This compact time capsule, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is inviting for Cusco honeymoon couples to tour on foot. Convenient, historic-feeling hotels in downtown Cusco include Monasterio (an Orient-Express hotel) (check rates) and Libertador Palacio del Inka (check rates).
Cusco’s central square, Plaza de Armas, is a gathering place lined with hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, shops, galleries, and money exchange windows. It’s possible to spend an entire afternoon prowling the Plaza, especially if you take time for lunch at Limo restaurant.
Still, Cusco honeymoon travelers are urged to get out and explore this flavorful and until recently remote city. Food markets gather hundreds of varieties of corn and potatoes, and souvenir markets tempt with inexpensive alpaca woolens.
Unlike Peru’s coastal cities including Lima, the dominant culture of Cusco and other Andean towns is Quechua. A tour of Koricancha Temple shows how the Spanish conquistadors built right atop the Quechuas’ holy buildings.
Its Catholic counterpart, Cusco Cathedral, is impressively vast and gilt-ridden; don’t miss the giant 17th-century painting depicting the Last Supper, with the Peruvian staple of cuy as a main course for the disciples. That’s guinea pig.
