What if Peru hotels offered more than a place to rest your head? What if walking through their halls felt like perusing an art gallery, surrendering into a retreat space, or unearthing history in a classroom? For me, when I’m heading to a country as fascinating and dense as Peru, this is the much-needed counterbalance between long days exploring layers of culture, ruins, and cuisine.
Marriott rises to the occasion with a suite of hotels that extend beyond the generic luxury experience. Their luxury properties infuse local culture and restoration right into your room. This, paired with their signature Feel Well Experience Package, makes the hotel a destination rather than a waiting room, cross-pollinating with each location instead of walling it out.
It’s not trading experience for luxury, but rather anchoring respite in the journey. On my first visit to the country, The Westin Lima, Hotel Paracas, Tambo del Inka, and Palacio del Inka guided me from contemporary Peru to its origins, starting with a modern property and ending in a 500-year-old colonial mansion.
Whether you opt to stay in one or all four of the Marriott hotels on this list, know that each one brings guests closer to the local experience while staying rooted in comfort. Here’s a survey of each hotel’s offerings based on my personal experience.
The Westin Lima Hotel & Convention Center
Instead of using Jorge Chávez International Airport as a layover on your way to Peru’s touristic destinations, consider staying an extra day or two at The Westin Lima Hotel & Convention Center. The 301-room property is located in the inner-city San Isidro neighborhood, which captures Lima’s diversity with easy access to fine dining, ruins, green spaces, and the Pacific coast.
The Westin Lima positions itself as a base for exploration and an option for respite, with spacious, retreat-like rooms, elevated dining and lounge offerings, and extensive treatment options in the underground Heavenly Spa facility. Business travelers, tourists, and locals mingle in its lobby, often with a cocktail in hand, concocted in the trendy, well-outfitted Alphonse Bar.
The first thing I noticed was that The Westin Lima was as much about luxurious design as it was about the light and space surrounding it. You’ll find towering glass partitions, pools of warm light warm light, and dramatically lit sculptures in its corridors. The 5-star property feels calm, strong, and spacious, a surprising effect in a bustling city of over 11 million residents.
Accomodations
My room reflected the same quality and luxury found in the hotel’s common spaces, with clean architectural design, ambient warm lighting, and floor-to-ceiling windows that revealed the city’s sweeping skyline. The spacious accommodation felt as restorative as the hotel’s onsite Heavenly Spa, making it a perfect recharge for guests who don’t have time to experience the wellness center.
My 463 square-foot Grand Deluxe room housed a king bed, walk-in closet, workspace, and marble-laden bathroom featuring a deep soaking tub and luxurious showerheads. I found plenty of thoughtfully placed signature Westin amenities like white tea soaps, lotions and satin eye masks, beckoning me to unwind before exploring the city.
Dining
Former migrations of Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, African and Italian communities add to the city’s modern identity, deepening its culinary complexity. Lima Westin’s dining program proudly reflects this diversity in its meals. Breakfast at Market 770 offered food stations filled with Peruvian staples, Chinese dishes, and American comfort food. Make sure to budget plenty of time for breakfast so you can sample it all.
For fine dining, visit Maras, an intimate establishment featuring artfully presented dishes like grilled shrimp, squash risotto, confit suckling pig, and paiche curry. Its warm, elegant room is open for lunch and dinner, with lunch hours and dinner service until midnight to accommodate busy travelers’ schedules.
In addition to bar sips and bites at Alphonse and the Lobby Lounge, eligible guests can access the Westin Club on the 29th floor, which boasts some of the best views in the property, alongside easy-to-grab light bites and beverages.
Even the room service amenities stay committed to the hotel’s wellness program, offering both traditional and healthier options for those who want their food sent straight to their quarters.
Activities
Westin Lima is one of the best Peru hotels for positioning yourself close to the city’s main attractions. Here’s where I recommend venturing to during your time at The Westin Lima:
- Museo Larco: A collection of about 45,000 pre-Columbian artifacts located in a garden-dappled 18th-century mansion, spanning over 5,000 years of Peruvian heritage.
- Huaca Pucllana: An architectural ruins complex in the heart of Peru’s Miraflores neighborhood, contrasting the city’s modernity with an 82-foot-tall adobe pyramid constructed from millions of handbuilt bricks. Book a tour to explore ancient ceremonial sites and plazas or visit the onsite museum for a closer look at excavated artifacts.
- Barranco: Explore the bohemian, creative neighborhood home to Lima’s most notable galleries, restaurant, and street art, best for people watching (and practicing your Spanish if you’re ready to make new friends).
- Paseo Begonias: Just steps from Lima Westin’s doors, you’ll find a popular dining and shopping strip lined with restaurants, cafés, and bars. Stop by the Paseo’s Popurrí food hall, filled with culinary creations from internationally and locally acclaimed chefs.
