Exploring Lima on your own can be an exciting and enriching experience. However, if you are not used to navigating large Latin American cities like Lima, and your Spanish is not yet up to par, this experience can be stressful and time consuming. So, if you what to see a lot in a short period of time, a great way of getting to know Lima’s top attractions is by taking an organized tour. Whether you are visiting the city for a short while, or have recently relocated here, a guided tour will help you make the best out of your time without having to worry about what to see or when to see it.
Travel Agency
If you prefer to leave the organization and tour logistics in the hands of a travel agency, we recommend Fertur Peru Travel. Excursions from Lima include photography tours, classic city tours and full-day trips to Paracas and the Ballestas Islands. Tours can be in private service with your own guide or in small groups. Fertur has three offices, one in downtown Lima, a one minute walk from the historic Main Square, a second office in the hotel district in Miraflores, and a third on centrally located Avenida el Sol in Cuzco. Fertur Peru is a family-owned and operated and has been in business in Peru for 25 years.
Here are a range of of other tour options to choose from:
Bike Tours of Lima – Bike tours of Lima offers a variety of fun, healthy and green alternative to touring Lima. With bicycle and helmet supplied, their routes cover some of the best known parts of the city. They offer the Bohemian Tour, which explores different neighborhoods of Barranco and Miraflores. They also have the Urban Tour, where you can discover two of the main business, financial, touristic and gastronomic districts of Lima at a closer angle. Finally, there is the Lima Side by Side Tour, which lets you see the majority of the “not to be missed” areas of the city as well as the “must see” landmarks. If you are not into biking, Bike Tours of Lima also offers private walking tours.
Mirabus – This is another popular city tour group. With their unmistakable red double-decker buses, Mirabus hosts tourists and locals alike on trips around Miraflores, Barranco and the center of the city, as well as other parts of Lima, such as Callao and Pachacamac. Their Lima de Noche (Lima by Night) tour, which includes a stop at the Magic Water Circuit in the Parque de la Reserva, has been highly recommended in our forums. They also offer a discobus for private groups, which includes an open bar and a DJ.
Alternative Peru – If you are looking for non-traditional ways of exploring Lima, then alternative Peru is for you. This tour company focuses on highlighting the diversity and reality of Lima. They offer a variety of off the beaten path tours to some of Lima’s outlying neighborhoods, sometimes know as “shanty towns”, or by the variant in Spanish “pueblo joven”, which aptly means “young town”. These vivencial tours give you the chance to have lunch with a local family, visit a social project and learn about daily life in this harsh environment through responsible encounters with locals. They also offer a visit to an artisanal fish market and pier, and an art and culture tour of the historical parts of Callao.
Municipality of Lima – The Municipality of Lima offers free guided visits in museums, as well as walking tours around the city. You can check their monthly cultural agenda for more information.
If you’d rather discover the city on your own, you can visit our article sights to see in Lima. And if you plan on being in the city for an extended time, you may be interested in reading about day and weekend trips from Lima to some of the surrounding areas.
We’d like to hear from you. Know of any other tours available for tourists in Lima? Share them in our forum topic Lima Tours.
