Lima itinerary for first-timers

Lima's main square is where Francisco Pizarro founded the city. The walk in starts on the Rinconada de Santo Domingo and passes Casa de Aliaga, one of the oldest houses in the Americas still lived in by the same family, before opening onto the square, framed by the Cathedral, the Archbishop's Palace with its carved wooden balconies, and the Government Palace.

• Rinconada de Santo Domingo
• Casa de Aliaga
• Lima Cathedral
• Archbishop's Palace
• Government Palace

The changing of the guard in front of the Government Palace takes place around midday; arrive a little early for a place at the railings.

Two blocks from the square, the yellow façade of San Francisco hides one of Lima's great sights: cloisters lined with painted tiles, an old library and catacombs where thousands of bones were laid out under the church. Behind it, Muralla Park follows a surviving stretch of the old city wall along the Rímac River.

• San Francisco Church
• Convent catacombs
• Muralla Park
• Rímac riverbank

The convent and catacombs are seen on short guided visits that leave regularly from the entrance.

The streets south of the square hold the finest colonial mansions and churches in the city. Torre Tagle Palace has some of Lima's most beautiful enclosed wooden balconies, San Pedro was the church of the Jesuits, and San Agustín has an elaborately carved stone façade.

• Santo Domingo Church
• Municipal Theatre
• San Agustín Church
• Torre Tagle Palace
• San Pedro Church

A few blocks east, the central market fills a whole block with stalls of fruit, spices and fish, and the red gateway on Capón Street leads into Lima's Chinatown, one of the oldest in Latin America and the home of chifa, the city's Chinese-Peruvian cooking. The streets beyond lead into Barrios Altos, one of the oldest parts of the city.

• Central market
• Capón Street
• Chinatown
• Barrios Altos

The market streets are very crowded; keep your bag in front of you and your phone out of your back pocket.

Lima's old shopping street, the pedestrian Jirón de la Unión, links the Plaza Mayor with Plaza San Martín, a grand square of early 20th-century buildings around a statue of the general who declared Peru's independence in 1821.

• Jirón de la Unión
• Plaza San Martín
• Avenida Nicolás de Piérola

In the middle of Miraflores, among apartment blocks, rises Huaca Pucllana, a great adobe pyramid built between about 200 and 700 CE, long before the Incas. From there, quiet residential streets lead to Kennedy Park and 7th of June Park, the busy heart of the district, with the Virgen Milagrosa church beside them.

• Huaca Pucllana
• Manuel Solari Swayne Park
• 7th of June Park
• Kennedy Park

The pyramid itself is seen on guided visits from the site entrance; the outside walls can be seen from the surrounding streets.

Miraflores ends at a line of cliffs above the Pacific, topped by a chain of parks known as the Malecón. The Park of Love has a giant sculpture of a kissing couple and walls of colourful mosaics, paragliders often float past, and the path leads south to Larcomar, a shopping centre built into the cliff face.

• Park of Love
• Villena Rey Bridge
• Malecón de la Reserva
• Larcomar

From May to October the sea mist called garúa often hides the sun; summer, from December to April, brings the clearest ocean views.

Lima's bohemian district is a neighbourhood of old seaside mansions, murals, galleries and bars. Watch the sun drop into the Pacific from the Catalina Recavarren viewpoint, cross the wooden Bridge of Sighs over the old path down to the sea, and follow the clifftop Malecón Souza.

• Catalina Recavarren viewpoint
• Bridge of Sighs
• Malecón Souza
• Street art

Local legend says you should hold your breath the whole way across the Bridge of Sighs and make a wish.

San Isidro is Lima's financial district, but its green heart is El Olivar, a grove of olive trees first planted in colonial times. Shaded paths wind between the old gnarled trunks, gardens and a small pond, and the surrounding streets are some of the calmest in the city.

• El Olivar
• The historic olive grove
• Gardens

Below the Miraflores cliffs, the Costa Verde is a strip of pebble beaches where Lima learns to surf. Walk down the Bajada Balta, a road cut through the cliff, to Makaha and Waikiki beaches, where surf schools work the gentle waves, then climb back up to the clifftop parks.

• Bajada Balta
• Makaha Beach
• Waikiki Beach
• Surf schools

The Pacific here is cold all year, thanks to the Humboldt Current; surfers wear wetsuits even in summer.

North of the Park of Love, the clifftop path continues past the red-and-white Miraflores lighthouse and the Chinese Park to María Reiche Park, whose flower beds trace designs from the Nazca Lines, named after the German scientist who spent her life studying them.

• Malecón de Miraflores
• Miraflores lighthouse
• Chinese Park
• María Reiche Park

Between the centre and Miraflores, the Park of the Exposition holds the Lima Art Museum in a 19th-century exhibition palace. Next door, the Parque de la Reserva is home to the Magic Water Circuit, a park of illuminated fountains you can walk through, with water and light shows after dark.

• Lima Art Museum (MALI)
• Park of the Exposition
• Magic Water Circuit

Come after dark, when the fountains are lit; check the evening show times before you go, as they change through the year.