10 Things to Eat and Experience on Your First Trip to Peru

10 Things to Eat and Experience on Your First Trip to Peru – From Ceviche, and Empanadas to Coca Tea and Lomo Saltado

10 Things to Eat and Experience on Your First Trip to Peru

Peru covers desert coastline, high Andean valleys, and Amazon lowlands, and a first visit rarely fits all three comfortably.

Most people arrive with Machu Picchu at the top of the list and then find the food, the markets, and the smaller ruins competing for the same limited days.

The ten excursions below cover what a first trip can realistically include, and why each one earns its place.

1. Ceviche in Lima

Lima is where almost every international arrival lands, and ceviche is the dish most associated with the city. Raw fish is cured in lime juice and served with sliced red onion, chilli, and boiled corn or sweet potato.

Cevicherias generally serve it at lunch, when the fish is freshest, and many close by mid-afternoon. Ordering it late in the day is possible but less common. Portions are larger than most visitors expect, so a shared starter often works better than a plate each.

2. A Full Day in the Sacred Valley

Ollantaytambo, Pisac, and Maras sit within an hour or so of each other, and the valley functions as an acclimatisation stop as much as a sightseeing one. Ollantaytambo retains its original Inca street grid and is still lived in.

Pisac has hillside terraces above the market town. Maras holds thousands of salt evaporation pools cut into the hillside. Operators building Machu Picchu vacation packages around the valley rather than around Cusco alone, Machu Travel Peru among them, tend to produce itineraries with fewer long transfer days.

3. Lomo Saltado at a Cusco Market

San Pedro Market in Cusco serves lomo saltado on daily set menus, usually alongside a soup for a fixed price. The dish combines strips of beef with tomato, onion, fries, and rice, cooked over high heat.

Market stalls fill with local workers around midday, which is a reasonable indicator of quality and turnover. Eating here costs a fraction of restaurant prices in the streets around the Plaza de Armas, and portions are substantial enough to carry through an afternoon of walking at altitude.

4. Machu Picchu on a Timed Circuit

Entry to the site runs on timed tickets and fixed routes, and visitors follow a designated circuit rather than walking freely. Circuit choice determines what you actually see, so it is worth checking which one a booking covers before confirming.

Tickets sell out weeks ahead between May and October. Comparing Machu Picchu packages on ticket type and circuit, rather than on headline price alone, avoids the common problem of arriving with entry that excludes the classic viewpoint.

5. Chicha Morada and Coca Tea

Chicha morada is made from purple corn boiled with pineapple rind, cinnamon, and clove, then chilled and sweetened. It is sold everywhere in Cusco, from market stalls to restaurants, and is non-alcoholic despite the name’s similarity to fermented chicha.

Coca tea is offered at most highland hotels on arrival and is widely used locally for altitude discomfort. Neither is a substitute for proper acclimatisation time, but both are part of ordinary daily consumption in the Andes.

6. Ollantaytambo Before the Trains Arrive

The fortress terraces above Ollantaytambo open early, and the site is quiet before the mid-morning train departures pull crowds through the plaza. Climbing the terraces takes around forty minutes at a slow pace, with the temple stonework at the top showing the precision cutting the Inca are known for.

The town below is compact enough to cover on foot afterward. Many travellers pass through Ollantaytambo only to board a train, which leaves the site unvisited.

7. Anticuchos and Street Food

Anticuchos are beef heart marinated in vinegar, cumin, and aji panca, then skewered and grilled over charcoal. They appear at evening street stalls in Lima and Cusco, typically served with a potato and a chilli sauce.

Picarones, ring-shaped squash and sweet potato doughnuts served in syrup, are the usual accompaniment. Choosing stalls with visible queues and constant cooking is the practical approach to street food here, as it is in most countries.

8. Cusco’s Colonial and Inca Layers

Qorikancha shows the arrangement most directly: Inca sun temple walls at the base, a colonial church built on top. The Plaza de Armas is surrounded by arcades and two large churches, and functions as the city’s main gathering point in the evenings.

San Blas, uphill from the plaza, has narrow streets, workshops, and smaller restaurants. Two full days in Cusco allows for this and for the altitude adjustment most people need before continuing.

9. Pisac Market on a Producers’ Market Day

Pisac market runs daily but expands on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, when producers come down from surrounding villages. Empanadas are baked onsite in clay ovens, and tamales are sold hot from covered baskets.

Seasonal fruit and dozens of potato varieties fill the produce section, which is where locals actually shop rather than the textile aisles aimed at visitors. Arriving before ten in the morning means seeing the market working rather than performing.

10. Lake Titicaca or the Amazon as an Extension

Puno and the Uros floating islands sit around ten hours from Cusco by road or train, while Puerto Maldonado connects to Amazon lodges by a short flight and a river transfer. Adding either extends a trip by three or four days.

Attempting both on a first visit usually produces a schedule with more transit than time on the ground. Choosing one, and accepting that the other waits for a return trip, generally produces a better result.

Planning Your First Peru Trip

Ten excursions is more than a single week can accommodate, and part of planning a first visit involves deciding what to leave out. Altitude, train schedules, and timed entry all impose constraints that a paper itinerary tends to hide until you are standing in a station.

Working through the sequence with someone who books these routes regularly, whether that is a Cusco-based trip designer or an independent planner you trust, is usually faster than assembling it alone.

Ask for transparent pricing, confirm what each entry ticket actually covers, and give yourself two nights at altitude before the ruins. The trip that follows tends to be the one worth repeating.