Peru Altitude : Elevation of Peru cities

Acclimatization at Peru

 

Machu Picchu : Information How to get there Hotels Restaurants Ruins detail   Machu Picchu City  

Machu Picchu More: Aguas Calientes MP Entrance Ticket MP Bus Ticket

Aguas Calientes : Information Hotels Restaurants Thermal Bath  

Other Destinations : Lima Cusco Machu Picchu Arequipa Puno Iquitos Nazca Lake Titicaca

Inca Trail :   ● Inca trail 4 Days Trail 2 Days Trail Salkantay Trail Sketch Trail Availability Trail Expense

 

If you are visiting Cusco or Lake Titicaca, know about Acclimatizing before you land there..
 

Cocoa Leaves

Don't be confused, it may be a ingredient of cocaine, but still Cocoa leaves is perfectly legal to buy in Peru. But it is illegal in most of the neighboring countries, so don't carry the cocoa bag with you while leaving Peru and entering another country.

 

 

Cusco Tourists Tickets -Boleto

Boleto (Boleto Turístico General, or BTG) is the admission tickets to some sites in around Cusco. If  included sites matches with your plan, it is wise to purchase the Cusco Tourist Ticket.

 

 

Inca Mystery

How do they lift those 15 tons stones? How they place those stones so neatly?

If you are planning to visit most of the cities in short time, then the major problem you will face is to acclimatize. If you don't acclimatize, there is always a chance that you will be sick. Not all the person become sick due to the lack of acclimatization, but chance to be sick is more with less acclimatization. For more information on how to acclimatize, read my page on acclimatization. So before you plan your tout, you need to know the altitude of different cities of Peru.

Height of Cities in Peru

City Height (Ft) Height (Meter)
Lima 5080 1550
Cusco 10800 3300
Ollantaytambo 9150 2790
Machu Picchu 8040 2450
Puno 12420 3860
Arequipa 7740 2380
Lake Titicaca 12420 3860
  • Are Peru cities really high in elevation !

You can see in the table above, Cusco and Puno are two cities ( lake Titicaca is at Puno) with more than 10,000 ft height. Other cities are not really that high. Many of the cities in USA  are at above 5,000 ft elevation.

Here is a list of some US states with there average elevation and another list with cities and the highest elevation in the city.

US State Elevation (ft)
Colorado  6,800
Wyoming  6,700
Utah  6,100
New Mexico  5,700
Nevada  5,500
Idaho  5,000
Arizona  4,100

 

US City Highest Point (ft)
Albuquerque 6,120
Denver 5,470
Los Angeles 5,074
El Paso 4,080
Honolulu 4,020

Here is another list of European cities with highest town in each country. From all these table you can get some idea on how to rank Peru cities comparing to other cities in different countries.

Country Region / State Town / City Height (ft)
 France Savoie Val Thorens (seasonal) 10564
 Russia Dagestan Kurush 8134
 Turkey Ardahan Damal 7217
 Georgia Svaneti Ushguli 7216
 Switzerland Graubünden Juf 6973
 Italy Lombardy Trepalle 6788
 Austria Tyrol Obergurgl 6332
 Armenia Kotayk Tsaghkadzor 5741
 Spain Teruel Valdelinares 5553
 Greece Macedonia (Greece) Samarina(Grevena) AND Seli(Imathia). 4800
 Liechtenstein Balzers Rotenboden 4645
 Macedonia   Krusevo 4455
 Germany Black Forest Feldberg 4190
 Bulgaria Smolyan Province Chepelare 4042
 Norway   Finse 4000
 Croatia Primorje–Gorski Kotar County Begovo Razdolje 3478
 Portugal   Guarda 3464
 Romania   Predeal 3389
 Poland   Zakopane 3280
 Germany Saxony Oberwiesenthal 2998
 Sweden   Högvålen 2739
 Hungary   Mátraszentimre 2657
 Finland Lapland Kilpisjärvi 1607
 United Kingdom Scotland Wanlockhead 1532
 San Marino   Acquaviva 1168
 Iceland   Mývatn 944
 Ireland County Wicklow Roundwood 781
 Netherlands   Vijlen 656
 Denmark Region Midtjylland Ejer 520
 Estonia   Otepää 518

Actually acclimatization (the process where body tries to adjust with the lower amount of oxygen available at high altitudes) is very important for mountaineers. Since they go really up, 10,000/ 12,000 ft do not mean much to them), they need acclimatization. For general people below 8000 / 7000 doesn't mean much.

That is why many people don't feel anything while visiting Peru. But if you are coming from a low elevation country, then you may try to acclimatize your body if you are planning to go to Cusco or Puno. Read my page on acclimatization for more information.

 

 Cusco: one of the high altitude city in Peru

  • Planning your tour and elevation of the cities

 

Many tour agencies try to organize the tour looking in such a way so that you can acclimatize while enjoying the tour. If you are planning a tour of longer time, 2/3 weeks, you must move from cities of lower elevation to cities of higher elevation. Like from Arequipa and at the end Lake Titicaca, Puno. But if you going Peru for a short visit, like for 2/3 days, acclimatization is not a practical option. Because if you are planning to go to Machu Picchu in that 2/3 days stays in Peru, you have to go to Cusco first, and now Cusco is one of the highest city in Peru. Before stepping on Cusco you should stay 2/3 days in Lima, by that time your whole tour period will be finished. Actually each day hundreds of people land Lima, and head for Cusco by plane, then next day the reach Machu Picchu and come back to Cusco, and finally Lima to leave Peru. So to reduce the effect of acclimatization you may take other measures, which I explained in my page on acclimatization.

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