan textiles in every Andean pattern. Buy alpaca wool goods (sweaters, blankets, hats) from the artisan market at Plaza Regocijo — the genuine hand-spun alpaca from the highlands is extraordinary and comparatively cheap. Take home Peruvian Single Origin coffee, purple Andean corn chicha morada, and a bag of cacao from the Amazon, and the permanent memory of Machu Picchu at dawn.