Guide · Day trip

Paracas and Huacachina in one day from Lima

Sea lions and penguins in the morning, pisco at lunch, the dunes at sunset. How a Lima to Huacachina day trip with Paracas works, what it includes and which tour to pick.

Check availabilityfrom $94 · cancel for free

Editorial team, huacachina-sandboarding.comUpdated October 26, 2026read in 6 minutes35 sources

The tour behind this guide Premium Paracas & Huacachina Day Trip from Lima with Sunset Toast 4.9 (10,196 reviews) 16 hours from$94per person Check availabilityFree cancellation up to 24 hrs before

Quick answer

01Our pick: A premium day trip rated 4.89 by 10,196 guests.
02Length: About 16 to 18 hours, back late at night.
03Morning: A boat to the Ballestas Islands; no landing allowed.¹
04Evening: Buggy, sandboarding and sunset at Huacachina.
05Not included: Lunch on the vineyard stop of both Viator trips.

What a Paracas and Huacachina day looks like

The classic Lima to Huacachina day trip strings three very different places together. In the morning you take a boat out to the Ballestas Islands off Paracas for the sea lions and seabirds. Around midday you stop at a vineyard in the Ica valley for a pisco tasting. In the late afternoon you reach the oasis for a buggy ride, a slide down the dunes and the sunset.

It is a long day by design. Lima to Paracas alone takes about 3 h 10 min overland, and the Paracas National Reserve lies 42 km from Ica city.² ³ The tour this page links to lasts 16 hours and the other Viator tour 18 hours, with both back in Lima around 11:30 pm.

What you get for that is the whole of the south coast in one sweep, without changing hotels. What you give up is time: the oasis part is short, and the boat, the vineyard and the dunes each get a slot of a couple of hours at most. If one of the three matters most to you, it may deserve its own day.

Our pick, hour by hour

Lima, the islands, the vineyard, the dunes

Early morning

Pickup in Lima

From your accommodation or a central meeting point.
9:30 am

Arrival in Paracas

Time for a snack before the boat.
Morning

Ballestas Islands

A speedboat trip of 120 minutes.
Midday

Pisco vineyard

A tasting and free time for lunch, 120 minutes.
Sunset

Buggy and sandboarding

120 minutes on the dunes of Huacachina.
11:30 pm

Back in Lima

Drop-off at your accommodation.

The Paracas and Huacachina tour we link to

The day trip this page recommends is a premium tour from Lima to Paracas and Huacachina with a sunset toast, run by Peru Hop. It is rated 4.89 from 10,196 reviews and starts from $94, with a guide who speaks English and Spanish, for a group of up to 40.

Its listed day runs like this. Pickup is from your accommodation or a central meeting point, and the bus reaches Paracas around 9:30 am. A speedboat takes you to the Ballestas Islands for 120 minutes, then a pisco vineyard with a tasting and free time for lunch takes another 120 minutes; lunch is not included.

At Huacachina the tour lists 120 minutes of dune buggy and sandboarding, timed for the sunset, then time for dinner before the bus back to Lima, where it drops you at your accommodation around 11:30 pm. Change your mind at least 24 hours out and the payment comes back in full.

Track record

Reviews per day trip

reviews

Each bar is a listing's own review tally on Viator or GetYourGuide, a rough measure of how often the trip has departed.

Side by side

Day trips from Lima to Paracas and Huacachina

Trip	Length	Reviews	Price
Premium & sunset toast (Viator)	16 h	10,196	from $94
Day tour & vineyard (Viator)	18 h	6,795	from $49
Day tour & vineyard	18 h	2,824	from $58
Premium & sunset toast	1 day	2,267	from $95
Paracas, Ica & oasis	17.5 h	696	from $62
Luxury, lunch & dunes	16.5 h	287	from $90

Length, review count and from-price as each listing shows them; the first two rows are sold on Viator, the rest on GetYourGuide.

Three day trips

Three more day trips, on GetYourGuide

Lima: Paracas and Huacachina Day Tour with Vineyard & Sunset

Most reviewed

Day tour & vineyard

Ballestas, Ica, sunset

Length: 18 hours
Reviews: 2,824
Price: from $58

See the day trip

Premium

Premium & sunset toast

Boat, Ica break, dunes

Length: 1 day
Back: Around 11:45 PM
Price: from $95

See the day trip

With lunch

Luxury, lunch & dunes

Breakfast in Paracas, winery

Length: 16.5 hours
Back: Around 10:00 PM
Price: from $90

See the day trip

Decision helper

Which day trip fits you?

