Start from 40 curated places around Cusco, PE, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Chicha por Gaston Acurio
The Cusco outpost of Peru's most famous culinary ambassador applies novoandino thinking to local ingredients — alpaca anticuchos, quinoa preparations, corn chicha cocktails — in a high-ceilinged colonial room a block from the main plaza. The portions are generous and the kitchen takes highland ingredients seriously rather than treating them as novelty.
Cicciolina
A long-established favorite tucked up a staircase off Calle Palacio, offering Mediterranean-Andean fusion in two spaces: a relaxed tapas bar on the ground floor and a more formal dining room above. Seafood risotto, pumpkin ravioli, and fresh pasta share the menu with Peruvian staples like causa, with all of it executed with unhurried care.
Trails & outdoors
San Cristobal to Cristo Blanco to Sacsayhuaman Loop
The classic acclimatization walk from the colonial city into the archaeological park above, climbing from San Cristobal church at 3,430 m through the Cristo Blanco statue and on into the main Sacsayhuaman ruins complex. The total circuit with a return through the Rodadero slide rocks takes 2-3 hours at a relaxed altitude pace and offers continuous views over the city.
Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park Perimeter Trail
The full perimeter of the Sacsayhuaman archaeological zone spans several kilometers of open grassland and Inca path, connecting the main fortress walls with the Chincanas labyrinth, the Rodadero, and the outer terraces. Most visitors see only the central ceremonial area; this trail connects the less-visited sections where llamas graze and the stonework is just as impressive.
Things to do
Planetarium Cusco
A cultural interpretation center above the city that explains how Andean cosmology reads the southern sky, with two briefing rooms covering Inca star lore before you step outside for telescope observation of the actual night sky. The Inca saw not stars but dark patches between them — the 'dark cloud constellations' — and this is the best place in Cusco to have that explained.
Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo
Peru's oldest folk performance institution, presenting an hour of Andean music and dance every evening in a small theater on Avenida El Sol. The performers are not tourist-facing restaurant acts — they are members of the official folk heritage organization that has preserved highland and jungle regional styles since 1924.
Landmarks & sights
Sacsayhuaman
The Inca's most audacious construction project crowns the hill above Cusco with three zigzag terraces built from stones weighing up to 120 tons. The views over the terracotta rooftops of the city below are as compelling as the stonework itself, and the surrounding archaeological park has open meadows and trails where you can wander without the guided-group crowds at the main walls.
Qurikancha
The Inca Empire's wealthiest temple, its curving golden walls stripped bare by Spanish conquistadors who then built the Church of Santo Domingo on top of the foundations. The layered result — Inca precision stonework fused with baroque colonial architecture — makes this the city's most thought-provoking single site.