Lima help, please.....

We have a family trip to Peru planned for June (my wife and I and our two boys, 14 and 12). We have just over 3 weeks and most of the planning is complete- Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Lake Titicaca, Cusco, Machu Picchu/Sacred Valley, Amazon basin. I had planned on several days in Lima at the end of the trip, mostly to experience the food scene, given its reputation as one of the great food cities in the world. My wife has recently spoken to a couple of acquaintances who have intimated that Lima is a terribly dangerous city that should be avoided. Everything I have read suggests that there are definitely some areas to be avoided, particularly at night, but the more touristy areas are perfectly safe (e.g. Miraflores). I had planned on us staying in Miraflores. Anybody with direct personal experience in Lima who could share their experiences in Lima and thoughts about whether or not spending a few days there is worthwhile (and safe)? Favorite restaurant experiences?

Was just in Lima recently for 5 days. I never felt unsafe, though I did not go far outside of the San Isidro, Surquillo, Miraflores, and Barranco areas, which are certainly the more upscale, wealthy neighborhoods.

Besides the restaurants I mentioned below, my wife said the best grilled octopus she has ever had was from Felix Brasserie, owned by the guy who owns Rafael. If you are tempted by Maido’s reputation, skip it.

In Cusco I had good grilled alpaca and aji de gallina at Pachapapa across from the San Blas temple in the old town. Table next to me got wood-oven roasted cuy that looked good.

Cusco is pretty high - I was glad I had acetazolamide with me. The coca leaves don’t do much for the altitude.

We were in Lima back in September and stayed in the Miraflroes area. We walked around at night with no worries.

One of the best meals I have ever had was at Maido. We told the waiter to bring us what he thought we would enjoy and told him the few things we would not eat. Seven courses of sushi and tapas. Make reservations early, we had to settle for lunch since we could not get dinner reservations.

Sorry, I’m going to disagree and strongly suggest you avoid Maido. It was the worst meal I had in Lima, and every thing about it was uninspiring to poor, from the food, service and wine list to the ambience, decor, and prices.

For example: an o-toro special for $16 delivered two slices of sashimi that looked good but was marred by veins of inedible gristle; tempura was overbattered and soggy; beautiful scallops were overpowered by a sickly sweet sauce of passion fruit; tuna nigiri was obliterated by quail yolks injected with ponzu and soy sauce.

On the service side we had to argue, literally argue, that the bottle we ordered was cold enough and did not need to be in an ice bucket. Yet, after each pour, it went back to the bucket, whence we would ask for it to be removed, only to see it return to the bucket again, whence we would ask for it to be removed…We wanted to try a “soba” noodle that was on the menu. Our waiter said the restaurant ran out of it though other tables seated after us received portions and were clearly not out of it.

As for ambience, the place felt inert to me with no vibe or buzz, though it was crowded. You could tell they have a table-turning aim of reeling in and churning through tourists.

And it was far and away the most expensive meal we had in Lima.

I was an executive for an international company that owned a large business in Peru with their main office in Lima. I have been to Lima 30 times over the past 20 years. We have had at least three or four security problems with our people (primarily contractors non Peruvian) in Lima in good/marginal areas.

The incidents all involved robbery of laptops, wallets, watches, etc. at gunpoint. One individual refused to immediately hand over their belongings and was shot in the hand.

I would not consider Lima to be any more or less dangerous than other major city in South America. in my opinion and personal experience I would put it more dangerous than Santiago and less dangerous than Sao Paolo/Rio.

You are going to all the great places in Peru. You need to fly into and out of Lima. I would not spend more time in Lima than you have to as the beauty of Peru is outside of Lima. Be situationally aware at all times, dress down (no fancy watches, jewelry, etc.) and watch what you eat/drink.

I was in Lima in November 2015, staying in the Miraflores district. We walked around a lot and never felt unsafe. Had great dinners at Maido and Central, but was greatly disappointed with Astrid y Gaston.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. We’ve decided on 3 days at the end of our trip in Lima. Staying in Miraflores. Haven’t decided on restaurants yet.

We weren’t impressed with Lima. The ride from the airport passes through areas that are depressing. Think 3rd world countries. I agree that the tourist areas are safe.

Cocoa tea doesn’t work. They say that you need to drink lots of water before heading to high places. Well, this isn’t Denver at 5000 feet. Cusco/Cuzco and Lima are 9000 and 11,000 feet. There’s not enough water to help you with the headache you’re going to get. Bad would be an understatement. Before you depart, go to your doctor and get high altitude pills. I wish we did.

