Cusco

The holiest Inca sun temple, its perfectly fitted granite base now shouldering a Spanish colonial convent, offers a startling vertical cross-section of two empires in a single courtyard.

Massive zigzagging limestone walls assembled from boulders weighing up to 120 tonnes crown the hill above Cusco, rewarding the uphill walk with a panoramic sweep over the entire terracotta roofscape of the city.

The cathedral and La Compañía de Jesús face each other across the square where Inca ceremonies once took place, and market vendors still circle the fountain selling chicha and roasted corn.

A compact but well-curated private collection of pre-Columbian ceramics and textiles housed in a colonial mansion just off the main square, far less crowded than the city's flagship museums.

A steep barrio of whitewashed artisan workshops where woodcarvers, silversmiths and weavers sell directly from their doorways, and the tiny church contains a baroque pulpit carved from a single cedar trunk.

The city's main covered market sells fresh chicha morada, whole roasted cuy, mountains of dried chilli peppers and altiplano textiles at local prices in cheerful controlled chaos.

A small lookout platform at the top of Calle Tandapata gives an unobstructed view over rust-tiled rooftops toward the Andes, best visited at dusk when the light turns the stonework amber.

A carved limestone outcrop a short walk from Sacsayhuamán contains underground ritual chambers and a stone altar used for mummification ceremonies, visited by almost nobody after morning tour groups leave.

A long-running upstairs bistro on a narrow street near the Plaza de Armas blends Peruvian ingredients with Mediterranean technique, and its tapas bar pours some of the best pisco sours in the city.

Virgilio Martínez's original flagship restaurant serves tasting menus built entirely around altitude ecosystems, plating Amazonian ants, cushuro algae and cañihua seeds with jeweller's precision.

Located on the Moray archaeological site outside Cusco, this reservation-only restaurant by Virgilio Martínez sources every ingredient within walking distance of the circular Inca terraces visible through its windows.

A craft brewery pouring rotating taps of Andean-ingredient ales — purple corn stout, muña mint pale ale — in a relaxed industrial taproom popular with locals and long-term travellers.

A candlelit pisco bar on Calle Plateros that stocks over forty expressions of the grape spirit, and the bartenders explain the difference between quebranta, acholado and torontel with evident enthusiasm.

A reliably warm Irish pub two blocks from the Plaza de Armas with draught Cusqueña, live acoustic sets most evenings and a fireplace that earns its keep at high-altitude nights.

A motorcycle-themed bar overlooking the Plaza de Armas from a colonial balcony, serving thick pub food and cold beer to a mixed crowd of backpackers and local regulars.

One of the city's most enduring late venues, playing live Latin and Andean fusion sets early in the evening before the DJ takes over for cumbia and electronic music well past midnight.

A multilevel club on the Plaza Regocijo mixing reggaeton, electro-cumbia and electronic sets until 4 a.m., with an early-hours free-pisco-sour offer that reliably fills the dance floor.

A long-standing Cusco institution on Portal Harinas whose DJs spin Afrobeat, salsa and dancehall across two floors, drawing a genuinely mixed crowd of Peruvians and internationals from around 10 p.m.

A small but loud rock and alternative music venue in the San Blas area that hosts local Peruvian bands alongside touring acts, with a no-frills bar and a crowd that actually watches the stage.