One quick look on any travel forum about what it’s like to drive in Peru will invariably find you wondering how you could have been so misguided as to even think it was a possibility. People will be quick to tell you it’s difficult, dangerous and even just downright stupid. But dig a little deeper and you’ll also find that none of these opinions are coming from people who have actually driven there. And that’s where we come in.
As people who love to visit places independently, booking a rental car is always our preferred choice. Peru was no different and we were very happy we decided to go for it.
Here’s everything we learnt about what it’s like to drive in Peru.
Before we get started
Although we spent a month in Peru, we actually only visited the Sacred Valley area, so this guide relates to what it’s like to drive there and within a four hour radius of Cusco. We will definitely return to Peru one day and update this guide with what it’s like driving in other areas, but for now we can only share our experiences in the Sacred Valley, (including driving in Cusco) and also Humantay Lake and the Palccoyo Rainbow Mountain.
We flew into Lima before flying on to Cusco and I have to say, that’s one area we would not want to drive in! The city traffic is terrible and the driving standards are horrendous, Cusco by comparison is a breeze. Unless you are really well versed in driving in places where you will be cut up constantly including by huge lorries, then give driving in Lima a miss.
15 Things to know about driving in Peru
1. On the whole, driving wasn’t difficult
Apart from a few things to be aware of, we found that 90% of the time, driving in the Sacred Valley area of Peru was quite straightforward. The vast majority of the roads outside the city are quiet and in decent condition (even dirt roads were in much better shape than the ones we’re used to in Australia). Even driving in Cusco was a lot easier than we’d expected, without too much traffic and almost none of the crazy antics we saw from drivers in Lima.
However, there are a few things you should be aware of before you hit the road.
2. Drivers can be aggressive
The vast majority of Peruvian people we met were gentle and lovely. However, that all changed when they got behind the wheel. The drivers in Peru can be pretty inconsiderate of anyone else, and never take long to aggressively overtake or block you from turning into slow moving traffic. In the cities, you will see single lane roads become three lanes wide with traffic if they deem there’s enough space.
However, the most dangerous aspect of driving in Peru is the overtaking. As the drivers in Peru are very impatient, they will overtake at even the slightest opportunity, going as far as overtaking multiple cars in one go (we saw someone try to overtake three cars and two lorries in a single attempt).
It can even be a bit challenging when you try and overtake. You’d think the most dangerous aspect of overtaking would be potentially hitting oncoming traffic in the left lane, but we found that the biggest danger was from other cars clattering into you from behind.
Drivers in Peru will simply pull out into the left lane and floor it, even if there is a car ahead that is pulling out. There were several times when we indicated and began to pull out only to see a car racing up behind us and suddenly swerve into the dirt off the side of the road to make sure they overtook you overtaking someone else.
It’s sensible to check there is no oncoming traffic when overtaking anywhere in the world, but in Peru you should make sure that there are also no cars coming from behind in the left lane!
3. You don’t need a car for Lima or the big cities
It’s best to avoid driving yourself around Lima and the big cities unless you have to. The driving in Peru’s capital city is incredibly aggressive - on a level with Delhi, Mumbai and Cairo (which is the most aggressive we’ve seen). In Lima, the biggest vehicle rules and you’ll see buses and lorries just turn into your lane and keep going without looking: they simply expect all other traffic to stop for them.
The overtaking is mad, the rules of the road are optional and there are a lot of times when you simply have to hope that your car doesn’t get scratched by the madness and erratic driving of others.
Cusco isn’t really like that, but you don’t really need a car to get around the centre and parking can be a pain.
4. Parking is scarce in the cities
Another reason to avoid driving in the bigger cities unless you have to, is that the parking is pretty scarce. Peruvian cities are made up of a lot of narrow laneways and large areas where you’re not allowed to park. It’s a lot easier to park at your hotel (many include free parking) and use taxis/Uber to get around the city centre. When it comes to Cusco, you can park at the ruins around the outskirts of the city easily enough (such as Sacsayhuaman) but it’s not worth driving to attractions in the city centre itself.
