What’s the Best Way to Get from Lima to Cusco – Bus, Plane, or Car?

A perennial question among visitors to Peru is “What is the best way to get from Lima to Cusco - bus, plane, or rental car?”

Some people insist that the best option is to fly and be there in an hour. Others say you should take the 21-hour bus ride to get the local experience and save money. Very few people suggest that you drive from Lima to Cusco. For some people, however, driving from Lima to Cusco can be a fabulous experience.

Flying from Lima to Cusco: Quick and Easy, but Expensive

If you are in Peru for a short time, then flying probably is your best option. The problem with flying is that air tickets can easily set you back $500 or $600. You definitely should look well in advance to try and get a deal. There are flights for as little as $100, but these are almost always reserved for Peruvians.  There are ways around this, but you have to be crafty and look well in advance. If you have a Peruvian DNI, then you can get one of these deals easily. If not, you likely will pay a lot more to fly from Lima to Cusco. If you are not Peruvian, be sure that you don't buy the tickets reserved for Peruvians as you will have to pay more at the airport.

From Lima to Cusco by Bus: 21 hours on the road

A much cheaper option is to go by bus. The bus trip from Lima to Cusco takes about 21 hours. If you leave at 2pm, you will arrive around 11am the next day. You also can leave at 5 or 6pm and arrive later. If you buy your tickets way in advance, you can get tickets for as little as $35. Otherwise, you will pay between $50 and $100 for a comfortable bus seat from Lima to Cusco.

If you leave Lima by bus at 2pm, you will spend the first hour or so getting out of Lima. You likely will pass by the Nazca lines while it is still daylight and may also be able to get a glimpse of the impressive sand dunes on the Peruvian coast. By 6pm, however, it will be dark and you won’t be able to see much. If you wake up early (which you likely will if you are sleeping on a bus), at 6am the sun rises again and you can enjoy the scenery for the rest of the way to Cusco. Overall, it is not that bad of a trip and I have done it several times on all classes of buses.

Driving from Lima to Cusco: An Amazing Experience and safer than you think

Having traveled by bus and airplane to Cusco, I was curious about the possibility of driving from Lima to Cusco. I looked around online and found that there was not a lot of information. Thus, I am writing this blog post to assure you that driving from Lima to Cusco is a viable option – especially if you do it when it is not the rainy season. The rainy season in the Andes is between December and February, and I would be a bit hesitant about driving a small car during that time as there definitely will be water on the highway in more than one place. You can, of course, rent large cars, but they cost significantly more.

Outside of the rainy season, if you have the time, driving a car from Lima to Cusco is an amazing experience, and I highly recommend it. If you have more than two people travelling with you, renting a car can easily be cheaper than flying. We called the Budget office in Lima and were able to get a Toyota Yaris for $680 for a month in early July 2012. We opted to get extra liability insurance as well and paid $800 overall. Gas in Peru is about $6 a gallon, and I think we paid around $100 in gas to get from Lima to Cusco. I have to go back and look at my receipts to be sure though. If that is correct, though, it will be about $1000 overall, and we will have the car with us while in Cusco to explore the Sacred Valley of the Incas. You cannot drive to Macchu Picchu, but you can drive to other ruins in places such as Sacsayhuaman, Templo de Sol, Pisac, and Ollantaytambo.

If you have at least three weeks in Peru, there are more than two people traveling with you, and it is not the rainy season, I highly recommend traveling by car. Here’s why: the trip itself provides you with fantastic vistas and you will have plenty of options to get off the beaten track. The other reason is the awesome scenery along the way that you will be able to experience fully by driving only during the daytime.

On a bus, you'd miss this amazing view between Nasca and Puquio

The transition in the scenery from Lima to Nasca, to Puquio, to Chalhuanca, to Abancay, and to Cusco is spectacular. On the way to Nasca, you can stop at the Nasca lines just on the side of the road. You can make a side trip to Huachachina to experience sand boarding or go to the Reserva Nacional de Paracas to see flamingos and sea lions. Between Nasca and Puquio, you will see herds of vicuñas and experience the altiplano. Between Puquio and Chalhuanca, you will see herds of alpacas, lagoons, and amazing mountains. From Chalhuanca to Abancay, you can soak in hot springs, ride horses, and see ancient Spanish and Incan ruins. From Abancay to Cusco, there are verdant hills and plenty of ruins to enjoy. Overall, the drive takes about 16 hours. If you drive four hours a day, you can easily get from Lima to Cusco in four days and enjoy plenty of off-the-beaten-track sites along the way. When you finally get to Cusco, you will be overwhelmed by the amount of tourists, after having seen very few tourists for several days along the route.

Nasca Lines you can see right from the Highway

Barren landscape in Ica

It gets greener as you leave Ayacucho

The highway from Lima to Nasca is the PanAmerican highway, and is in tip top condition. Be sure to wear your seatbelt, obey the speed limit, and drive with your headlights on or you might find yourself in a sticky situation with a Peruvian police officer, as there are plenty of checkpoints along the way. From Nasca to Cusco, is Highway 757, which has been recently updated and is in top condition for almost all of the way. There are a few places where you will find fallen rocks, but if you drive slowly, you will be fine. The highway workers are constantly cleaning the road and fixing any broken spots.

