A Guide to the Cities You’ll Visit With Peru Hop

Hi friends, and thanks for stopping by to read A Guide to the Cities You’ll Visit With Peru Hop.

I landed in Lima, Peru on November 15, 2025 where I spent a couple of nights and then I began my adventure aboard the Peru Hop bus.

What is Peru Hop?

If you’re travelling independently in Peru but don’t love the idea of navigating chaotic bus terminals, overnight buses, or complicated Spanish-language connections, Peru Hop has become one of the most popular ways for travellers to move around the country. Part hop-on, hop-off bus service and part guided backpacker network, Peru Hop connects many of Peru’s most famous destinations while making the journey itself feel much less intimidating, especially for first-time visitors to South America. The buses are geared heavily toward international travellers, with English-speaking guides onboard, flexible schedules, and hotel or hostel pickup in many cities. Instead of worrying about transportation logistics every few days, you simply book your route and focus on enjoying the experience.

One of the biggest advantages of Peru Hop is that it turns long travel days into part of the adventure. Rather than racing directly from Lima to Cusco, the route intentionally breaks the journey into some of southern Peru’s most interesting stops. Along the way you’ll visit coastal wildlife areas, a desert oasis, colonial cities, and high-altitude Andean landscapes before finally arriving in Cusco and Machu Picchu territory. The buses also include optional tours and local recommendations, which can be especially helpful for solo travellers or anyone visiting Peru for the first time. While Peru Hop isn’t necessarily the cheapest way to travel Peru, many travellers feel the added convenience, safety, and social atmosphere make it well worth the extra cost.

There are bilingual guides on each bus. I watched them be amazing and ever so helpful with inexperienced travellers. The bus is also great for more experienced travellers who are confident at booking their own hotels along the way.

Peru Hop demographics

Most of the travellers on the Peru Hop bus are backpackers in their 20s and 30s sharing information on hostels.

There were also a small number of seniors on every bus. Except for one bus where I was the only person over the age of 35!

Peru Hop is a business and they’ll take money from anyone who wants to ride their bus, even families travelling with children. But that’s rare to find. Long road trips make for cranky children, so families tend to fly between the major cities in Peru. Generally flying is cheaper than Peru Hop and is kinder on children. For example a flight between Lima and Arequipa takes about an hour and a half. Compared to the Peru Hop bus that takes several days.

The photo below is of all the passengers on my bus between Paracas and Huacachina so you can get a good look at the demographics.

I am 8th on the right, standing beside a woman in a pink shirt. It looks like we’re together. Don’t know who she is. We don’t keep in touch LOL!

These are also pretty much the same passengers that were on the bus the following day between Huacachina and Arequipa.

Hotel pick up and drop off

Peru Hop provides hotel pick up and drop off, beginning in Lima. However, in the smaller towns of Paracas and Huacachina it does not. Passengers have to walk to their hotel, but it’s probably within a block of the drop off spot.

There are multi passenger vans that are doing the pick up and drop off. In other words, a van picked me up at my Lima hotel around 7am, not the actual bus. The van picked up other passengers and then took us to where the bus was parked on a city street. This was repeated in Arequipa and Puno.

Paracas

The bus departed Lima around 7:30am. It was a full load. Peru Hop also does day trips and overnight trips to Paracas and Huacachina. Many of those tourists were also onboard the bus.

About an hour or so into the journey the bus stopped at a restaurant where passengers could buy breakfast.

In Lima I stayed at the Miraflores Colon Hotel (Expedia affiliate link) which provided breakfast. I think breakfast service began at 5:30am. So I was good. I didn’t need to buy anything more to eat on this stop.

The next stop was at a ranch with hidden slave tunnels. A sad part of Peru’s history. Ranch owners had to pay taxes for importing slaves. The tunnels were built so they could sneak slaves off the ships and onto the property, avoiding paying taxes.

We arrived in Paracas, a beach town just after 1pm. I stayed two nights at the Hostal Los Frayles (Expedia affiliate link). Honestly, one night would have done me, but I like the beach. There is a boardwalk that takes minutes to walk from end to end. That doesn’t take into account all the time spent dealing with employees who come running out with menus to entice you to eat in their restaurant. Mostly ceviche joints. Small beach. Not especially good for setting out a towel and lying on, and neither was the water enticing enough for me to go for a swim.

Also a little word on the hostal I stayed at. Not to be confused with hostel where there are normally bunk beds and multiple people sleeping in one room. Smaller family run hotels in Peru are frequently called hostals. I had a private room with a private bathroom. No sharesies for me!

Ballestas Islands

Now for the real reason why people come to Paracas: the Ballestas Islands. Also called the poor man’s Galapagos.

