How do I get around Lima?

Download Uber and InDrive before you land at Jorge Chávez International. These two apps cover every route a visitor needs, and fares show upfront in soles. Miraflores to Barranco runs 6-10 soles (under $3 USD at the current rate of roughly 3.38 soles per dollar). Miraflores to Plaza Mayor in Centro Histórico is 12-18 soles depending on traffic, which in Lima means depending on the hour. Rush hour on Avenida Javier Prado can turn a 25-minute ride into 90 minutes behind a wall of exhaust. The cars tend to smell like synthetic air freshener and the drivers rarely speak English, but the app handles addresses and payment. InDrive lets you name your price, which tends to run 15-20% below Uber during off-peak hours. That said, Uber is more reliable after midnight when InDrive drivers thin out in residential Miraflores.

Lima's Metropolitano BRT runs north-south from Chorrillos through Miraflores, central Lima, and up to Independencia. A single ride costs 1.50 soles on a rechargeable tarjeta. Buy one at any Metropolitano station for 5 soles. The buses run in dedicated lanes, which means they move during rush hour when the rest of Avenida Paseo de la República sits gridlocked. Line 1 of the Metro connects Villa El Salvador to San Juan de Lurigancho for 1.50 soles per trip on elevated rail, but its route skews east of where most visitors spend their time. You might use it to reach Gamarra, the textile district in La Victoria, though that neighborhood requires street awareness. The old combis and micros, those dented minibuses that honk through every intersection, cost 1-2 soles and go everywhere. They are an experience. They are also hot, packed tight enough to feel a stranger's elbow in your ribs, and nearly impossible to navigate without Spanish and a working knowledge of Lima's street grid.

Miraflores is the one district where walking feels natural. The Malecón runs roughly 6 km along the coastal cliffs from Parque del Amor south toward Barranco, and on a grey Lima morning (most mornings from May through November), the cool Pacific air and the sound of waves crashing below make it one of the better urban walks in South America. Barranco is compact enough to cover on foot in a couple of hours, with its painted facades and murals concentrated within 6-8 blocks of the Puente de los Suspiros. Centro Histórico around Plaza Mayor is walkable during daylight, but sidewalks are cracked and uneven, and the diesel exhaust from bus traffic on Avenida Abancay sits heavy in the air. Between these districts, though, walking is not realistic. The Malecón path from Miraflores to Barranco is about 3 km and pleasant. Miraflores to Centro Histórico is 12 km through neighborhoods where sidewalks disappear entirely.

Street taxis, the ones you flag on the road, still operate without meters in Lima. Drivers quote a price before you get in, and that price runs 2-3x what the same trip costs on Uber. The bigger concern is safety. Unlicensed taxis have been linked to express kidnappings (secuestro al paso), where a driver takes you to an ATM and forces a withdrawal. This is rare in Miraflores and Barranco but it happens in Lima's outer districts. Always use an app. From Jorge Chávez airport to Miraflores, the official taxi counters inside the arrivals hall charge a flat 60-70 soles (about $18-21 USD). Uber from the same airport runs 25-40 soles but requires walking to the pickup zone on the departures level, one floor up. The airport sits in Callao, roughly 45 minutes from Miraflores without traffic. A 6 AM arrival gets you to your hotel by 7. A 6 PM landing might not deliver you until 8.