So, if you are thinking of driving from Lima to Cusco, don’t think twice. Get your car and enjoy the road. For this trip, the drive itself is a destination, not to mention all the places there are along the way to stop.

Be sure to drink coca tea with muna to avoid altitude sickness

If you read Spanish, be sure to pick up a copy of Aventura 757 kilometers by Rafo Leon in Ibero Bookstore in Miraflores before you go! I also invite you to check out my blog posts which detail the drive by car from Lima to Nasca; Nasca to Puquio, Puquio to Carahuasi; and Carahuasi to Pisac - our four day road trip with my husband and our three daughters, aged 11, 11, and 8.

A Manada de Vicuñas on the Way from Nasca to Puquio – Aventura 757 km. continues

We left Nasca at 9:30am Monday morning, headed towards Puquio. The winding trip up the Peruvian mountains is 154 kilometers, and takes about four hours. In the first 90 kilometers, you go up 4000 meters above sea level. That sounded a bit daunting to me.

Our book – Aventura 757 – warned us that we should go prepared for this rapid ascent, with a thermos of tea, plenty of water, a tank full of gas, and snacks. We asked the attendant at our hotel to fill our thermos with hot water, and we added coca leaves and a bit of sugar to it to make coca tea. For snacks, we had saltines, cheese, bananas, and grapes.

Barren landscape of Nazca

One of many crosses we saw on the road - commemorating the death of a person in a traffic accident

The landscape in the first 55 kilometers of the trip is nearly lifeless – with imposing dark grey mountains, dotted with a few cacti. We were going up in altitude fairly quickly, so we stopped after about 30 kilometers to drink our coca tea – which is good for altitude sickness.

enjoying some coca tea for the road

there is some beauty in the barren landscape of Nazca

Another stop for tea - notice a bit more greenery here

As we drive inland, it gets a bit greener, and we see some clouds

The landscape slowly gets a bit greener, and the mountains turn browner. On this day, there were a few clouds in the sky, whose whiteness offsets the clear blue of the altiplano skies.

At about Kilometer 75, you enter the National Reserve of Vicuñas, where we all hoped we could catch a glimpse of vicuñas. The kids were excited, because vicuñas are cute and furry, and we had never seen them in the wild. Shortly after entering the reserve, which is located on Pampa Galeras, we saw a herd of ten vicuñas. We were all thrilled to see them and took plenty of pictures.

Reserva Nacional de vicunas

In Spanish, a herd of vicuñas is called a manada de vicuñas. I explained to the girls that the vicuña is part of the cameloid family in Peru – which includes llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicuñas. The latter two are wild animals and the former two have been domesticated. The wool of vicuñas is considered the finest in the world; some call it the gold of the Andes.

Una manada de vicunas

The vicuñas are wild, but people who live in the area are allowed to carry on their tradition of the chaccu – where people catch the vicunas and cut their wool. Because the wool is so valuable, there have been problems with people who illegally kill the vicuñas for their wool. Of course you do not need to kill a vicuña to get its wool, but that is the easiest option for poachers.

We kept driving until we got to Kilometer 89, where we stopped to have lunch at a roadside restaurant that is just in front of the Reserva Nacional Pampa Galeras Barbara D’Achille Museum. The menu of the day was 6 soles and included lamb soup with roasted chicken. We ordered three plates, and I was happy to find out that it came with choclo con queso – Peruvian corn with cheese. I didn’t eat the beet salad, as I was sure some of the vegetables may have been washed with tap water, and wasn’t sure about the cleanliness of the water in this area.

Woman showing us the vicuna wool she work with as we enjoy lunch

After enjoying our meal and getting our thermos filled once more, the woman who gave us our meal told us that she works with vicuña wool. The whole process seems quite regularized. After the chaccu, women in the village are given a specific quantity of vicuña wool, which they must clean until it is suitable for making apparel. She explained that the production of vicuña wool is very good for the local community, as it provides work and income for both men and women. This woman was from Arequipa, and had come there to work with the vicunas.

After lunch and conversation, we made our way to the museum, which featured stuffed versions of the fauna of Pampa Galeras. I was glad to see they also had a decently clean bathroom, which can be hard to find on the road.

We piled back into the Yaris, and forged ahead. As we drove, the mountains slowly turned greener and greener. Both the transition and the scenery itself were spectacular. We slowly made our way down the highway, and the girls fell asleep for a good portion of the remaining 50 kilometers to Puquio.

In all, taking it slow, we arrived in Puquio at about 3pm. We checked out a few hotels until we found one – Hostal Josuef – which has a parking lot. Even better, there were several bunnies, guinea pigs, and an alpaca in the parking lot. This was good news for the girls, as they love all sorts of animals. They took great joy in petting the alpaca, whose name is Camila.