There are boat tours to the island. I booked and paid for my tour on the Peru Hop app due to the convenience. There was a meeting point at a hotel and the Peru Hop guide walked us over to the dock and on to our boat. And was also there when the boat returned. Passengers are not required to book tours through Peru Hop. You can buy tours with any company you want including agents in Paracas who can arrange a boat ticket to tour the Ballestas. However, there was really no price advantage to booking elsewhere. We’re probably talking less than a couple of bucks.

It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to reach the islands. And what do we see on the trip? Pretty much just sea lions and birds.

For me, the highlight was seeing the Humboldt penguins.

Here’s a few more shots, including what I believe are guano cormorants.

And here’s a video of sea lions hanging out on a buoy.

Huacachina

It’s time to head to Huacachina – home of a desert oasis.

The Peru Hop bus departs Paracas at 10am. We meet at the Hotel Residencial Los Frayles. This is across the street and about half a block from where I stayed at the Hostal Los Frayles. The English translation of frayles is friars. Neither place struck me as a religious dwelling.

The bus picks us up in front of the Hotel Residencial Los Frayles and takes us to the Paracas National Reserve.

There are two stops there and there is a contest to see who can build the tallest stone structure. Spoiler alert: not me!

After an hour or so we’re on our way and arrive at a vineyard around 1pm. The bus guide had given us a couple of choices of meals and called them in prior to our arrival so lunch was pretty much ready by the time we got there.

And yes, passengers pay for their own lunch. This is not on Peru Hop’s dime. After lunch there is a wine tasting. I’m not a drinker so I only asked for small portions, and not unsurprisingly, I didn’t like any of the offerings. We arrived in Huacachina around 3pm. This is a town of hotels and restaurants built around a small lake in the sand dunes.

The above photo is courtesy of Peru Hop. I was unable to get a great shot of the town.

Sunset dune buggy ride

I booked the dune buggy tour through Peru Hop. My research showed that I could save a buck by booking it with an operator once I arrived in Huacachina, but a dollar one way or the other isn’t going to make me a millionaire, so I took the easy option.

We met the Peru Hop guide in front of a predetermined hotel and from there walked up the nearest sand dune. Yeah, that took a little time due to the heat and the deep sand. All the dune buggies are already up there. There were two dune buggies for our group and we were wedged in pretty good, 4 people to a row. Special seat belt harnesses over our shoulders and fastened between the legs to hold us in.

The dune buggy ride is best described as a very bumpy roller coaster ride. If you have a bad back, neck problems, fear of amusement park rides – do not choose this tour!

I loved it!

There is an option to get off the dune buggy and ride a sled down a hill, either sitting up or on your stomach. I declined. I was going horseback riding in a couple of days and I didn’t want to do anything to cause a leg injury. Or any other type of injury.

I saw one couple on stand up boards, like you see on the ski slopes. Those can be rented in Huacachina.

The woman had a pretty spectacular wipe out.

And here’s a few more photos from the dunes.

Arequipa

The longest leg on Peru Hop is between Huacachina and Arequipa. The bus departs Huacachina around 2pm. There’s a stop a couple of hours later at the Nazca viewing tower to see some of the lines closest to the highway.

Who drew these lines? Space aliens?

There’s another stop in Nazca where some of the passengers on the bus disembark and other passengers who spent the night here board the bus. Why didn’t I hop off in Nazca? The main reason people visit Nazca is to take a small airplane flight to view more of the lines. That requires an overnight stay and it didn’t interest me.

Now comes the overnight portion and longest journey on the highway to Arequipa. It’s very foggy and the bus is barely crawling until it gets further away from the coast. The bus is scheduled to arrive in Arequipa around 2 or 3 in the morning. It was after 6am when we arrived. The vans were there to take us to our hotels. I’d booked the Mango Hostal mostly due to 24 hour reception and booked the night before my arrival so I’d have a place to lie down at whatever time I arrived in Arequipa.

Arequipa is known as the “white city”. There are a couple of reasons floating around why it’s called that. The politically correct version is because the town’s buildings are white, built from sillar, a very bright volcanic stone. The other version is the indigenous people in the area had to construct the buildings when the Spaniards took over the country. The only people allowed to live inside Arequipa were the Spaniards. Therefore the indigenous people called Arequipa “the white city”. Get it? Because of the skin color of the people living there.

There’s a large market in Arequipa called San Camilo. Very worth seeing. Tons of vendors selling food and clothes.

Colca Canyon

Many people come to Arequipa so they can catch a tour to the Colca Canyon – home of the condors. Peru Hop offers a couple of tours. One is a day trip with a pick up time of 2am. Um, no thanks. Plus a couple of overnight trips that involve hiking. In the heat and at that altitude? Also no thanks.

