Start from 32 curated places around Arequipa, PE, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
La Nueva Palomino
A seventh-generation, woman-run picantería in Yanahuara built of sillar stone, widely held to be the best traditional restaurant in the city. The chupe de camarones (river-shrimp chowder), rocoto relleno, and ocopa are the dishes Arequipeños grew up on.
La Benita de los Claustros
A picantería in the historic center serving the spicy Arequipeño classics that define the region, from estofado made with chicha to rocoto relleno, in a restored colonial setting. A central, accessible way to eat the city's heritage cooking.
Trails & outdoors
Mirador de Carmen Alto
A viewpoint on the edge of the Cayma district overlooking the green terraced campiña of the Chilina valley, with the Misti and Chachani volcanoes filling the skyline. A walk down into the terraces follows old paths through farmland on the city's edge.
Yumina
A spread of pre-Inca agricultural terraces still farmed today in Paucarpata on the city's southeast edge, walked on paths between the stone-walled platforms with the volcanoes behind. A gentle, living-history walk through ancient farmland.
Things to do
Museo Santuarios Andinos
A museum near the plaza built around 'Juanita', the remarkably preserved frozen mummy of an Inca girl sacrificed on a nearby volcano around 500 years ago, displayed with the offerings found alongside her. A short but genuinely unforgettable visit.
Monasterio de Santa Teresa
A still-active Carmelite convent near the center with a museum of colonial religious art, silverwork, and painting in its historic rooms, plus a shop where the nuns sell traditional sweets. A quieter, lived-in counterpoint to Santa Catalina.
Landmarks & sights
Monasterio de Santa Catalina
A 16th-century convent that is a walled 'city within the city', a labyrinth of lanes painted in deep cobalt and terracotta, with cloisters, courtyards, and the cells where cloistered nuns once lived. The single most extraordinary thing to see in Arequipa.
Plaza de Armas
One of the loveliest main squares in South America, framed on three sides by arcades of white volcanic sillar stone and dominated by the long facade of the cathedral, with the Misti volcano rising behind. The social heart of the White City.