- Bosque El Olivar: A green space and national monument spanning 25 acres, home to walking paths lined with over 1,000 olive trees, 22 species of birds, and a range of programing at the Centro Cultural El Olivar.
Hotel Paracas
Hotel Paracas sits about 160 miles south of Lima in a coastal hub of natural wonders, from long stretches of dunescapes to scenic beaches along the Pacific Ocean. The tranquil Paracas Bay is a popular getaway among Peruvians due to its warm, sunny disposition. Thus, this is the perfect spot to enjoy a slice of luxury in Peru without leaving its cultural influence.
The 5-star luxury resort provides a romantic getaway and family destination in one, and somehow merges the two seamlessly without either dynamic clashing. This is largely due to the hotel’s spacious design, with separate pools and 120 bungalow-style rooms that provide plenty of space for visitors to roam.
Accommodations
While other Peru hotels stack guests in towering buildings, Hotel Paracas takes a different approach, spacing accommodations out in bright, low buildings with thatched roofs and wooden pillars with palm-lined paths and gardens running between them. I felt like I was returning to my private vacation condo rather than a room after my daily adventures and spent afternoons lounging on my balcony, taking in views of the Pacific and family pool.
Rooms were designed by Peruvian-born architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia, additionally known for curating notable properties in Miami and New York City’s Times Square. The open-floor accommodations are high-end yet rustic, with plenty of light, thatched-bamboo wall coverings, a chaise lounge, and a solid wooden desk for working or organizing luggage.
The spacious, entirely glass shower let light in and kept me connected to the Feel Well Experience, with a large soaking tub and vanity placed behind it. With easy access in and out of the rooms and a well-connected design, it’s easy to make many trips back and forth, or simply enjoy room service from the porch or bed during a quiet afternoon.
Dining
Hotel Paracas is outfitted with three dining options, two bars, and room service. Ballestas Restaurant serves a balance of Peruvian and international cuisine during all three meals, with indoor and outdoor seating available.
Chalana Restaurant was my favorite on-property eatery, serving local seafood and shellfish on the edge of a private, scenic pier. La Trattoria offers traditional Italian food and comfort dishes like pizza and gelato.
The Bar Lounge is your choice for quality cocktails to enjoy poolside, and Zarcillo has a sizable Pisco collection that’s worthy of sampling. The knowledgeable team led me through an impromptu tasting that opened my eyes to the range of the spirit’s flavors. Private dining and cocktail experiences can be arranged for groups upon request.
Activities
As you enter Paracas, you’ll notice the shift from urban hustle and bustle to spacious and diverse outdoor activities. Here are a few ways to take advantage of the exceptional flora and fauna in reach of the hotel:
- Ballestas Islands: Just off Hotel Paracas’ pier, guests can board a boat and enjoy an excursion to a cluster of three islands teeming with Humboldt penguins, thousands of sea birds, and sea lions. Many tours stop at the mysterious Paracas Candelabra, a 600-foot-tall geoglyph etched into the peninsula’s hillside.
- Desert dune adventure: Paracas’ dunescape is home to sand masses stretching hundreds of feet high, located 20 minutes outside of Hotel Paracas. You can join an off-road, heart-racing excursion, which includes sandboarding and sunset viewing opportunities.
- Paracas National Reserve and Playa Roja: 20 minutes away, explore a1,294 square mile natural attraction boasting desert cliffs, red-sand volcanic rock beaches, and the diverse marine life that lives in its geological formations.
- Museo de Sitio Julio C. Tello: Discover the pre-Incan history of Paracas, with a permanent collection that’s home to over 120 historic objects.
Tambo del Inka
Tambo del Inka is nestled in Urubamba, a town in Peru’s Sacred Valley, the scenic basin of the Andes Mountains. My commute from the Cusco airport was just under two hours and was a tour within itself. A descent into this valley unveils dramatic mountain views, traditional Andean villages, and farms home to alpacas and llamas. Tambo del Inka felt worlds away from Lima and Paracas, and offered a creative play on luxury entirely different from what I had seen at Westin Lima and Hotel Paracas.
The resort’s aesthetic embraces elements from the surrounding land, and approaching its entrance, you’re greeted with with exposed stone accents, warm wooden signage, and brightly dressed alpacas right at the entrance. Inside, the property is notably Andean, with woven tapestries and works of art on nearly every floor, wall, and ceiling. The traditional rustic getaway gets a touch of luxury in the onsite Kallpa Spa, featuring an indoor-outdoor pool, jacuzzi, gym, thermal circuit, and 9 treatment rooms for various wellness and beauty services.
