Best things to do in Arequipa
Arequipa, often referred to as the “White City” due to its stunning white volcanic stone architecture, is a must-visit destination in Peru. The historical center is a charming blend of colonial buildings, beautiful squares, and impressive museums that showcase the city’s rich history and culture. You can easily spend two days exploring the area, visiting attractions like the Santa Catalina Monastery, the Museo Santuarios Andinos, and enjoying the many cozy coffee shops.
However, while Arequipa’s historical center is captivating, the city itself can be quite noisy and polluted. The streets are congested with traffic, especially near the edges of the historic area, which can make the air quality less than ideal. Despite these challenges, Arequipa’s charm and cultural offerings make it worth a visit for those ready to embrace both its beauty and its bustle.
Table of Contents
Getting to Arequipa
Today is our travelling day from Cusco to Arequipa. In order to make our life easy and comfortable, the evening before we organized a taxi to picked us up at 4:45am in our hostel in Cusco for the airport to catch our 6:30am flight to Arequipa, and another one in Arequipa from the airport to our hostel. We checked on Arequipa airport website and apparently that’s the best and only way to do, so we had our hostel there organizing a taxi for us.
Once at the airport, we ate the breakfast that our hostel had made for us (a small sandwich, crackers, fruits, candies, chocolate, orange juice and water) along with a black coffee. In Cusco many hostels are providing with early leaving breakfast.
While going through the airport control, we still had 2 bottles of water. We were really surprised that it was fine bringing water along because in Europe or back in Asia that would be impossible.
We dropped our bags in the hostel as it was too early to check-in and went exploring the historical center. We wanted to get to the free walking tour, but we were too hungry and decided to have another breakfast. We stopped at “Ticani San Francisco” a cozy restaurant with good food.
Where to stay in Arequipa
If you are looking for an accommodation in Arequipa, we would recommend the following :
Mapping the day
Day 1 in Arequipa:
Visit a temple
To digest our second breakfast, we walked a few meters and saw what we thought to be a church, we went in and discovered that it was the “Templo museo tercera order Francesca”. It cost 5 sol per person to get in and at this price you get a guide showing your around the temple and explaining its history. Great thing is that you don’t only see the praying area but also what is behind the doors, he inner garden as well as the living quarter.
Coming to its history, it was originally built in the 16th century and since had been renewed quite a few times. Arequipa suffered many earthquakes and the temple and other monument got damaged more than once. This temple belongs to the order of the Franciscans.
Visit a Monastery
Later, we strolled another few hundred meter and found the “Santa Catalina Monastery”. Here the entrance fees are 40 sol per person but totally worth it. We spent at least 2 hours inside but if you really take it easy reaching 3 to 4h there won’t be hard at all.
The monastery t is like a small town within Arequipa protected by big walls. It had many houses, kitchens, common baths, church and so on… everything a nun would need. Only it has been made for lots of them. Great thing is that mostly every inch of the place is open to public, and you get to see and visit each of the nuns’ house and discover how they would be living in it.
Great thing is that mostly every inch of the place is open to public, and you get to see and visit each of the nuns’ house and discover how they would be living in it.
For 25 sol more, you can get a tour guide, we can’t tell if it is worth it as we went without. But it seems they spoke French, English, Spanish, and so on…
But if like us, you prefer to go on your own, there are in every place of the monastery boards and signs telling the story and facts about the place… and you can always eardrops the guide on your way.
We loved the color inside the monastery, blue, red, white… walls, giving each parts a different ambiance. As well, at this time an art exposition was present.
History lesson of the monastery, it was founded by a rich Window. The tradition back then was that the 2nd child of a family would enter a life of service in the Church. So, every second daughter from Spanish upper-class family would have to join the monastery. At the admission, the family would pay to the Church about 2400 silver coins (150 000 USD today) and so the new nun was able to bring with her 25 listed items including statue, painting, lamp or clothes.
At his biggest stage, the monastery hosted 450 peoples (1/3 were nuns and the other servants)
Lunch at Prana
With all that history, we were quite tired, and it was the beginning of the afternoon, so we went back to the hostel to check-in and rest a while. We had booked a standard room in “Hostal Bubamara” but received a “grande” one as there was one available. It was on the 3rd and last floor of the building with a small private terrace and super great view.
After a good rest, we found out a lunch spot that had set menu for 10 sol per person. The restaurant was a vegan one called “Prana”. It was one of the best lunches we had and most probably the best quality/price you can find in Peru. The waiter was incredible, we never saw someone smiling and running that much! Plus the food was great!
Hang around and Chill
From now on, we just walked and hang around the neighborhood without any goal but enjoying the historical center.
To finish our day as we had late lunch, we bought a few beers and snacks in a small market and went on the rooftop of our hostel to chill the end of the day.
