Luxury Peru Voyages

Gateway to Lima, the undisputed gastronomic capital of the Americas. Book a table at a World's-50-Best temple such as Central or Maido, then walk off the tasting menu along Miraflores' cliff-top Malecon and through bohemian, mural-splashed Barranco. The Larco Museum's pre-Columbian gold and erotic ceramics astonish, while the perfect pisco sour is a civic duty. SeaDream III's overnight berth lets guests dine late and linger.

The desert meets a sea teeming with life. Cruise by launch to the Ballestas Islands, where Humboldt penguins, sea lions and thousands of seabirds throng guano-white rocks past the giant Candelabra geoglyph. Explore the ochre cliffs and flamingo lagoons of the Paracas National Reserve, taste pisco at a colonial-era bodega, or fly out over the enigmatic Nazca Lines. Vivid, cinematic and utterly unlike anywhere else on the coast.

Peru's north coast is a pageant of vanished civilisations. Walk Chan Chan, the largest adobe city ever built and capital of the Chimu, then marvel at the polychrome friezes of the Moche Huacas of the Sun and Moon. At Huanchaco, fishermen still ride the same curved reed caballitos de totora their ancestors paddled 3,000 years ago. In Trujillo's colonial plaza, a marinera dance and fresh ceviche complete the day.