One Perfect Day in Miraflores, Lima, Peru: Ceviche, Cats, and Clifftop Views
Perched dramatically atop Lima’s Pacific cliffs, Miraflores is one of Lima’s most popular districts, with its green expanse of the Malecón, coastal views, and some of the city’s best food spots and attractions. Thanks to its central location, it’s also the most convenient base for exploring other parts of Lima, which is why so many visitors choose to stay here.
During our stay in Lima, my partner and I based ourselves in Miraflores, and I definitely recommend it. It’s walkable, lively, and gives you an instant sense of what makes Lima unique. Since we also wanted to spend time in other districts — like the historic center and artsy Barranco — I planned one perfect day in Miraflores: a route designed to minimize backtracking, cover the highlights on foot (about 5 miles / 8 km in total), and include some of the district’s most mouthwatering food stops.
This itinerary gives you a flavor of Miraflores, but of course, it’s impossible to see everything in just one day. For example, this itinerary skips Huaca Pucllana, the ruins of an ancient clay and adobe pyramid of the pre-Inca Lima Culture, which I visited on another museum-focused day. If you have the time, I recommend dedicating at least a couple days to Miraflores, but if you’re really short on time, this itinerary will give you a concentrated highlights tour of the district.
Quick Tips
Miraflores is one of Lima’s safest districts. However, exercise usual levels of caution and pay attention to your belongings, especially in and around Kennedy Park, which tends to be very crowded.
Given the density of Miraflores, walking around is in my opinion the best way to get from place to place and to take in the vibe. But, Uber is readily available.
Itinerary
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Early seafood lunch at Punto Azul (famed seafood spot for fresh ceviche)
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM: Parque Kennedy and its cats
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM: Coffee stop at Puku Puku Cafe
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM: Mercado Indio artisan market
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM: Head to El Malecón de Miraflores
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Ocean clifftop (El Malecón) walk
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Larcomar open-air mall
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Dinner at Mercado 28 or La Lucha Sagucheria, and dessert at La Picaronería
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Early seafood lunch at Punto Azul
What better way to start the day in Lima than with ceviche? Punto Azul is a very popular spot for seafood that luckily was steps away from our rental. We knew ahead of time that the place fills up fast and often has lines out the door, and it doesn’t take reservations, so we aimed to get there earlier in the day to beat the rush. The place opened at 11AM, and we got there at 11:30AM. We got seated immediately, but by the time it was 12:30PM, we noticed a line out the door.
We ordered a ceviche Punto Azul (fish and mixed seafood with a rocoto pepper sauce), a ceviche de pescado y pulpo (classic leche de tigre ceviche with fish and fresh octopus), and a causa de pulpa de cangrejo (a classic Peruvian dish that’s sort of a mini casserole, with a potato puree on the top and bottom with a filling in the middle, which in this case was crab with mayo).
In our time in Lima, we tried several ceviche places, from small, hole-in-the-wall locals, to mid-ranged general Peruvian restaurants, to seafood specialties, and I can confidently say this was the best ceviche we had. The place was so worth the hype. The portion was large, the fish in huge chunks and so, so fresh, and the seasoning was perfect. To be honest, any of the ceviche I had in Lima basically had already revolutionized my perceptions of how ceviches should taste (the fish was just so fresh), but this was another level.
The service was top-notch too. The waiters were attentive, knowledgeable, and made us feel welcomed. We loved the place so much that we actually went back another day during the lunch rush. And as we were waiting (about 45 minutes), the restaurant, to our surprise, gave all of us waiting some free pisco sours and fried potato sticks with a delicious dip.
The second time, we ordered a classic ceviche de pescado (just fish), and a risotto de Punto Azul (which isn’t actually on the menu and is a squid ink risotto with fried fish and seafood). Both were amazing – we knew the ceviche was going to be top-notch, but the risotto blew our minds with the perfectly cooked texture and the deep umami of the squid ink.
I’ll stop raving about this place now, but seriously, visit this place in Miraflores if you love seafood. And if you only have one meal to have ceviche, have it here.
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM: Parque Kennedy and its cats (~20 minutes)
After lunch, we carried our full bellies to Parque Kennedy, the lively heart of Miraflores where weekend craft stalls pop up and both locals and tourists gather. It is perhaps most famous, though, as the home for a rather large colony of cats.
People build houses for the cats and feed them at regular hours. We were there when the sun was peaking out a bit, and cats were just lounging around in sunny spots on the church steps and in the middle of the street without a care in the world. The cats are so comfortable in the space that we saw scenes of cats just chilling with locals on the benches, sitting next to them as the humans nap or chat away. While I was sitting on a bench, I had a cat just casually jump on my lap and stretch a bit too. For the cat lover, this might be paradise. It was really fun to see the community come together to take care of these cats.
Besides cats, Parque Kennedy is also home to the Iglesia Virgen Milagrosa, a Peruvian Neocolonial church completed in 1939. The church was peaceful and not big or flashy, but it had these beautiful stained glass windows that are worth dipping in to check out.
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM: Coffee stop at Puku Puku Cafe (~20 minutes)
As someone who loves coffee and needs her daily cup, I was quite excited to try Peruvian coffee. Puku Puku Cafe is a 100% Peruvian speciality coffee chain with a few locations in Miraflores. We went to the one on Av. La Paz, which has great seating (including plushy floor cushions for those looking for cozy time), vibrant Peruvian pom poms hanging from the ceiling, and a generally cozy vibe that makes you want to stay a bit.
