Lima Free Walking Tour

Lima's Centro Histórico is one of the best-preserved colonial cores in the Americas, and this walk puts you right in the middle of it: the Plaza Mayor, ringed by the Cathedral and the Government Palace, then on to the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco, where narrow stairs lead down into catacombs stacked with the bones of thousands of colonial-era Limeños. It's this whole ensemble that earned Lima's historic center its UNESCO World Heritage listing.

Your guide fills in what the guidebooks skip — why Francisco Pizarro chose this stretch of desert coast for his 'City of Kings' in 1535, how the balconies of Jirón de la Unión survived earthquakes that flattened lesser buildings, and where the square's colonial elegance gives way to the everyday bustle of modern Lima. It's the natural first stop for anyone arriving in the capital.