Day One - Begin your holiday in Peru!
Your Peru holiday begins as you arrive in Lima on an evening flight. You will be met at the airport and driven to your hotel in the trendy Miraflores area of the city in time to take a walk around the elegant Parque Kennedy and perhaps to take in an evening meal on your first night in Peru. Of course, if you're feeling up to it then Miraflores is a great place for a night out...
Day Two - Travel to Nazca
OK - so this isn't in the north... It does fit in with the pre-Inca theme, though - and it just seems too good to miss! Today you will catch a morning coach along the Pan-American highway to Nazca - home of the famous and enigmatic Nazca lines! You will be staying overnight here so you'll have plenty of time to explore the town. You'll want to make sure you have a good night's sleep as there will be an early start tomorrow!
Day Three - Nazca Lines
You will be picked up after breakfast to be taken in a flight in a light aircraft over the lines. Our flights are early in the morning as the air is at its clearest at this time so you get the best view. Experienced and knowledgable pilots will make sure you get the most out of this intriguing spectacle. After the flight you will be taken back to your hotel, from where you will be picked up after lunch to head back north a little to the desert oasis of Huacachina, where you will spend the night.
Day Four - Fly to Trujillo
After a morning relaxing by the oasis, your holiday in Peru continues as we take you by coach back to Lima, and then to the airport to catch a flight up the coast to Trujillo. You'll arrive in the evening and we'll take you to your hotel in the colonial centre of the city so you can have a walk around the Plaza de Armas and get stuck into some of the great northern cuisine!
Day Five - Trujillo and Chan Chan
Today we'll take you on a short tour of Trujillo, including the best of its colonial mansions and the church of La Merced. Then, we will visit the huge Chimu city complex of Chan Chan. In pre-Inca times this was the largest city in the Americas and was the same size as contemporary London - it originally covered over 20 square kilometres and had an estimated population of over 100,000! For lunch, and to stop you getting "cultured-out", we'll head to the nearby beach resort of Huanchaco, for you to enjoy the freshest of seafood and to spend a relaxing afternoon by the sea.
Day Six - Temples of the Sun and Moon
You will have a free morning today, to explore the streets of Trujillo and to get those all-important postcards sent! Then, after lunch, we will pick you up from your hotel to visit the nearby Temples of the Sun and Moon. Built by the Moche culture around 500AD, these 130-foot tall pyramids are thought to be the largest adobe structures in the Americas. In the evening, we'll take you back to your hotel for a final night in Trujillo.
Day Seven - Travel to Chiclayo
We move a bit further north on your Peru holiday today as you travel by coach to the city of Chiclayo. While it's not a touristy place, that has its own attraction as tourists are still a bit of a novelty here and you can expected to be greeted warmly here in the "City of Friendship"! And although Chiclayo may not be all that much of an atraction itself, just wait until you hear about the nearby pre-Inca sites that you're going to visit tomorrow...
Day Eight - The Lord of Sipan and Tucume
A busy day today and something that most people never experience on their Peru holiday. You will leave the hotel in the morning for a guided tour of the site where the remains of the 'Lord of Sipan' were found. This is probably one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century and the splendour of the exhibits has to be seen to be believed! After lunch, we'll visit the 26 pre-Columbian pyramids of Tucume. These pyramids were originally excavated by Thor Heyerdahl (of Kon-tiki fame), who discovered burial sites, textiles, Incan figurines and depictions of reed boats. This, together with goods from far-flung corners of South America, allowed him to prove that the ancient people of Tucume were experienced sailors and traders.
Day Nine - On to Piura and Mancora
And... relax! After staying overnight in Chiclayo, you'll catch a flight up to Piura in the very north of Peru. After all that you've been taking in over the past week and a half we reckon you've earned some rest so we're going to take you to Mancora and the nicest beaches in Peru! You can unwind here for a few days on the white sands, as you paddle in the warm water, sip a few cuba libres and unwind!
Days Ten to Thirteen - Relaxing on Mancora beach
These days are all about you and your relaxation. You can relax in your comfortable hotel, you can relax on the white sandy beach, you can relax in one of the many beach bars here in Mancora... you get the picture! Finally, on the evening of Day Thirteen, we're afraid it all has to come to an end and we'll pick you up and take you back to the airport in Piura or Tumbes to catch a flight back to Lima for a last night in Peru!
Day Fourteen - Last Day on Holiday in Peru!
You will have a pretty much full day in Lima today so we can either leave you to explore the capital and enjoy its architecture/museums/shops(!) or we can organise a guided tour for you. Either way, in the evening, as your Peru holiday sadly comes to an end, we will pick you up from your hotel and take you to the airport for your international flight back to the UK.
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