How Much Does It Cost to Visit Peru in 2025?

Peru is one of the best places I have ever visited (and that’s saying something). I loved every moment (this blog post goes into more detail why). Besides being incredible, it’s also an extremely affordable destination (provided you limit your fine dining in Lima and guided hikes).

If you’re heading to Peru and wondering how much you’ll need to spend, look no further. In this post, I’ll break down how much I spent, where I went wrong, typical prices, and how you can save money.

How Much I Spent

During my sixteen days in Peru, I went to Lima, Arequipa, Cusco, and hiked around the Sacred Valley. I spent $4,992.63 USD or $312 per day. That broke down as follows (in USD):

• Accommodation: $1,246.51
• Food: $795.96
• Guides tips: $45.90
• Tours / Activities: $162
• Transportation: $80.96
• Private tours (see below): $1,770
• Internal flights: $480.06
• Travel insurance: $73.92
• Gear: $337.32

Now, I spent a lot more than you would in an equal amount of time. That’s for a few reasons:

First, Lima is one of the gastronomic hub with some of the best restaurants in the world. I ended up eating at more than few of these spots and that drove up my food costs.

Second, I did private tours for my guided hikes in Cusco for work-related reasons and that really drove up my costs (you’re unlikely to pay for private guides when you travel). Without those tours, my costs would have come down to $200 USD a day!

Third, given the limited time I had in the country and the ground I needed to cover, I also flew between most destinations rather than taking long overnight buses. Moreover, because, again for work, I had to swap some flights last minute, I had to pay change fees.

Finally, I splurged on a really fancy hotel in Cusco for a couple of nights, which actually accounts for 50% of my accommodation costs. YOLO!

So how much would you, the average traveler, need to budget if you wanted to visit Peru? Well, not as much as me that’s for sure! Here are some more reasonable suggested budgets for Peru:

Backpacker Budget
If you want to backpack Peru, I’d plan for $50–80 USD per day (185–300 PEN). On this budget, you’d be staying in hostel dorms, eating at typical hole-in-the-wall restaurants and cafés, limiting your drinking, taking public transportation and overnight buses, and doing a few paid activities and tours. If you’re going to party a lot, you’ll be on the higher end of this range.

Midrange Budget
If you want to basically follow what I did (minus the…