Start from what matters most on a long day

I want the most proven trip I want the lowest price I want lunch in the price I do not want an early meeting point I want a long session on the dunes

Premium & sunset toast

10,196 reviews at an average of 4.89, more than any other trip here.

Day tour & vineyard

From $49; buggy and boards come with Premium.

Luxury, lunch & dunes

Its title names lunch, with breakfast in Paracas on the way.

Premium & sunset toast

It picks you up at your accommodation in Lima in the morning.

Stay in Huacachina

The board and ski outings there run for 4 hours at sunset.

it is not allowed to get off the boats to walk around the islands

PromPeru (peru.travel)Source 1

The Ballestas Islands from the boat

The Ballestas Islands belong to Peru's National Reserve System of Islands, Islets and Guano Points, and their rocks hold colonies of sea lions, Humboldt penguins and other coastal wildlife.⁴ ⁵ PromPeru puts them one hour from the coast, and every visit is from the water: you may not get off the boats to walk on the islands.⁶ ¹

On the way out you pass El Candelabro, a geoglyph 181 m long cut into the dunes of the peninsula, visible from 20 km away and attributed to the Paracas culture of about 200 BC.⁷ Boats leave from El Chaco Pier or the Paracas Tourist Marina.⁸ If you have never seen a sea lion colony up close, have your camera out as soon as the boat slows.

PromPeru's advice for the boat is short: book an operator authorized by DIRCETUR, stay seated, avoid sudden movements that disturb the animals and never feed them.⁹ ¹⁰ Bring a windbreaker, as it is cooler by the sea, above all in the morning.¹¹ On a day tour the boat is part of the package and the operator is chosen for you.

Map

From Lima down the coast to the dunes and the lines

First the Pan-American road south from Lima past Paracas and Huacachina to Nasca, then the lagoon beside Ica, then the bay of Paracas with the Ballestas Islands.

Map of the Peruvian coast from Lima south past Paracas and Huacachina to the Nazca Lines and the town of Nasca — Lima to Nasca

Map of Ica city with the Huacachina lagoon to its west, the regional conservation area and the San Camilo weather station — The oasis

Map of the bay of Paracas with Pisco, the town of Paracas, El Candelabro on the peninsula and the Ballestas Islands offshore — Paracas bay

1
Lima
Where the day trips and the buses start; Ica is about 275 km to the southeast.¹²
In Google Maps ↗
2
Paracas
Gateway to a reserve of 335,000 hectares; overland from Lima takes about 3 h 10 min.¹³ ²
In Google Maps ↗
3
Huacachina
The lagoon 5 km west of Ica city, at 406 m, ringed by dunes up to 100 m high.¹⁴ ¹⁵ ¹⁶
In Google Maps ↗
4
Nazca Lines
A World Heritage site since 1994, some 400 km south of Lima.¹⁷ ¹⁸
In Google Maps ↗
5
Nasca
The town of the flights; Ica to Nasca is about 2 h by road.¹⁹
In Google Maps ↗
6
Ica
The valley city of the Ica River, about 48 km from the Pacific.¹²
In Google Maps ↗
7
Conservation Area
The Regional Conservation Area that takes in the lagoon and the desert around it.²⁰
In Google Maps ↗
8
San Camilo
Where SENAMHI measures the temperatures and the yearly rain we quote, at 407 m.²¹
In Google Maps ↗
9
Ballestas Islands
Islands of sea lions and Humboldt penguins, seen from the boat only.⁵ ¹
In Google Maps ↗
10
El Candelabro
A geoglyph 181 m long on the dunes of the peninsula, seen from the boats.⁷
In Google Maps ↗
11
Pisco
The town in whose province Paracas and the boat piers lie.⁸
In Google Maps ↗

Open the map in Google Maps

Checklist

For a day on the coast and the dunes

In your bag

A windbreaker for the morning boat
Sunglasses, a hat and sunscreen
Cash for lunch and entrance fees
Water and snacks for the bus

Before you book

Whether the buggy and boards are included
Pickup time and the meeting point
Free cancellation up to 24 hours

Cost calculator

Price the day trip for your group

Enter your group size to compare four day trips.

