Where to Base Yourself in Peru as a Digital Nomad

The capital sprawls along cliffs above the Pacific, with a clifftop promenade (the Malecón), surf breaks below and one of the world’s great food scenes. Miraflores is the easy choice, with cafes, coworking spaces, parks and the most services; Barranco next door is artsy and bohemian, with bars and old mansions; San Isidro is the calmer business district. Lima has the fastest internet, the best private hospitals and the main international airport. Traffic, sprawl, phone theft and the grey sky from about June to November are the downsides. See the Lima digital nomad guide.

The old Inca capital sits at 3,400 metres, with stone streets, colonial churches and Inca walls, and Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley within reach. Most nomads live in San Blas, steep and full of cafes, or in the historic centre. It is cheap and packed with travellers, Spanish schools and hiking groups. Internet is usually 20 to 80 Mbps, enough for most work but with outages, flats are often unheated, and the altitude takes a few days to adjust to. See the Cusco digital nomad guide.

Peru’s second city is built of white volcanic stone below the El Misti volcano, with a UNESCO-listed centre, the Santa Catalina Monastery and a big food tradition of its own. At 2,300 metres it is lower than Cusco, and it is sunny most of the year. Most foreigners live in the centre, Yanahuara or Cayma. It has decent fibre, good private clinics, Uber and DiDi, and day trips to the Colca Canyon. The nomad community is small, and it suits people who want a calm, affordable city rather than a scene.

The valley of the Urubamba River, an hour from Cusco, is lower (about 2,900 metres), warmer and greener, with Inca terraces, markets and mountain views. Pisac has a yoga and wellness community, Urubamba has more services, and Ollantaytambo is the train station for Machu Picchu. Rentals are often houses with gardens. Internet varies a lot from house to house, nights are quiet, and you will go to Cusco for anything big.

A beach and surf town in the far north, near the border with Ecuador, with sun for most of the year, warm water and a lively backpacker scene in the high season. It suits surfers, kitesurfers and people who want a beach base for a few weeks. Internet is fine in better rentals but less reliable than in Lima, healthcare is basic (Piura is the nearest city with hospitals), and it gets busy and noisy around the holidays.

A small surf town on the north coast, 20 minutes from Trujillo, known for its reed fishing boats (caballitos de totora), long left-hand waves and the Chan Chan ruins nearby. It is quieter and cheaper than Máncora, with a small, settled community of long-stayers and surf schools. Trujillo has the hospitals, Uber, malls and the airport. The sky is often grey in the southern winter.

A mountain town at about 3,050 metres below the Cordillera Blanca, the best trekking and climbing base in Peru, for routes such as the Santa Cruz trek and Laguna 69. It is cheap and busy from May to September, with a community of climbers and hikers, and quiet in the rainy season. Internet is modest and healthcare basic, so it suits a season of hiking around lighter work.

• Start in Lima to recover from your flight, get a SIM and test your setup, then decide.
• Plan around the seasons. The Andes are best from May to September, and the coast is sunniest from December to April.
• Respect the altitude. Cusco, Huaraz and the Sacred Valley need a few easy days at first; the Sacred Valley is a gentler place to start.
• Check the internet before you rent outside Lima, and keep mobile data as a backup.
• Count your days. Visitor stays are usually 90 days and can’t be extended for most nationalities.