5. Car rental is pretty cheap, but take out your own excess insurance
We rented a car in Cusco during the peak season in Peru for USD $25 a day. This got us a Toyota Yaris (the saloon sized Yaris aka the American version, not the tiny European version) that was in pretty good condition, and included all the required insurances and unlimited mileage.
Compared to a lot of places in the world, this is pretty cheap and we didn’t have to worry about hidden fees, and insurance policies that you’ll face in places like Costa Rica. A standard excess is $1,500 USD, which is also pretty normal by world standards.
However, we recommend buying an excess insurance from your home country, not from the rental car company. You can get an excess insurance policy for as little as $50 USD for a two week trip and we’ve bought one that covers us for the whole year for less than $150 USD (for rentals of no longer than 30 days).
Often car rental companies will charge a minimum of $25 USD per day (we’ve seen it as high as $50 USD per day), which can often mean you pay more for the insurance than the rental!
If you want to find out where we get our car rentals, click here to skip to the relevant section of this article.
6. Beware of the hidden speed bumps
Just like Jordan, unmarked and unexpected speed bumps are a regular occurance in Peru. You’ll frequently find yourself driving at 40kph and then emergency break when you realise there’s a speed bump that came out of nowhere.
This tends to be more prevalent in urban areas, so lookout for “Urbana Zone” signs as an indication that they’re coming, but sometimes they will just be in the middle of nowhere. Dirt roads aren’t immune from speed bumps either, which came as a surprise to us!
7. It is slow getting around, but the roads are spectacular
There aren’t many quick journeys in Peru, and you’ll find that you’ll average 50kph at best. As most roads are single lanes with slow lorries that are hard to overtake and a lot of speed bumps, you’ll find that 100km journeys that take 1 - 1.5 hours in the UK or the States take over three hours in Peru.
However, the roads here are so picturesque, that you might as well embrace it. You’ll find roadside stops with views of snow-capped mountains and deep valleys. It’s one of the most beautiful areas we’ve ever driven around.
8. Most of the roads are in good condition
The first thing to know about driving in Peru is that the main roads are in a good condition, especially outside the cities. The major roads in the Sacred Valley are well paved and the majority of the time the biggest problem with the road condition was the occasional pothole (there are much fewer than the UK!).
However, it’s when you leave the major roads that things become more interesting. Dirt or gravel roads are prevalent in Peru, although the majority of these are also in good condition. It’s likely that at some point you’ll have to drive on unsealed roads to get to a hotel or tourist attraction, but virtually all were in decent condition and suitable for any vehicle (in the dry season).
9. You don’t need a 4WD in the dry season
You don’t need a 4WD to get around the Sacred Valley in Peru (in the dry season, it may differ in the rainy season). In fact, if you’re a confident driver, you can get to virtually every attraction in the Sacred Valley with a Toyota Yaris (this is the car a lot of tour guides use for private transfers, and groups go in pretty standard minivans).
If you are going more off the beaten track, then you may want a car with some clearance, but it isn’t essential. Confidence and experience is more important than the car itself from our experience.
10. Some attractions require a bit of experience driving on unsealed roads
The biggest concern we had about driving in Peru were the mountainous roads with steep unfenced drop offs. In fact, I read up on the roads to Humantay Lake, Palccoyo Mountain and Rainbow Mountain ahead of time and consensus for all three was that the access roads were crazy. They actually weren’t anywhere near as bad as we were expecting, but due to what had been said we chose to drive our rental car to the nearest towns and take a taxi from there.
Now we’ve seen each of the roads, we’d say it’s not strictly necessary. However, you do need to be comfortable driving on unsealed roads which are narrow, windy, sometimes steep, and always without a safety barrier. The road surfaces are actually pretty good (in the dry season) and that’s why we don’t think they’re as crazy as people made out. If you are planning to drive any of these roads and have any specific questions or want to see some extra photos, send us a message and we can give you more details.
One thing you need to be very mindful of on each of these three roads is not to go against the flow of traffic. So you’ll want to avoid the crowds, but without heading up the roads when tour groups are heading down. It’s easy to avoid this, but you do have to make sure you time it correctly.
