Arequipa is built from sillar, a white volcanic ash stone quarried from the slopes around it, which is why it is called the white city and why the whole historic centre has a particular brightness in the high altitude sun. It sits at about 2,335 metres with three volcanoes on the skyline: El Misti, a near perfect cone at 5,822 metres, with Chachani and Pichu Pichu either side. Misti is active, and Inca mummies were found in its crater in 1998.
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The centre is UNESCO listed and its single most extraordinary building is the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a walled convent covering 20,000 square metres that functioned as a city within a city from 1579, closed to outsiders for almost four hundred years, and painted in deep terracotta and cobalt. Arequipeños have a reputation in Peru for regional pride bordering on separatism, the food is widely held to be the country's best, and the city is the launch point for the Colca Canyon, which at over 3,200 metres deep is roughly twice the Grand Canyon.
What Makes Arequipa Different to Pack For
Altitude, and then much more altitude
The city at 2,335 metres is a gentle acclimatisation stop, warm by day at 20°C to 25°C and cold at night at 5°C to 10°C, with almost no rain outside January to March. The Colca Canyon trip, however, crosses a pass at around 4,900 metres, higher than anything on the Inca Trail, and the standard tour does it within hours of leaving the city. That combination is where people get altitude sickness.
A merino wool base layer for women is the base of everything here: the nightly drop in the city, the pre-dawn Colca departure, and the pass itself, where it will be near freezing with wind.
The sun is extreme
High altitude, thin air, low latitude and white stone that reflects. The UV index regularly exceeds 11, which is the top of the scale.
Very dry
Arequipa sits on the edge of the Atacama and gets around 100mm of rain a year. Lips, skin and sinuses all suffer.
Seismically and volcanically active
Arequipa has been damaged by earthquakes repeatedly, most recently in 2001, and Misti and Sabancaya are both active; Sabancaya has been erupting continuously for years and occasionally dusts the Colca route with ash.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Arequipa Packing List
Footwear
Comfortable flat shoes with grip for the city, which is stone paved, uneven and polished in the centre.
Waterproof hiking shoes or boots for the Colca Canyon, and this is not optional if you intend to walk into it: the descent to Sangalle at the canyon floor is around 1,200 metres of loose switchbacks and the climb out is three to four hours of the same in reverse at altitude. People do it in trainers and suffer.
Clothing
Layers, weighted for a very large daily swing. In the city: shirt weather by day, jacket by night, every day of the year. For Colca: base layer, mid layer, windproof shell, warm hat and gloves, because the Patapampa pass at 4,900 metres is cold and exposed and the condor viewpoint at Cruz del Condor is an early morning in the wind.
A packable rain jacket, mainly as a windproof, and for the January to March rains.
Covered shoulders and knees for the cathedral, Santa Catalina and the Jesuit church. Arequipa is a conservative provincial capital and dresses neatly; swimwear is only relevant at the canyon floor pools.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat, factor 50 sunscreen, lip balm with SPF and proper sunglasses. This is the highest UV category of anywhere in this library: thin air at 2,335 metres, near the tropics, with white sillar reflecting from every wall. People burn badly on a 22°C day here.
Practical
Cash in soles for markets, colectivos and the Colca entry ticket. A refillable bottle; tap water is not drinkable. Coca tea or soroche pills are sold everywhere and locals swear by them for altitude. A head torch for a pre-dawn Colca departure, which typically leaves at 3am. Moisturiser and lip balm for the dryness. Altitude sickness medication if your doctor recommends it, discussed before you travel. And a warm layer accessible in your day bag rather than buried in luggage.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Monasterio de Santa Catalina
A walled convent from 1579, effectively a small town of streets, cloisters, kitchens and cells painted in terracotta, cobalt and white, where wealthy families sent second daughters with servants and silver until reforms in the 1870s.
Practically: allow two to three hours, which is far more than most people budget, and go late afternoon when the light on the painted walls is at its best. Shoulders and knees. There are evening openings by candlelight on some days, which are worth checking. The lanes are stone and uneven.
The Plaza de Armas and the cathedral
An arcaded square in white sillar on three sides with the cathedral filling the fourth, unusually, and Misti behind it.
Practically: shoulders and knees in the cathedral, and the roof and tower tour is worth taking for the volcano view. The square is comfortable and busy in the evening. Take a warm layer; it drops fast after sunset.
The Museo Santuarios Andinos and Juanita
A small museum holding Juanita, the frozen body of a girl of about thirteen sacrificed on Ampato around 1450 and found in 1995, preserved well enough that her skin and clothing survive.
Practically: guided visit only, roughly an hour, and it is handled with care and seriousness rather than spectacle. It is a genuine human being and the museum asks for quiet; photography is not permitted. Cold inside, for obvious reasons.
The Colca Canyon and Cruz del Condor
A canyon over 3,200 metres deep about four hours north, with terraced farming that predates the Inca, colonial villages at Chivay and Yanque, and a viewpoint where Andean condors ride the morning thermals out of the gorge.
Practically: the standard one day tour leaves Arequipa at around 3am, crosses the 4,900 metre Patapampa pass, reaches the condor viewpoint by mid morning and returns late; it is exhausting and the altitude hits people hard. A two day version with a night at Chivay is far better and safer. Warm layers, hat, gloves, sun protection, water. The condors are most reliable between about 8 and 10am and they are not guaranteed. If you trek into the canyon, treat the climb out as the serious part, start before dawn, and consider hiring a mule.