I got a pourover of one of their medium-roast single origin coffees, and it was great. I found that somehow, the coffee in Lima was quite strong – I remember getting quite a few caffeine jitters even though I usually don’t experience them even with a lot of coffee.
I was just passing by this time around, but for the digital nomad, I recommend this location. The Wifi was excellent, and the vibe was just the right level of murmur for a good day’s concentrated work.
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM: Mercado Indio artisan market
Coffee in hand, we headed to north Mercado Indio, a large artisan market in the north part of Miraflores where several such markets were located.
One concern we had was that the stalls might be cash-only, but all of the places we talked to took credit cards. And during the time we were there in the early PM, there were few people, which had the upside of not having to squeeze through crowds in the narrow hallways, but also meant we were called out to more so by the merchants.
This was overall fun to walk around, especially to get a sense of traditional Peruvian crafts or if you’re looking for souvenirs. But it’s clear that most of the stalls all sold similar or identical products. I’d say that if you are less interested in these types of markets, you could instead head to Huaca Pucllana (the ruins of a pre-Inca pyramid from the Lima culture), a 10-15 minutes walk north from Mercado Indio.
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Ocean clifftop (El Malecón) walk
We then headed back down southward, following the wide Av. Arequipa a little bit, then connecting to the diagonal path down to the entrance of El Malecón de Miraflores. Overall, in some of the large avenues in Miraflores (Arequipa, José Pardo to name a couple), there are pedestrian and cycling pathways in the middle of the two car lanes. They definitely make walking on these large streets much more pleasant. It took around 30 minutes to walk from Mercado Indio to Love Park (Parque del Amor) around the entrance of the Malecón.
El Malecón is a scenic clifftop park that spans the length of the Pacific edge of Miraflores. The winding walkways next to the dramatic cliffs, with the vast expense of the grey Pacific, were really a contrast with the hustle and bustle of the Miraflores interior. Though we didn’t do it, this is a popular place for paragliding, and we saw several operators setting people up to do so, as well as a number of paragliders in the air. If adventure sport is your jam, this would definitely be cool to do; though for us, the paragliders made for some great photos of the Malecón skyline, especially with the overcast August sky.
On the ground, it’s a hub of activity. There were various art installations, street vendors (I especially like the Donofrio ice-cream vendors in their cute yellow carts and uniforms), and quirkier set-ups (such as this “conversaciones gratis” / “free conversations” booth below where there were literally just two chairs, and you can sit down to just have conversations with the person running it).
We followed the walkway to El Faro de la Marina (Navy Lighthouse), an active lighthouse constructed in 1900 elsewhere but reassembled in Lima in 1973. We sat a little bit on the benches surrounding the lighthouse to admire it a bit before doubling back. During our stay in Miraflores, we came back to El Malecón several time, some times to walk off the food we just stuffed ourselves with, and others to just take in the Pacific cliff views. If I lived in Lima longer-term, I would go there all the time for runs for sure.
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Larcomar open-air mall
We headed towards Larcomar, a multi-story mall near the entrance of El Malecón. The mall is an atypical structure as it clings on the cliffside, so you descend into it. The mall is like any other mainstream mall in terms of stores, but the backdrop of the ocean is awesome.
We spent around an hour there wandering around and waiting for some sunset views, but it was too cloudy that day to see any sunset colors. The misty twilight and soft lighting of the mall, combined with the moody Pacific waters, still made for a great vibe.
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Dinner at Mercado 28 or La Lucha Sagucheria, and dessert at La Picaronería
We went to Mercado 28 for dinner, which was one of many food markets in Miraflores. You essentially have a variety of stalls to choose from, each selling different types of foods and cuisines, and you sit in a center seating area. So, it’s a good place to go if you and your party want different types of foods. Mercado 28 had stalls for Peruvian cushion, including anticuchos (skewers of grilled meat), traditional criolla, chifa (Peruvian Chinese), pollo a la brasa, as well as for other cuisines like pizza, poke, Italian, French, among others. My partner and I ordered anticuchos de corazon (pork heart skewers) and a lomo saltado. Both dishes were yummy and the portions were large, and overall, the place gives you a good taste of the food market scene in Lima.
However, alternatively, I would also recommend going to one of the La Lucha Sagucheria locations in Miraflores, which sell Peruvian saguches (sandwiches) with a variety of types of meats. My favorite was the chincarron (pork belly) one.
For dessert, we really wanted to try picarones, a traditional Peruvian dessert that originated in Lima in the 1500s. Picarones are doughnuts made of squash and sweet potato, covered in syrup made from chancaca (syrup made from unrefined sugarcane sugar). We got an order of the traditional picarones with just the syrup, and another order of the picarones with syrup and a scoop of chancaca ice-cream.
If you like doughnuts or anything hot, fried, and sweet, you must try these, especially the ones with ice-cream. For someone who loves sweet-potato based desserts, this was amazing. The picarones were fried to order and arrived so hot, with a crispy crust and a chewy center. That hot fried dough combined with the sweet ice-cream and syrup were just heavenly.
This was the last stop of the itinerary, and we headed back home, very full and satisfied. Overall, though we spent more time in Miraflores than just that one day, it was fun and memorable to experience so much of Miraflores’ charm in one jam-packed day.
