Peru Beaches: 11 Worth the Trip, North to South (2026)

Peru beaches split in two at the water’s edge. In the far north, in Tumbes and Piura, the sea is warm and the sun shines from December to March. Near Lima and Paracas the sea is cold all year and, in winter, the sky is grey. If you want to swim, the best beaches in Peru are around Máncora and Punta Sal; if you want desert running into the Pacific and wildlife, Paracas.

The reason is two ocean currents. Off Piura, according to Peru’s national tourism inventory, the cold Humboldt Current meets the warm current from the north, and the water changes with it. The numbers below come from Peru’s marine institute, the tourism inventory and PromPerú, linked where we use them.

How warm the water is

Peru’s marine institute, IMARPE, publishes weekly sea temperatures for each port. Two weeks are enough to show the gap:

Week	Tumbes (far north)	Callao (Lima)
22 to 28 January 2023	28.8 °C	15.3 °C
23 to 29 July 2022	24.6 °C	14.6 °C

That is a gap of around ten degrees in both seasons. In Lima’s winter the sky is the other problem: the weather service, SENAMHI, describes fog, mist and drizzle on the Lima coast through the winter months.

The 11 beaches at a glance

Beach	Region	Known for	Nearest airport
Punta Sal	Tumbes	Calm, warm water	Tumbes
Máncora	Piura	Water sports, the main beach town	Talara or Piura
Vichayito	Piura	Where the two currents meet	Talara or Piura
Los Órganos	Piura	Surf, whale boats	Talara or Piura
El Ñuro	Piura	Swimming near sea turtles	Talara or Piura
Cabo Blanco	Piura	A famous left-hand wave	Talara
Lobitos	Piura	Surf, three protected breaks	Talara
Colán	Piura	Shallow water for bathing	Piura
Chicama	La Libertad	One of the longest waves in the world	Trujillo
Huanchaco	La Libertad	Reed boats and surf	Trujillo
Paracas	Ica	Desert coast, sheltered coves	By road from Lima

1. Punta Sal

Punta Sal is the beach we suggest for swimming. The tourism inventory places it about 81 km south of the city of Tumbes and 23 km north of Máncora, with gentle waves and warm water through the year. PromPerú puts the flight from Lima to Tumbes at about 1 hour 50.

2. Máncora

Máncora is the town most trips to the north coast are built around. The tourism inventory lists surf, bodyboard, snorkelling, windsurfing and kitesurfing, and puts it about 190 km north of the city of Piura, three and a half hours by bus. From Lima, PromPerú gives about 1 hour 45 to Piura by air.

3. Vichayito

Vichayito, next to Máncora, is the beach whose inventory record explains the warm water of this coast: it is where the cold and the warm currents meet.

4. Los Órganos

Los Órganos has three main surf points, one of them, La Vuelta, rated by the inventory among the best waves on the north coast. It is also one of the ports the whale boats leave from: PromPerú gives the humpback whale season as mid-July to the end of October.

5. El Ñuro

At El Ñuro, 23 km from Máncora, green and hawksbill turtles come to the pier, and you can swim near them. PromPerú asks visitors not to touch or feed them. Half a day is enough.

6. Cabo Blanco

About 40 km north of Talara, Cabo Blanco is known to surfers: the inventory notes that for many of them it has the best left-hand wave in Peru. It is a stop for people who surf, not a beach for swimming.

7. Lobitos

Lobitos, 17 km from Talara, is the surf town of the north. Its water, according to the tourism inventory, is 24 to 30 °C from December to April and 16 to 20 °C from May to November, and three of its breaks are protected by law under a resolution published in El Peruano.

8. Colán

Colán, about 17 km from Paita, has shallow water and a calm sea, which the inventory describes as ideal for bathing. It is the quiet choice on this coast, and the closest to the city of Piura.

9. Chicama

Further south, at Puerto Malabrigo in La Libertad, Chicama is the beach surfers travel for. PromPerú and the tourism inventory both describe its left-hand wave as the longest in the world. It is 76.5 km from Trujillo, about two hours by road, and Trujillo is about an hour from Lima by air.

10. Huanchaco

Huanchaco, 13 km and half an hour from Trujillo, is where fishermen still go out on caballitos de totora, small reed boats, and the inventory calls it a cradle of surfing. It pairs well with Chan Chan, the Chimú capital on the edge of Trujillo.

A caballito de totora at Huanchaco. Photo by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

11. Paracas

Paracas is the beach coast within reach of Lima, three and a half hours by road, and it is a desert coast rather than a swimming one. La Mina, a horseshoe cove sheltered from the wind, is 16.6 km from the town. The famous Red Beach is seen from a viewpoint: PromPerú notes that swimming there is not allowed. Paracas works best as the first night of the trip to the Nazca Lines, with the Ballestas Islands in the morning.

When to go and how to fit it in

PromPerú puts the beach season from December to March, which is the rainy season in the Andes. That makes the north coast a good way to end a trip in those months, after Machu Picchu: back to Lima, a short flight north and three or four nights by the sea. In July and August the north coast is cooler but still far warmer than Lima, and the whale season has begun.

Before you swim anywhere, Peru’s health authority, DIGESA, rates beaches as healthy when the water passes its tests, the sand is clean and there are toilets, and publishes the list on Verano Saludable.

For the rest of the country, see our guide to the best places to visit in Peru, and for the trips we run, our Peru tours.