What I loved most about Tambo was its flexibility. One moment, you’re exploring the grounds, getting lost in the onsite garden, or stargazing with an onsite astronomer, embracing the property’s intimacy. Next, you’re exploring local textiles and dishes in the resort’s shopping boulevard, just steps from your room. For a taste of life outside the resort, you can take a 10 minute walk to Urubamba’s Plaza de Armas for traditional dishes and shopping opportunities.
Yes, there are staggeringly old, fascinating ruins and architectural wonders a close drive away, but everything you need for a balanced stay can be reached by foot, something impressive in the heart of a seemingly rural valley.
Accommodations
Tambo del Ikna’s 128 rooms trade urban polish and coastal charm for Andean-inspired geometric wall patterns, dramatic vaulted ceilings, and deep wooden accents that pair well with the woodlands that the resort sits in. My grand deluxe terrace room was lit as if it were a piece of art, with clever, soft track and lamp lighting. I took advantage and adjusted their various settings for at least four different occasions while in my room.
I could set a warm scene for a personal spa moment, ambient lighting for a soft effect while reading or watching TV at night, and full lighting for handling lingering work tasks at the desk. Natural light is abundant as well. Rooms are outfitted with sliding glass doors that pool light in during the day, with a small outdoor balcony perfect for enjoying a cup of coca tea while listening to the gentle flow of the Urubamba River.
The bathroom was the most impressive feature of the room, with a deep soaking tub and walk-in rainfall shower easy enough to saunter back and forth between during a personal spa circuit. The vanity, toilet area, and walk-in closet were equally as opulent and spacious, giving me plenty of space to wander and decompress in my studio-like room.
Dining
Tambo del Inka’s cuisine provides a direct connection to the very food grown and raised in the Sacred Valley, and ingredients are often sourced from its own organic garden, teeming with fruits, tubers, greens, edible flowers, and aromatic herbs. Over half of the fresh produce the property uses come from its gardens, a testament to the team’s integrity in creating a sustainable operation.
The Hawa Restaurant is the centerpiece of the property, both expansive and intimate with its warm timber pillars and dramatic lighting cast down from suspended globes. Breakfast at Hawa was a personal highlight, with endless tables of finger foods, from traditional tubers and corns to classic sausage and bacon, with a harp player lulling me back to life with gentle songs each day.
The resort’s boulevard offers additional options. My favorite eatery on the strip was AMA, a community-forward culinary and cultural experience where the story behind the dish is as important as the food itself.
Cafe Mayu offers local Peruvian coffee, while La Cerveceria is your spot for beer flights and casual dining. The weekend-only beer garden serves grilled food and libations with sweeping mountain views, and Kiri Bar is home to various pisco-based cocktails and small bites.
Activities
Outperforming many other Peru hotels in the area, Tambo del Inka offers both onsite and nearby attractions for guests to enjoy. You could truly spend your entire time at the property without ever getting bored or pack in multi-day adventures. Here are my top recommendations for your visit:
- Explore Tambo del Inka’s Boulevard: Instead of enlisting generic resort boutiques, Inka developed a 21,500-square-foot strip featuring a handful of Sacred Valley businesses. Visit a fiber arts gallery, alpaca-fiber clothing store, Peruvian cafe, distillery, or souvenir shop.
- Join a Kawsay Experience: Inka offers on-property cultural activities like an Andean astrology night, ceviche-making class, painting class, or weaving lesson, with different availability each day.
- Visit the town of Urubamba: Get a sense of local life in the valley by visiting the nearest town, accessible by foot, featuring a historic church, eateries, and shops.
- Commute to Pisac Archaeological Park: Just 45 minutes from Inka, Pisac offers over 22,000 acres of ancient ceremonial buildings and Inca stonework nestled into a scenic mountainside. In addition to ruins, vendors sell small trinkets, and alpacas roam the landscape.
- Maras Salt Ponds: 30 minutes from the hotel, experience a unique harvesting experience featuring thousands of salt pools fed by an underground spring.
- Head to Machu Picchu via train: Tambo del Inka is an unforgettable starting or ending point for those keen on visiting one of Peru’s most iconic stops, thanks to its onsite PeruRail train station. The scenic train ride lasts about 3 hours and it’s best to buy tickets in advance.
H2: Palacio del Inka
Cusco’s Palacio del Inka served as the basecamp for my final leg of my luxurious jaunt through Peru, and was noticeably different from every other Marriott property I visited, situated in a 500-year-old mansion-turned resort in the heart of the city. This location was the former capital of the Inca Empire, and it shows, with narrow cobbled streets and historic buildings surrounding the property.