One thing about Arequipa is that it is a huge city and the second most important after Lima. The streets are often full of cars, if you go out of the historical center it isn’t that pretty anymore and packed with car making it even hard to breath due to the pollution.
Day 2 in Arequipa
At the beginning, we had planned this day to visit the Colca canyon, the second biggest canyon on earth. But we didn’t expect that it would take 5h to reach it. After giving a lot of thought and research online, it seems the one-day tour to Colca Canyon wouldn’t fit us, it is a lot of time on the bus to only take a few pictures and come back. We believe that the second biggest canyon in the world have more to offer that only that. So, we decided that we would come back another time to go for a 2 or 3 tour in the canyon. If you still want to go for it, you can easily reserve from your hostel or book it online. Depending on how much time you have, you can do 1-day trip, or if you prefer something less rushy the 2-day tripcould be better.
So instead of spending the day on a bus, we will explore more of Arequipa!
Free walking tour
There are two option for the tour, one in the morning at 9:30am and one in the afternoon at 2:00pm. Each tour takes about 2h30.
First, we walked to the meeting point, a restaurant called “Victoria”, as we were in advance we treated ourselves with a coffee across the street. We were right on time as they just opened the coffee shop.
Then, we just crossed and join the tour guide. We were 6 in our group plus the guide. We started by the “Plaza the Armas” and followed by of nearby church called “Church of the company”.
The guide provided cool information in English and Spanish and the people in the tour were really friendly. We also visited a clothes shop where the shop owner explained us the differences in the wool quality and type.
From there we walked to the local market “Mercado San Camilio” where we tried some of the local products. We all shared ¼ of local cheese that cost us 3 sol. We then tasted different type of fruits as the shop keeper was giving us free pieces to try.
After, we headed to the “Mirador del Puento Grau” before returning to the Plaza de Armas where we finished on a terrace and try a small shot of piscos.
Now, how much tips do you leave? Well this is a question we asked ourselves a couple of times. There we left 20 sol. We though 10 sol each would be all right. Still we can’t figure out if that’s cool or not.
Lunchy time
After this nice free walking tour, we were a bit hungry. The tour guide recommended us “la Mundial”.
It was a good 15/20 min from the city center, but we went there anyway. While we usually like local restaurants, we didn’t like this one at all, we sat and checkout the menu and found out that most of the dishes were quite expensive (around 30 sol for one). We decided not to stay and kept walking around until we found “burger chills” that seems cool and had vegan option.
Big and yummy burgers served in a cozy sitting area. And bonus, a super friendly staff. What else could we asked!?
After we paid the bill, the waitress offered us small Peruvian flag as there was a movement going on to support the country.
Coffee and local chocolate
As coffee shop lovers, we heard that “Chaqchao” was one of the best places to taste coffee and chocolate.
In fact, it is a chocolate factory where you can take cooking classes. It you would like to join a cooking class planned at least 2h.
We didn’t cook ourselves, but we bought some chocolate in the factory and went upstairs in their coffee shop for an Americano to taste what we just bought. Yummmyyyyy
Yuhanara district
Time to keep exploring, from there we strolled to the other side of the river and cross the bridge to visit the Yuhanara district, its famous volcanic rock streets and its viewpoint.
The streets of this district are just wonderful. Made of volcanic rocks that made the street original and different, it was just great to walked in it and it was time for us to be models and take some cool pictures before heading up to the viewpoint.
Once at the viewpoint, there is a cozy square with bench to relax, a small church to visit and if you are not to late a pisco factory.
Interesting fact
Interesting things is that there a photographer congratulated us on the small Peruvian flag we put on our daily backpack. He asked us where we come from and when we answered France, he said that he wishes to congratulate us. But not for winning the football cup (haha) but because of the small flag and the symbol it represents, supporting Peru. Adding that even his people are not putting it but we, foreigner, did.
Dinner
As we really liked the restaurant, we tried for our first breakfast in town, we returned to “Ticani San Francisco” trying the amazing “ensalada de Quinua” and the yummy “Aji de gallina”. To go along we chose a glass of wine and a Sierra Andina craft beer rated 10.5%.
To finish our delicious dinner, we opted for the traditional cake of the day and a pisco sour. We personally loved this place and its ambiance even though it might not have been the cheapest place to eat.
Dinner
A trip to Colca Canyon in Peru is a must for nature lovers. Just 3-5 hours from Arequipa, the canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, offering stunning landscapes and the chance to see the Andean condor in flight at Cruz del Condor. You can explore the charming village of Chivay, try local dishes, and, if time allows, embark on a multi-day trek to the canyon’s bottom to relax in the oasis of Sangalle. Whether for a day or more, Colca Canyon offers breathtaking views and a unique cultural experience. Depending on how much time you have, you can do 1-day trip, or if you prefer something less rushy the 2-day trip could be better.
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
