71 Best Places to Shop in Peru

For fine alpaca coats, sweaters, scarves, and shawls, check out this shop; there are two other central locations at Santa Catalina Ancha and Limacpampa Chico.

This colorful shop sells a wide range of cool local souvenirs—including postcards, wood engravings, handmade books, fabrics, and jewelry—all produced by many talented local artists.

It's unlikely you'll find gold jewelry elsewhere as distinctive as the pieces at H. Stern. The well-regarded South American chain specializes in designs influenced by pre-Columbian art. There are also branches in the upscale Jockey Plaza shopping mall and at Jorge Chávez Airport.

Like to find fun and unique clothing wherever you travel? This is the store for you. Not remotely Peruvian, Hilo is a boutique shop where you'll find all original pieces unlike anything you've ever seen. Irish-born Eibhlin Cassidy is more artist than mere dressmaker, and if you have the time, she's more than happy to design something especially for you.

If you're looking for silver jewelry, gifts, or household items, you can't do better than the chic designs of Ilaria, which also has small shops at Calle Los Eucaliptos 572 (next to the Country Club Lima Hotel), in the lobbies of the Swissôtel and the Miraflores Marriott, and at the airport.

On a quiet street in San Isidro, Indigo invites you to wander through at least half a dozen different rooms filled with unique items. There's a selection of whimsical ceramics inspired by traditional designs, as well as modern pieces. In the center of it all is an open-air café.

Come here for fine dresses from a French-trained local designer who doesn't shy away from using alpaca and other regional fibers. Her designs are now being sold in Lima, Paris, and Monaco.

With shops in Lima, Arequipa, Puno, and Cusco, this is one of the go-to destinations in Peru for alpaca scarves, gloves, socks, sweaters, and jackets.

Lots of stores stock clothing made of alpaca, but Kuna is one of the few to also offer articles made from vicuña, a cousin of the llama that produces the world's finest and most expensive wool. The shop boasts an excellent selection of scarves, sweaters, shawls, and coats in an array of colors and styles. Kuna has a second branch in the Larcomar shopping center.

This small shopping complex by the river is the best place in town to find local crafts, coffee, chocolates, and other Amazon-made goods. There are frequent fairs here as well as occasional craft workshops.

In this colonial building, a few small, high-end shops sell alpaca sweaters, jewelry, and handicrafts.

The two rooms of this shop are packed with a staggering array of dusty, authentic antiques that include colonial furniture, paintings, jewelry, carvings, and more.

This store offers a mix of old and new, including antique paintings, ceramics, jewelry, and other collectibles.

Excellent-quality goods can be found at La Portada del Sol. In this miniature mall, the vendors show off their wares in glass cases lighted with halogen lamps. Many accept credit cards.

This open-air shopping center is one of Miraflores's big crowd-pleasers. It's built into the cliff at the end of Avenida José Larco, so it's almost invisible from the street. The dozens of shops, bars, and restaurants are terraced, and some of them have impressive views of the coast and ocean below.

Not a few limeños consider this the city's best bookstore. The labyrinthine shelves contain tens of thousands of titles—many of them in English.

At this shop that aims to support Indigenous communities in Peru's Amazonian forests, you'll find a great selection of souvenirs and handcrafted goods, including woven baskets, necklaces, natural plants, and infusions. 

The city's most happening mall is packed to the gills with shops and boutiques, a gym, and a variety of food and beverage options.

Ayacucho's produce and meat market is found behind the Arco del Triunfo in a one-story building; shops continue for several streets behind.

Model reed boats, small stone carvings, and alpaca-wool articles are among the local crafts sold near the port at Puno's Mercado Artesanal. If you find you aren't equipped for Puno's chilly evenings, it's the place to buy inexpensive woolen goods, though the cheaper they are, the more likely they are a synthetic blend (which will still keep you warm). Make sure you know where your wallet or purse is while you're snapping a photo of this colorful market, which is open 8–6.

The widest selection of handicrafts in Ayacucho, from retablos to sweaters, can be found at Mercado Artesanal Shosaku Nagase, about a kilometer north of the city center near the big sports complex.

If you're looking for some fresh produce, Andean cheeses, flowers, or bulk food, stroll through the Mercado Central. Keep a close guard on your belongings.

Its official name is El Mercado Municipal Gran Mariscal Ramón Castilla, but limeños refer to this sprawling market as simply "El Mercado Central." Here hundreds of vendors display the ingredients of the city's varied cuisine, from hooks hung with slabs of meat to trays piled high with seafood. There are also wheels of cheese stacked above tubs of olives, open sacks full of dried potato chunks or ají peppers, and bundles of spices that double as natural remedies. If you want the see the real Peru, this is it.

Once famed for its ceramics, weavings, and charms made by local curanderos, this indoor market now consists of a passel of clothing and specialty vendors—plus a cluster of food stalls in the back where you can enjoy a tasty chiclayano lunch on the cheap.

Ask a local about the best place for handicrafts in Lima, and you'll probably be told to go to Mercado Indio. The selection ranges from mass-produced souvenirs to one-of-a-kind pieces, and since most vendors will bargain, you can often get very good deals.

Stretching around the blocks near the train station is the daily produce market. You'll need several hours to wander through the stalls of local crafts and foodstuffs, where you'll find traditional medicines and spices among such local delicacies as gourds, guinea pigs, fish, and frogs.

Beginning at the intersection of Avenida Balta and Avenida Arica, this vast and popular market sells fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit from local farms, as well as clothing, DVDs, handbags, and more. You can also ask any of the vendors to point you to the southwest corner, where you'll find an extensive mercado de brujos (witch doctor's market). As elsewhere in Peru, this is a place where dozens of herbalists, curanderos, and shamans offer their folk remedies, many of them made of dried animals like armadillos and llama fetuses. Wander around and enjoy, but don't lose your companions in the crowd, and keep a close guard on your belongings.