Palacio del Inka became a hotel in 1976 and was eventually acquired by Marriott’s Luxury Collection but still holds relics from its conception over half a century ago. Entering the hotel lobby is akin to stepping into a revered museum collection, with cloister-like hallways and open-air atriums dotted throughout the property.
Days are bright, featuring outdoor dining, classes, local vendors, and alpaca encounters in its courtyards. At night, warm pools of light from the firepits create a calm, romantic scene in the heart of bustling Cusco. The mansion holds layers of history with its colonial Spanish and Incan influences, and its collection is equally as historic, with 195 works of art within its bounds.
The Andes Spirit Spa adds a layer of wellness that’s much needed between hotel and city exploration. Hotel guests can enjoy a hydrotherapy circuit, jacuzzi, and sauna experience, complemented with fortifying teas and fruit-infused water. My favorite feature of the spa was the Spanish-style shower experience. In a small room, you’re enveloped by multi-head spouts alternating in pressure and temperature, accommodated by light therapy. I felt as relaxed as I did invigorated after my time in it.
Accommodations
Palacio del Inka’s 199 rooms hold their historic prestige while offering modern comfort and amenities. Their base rooms start at 248 square feet, notably smaller than others on this list, but no less opulent, with with heavy wooden trims, hand-painted accents, and ornate bedframes.
Guests may experience various interesting views from their windows, from peeks into the courtyard to views of the street or even the neighboring Cusicancha archaeological site. For additional comfort, the property offers complimentary oxygen tanks so guests can adjust to the high altitude, over 11,000 feet above sea level.
I was impressed by how tranquil and quiet my room felt. My stay was during a holiday visit, so while there was a bit of ambient noise from Cusco’s busiest corridors, it was significantly quieter than it was when I was out on the street.
Dining
Inti Raymi Restaurant is the Palacil’s main restaurant, offering full-service Peruvian meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Traditional dishes like guinea pig confit and charred corn are served with gastronomical flair, and meals can be enjoyed inside the dining hall or in the Cuatro Bustos courtyard.
Rumi Bar is the perfect spot for pairing a Pisco Sour lesson with light bites, nestled in an intimate brick-lined room with dramatic lighting and music to add to the ambiance. Pizzas, tacos, and small bites are served here, with just as much artistic attention to detail as you’ll find in the main dining hall. You can also tour and sample cured delicacies during a cozy cheese cave experience, paired with exceptional wines.
To truly dine as royalty did, I recommend the Marquis’ Table Experience, an eight-course meal paired with traditional beverages like local beer, Peruvian cocktails, and the ever-present chicha morada, a drink concocted from purple corn. You’ll sample lamb, scallops, ceviche, and beef cheeks, perfectly portioned so you can make it through the entire tasting. Non-alcoholic and vegetarian options are also available, making the fixed dining menu accessible to all.
Activities
Palacio del Inka is a central hub for a robust Cusco itinerary, so this list is by no means exhaustive, but these are a few of my favorite experiences around this historic hotel:
- Shop at the San Pedro Market: Just under a mile from Palacio del Inka, guests can visit the oldest market in Cusco, filled with fresh cheeses, coffee, produce, textiles, and endless rows of souvenirs.
- Explore the Temple of the Sun: This prominent historical site is just steps from the hotel, and was the main religious hub of the Inca Empire, later converted into the Santo Domingo church by Spanish colonizers. Visitors can explore its layers of architectural history and exhibits during the day Monday through Saturday.
- People watch in the San Blas neighborhood: About half a mile from Palacio del Inka, San Blas sits atop a hill, melding cobbled roads and colonial buildings with contemporary galleries, shops, and eateries. Visit the Plazoleta de San Blas, a popular green space with a pedestrian square, sculptural fountain, and historic church.
- Take a tour of Sacsayhuamán: This enormous archaeological complex sits just over a mile outside of Cusco’s center, featuring massive hand-built stone walls, tower ruins, and the Suchuna rock formation. I recommend booking a guide for this experience to illuminate the stories and mysteries behind this exceptional site.
- Join cultural enrichment activities onsite: From an Incan ceremony to a Pisco Sour class to a tour of the property’s many art pieces and artifacts, Palacio del Inka is practically a living museum, with plenty of programming to enjoy in the heart of the property.
You don’t need to stay at all four of the above mentioned Peru hotels to have a magical experience. Each Marriott property offers enough onsite and offsite activities to keep its visitors engaged for any length of stay.
But if you opt to try a few nights at all four, you’ll feel what it’s like when Peru slowly reveals itself to you. From Lima to Cusco, this route takes you back in time, with an abundance of cultural and natural landmarks that have formed the country’s identity along the way.
And these hotels are more than mere stops along the way, but reflections of the story you’ve visited Peru to listen to.
