Travel to Mancora

popular with residents of Lima

Set on the coast around 100 km short of the border with Ecuador, 800 km north of Lima, the town of Mancora is the main beach resort in Peru.

The town is renowned for year-round sunshine, surfing, kite-surfing, diving, fabulous seafood and pumping nightlife.

It attracts visitors from all over Peru and the surrounding countries. During the Nov-Apr summer season the place can become seriously packed out and very loud.

Although the centre of town is hectic and rather tacky (especially the swimming with turtles area, which we find particularly unsympathetic), there is a string of high quality accommodation options running southwards down the beach, far from the hubbub.

Mancora is usually accessed by air from Lima to Tumbes, from where it is a road transfer of around 100 km.

Mancora is generally considered to be a year round destination. The town experiences two distinct seasons …

The period of Dec-Apr is the warmest time of year, with peak daytime temperatures typically reaching around 26C/79F and nighttime temperatures remaining relatively high at around 19C/66F. Sunshine levels are high and there is virtually no rainfall.

The converse May-Nov season is cooler, with peak daytime temperatures typically reaching around 22C/71F and nighttime temperatures remaining relatively high at around 16C/61F. Sunshine levels remain high, in great contrast to Lima and more southerly coastal areas, which suffer from heavy coastal fogs at this time. There is also virtually no rainfall.

The diving is at its best Dec-Jan, when the surf is up, although some of the schools don’t rent out boards at this time for fear you will snap them.

Where to stay

In all honesty, only a tiny fraction of international visitors to Peru end up including Mancora in their trips, there’s simply too many exciting places to visit in the region to spend time taking it easy on the beach.

But if you do fancy some relaxation at the end of a hectic trip, then you could do a lot worse than spend a few nights at the very high quality small resorts in this area, like Arennas del Mar and KiChic.

can be visited any time of year