Below is a rundown of the road conditions for the main Sacred Valley attractions, but please check with current tour times when you visit incase anything changes.
Rainbow Mountain - 1 hour dirt road
The road to Rainbow Mountain is wide enough for two cars to pass each other for the majority of the way, but it has some narrower sections and steep drops. This is one of the easier dirt road excursions on this list. The road surface is good in the dry season.
When to go: Tour groups tend to arrive at Rainbow Mountain between 7am and 9.30am, and leave between 10.30am and 12pm, so we recommend arriving well before 10.30am or after 1.30pm.
Humantay Lake - 1.25-1.5 hour dirt road
The road to Humantay Lake has more unfenced cliff edges with bigger drops than either of the rainbow mountains. There are also blind corners you’ll need to beep round and long narrow sections. This is the hardest on the list to independently drive to, but doable for a confident driver who knows what to expect. It is essential that you don’t go against the flow of traffic for this one as there are far less passing places and you do not want to be reversing on any steep narrow bits. The road surface is good in the dry season.
When to go: Tour groups tend to arrive at the trailhead to Humantay at 8.30am and leave at about 12pm. We recommend planning to arrive before 11am or after 2pm.
Palccoyo Mountain - 1.5 hour dirt road
The road to Palccoyo is a narrow dirt road with a lot of switchbacks, some short sections are steep, but most are not. Much of the route is actually along the valley floor, only around 20ish minutes are on steep mountain sections. The road surface is good in the dry season.
When to go: Palccoyo is one of the lesser visited places on the list, but there are still some tour groups that arrive at about 10am and then leave at about midday.
Other major attractions in the Sacred Valley
Pisac Ruins: A good road but steep. Only the last part has some potholes and small unpaved sections (where the paving has gone into disrepair), but it is perfectly fine in a rental car.
Ollantaytambo: the road to Ollantaytambo is fine until the town centre when it becomes a boneshaking cobbled street! Fine again for any car, just be prepared to bump along the cobbles.
Moray Ruins: Good road the entire way.
Moras Salt Mines: Good road to Moray and then a 6km dirt road to the mines. The last 2kms are on a narrow road with steep drops, so take it slow and beep at every corner!
11. Full beam is a way of life
It is safe to drive at night in Peru as the roads are good and there’s very little traffic. However, the few other drivers on the road seem to not know the effect of their full beam headlights! We found that every three cars seemed to be unaware that they were completely blinding us.
We found a novel, but slightly risky solution: turn your full beam on until they realise they’ve got theirs on! This game of chicken may not be for everyone, but we found that most drivers would realise what they’d done as soon as we did this and turn their headlights down.
12. Flashing headlights means “get out my way”
In the UK, the custom is that flashing your headlights is a sign to let the other person through. It’s a nice and polite gesture to give way to the other person. However, in Peru it’s the way to assert authority and tell the other person to get out of your way!
When you see someone flashing their headlights, assume they are accelerating forward with no intent of slowing down.
13. Download offline maps for Google Maps
Something that will make a big difference is having an offline GPS in Peru. Whilst a lot of the urban areas are decent for phone signal, you’ll find some places (especially narrow laneways) are black spots, meaning you can’t rely on being online to navigate. We always go with Google Maps as their offline maps work pretty well.
To set this up, open the app on your phone and click on the menu on the top right (it should be three horizontal lines in the search box) -> offline maps -> custom map -> select the area you want to visit and download.
Once it’s downloaded it will work offline.
14. Expect quite a few police checks
This may have been a temporary thing, but many of the toll roads in Peru aren’t operating and there seems to be a big police presence on the roads. After the January 2023 protests, we noticed that several were damaged (most had been burnt down), and staff hadn’t yet returned. However, there are quite a lot of friendly policemen who will block the roads and ask for the relevant documents, so make sure you always have your drivers license on you. We never had any issues with the police and found the exchanges to be very pleasant.
Similarly, speed limits seem to be sporadically enforced. It is meant to be 20-40kph in urban areas and 60kph in rural areas. You’ll also find that obeying the speed limit can result in you getting beeped and aggressively overtaken!