Premium & sunset toast16 hoursfrom $94 Day tour & vineyard18 hoursfrom $49 Day tour & vineyard18 hoursfrom $58 Luxury, lunch & dunes16.5 hoursfrom $90

People 2

Total from$188

pp from $94

Check availabilityfree cancellation

The total is each outing's from-price on its booking site multiplied by your party, converted at the day's ECB rate; the checkout shows the final amount.

Video

Huacachina and Paracas: desert oasis, sandboarding and the Ballestas Islands on a day trip from Lima

The video starts loading once you tap play.

Paracas National Reserve beyond the islands

The islands are only part of Paracas. The Paracas National Reserve spans 335,000 hectares, and SERNANP counts 216 bird, 36 mammal, 10 reptile and 168 fish species in it.²² ²³ The reserve takes its name from the paracas, the strong sandstorms of the area.²⁴

Inside the reserve are the red-sand Playa Roja, whose color comes from pink granodiorite and which can be seen only from its viewpoint, and the Julio C. Tello museum with ceramics, textiles and tools of the Paracas culture.²⁵ ²⁶ ²⁷ The day trips on this page list the islands, not the beaches or the museum of the reserve.

If the reserve interests you, spend a night in Paracas and see it on its own. PromPeru recommends visiting between December and April, the summer months, and gives a climate of 18 to 23 °C.²⁸ ⁸ From Paracas, Huacachina is an easy onward hop, and the dunes reward a full evening rather than the short slot of a day tour.

The pisco stop in the Ica valley

Between the sea and the dunes, the tours stop at a vineyard. Ica is grape country: the region has long been known for growing and processing cotton and grapes, and it has celebrated the International Grape Harvest Festival since 1958, every March.²⁹ ³⁰ Pisco, the grape spirit, comes in three groups: Puro, Acholado and Mosto Verde.³¹

Both Viator trips build in a tasting and time for lunch at a pisco vineyard, and both say lunch is not included. A GetYourGuide day trip lists lunch and wine tasting in Ica for 1.5 hours, and a luxury version puts a pisco winery with tasting in its stops along with breakfast in Paracas.

If you are curious about the drink, ask which grapes go into what you taste. Pisco is made from eight grape varieties, among them Quebranta, Italia, Torontel and Moscatel, and it was declared Cultural Heritage of Peru in 1988.³² ³³ Keep the tasting light: the dunes come next.

The dunes at the end of the day

The last stop is Huacachina, the lagoon in the desert 5 km west of Ica city.¹⁴ The tour we link to gives it 120 minutes of dune buggy and sandboarding timed for the sunset, the other Viator tour 120 minutes of free time plus 60 minutes of buggy and boards with the Premium option.

The boarding on a day trip is mostly the easy kind: lying on the board and sliding down head first, one of the ways PromPeru describes.³⁴ For a stand-up session on a snowboard or skis with an instructor, the specialist outings take 4 hours and start from Huacachina itself.

Be aware of the official advice on the buggies too. PromPeru's guidance is to avoid dune buggy services, because the activity is currently neither regulated nor officially supervised.³⁵ On a day trip the buggy is part of the package; decide before you go whether you will ride or watch the sunset from a dune on foot.

Choosing between the day trips

The day trips differ mostly in comfort, how they treat the buggy and how they get you out of Lima. The tour we link to collects you from your accommodation; the other Viator tour asks you to be opposite the JW Marriott in Miraflores by 5:30 am unless you book hotel pickup. A luxury GetYourGuide trip picks up between 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM and is back around 10:00 PM.

Check whether the buggy and boards are included. On the cheaper Viator trip they come with the Premium option and can otherwise be added on the bus. On the tour we link to, the dune buggy and sandboarding slot is part of the listed day.

Then weigh the reviews. The tour we link to has 10,196 at 4.89, the other Viator trip 6,795 at 4.91, and the most reviewed GetYourGuide version 2,824 at 4.74. All three cancel free up to 24 hours ahead, and one Lima listing warns that the day may change without notice for weather, strikes or demonstrations.

Your sunset