Lima Travel Guide: Getting Around the Split City

Base yourself in Miraflores or Barranco rather than downtown. Both districts sit along the Costa Verde coastline, are walkable, and are rated among the safest areas in Lima and in Latin America generally for pedestrians, with Barranco carrying more nightlife and Miraflores more of the parks, malls, and business-traveler infrastructure. Lima Centro, the colonial historic core with its cathedral and government palace, is worth a focused daytime visit but is not where most guides recommend staying, and locals and travel advisories alike are consistent that it should be left before evening.

Getting from Jorge Chavez airport into the city changed in 2025 with the opening of a new $2.4 billion terminal on June 1, roughly three times the size of the old one with 46 gates instead of 19. From arrivals, go straight to the official taxi counter rather than engaging anyone offering rides outside the doors; expect a fixed fare in the S/60 to 95 range to Miraflores depending on time of day and traffic. Inside the city, Uber, Cabify, and InDriver cover most trips reliably; InDriver's negotiated-fare model is different enough from a standard app that first-time users should expect to counter-offer rather than get an instant fixed price.

On money, the sol has held fairly steady through the first half of 2026 around 3.39 to 3.40 to the dollar, and daily costs stay low outside the tasting-menu tier: budget roughly 6 to 10 soles for a simple breakfast, 12 to 15 soles for a menu del dia lunch with soup, a main, and a drink, and 15 to 20 soles for a simple dinner. That means a traveler can eat extremely well on a modest daily budget and then deliberately splurge once on a Central or Maido reservation without either extreme distorting the trip's overall cost. High season for both dining reservations and general crowding runs June through September, so book restaurant tables and, if relevant, any Machu Picchu connections well in advance for that window. U.S. citizens do not need a visa for tourist stays up to 90 days, receive a TAM entry card at the border or airport, and should carry a passport valid at least six months beyond the entry date to avoid being turned away.