15. Hiring a car here can be a little different, but in some ways better
Peru has many of the major car hire companies, but they don’t operate quite like they do in most of the world. When collecting our car in Cusco, we were picked up at the airport and driven to what looked like a random residential suburb. After walking through someone’s house, we appeared at the office for the local branch of a multinational car rental company.
Whilst this may be a bit disconcerting for some people, we found that in turn this down to earth style meant you could talk to the company via Whatsapp to organise anything from a rental extension, to any questions you have regarding the car. This was really convenient when we decided we wanted to keep the car for longer than originally planned.
So overall, is driving in Peru safe for tourists?
Obviously our experience only relates to a small part of Peru, but overall we were glad to have hired the car. I would say that the roads in Peru can be more hazardous than in many western countries due to the driving standards, however, this is also the case for passengers in a car driven by someone else. The worst offenders for appalling driving by far were the buses and that included tour buses. Tours departing Cusco can be on 3-4 hour journeys each way (for places like Palccoyo Mountain and Humantay Lake) this means the drivers just want to get the journeys done as quickly as possible. The overtaking we saw was often quite dangerous.
I felt safer in our own car than I would have with any of the mini vans.
I would say you do need to be a confident driver and have some experience driving outside of western countries to drive here comfortably.
Driving in countries where strict driving standards are not upheld could never be labelled safe (although I guess no driving at all can ever be considered safe either!), but I felt comfortable having a hire car, certainly as comfortable as in places such as Israel, which also has aggressive drivers.
For us it was definitely the right decision because it gave us total freedom and allowed us to stay in lots of cute little out of town places we would otherwise have missed. If after reading this you don’t like the idea of hiring a car then you may want to look into private drivers, which can help you avoid the crowds without having to drive yourself.
Tips for booking a rental car in Peru
Hiring a rental car in Peru is quite straightforward and there are a lot of multi-national companies such as Sixt, Hertz and Avis to choose from. We recommend using a comparison site such as RentalCars.com as you can compare rental companies, including local ones that you may not have heard of.
We like Rentalcars.com as the search results show a snippet of the type of car you’re getting and cost, as well as other essential information such as the mileage included, a review score of the company you’re hiring from and whether it has free cancellation or not. This means you can quickly discount companies that may not fit the bill.
Here’s what you should check before booking a rental car in Peru.
Insurance
Let’s get the painful part out of the way, but you’ll need to check the essential insurance is included: third party cover, theft cover and a collision damage waiver. Even if these are all included, they will come with an excess you have to pay for any claims.
The good news is that these three insurance policies tend to be included as standard for the majority of car rental companies we saw in Peru. However, always check on the “important info” tab to make sure.
Excesses & Deposit
The excesses in Peru seemed to be pretty high on all the car rentals we checked, ranging from USD $1,000 to $2,500. On top of this, you will need a security deposit for a similar amount held on your credit card, so make sure you bring a credit card with a limit well in excess of this.
It’s worth taking the excess into consideration when booking as it could make quite a difference. We always recommend buying an excess insurance before you travel, but with this form of policy you do have to pay the excess and then claim it back afterwards.
Communication
We booked with Sixt in Cusco and had an unfortunate incident on the final day of our rental - I couldn’t find the key as we were about to check out, three hours before our flight! In this instance, I was glad we’d booked with a multi-national company as there were multiple ways to communicate with them.
Sixt is the only car company in the world that we’ve booked with that actually uses Whatsapp, which means that there wasn’t a language barrier and communication was quick. There were complications with resolving the lost keys, but essentially we were able to talk to them and get pretty quick responses, which made a big difference in what was a very stressful situation.
Hopefully this won’t be something that you’ll need, but it helped to have this form of communication as opposed to a generic office phone number.
Get a quote below
As we said above, we use rentalcars.com when we book car hire abroad as it shows prices from all the major car hire companies (and a few we’d never heard of) and makes it quick to know exactly what you’re getting.
Simply type into the box below to get a quote.
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, that we will earn a small commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase. This helps towards the costs of running our website. Thanks for your support.