Raymi getting a kiss from Camila

Plaza of Puquio

We were glad to arrive in the daytime, with a bit of time left to check out Puquio. Puquio, it turns out, it one of those destinations off the beaten track that is well worth a visit. It is in historic Ayacucho, and has both Incan and Spanish architecture, and lots of tradition.

We took a walk around the plaza and I got my boots shined. They were very dirty after walking in the coastal desert, and looked much better after getting polished. The plaza was quite nice with a huge church and a gazebo in the middle. We also walked around the town’s narrow streets and saw some cool architecture – including stairs and small pedestrian pathways.

We had dinner at La Estancia, a restaurant recommended in Aventura 757. On the way to dinner, we saw a procession with schoolchildren dancing and singing in the streets. La Estancia has both good food and a lovely garden, making it a great choice for dinner. The dinner menu included chicken soup, picante de carne, and chamomile tea – for just 5 soles. It was more than enough food for us. And, it was tasty.

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, tired and ready to rest up for the next day, for our road trip to Chalhuanca. We woke up early, loaded the car up, and walked around the corner to have breakfast. Nando had caldo de gallina (chicken soup) and the girls had egg and cheese sandwiches. I just had coffee with milk, as I was not hungry yet.

The people who served us breakfast filled up our thermos, and we put coca leaves and muna in it and made our way towards Chalhuanca. Muna is an Andean herb that is also very good for altitude sickness. The herbal teas seem to do their trick as none of us got very sick.

The Nazca Lines Mystery

While we were at the Paracas Nature Reserve, I told the girls about the Lineas de Nasca. I explained to them that there are several mysteries associated with the famous Nasca Lines: Who made them? Why did they make them? How have they lasted so long?

The girls were fascinated and wanted to know more. Luckily, the book, Aventura 757 kilometros – had a bit more information than what Nando and I already knew. The kids were curious as to how wide the lines are – 20 cm. The biggest figure is a Pelican, which is 285 meters long. The kids were very curious about who made the lines and especially the fact that the lines are still a sort of unsolved mystery – especially insofar as we have relatively little understanding of why they were drawn.

We talked about the Nazca lines as we drove down the Panamerican Highway. Luckily, the book also told us exactly where the first viewing tower was – at kilometer 408. That also provided the opportunity for math lessons, and each time they asked how much longer, we had to find the kilometer sign and then subtract. We also did a little multiplication and guessed how much longer it would take.

The scenery changed drastically along the route to Nasca – from sand dunes to large rocky mountains. And, each time we crossed an oasis, we were treated to a few hundred meters of greenery.

A rare oasis on the way from Pisco to Nasca

As we were driving, I read a bit to the girls. I brought a book for myself – Women Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros. It is a book of short stories and when I came across a story about being 11 years old, I read it to the girls. They loved it and asked for more. The stories got less and less innocent as I continued to read. But, I figured I would go ahead and read them and that we could talk about it. That worked out fairly well, even with the story about a 13-year-old who is seduced by a 37-year-old and got pregnant. They had lots of questions about that, but at least we were talking, and no one was fighting in the back seat.

Reading Aventura 757, we also found out that there is a popular saying in Peru, "Estoy entre Pisco y Nasca," which refers to the production of alcohol in both places and means that you are intoxicated.

Nando at the Nasca lines

When we finally got to Kilometro 408, we almost missed the tower, as there were no signs indicating we were there. It was almost sundown, so we got there just in time. It took us a while to see the geoglifos – but, when we did, we were impressed. There were four figures drawn onto a hill in the distance.

The four figures drawn on a hill.

Happy to have arrived at the tower at km 408

After viewing those, we drove to Kilometer 424, where there is a big sign that reads – “Nasca Lines.” At this stand, there are vendors and there was a person charging 2 soles to enter and 1 sol for the kids. We paid and walked up the tower. From this tower, we could see a huge tree, a hand, and 180 meter lizard that, unfortunately, is cut across by the highway. When they first built the Pan American Highway, they didn’t know the lines were there and cut right across them. We all found that a bit tragic.

Nasca Lines - kilometer 424

Soraya, Raymi, andTatiana at the Nasca Lines

After seeing the lines, the sun was setting, and, by the time we got to Nasca it was dark. We found a nice hotel near the plaza called Don Honorio, that has little bungalows – stand alone rooms with porches. In the morning, I found out that the rooms also have awesome, hot showers. That felt great!

We spent a couple of hours wandering around Nasca in the evening in search of a few things we needed for our trip up to Puquio. We will be ascending 4000 meters in just 90 kilometers on the way to Puquio. The book recommends we take snacks and a thermos filled with hot tea. I figured we should take coca tea – as that is good for altitude sickness.

We went to five different stores looking for coca tea, but each was out of it. I guess we are not the only ones getting coca leaf tea before going up the mountain. In the morning, as we still had not found the tea, Nando went out to the market to buy some coca leaves. You can put those straight into hot water and make your own coca tea. It’s more natural anyway. I am really hoping that tea does the trick and we don’t get altitude sickness!