Eating, which Arequipeños will insist is the point
Rocoto relleno, chupe de camarones, adobo on Sunday mornings, ocopa, and the picanterias, traditional lunch houses that serve a rotating weekly menu.
Practically: the picanterias in Yanahuara and Sachaca are the real thing and serve at lunch only. Rocoto is genuinely hot. The Mercado San Camilo is good for fruit and juice. Altitude makes alcohol stronger than expected and pisco is not gentle.
Yanahuara and the viewpoints
A district across the river with a sillar mirador framing Misti, and the Carmen Alto and Sachaca viewpoints beyond.
Practically: a twenty minute walk or a short taxi. Early morning is clearest before the cloud builds on the volcanoes.
What Not to Bring
Leave the assumption that 2,335 metres is nothing, because the Colca pass at 4,900 is not.
Leave trainers for a canyon trek. Leave weak sunscreen. Leave the one day Colca tour if you can afford two. Leave a camera to the Juanita museum, where it is prohibited. And leave the idea that the city is warm at night.
Essential Resources for Women in Arequipa
Emergency numbers in Peru: 105 for police, 116 for fire, and 106 for SAMU ambulance. English is not reliable on these lines, so your accommodation is often the faster route.
Tourist police: Peru operates a dedicated Policia de Turismo and Arequipa has a detachment in the centre; they are used to handling theft reports for insurance and are more helpful to foreigners than the general police. iPeru, the national tourist information and assistance service, has an office in Arequipa and is the number to call for a problem with a tour operator or a stolen document.
US Embassy: the US Embassy in Lima at pe.usembassy.gov covers Peru, with a consular agency in Arequipa providing limited services. Lima is an hour and a half by air. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: Clinica Arequipa and Clinica San Juan de Dios are the private hospitals used by visitors and insurers, with 24 hour emergency departments and some English speaking staff, and the Hospital Regional Honorio Delgado is the main public hospital. Arequipa is the medical centre for southern Peru. There is a hyperbaric chamber in the city, which is relevant for severe altitude illness. Private care expects payment or an insurance guarantee up front.
Official health authority: Peru's Ministerio de Salud at gob.pe/minsa. The relevant issues here are altitude and sun rather than infectious disease: there is no yellow fever or malaria risk in Arequipa or Colca, unlike the Amazon. Tap water is not drinkable. Altitude sickness is the genuine medical risk and the Colca pass at 4,900 metres is where it appears; know the symptoms, and know that the only reliable treatment is to descend.
US State Department travel advisory for Peru: current advisory level and detail, which names specific regions of concern, principally the VRAEM coca growing area and the Colombian border, neither of which is anywhere near Arequipa. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Peru: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the altitude advice, the guidance on unlicensed taxis and express kidnapping in Peruvian cities, and the notes on political demonstrations and road blockades, which periodically affect the south.
Official tourism authority: PromPeru at peru.travel, with SERNANP at gob.pe/sernanp for the protected areas, and the Autocolca authority for the Colca tourist ticket, which is bought at a checkpoint on the way in and is cash only.
Solo women safety assessment: Arequipa is a reasonably comfortable city for a woman travelling alone and is generally considered easier than Lima and about on a par with Cusco. Violent crime against tourists is uncommon, the historic centre is compact, well lit and policed, and there is a large student population and a genuine evening cafe culture around the Plaza de Armas and San Francisco. Crime against visitors is opportunistic and real: bag snatching and phone theft around the Mercado San Camilo, the bus terminals and on crowded streets, and distraction thefts in the plaza. Carry a zipped crossbody in front of you and nothing in a back pocket. Taxis are the specific risk in Peruvian cities: do not hail on the street. Use a ride app or a taxi booked by your accommodation, because express kidnapping, where a passenger is driven to ATMs, is a documented pattern in Peru. By day the centre, Yanahuara and Cayma are fine to walk. After dark stay in the centre and the San Francisco area where there are people, and take a booked taxi between districts; the area around the Terminal Terrestre and the outer neighbourhoods are not evening walking routes. Street harassment exists and is the ordinary Peruvian urban version, mostly verbal, and walking on without engaging ends it. Drink spiking is a recognised risk in the bars around the plaza, so watch your drink. Tour operators are the other thing to be careful with: Colca and canyon trekking are sold cheaply by a large number of agencies of variable quality, and the cheapest one day tour is the one that leaves at 3am, crosses 4,900 metres and returns you exhausted. Book through a reputable operator, ask what altitude the route reaches, and prefer two days. The physical risks dominate here. Altitude is first: the Colca pass is higher than most trekking passes in Peru and people who have felt fine in the city are ill on it. Ascend gradually, drink water, skip alcohol the night before, and descend if symptoms worsen. The canyon climb out is a genuine mountain effort. UV is extreme. Earthquakes are a real possibility and Sabancaya is actively erupting, which occasionally closes the Colca road. Finally, road blockades from political protest are a periodic feature of southern Peru and can strand travellers for days, so build flexibility around any flight.
Reading On
Arequipa has an international airport and is an hour and a half from Lima by air, and it is the best acclimatisation stop in Peru as well as a city worth its own days. The Peru travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the Peru packing list for women covers a trip across it. North east, the Cusco packing list for women and the Machu Picchu packing list for women cover the Inca heartland at higher altitude again. North, the Huaraz packing list for women covers the Cordillera Blanca and the serious trekking. East into the Amazon, the Iquitos packing list for women is the opposite climate entirely. On the coast, the Lima packing list for women covers the capital. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why one thin wool layer covers a 24°C afternoon and a near freezing 4,900 metre pass, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
