Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Lima
Barranco and the coast in six hours
The bohemian district on the cliff, the bridge of sighs, the clifftop walk and the ocean below.
The three-hour route is the colonial centre. Barranco is nine kilometres south on the cliff edge, was the seaside resort of 19th-century Lima and is now where the artists and the good restaurants are. The malecón along the clifftop runs for kilometres with the Pacific two hundred feet below, and the descent to the beach is a genuine part of the walk.
The route, stop by stop
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Puente de los Suspiros
A wooden bridge from 1876 over the ravine down to the sea. Tradition says you hold your breath crossing it the first time and get a wish.
25 min here Walk here → -
Bajada de Baños
The ravine path under the bridge running down to the beach, lined with restored 19th-century houses. Steep and worth both directions.
35 min here Walk here → -
Museo Pedro de Osma
A belle époque mansion holding colonial viceregal art, most of it Cusco school. Small, immaculate and rarely busy.
60 min here Walk here → -
MATE Museo Mario Testino
The photographer's own foundation in a restored 19th-century townhouse, including the Diana portraits and a permanent room of Andean dress.
50 min here Walk here → -
Malecón de Barranco
Clifftop gardens and walkways with paragliders overhead and the Pacific below. Continues north for kilometres into Miraflores.
45 min here Walk here → -
Parque Kennedy
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
The square in Miraflores that is full of cats — dozens of them, fed and neutered by the district, and entirely used to people.
40 min here Walk here →
More in Lima
Every walking route in Lima, or the full Lima guide for where to stay and what a day costs.