I found an overnight tour on Get Your Guide that included horseback riding. Now we’re talking! Except there has to be a minimum of two people to book the tour.

Well that sucks when you’re a solo female traveller.

I had the same situation when I spotted similar tours on Expedia and Booking dot com.

Eventually I found a tour operator who offered what I was looking for. An overnight trip to the Colca Canyon, with a decent pick up time, around 8am, and it included a 3 hour horseback ride.

Seeing as how it wasn’t booked through Peru Hop, I won’t be reviewing it here. Stay tuned!

I arrived early in the morning on November 21, and stayed one week, split in the middle with an overnight trip to the Colca Canyon.

Sillar route tour

Speaking of sillar, I did the tour and I booked it through the Peru Hop app. It’s about a 4 hour tour, part in the old quarry featuring a lot of spectacular stone carvings. Plus a walk through a canyon where there are old etchings on the walls.

The Ruta de Sillar is a quarry near Arequipa that was created from a former volcano eruption. Today it’s a place of sculptures. A little different than other Peru Hop tours because no Hopper guide is here to assist.

The company, I think they were called Oscar tours, reached out to me through WhatsApp to make sure I was still going. They were supposed to pick me up at my hotel and I waited outside, but a protest was going on and the van driver couldn’t or wouldn’t come down that street, which is about a two minute walk from the plaza de Armas. But the guide walked over and got me and then we walked back to the plaza and waited for a few more people to show up and then we got on the shuttle and they picked up a few more passengers from their hotels.

The trip started at the highest point in Arequipa where we could view all the volcanoes. And then off to the quarry. The good thing about booking the tour with PeruHop is that the admission is included.

Make that two admissions.

There were two different stops that cost 5 soles entrance fee. Some of the people on the bus had booked a lower price tour I guess and they had to pay for the entrance. The tour guide had it all well in hand. She bought our tickets and handed me mine.

The next stop was to see some petroglyphs. It was kind of neat walking in the canyon. But really I couldn’t tell what objects were drawn on the wall. Could’ve been a snake. Could’ve been an etching of Elvis. You need to be pretty mobile to be able to walk in the canyon. Steep path down and an even steeper path back up. Loose rocks, big steps.

Puno/Lake Titicaca

I always knew when I came to Peru to visit Machu Picchu that I would also go to Lake Titicaca – the world’s highest navigable lake. And luckily for me – it’s on the itinerary with Peru Hop!

But yuck – pick up time in Arequipa is 5:30am!

Reminder to all: Peru Hop has one bus daily on each of the legs. If you oversleep – oops. No other bus until the next day.

There was a rest stop at a small cafe/souvenir shop at about 4400 meters, the highest point on this leg. From here it was downhill to Puno.

I arrived in Puno on November 28 around 1pm and spent two nights at the Casona Plaza Balsa Inn. This was an adventure in itself. Peru Hop dropped me off at the hotel I chose. Little did I know there were 3 hotels in Puno with Casona Plaza in the name. The hotel I got dropped off at said this happens all the time and one of the staff walked me over to the correct hotel. A rare find in Peru – a hotel with an elevator.

I booked the Lake Titicaca day tour through the Peru Hop app. It included a stop on a floating reed island plus a stop on another island, that is rock, not reed, and doesn’t float around anywhere. We’re already at altitude here – about 3500 meters – so walking uphill to the island’s central plaza was a little tough. But, whew, I made it.

Check out the video I did on the reed island we stopped at.

Cusco

On to the final leg of the journey: destination Cusco! Capital city of the Inca civilization.

We left Puno at 10am on November 30.

There was a stop for lunch at a buffet restaurant mid afternoon.

The bus arrived in Cusco at 6:30pm. Taxis arrived to take us to our hotels.

Except my driver was a little lazy and chose not to drive up the narrow street to my hotel, dropping me off at a nearby plaza.

Gee, thanks a lot. It’s dark, I’m in an unknown city wearing a 15 kg backpack trying to use an app to get the rest of the way to my hotel. Easy peasy to figure out in daylight. Not so much after the sun set. And yes, cars drove on this street. Just not the driver of the car Peru Hop had put me in, along with a couple of other passengers.

So what can I say about Cusco? The last stop on the Peru Hop journey.

Well…. I stayed here for 5 weeks, so I have plenty to say.

That will be for another post. Talk to you soon.

Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on May 21, 2026.

More reading:

Beyond the Peru Hop: When Peru Became Real

I’m Baaaacccckkkk: 6 Months, 5 Countries, Countless Stories