Coastal road to Nazca

You can spend the first morning of this Nazca tour from Lima at your own leisure. You’ll be picked up from your hotel at around 12.30pm and transferred to the bus station, so you won’t need to worry about finding the right bus in the busy terminal. On the first leg of your Nazca tour you'll travel by Royal Class bus to Ica. The trip takes about 5 hours. The road follows the coast, which for a large part of the year is shrouded in that typical Peruvian mist called garúa. When the mist lifts you’ll see the rugged coastline of bare and barren rocks and an arid landscape eroded by the sea winds.

On arrival in Ica take a rickshaw to your hotel in Huacachina, a tropical oasis 4km outside Ica. The village lies on a tropical lagoon fringed with palm trees and pastel-coloured houses, in the middle of a desert landscape with enormous sand dunes.

Your hotel is a real little hideaway. Spend the rest of the afternoon chilling by the pool, take a walk along the lagoon or climb to the top of the sand dunes for a fantastic view. In the evening it’s time to taste your first pisco. This national drink is actually the result of a failed attempt at wine-making. By adding a little lime, sugar and egg-white it was transformed into the very popular national cocktail.

Early in the morning (around 6am) on day two of your Nazca tour you’ll be transferred to the small harbour of Paracas for the guided boat trip to the Reserva Nacional de las Islas Ballestas. The islands are famous for their unusual eroded rock formations (ballesta means arch) but particularly for the unique birdlife.

The boat journey takes about 45 minutes, passing a huge figure of a candlebra carved into the rock face. It’s a small taster of what you’ll see at Nazca further on in your trip. As you approach the islands the noise of the barking sea lions gets louder and louder and you’re greeted by the unmistakeable acrid smell of bird droppings...

Animals rule on the Islas Ballestas; the little boats full of human outsiders will sail past the rocks, but you won’t actually step onto land. All around you you’ll see, hear and smell seals, iguanas, penguins, pelicans and many other water birds. Entire colonies of sea lions lie wallowing in the sun and you’ll pass so close you can almost touch them.

The boats return to Paracas around 10.30am and we’ll arrange a transfer back to your hotel in Huacachina in time for lunch at one of the restaurants around the lagoon. Try the ceviche, a Peruvian specialty of raw fish marinated in lemon. If you fancy an adrenaline rush on your Peru holiday, you can have a go at sand surfing in the sand dunes around sunset (best time of day). It’s an optional activity which you can book at the hotel reception. Sand surfing is just like snowboarding, so try and keep your balance as you surf your way down the soft dunes. Beginners can slide down belly board style, just make sure you keep your mouth closed...
For a touch of romance on your Nazca tour, take an evening stroll through the fairytale palm oasis.

On the third day of your Peru trip, you can spend the morning relaxing at the hotel enjoying the warm desert climate, or go wine tasting at one of the vineyards in the area or visit the nearby town of Ica. For a real thrill, take a dune buggy ride through the sand dunes. You can have a go at sand-surfing during the buggy ride as well. Later that afternoon you’ll make your way to Ica bus station to catch the bus to Nazca. It’s two hours to Nazca, where you’ll stay in a simple hotel near the town centre. Nazca is a small town, but it’s one of the major tourist centres of Peru attracting thousands of visitors every year that flock here to see the world-famous Nazca lines. If you’d prefer a quieter location and a bit more luxury on your Nazca tour, we can arrange an upgrade for you. The hotel has been beautifully renovated and has a lovely pool. If you’d like us to book this hotel for you, just let us know on your quote request form. The additional rate is around £14 per person per night.