Hello,

My husband and I will be staying in Lima for 2 days at the end of our trip in Peru. We are staying in Second Home Peru in Barranco. We are looking forward to enjoying the restaurants and bars, exploring by foot or independently (not necessarily tour buses, etc.) and just taking it easy since we will probably be tired from our visit to Cusco, Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca.

However, we do not want to miss the "must see" or historical sites such as plazas, churches and museums. We won't have much time but I am sure we can see the more important sites. Any recommendations? Also, what's the best way to get around in Lima?

Thank you!

www.limacabs.com nice folks usually take a city tour with them

Second Home Peru has a driver that can take you to the Plaza de Armas, or you can use the NEW Metropolitano from Barranco.

I enjoyed walking from the vicinity of MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima) reopened last year, through the Park, Museo de Arte Italiano (free), street Jiron de la Union, Plaza San Martin (Hotel Bolivar) you can see several of the historic churches between San Martin and Plaza de Armas (Jesus & L, and of course the more favorite sites around the Plaza.

Finger slip and it posted too soon, L= La Merced.

With limited time you could just start at Plaza San Martin.

Lots of tourists at the Plaza de Armas, just normal city precautions such as don't sling a backpack over your chair.

Also in Barranco take a few hours to visit Pedro de Osma museum. Bring exact change for the admissions ( 10 soles last year).

Hi mlgb, I had jotted down some of the sites you mentioned, others I didn't have at all. We do enjoy walking and having a driver available at Second Home Peru is also convenient. It sounds like I shouldn't be too worried about booking anything in advance. It seems like it's not too difficult to get around. We like to take advantage of our time, wake up early and explore. I am sure that as long as we have a list of sites that interest us we will be fine. We also have dinner reservations at Astrid & Gaston, have you been? And a lunch reservation at La Rosa Nautica (for what I hear are spectacular views). We also wanted to eat at La Mar but they are only open until 5:30 and I don't know if we can squeeze it in. Did we make the right choice? Thanks for your detailed advice!

Thanks qwovadis, I will take note of that, too!

As far as restaurants I haven't eaten at either (although I've been to the branch of La Mar in San Francisco). They probably wouldn't be my first two choices, although I'd be tempted by the lunch that another poster mentioned at Astrid & Gaston. When I go back to Lima my goal restaurants would be Punto Azul, Pescado Capitales, Chez Wong, and El Rincón Que No Conoces. The latter isn't too far from the centro area of Lima.

In Barranco Canta Rana was sort of cute but just okay, very casual. For more upscale but not pretentious I liked El Kapallaq.

Thank you mlgb, I will look into these restaurants before we leave (just 2 days!). We learned about Astrid & Gaston because it had wonderful reviews in the Conde Nast Traveler Magazine this month. There was an entire article about Peruvian food and how people & chefs are crazy about it now. However, we're also all about dining where the locals dine because that's how you know it's good.

Thanks again.

Try not to miss the tour of San Francisco while you are downtown. Very interesting.

Staying in Barranco is a really good choice.

Janette C., how did you like Second Home? I'm looking into booking there also...