Three days is enough to skip Lima’s standard checklist: odd angles on Miraflores instead of the postcard shots, an afternoon in Barranco and the Centro’s catacombs rather than another plaza photo, and a final day built around the Larco Museum’s erotic gallery and a proper Chifa or Nikkei meal. Lima runs on the Peruvian sol (PEN), trading at roughly S/3.38-3.41 per US dollar in 2026, and sits at sea level, so leave any altitude worries for a later Cusco trip; they don’t apply here.

Two days in Lima works better sideways than head-on: skip the Machu Picchu detour entirely, since that ruin sits a separate flight and multi-day trip away in Cusco, and spend the time on a pre-Inca pyramid sitting mid-block in Miraflores, a park full of camera-ready stray cats, and a wooden footbridge with a local wish-making legend in Barranco. Prices run in Peruvian soles (PEN), roughly S/3.38-3.41 to the US dollar, and Lima sits at sea level, so there’s no altitude to plan around the way there is in Cusco.

Lima runs on the sol, roughly S/3.40 to the dollar, sits flat on desert cliffs at sea level with no altitude to worry about, and has quietly become one of the planet’s best food cities, Central and Maido both hold recent World’s 50 Best rankings. Most visitors do Plaza Mayor, Larcomar, and a ceviche lunch, then call it done. Twelve things past that list, some tucked inside neighborhoods everyone already walks through, cover a pyramid, a catacomb, an erotic gallery, and a park full of cats.

Four days in Lima is enough to do the standard Miraflores-to-Larco loop properly and still swap in one genuinely offbeat day: a guided walk through Callao Monumental’s restored, mural-covered blocks instead of a second pass through Larcomar. Lima runs on the sol (PEN), roughly 3.38-3.41 per US dollar in 2026, and sits flat at sea level, so there’s no altitude to plan around here, that’s a Cusco problem, not a Lima one.

Five days in Lima covers the walkable Miraflores-Barranco-Centro core, a half-day with the Larco Museum’s pre-Columbian ceramics, and then forces Day 5’s real decision: an overland push south to Paracas for the Islas Ballestas’ sea lions, penguins and cormorant colonies, sometimes billed as the poor man’s Galapagos, or a slower, deeper dive into Lima’s own ceviche counters and produce markets instead. Pay in Peruvian soles (PEN), trading roughly 3.38-3.41 per US dollar in 2026, not “Nuevo Sol,” a name the currency dropped in 2015.

Six days in Lima is enough to go well past the standard Miraflores-to-Larco loop: a guided morning through Callao Monumental’s mural-covered blocks, a genuinely long day out to Paracas and the Islas Ballestas, and a closing day built around Chorrillos’ fishing pier, a Barrio Chino market crawl, and Barranco’s quieter Museo Pedro de Osma rather than a second pass through a museum everyone already tells you about. Lima runs on the sol (PEN), roughly 3.

Lima splits into six barrios that read nothing alike, and most trips only ever see the postcard version of two of them. Miraflores means clifftop parks and Larcomar; Barranco means one bridge and a quick photo. The sol runs roughly 3.38 to 3.41 per dollar, the city sits flat at sea level with zero altitude to plan around, and the food scene has landed two restaurants on the World’s 50 Best list.

Seven days in Lima is enough to cover the city properly without padding: the usual Miraflores-to-Larco run, the two bigger day trips shorter visits skip, and a fuller pass through Chorrillos, Barrio Chino, and the colonial-art rooms at Museo Pedro de Osma that most itineraries never reach. Lima runs on the sol (PEN), roughly S/3.38-3.41 per US dollar in 2026, and sits flat at sea level, no altitude to plan around, that’s a Cusco problem.