3-Day Tour from Lima: Paracas, Huacachina & Pisco Vineyard

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.91 (755 reviews) 93% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/8

Duration3d

GroupUp to 40

LanguagesEN · ES

PickupAt your hotel

Sea lions, penguins and golden dunes in one seamless run down Peru's coast.

A 3-day guided tour from Lima through Paracas, the Ballestas Islands, Huacachina oasis and a working pisco vineyard, with boat tours, dune buggy rides, sandboarding and wine tasting all included. The tour departs from your Lima hotel with door-to-door pickup and returns the same way; a bilingual guide leads each stop; skip-the-line entry to all attractions is built in. You'll stay two nights in Huacachina and travel in an air-conditioned coach with onboard Wi-Fi and a restroom, so the long drives between destinations don't eat into the experience.

Step-by-step itinerary

Day 1 — Travel from Lima to Paracas

Pickup from Lima hotel
Bus ride along Pacific coast
Breakfast stop at Mirasur restaurant
Visit Hacienda San José tunnels
Arrive in Paracas and free time

Day 2 — Explore Paracas and Huacachina

Speedboat to Ballestas Islands
Tour Paracas National Reserve
Bus to Huacachina oasis
Dune buggy and sandboarding
Evening free time in Huacachina

Day 3 — Huacachina to Lima return

Visit Pisco Nietto vineyard and tasting
Afternoon free time in Huacachina
Evening bus back to Lima

The Experience

The tour starts with a morning pickup from your Lima hotel in Miraflores, Barranco or San Isidro, then heads south along the Pacific coast on a Peru Hop coach. A breakfast stop at Mirasur, a countryside restaurant with a traditional clay oven, breaks up the drive with warm bread baked on-site. Before reaching Paracas, you'll walk through the underground tunnels beneath Hacienda San José—17 kilometers of corridors once used to smuggle enslaved people from the coast, now part of a 5-star hotel. The tunnels are dark and narrow, and the guide explains the colonial history that shaped Afro-Peruvian identity. You arrive in Paracas around 1:30 PM with the afternoon free to walk the Malecón, eat lunch by the water, or rest before the next day's early start.

Day two begins at 8:00 AM with a fast, open-air speedboat to the Ballestas Islands. The boat passes the Candelabra geoglyph—a massive figure etched into the desert hillside—before circling the islands themselves, where sea lions, Humboldt penguins, pelicans and sometimes dolphins move through the water in their natural habitat. From 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM, you explore the Paracas National Reserve on foot with your guide, walking past towering cliffs and colorful beaches where desert meets the ocean. An optional upgrade to a guided quad bike ride across the dunes is available on the spot. The coach then takes you inland to Huacachina, the only natural desert oasis in South America, arriving by 2:00 PM. At 4:30 PM, you strap into a dune buggy and speed across the sand dunes, then grab a sandboard and learn to ride down the slopes—standing, sitting or belly-down—as the sun sets in golds and pinks. The evening is yours to explore the village, sip pisco cocktails at a rooftop bar or eat dinner overlooking the lagoon.

Your final morning at Pisco Nietto vineyard includes a guided walkthrough of the entire pisco-making process, from the grape harvest through fermentation in clay jars to the bodega where the spirit ages. You taste multiple varieties—dry and citrusy to smooth and aged—and can buy bottles to take home. From 1:30 PM to 7:00 PM, Huacachina is yours: swim under the desert sun, climb the dunes for a panoramic view of the oasis, browse artisan markets, or paddle on the lagoon. The coach departs around 7:00 PM for the return to Lima, arriving at your hotel around 11:30 PM to midnight (later for downtown Lima). The bus has reclining seats, an onboard restroom and Wi-Fi for the journey back.

What’s included

Round-trip hotel pickup and drop-off in Lima.
air-conditioned coach with reclining seats, onboard restroom and high-speed Wi-Fi.
bilingual local guide.
skip-the-line entry to all attractions.
2-hour boat tour to the Ballestas Islands.
2-hour guided tour of Paracas National Reserve.
2-hour dune buggy and sandboarding tour with sunset toast in Huacachina.
guided tour of Pisco Nietto vineyard with pisco tasting.
visit to the underground tunnels at Hacienda San José.
two nights of accommodation in Huacachina.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyPublic transport nearbyNot for pregnant travelersNot for back problemsInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Peru Hop

Is this one for you?The 3-day timeline means you see the coast, the oasis and the vineyard without spending a week on the road, and the free afternoons in Paracas and Huacachina let you rest between the active moments—boat rides, dune buggies, sandboarding—instead of stacking them back-to-back. If you want to move at a steady pace and still have downtime to absorb each place, this itinerary holds both.