Speaking of mosquitos and MP… buy deet here or in Peru. You won’t feel the flies bite you, but bite you they will. We saw plenty of tourist with large welts on all their exposed skins. They didn’t feel a thing, but they had the welts to show for it. The best $8.00 I ever spent on vacation was for a tube of Deet, and we didn’t have any welts.

I was so involved in planning the trip (overplanning, and not doing the proper studying), that all we did was spend a time in Cusco when we arrived, followed by 3 days and 2 nights in the Sacred Valley/MP. We did the last night at the JW Marriott in Cusco.

3 days and 2 nights aren’t enough time in the valley. You could spend a week there.

MP. Get tickets as far in advance as you can. Last I read, they only sell 2500 tickets a day (week?). Admission ticket is for 1 day. If you want to go back the next day, you have to anty up. Are you using a guide? Are you doing the planning by yourself? FYI, there are MP guides hanging around the entrance. Hire one.

We trained it from Ollantaytambo. That trip is about 90 minutes, and buy a roundtrip. Plenty of people get ‘stranded’ up there if they don’t have a return ticket. You can take the train from Cusco, but it takes forever. Maybe 4 hours, but I don’t recall.

Thanks for the input Dan. While I haven’t filled the prescriptions, Diamox is very much on the agenda and we will have plenty of DEET. We have jsut over a week in Cusco/Sacred Valley, including a night in Ollantaytambo and two nights in Aguas Calientes. Round trip train tickets are purchased. We are doing this on our own and I’m trying to buy Machu Picchu tickets, but it is not possible to buy kids/ tickets online, so I’m working on that one thorough some other channels. I will definitely hire a guide.

One thing about traveling with kids (at least for me), is I end up planning virtually every detail. I don’t much feel like figuring stuff out on the fly like I used to…

Cusco is high around 11k feet, and I was very happy to have acetazolamide with me…but Lima is not much above sea level…nothing is needed while you are there.

We weren’t planning on taking Diamox while in Lima, but maybe I implied something different? We are going from Lima to Arequipa (7k) to Colca Canyon (12k) to Lake Titicaca (12k) to Cusco (11k).

We did not take any meds and only did the cocoa leaves one time, and had no issues. We were there for a bike trip and most of the riding was over 11k feet with one day at 14k. Just drink lots of water and limit alcohol.

We only had mosquitoes issues at MP, the Deet went unused expect there.

I hate to hear Doug had such a bad experience at Maido. We had a leisurely lunch and never felt rushed. While it was the most expensive meal we had in Peru, I think it was worth it. We were there for the food so the wine list was adequate.

I’m not necessarily planning on the Diamox, but statistically it’s likely that somebody (out of the four) will get some altitude sickness (50% of people who live at low altitude will experience symptoms sleeping above 10,000 feet). Lots and lots of water is on the agenda.

Todd: Lester was traveling with Diana and me. We had a great time in Cuzco and amazing food in Lima. As Lester mentioned, our meal at Maido was simply outstanding as was Central. Astrid y Gaston was highly disappointing. There was no joy apparent . Some of the dishes were quite good but overall…meh! If you get a chance try the market place where the locals shop. Great ceviche from the little restaurant inside and amazing ice cream down the block! We never felt unsafe but it is a big city. There is a great Arts district with wonderful coffee and chocolate as well.


Cheers!
Marshall [cheers.gif]

Just a quick update: We are 2 weeks into our trip, with Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Puno/Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu/Sacred Valley behind us. We have two more nights in Cusco before heading to the Amazon. So far the meal highlights have been at La Nuevo Palomino in Arequipa (traditional Arequipan food, only open for lunch, enormous portions, & delicious), & pizza in Puno (cracker thin crust, no tomato sauce, & local cheese- awesome).

We have reservations at Maido this coming weekend.

And no bug bites at Machu Picchu. :slight_smile:

Our meal at Maido was outstanding. We did the beverage pairing (wine, beer and sake) which had some hits and some misses. The food was outstanding and the atmosphere was upscale casual- very comfortable. They do seem to want to get each course out to you as quickly as possible, but we were able to control the pacing by dawdling over each dish and it wasn’t a major issue. It was the one night out for just my wife and I and we had a great time.

Perhaps an even more enjoyable meal, and a place I can not recommend highly enough, was El Mercado. It is only open for lunch and I would recommend making a reservation. The menu is almost exclusively seafood and is relatively simple, but perfectly executed dishes. If we hadn’t been facing a checkout deadline with our hotel, we would have continued to hang out and order dish after dish just to try and sample as many things off the menu as possible. I generally find octopus to be underwhelming, but the pulpo a la parilla was absolutely perfect. My only complaint was that my 14 year old left only a few bites for the rest of us to share (octopus is one of his favorites). [shock.gif]