Luxury holidays in Máncora

Sun, surf and ceviche: if these words are holiday essentials, Máncora in Peru’s north-westerly Piura region might just be the patch of the Pacific for you. This breezy, desert-backed beach town on the edge of the Equator is sunny pretty much all year, with Hawaii-rivalling surf swells down in ‘Peru’s pipeline’, aka Cabo Blanco. It’s here Hemingway is thought to have caught a hefty marlin that may well have inspired his famous fishing book. Beach bars and restaurants line the main drag, with tuk-tuks ready to take you home to the boutique boltholes around Las Pocitas if you’ve had one too many coconuts.
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When to go

This close to the equator, it’s almost always sunny – temperatures tend to stay within the twentysomethings all year, tipping over 30 between December and May. The coldest months are July and August, but even then the mercury regularly hits the high 20s. Máncora’s wettest month is March.

Getting there

  • Planes

    Catch a flight to Lima and then connect to one of three airports that serve the area: Piura, Talara and Tumbes, after which it’s an hour or two by car over the desert to the sea. Flight times to all three from the capital are under two hours.

  • Automobiles

    There’s just one dirt road through Máncora, and all the town’s bars, restaurants and hotels are easy to walk between – or hop in a tuk-tuk for a few soles.