The Real Adventurista Guide to a 24 Hour Lima Stopover

Come for the food, stay for the…. nevermind. Just come for the food.

Let’s get one thing straight: Lima is not a city that throws its charm at you. It plays hard to get—and maybe a little too hard. My first impression was of a safe, unremarkable city with a whole lot of 1970s concrete blocks doing their best impersonation of a cityscape. The kind of architecture that says, function over flair, and charm? never met her.

That said, I’d give Lima another shake.

We stayed at the AC Hotel in Miraflores, which was polished and well-located for our quick stay. It felt safe, walkable, and conveniently close to the reason Lima instantly earned a culinary comeback on my itinerary: Maido. A 15-course Nikkei tasting menu that might actually have healed some ancestral trauma. Every bite was a revelation. Cocktails were inventive, service was impeccable, and at around $100 USD per person all in, it was practically a spiritual experience in edible form.

But back to the city itself. I didn’t feel like I had enough time to truly dig into Lima’s potential. I was on the hunt for some colonial soul—graceful cathedrals, cobblestone plazas, timeworn balconies spilling over with bougainvillea. I know it exists somewhere here. It just didn’t rise to the surface in my short stay. Instead, what greeted me was a somewhat soulless skyline and a muted, flat coastline that didn’t exactly inspire sunset poetry.

So here’s the deal: if you’re flying into Peru on your way to Cusco (as most travelers do), you’ll likely spend a night in Lima. Is it worth a full city exploration? Jury’s still out. But is it worth it for the food alone? Absolutely. Come hungry. Come curious. And maybe give the city a little more time than I did—it might just surprise you with a quiet little cathedral whispering its secrets from behind a concrete wall.