The Historic District encompasses the massive Plaza de Armas, and several Museums, Art Galleries and Restaurants in the vicinity. The Cathedral, Coricancha, and surrounding areas with the Monuments, Murals, amazing scenery on the hillside, and the vibrant people made us fall in love with this ancient and clean area in this city. The precisely created Inca Foundations of all the buildings, and the stunning Balconies all around just made us want to stop and stare. Even the numerous vendors and hawkers were not able to distract or annoy us. There was so much to do and see here. We were only here for four days, so had to hit the ground running without giving ourselves enough time to acclimatize with the high altitude here. In spite of this, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and would love to return to see and explore everything again at a more relaxed pace.

Cusco has been called the "Rome of the New World," and spending time strolling its streets really brings home how accurate that nickname is. Despite the Spanish Catholic superstructure of arcades and churches (all of them quite charming), the foundations and bones of the city are clearly Inca in a way you will not see at this scale anywhere else in the world. Many of the great colonial casones were built on Inca foundations of slanting, massive stones fitted together in their peculiar and unmistakable planar jigsaw fashion, and those foundations are still everywhere to be seen as you walk the streets, especially the steep alley-like Inca-era ones such as calle Loreto. It's true that there are many annoying hawkers and touts, including the ubiquitous massage-pushers and art dealers, but you will just have to ignore them. Don't miss the Plaza de Armas, views of the surrounding hills twinkling with light at nighttime, the foundations of all the Inca palaces repurposed into colonial edifices, or the viewpoint of town from the Mirador de Plaza San Cristobal.

One of our favourite places in the whole of Peru. Beautiful part of the city with lots of bars and restaurants and shops to browse. Simply gorgeous architecture. Lots of free walking tours starting from the main plaza. We always felt very safe when here and enjoyed watching numerous parades and marches.