If you go above Lima to strike out at Peru’s lesser-visited North, chances are that you will visit Trujillo.
Far from a transit stop, Peru’s third largest city is a destination in its own right. The city is an elegant colonial affair, with my favourite plaza in Peru. Its brilliant cafes, balmy climate and museums make it feel more like a city break than an adventure into wildest Peru.
It also sits on the Pacific Ocean, even having a claim to inventing surfing, and it is freckled with the evocative ruins of the Moche people, one of Peru’s whackier ancient peoples.
Why visit Trujillo
A lot of Peru will feel very unfamiliar. That is the reason why you visited though, right? You came for the mountains and remnants of mysterious civilizations. Sometimes though, it can feel slightly exhausting.
Trujillo offers a nice change of pace. The city has all the amenities you have at home — Western chains, clean chaos-free streets and relaxed cafes. But, needing a change, you can head over to ruins like Huaca de la Luna, and explore the world of Moche human sacrifices, or hit the beach to shred the waves of Huanchacho. This ability to dip in and out of Peru’s excitement makes Trujillo the best of both worlds.
Editor’s note: Start with this FREE walking tour with Guadalupe. It’s the quickest way to get your bearings and learn the stories behind the historical buildings before exploring on your own. It’s donation-based, so pay whatever you think it’s worth.
How to get to Trujillo
Trujillo is situated at a key junction on Peru’s backpacking trail. It is the perfect, and accessible, destination for those seeking some sun after the mountains of Huaraz, it is the midpoint for those striking North to Mancora and sits on the road into the Andes to visit Cajamaraca and Chachapoyas.
For those looking to take the great cloud forest detour into Cajamarca and Chachapoyas, Trujillo is a brilliant launchpad inland to the Andes. It is six hours on a bus to Cajamarca and fifteen to Chachapoyas.
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Where to stay in Trujillo
Travellers to Trujillo are presented with a choice between the beach and the city when picking their accommodation. I personally opted to stay in the city, having been bullied by the Andes for eight days on the Cordillera Huayhuash hike. I wanted to potter about cafes with the sun on my face while I explored the fascinating history of the region.
Huanchaco is the beach option, located half an hour from Trujillo. Set on a lively surf break, it hums with beach bums and surfer dudes. It has a clutch of highly rated hostels and a slow pace of life. Out to sea, locals ride the Cabaillitos del Totora, millennia-old surfboard-shaped reed boats, used to fish.
They claim that they are the real inventors of surfing! I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon visit and I can absolutely see why it is a popular backpacking destination.
Trujillo splits between the city and the beach – here’s a pick for each budget on both sides:
- $ Yaqta Hostel (the city’s social option) – a backpacker hostel 100 m off the Plaza de Armas, with rooftop terraces, a shared kitchen.
- $ Urcia Surf House (for surfers) run by a national champion and former pro-tour surfer, with daily lessons, video review with a coach and food included.
- $$ Hotel Club Colonial (right on the beach) – a colonial boutique stay, with sea-facing balconies and a highly-rated restaurant.
- $$ Casa Andina (best for the colonial centre) – a colonial mansion by the archaeology museum.
- $$ Costa del Sol Trujillo Centro (best for comfort) – right on the corner of the Plaza de Armas, with the colonial facades out your window.
Comparison table: city vs beach stay
| City | Trujillo (city) | Huanchaco (beach) |
|---|---|---|
| Best if | You want museums, cafés, colonial architecture | You want surf, slow days, hostel social scene |
| Which accommodation | Yaqta Hostel is a convenient urban base to explore the city. For a step up, we recommend Casa Andina | Urcia Surf House is the go-to surf camp |
| Getting to the ruins | Huaca de la Luna 20 min by Uber (~) | The Huacas are further out -you pass Chan Chan on the way in |
| Trade-off | No beach, quieter evenings | Rocky beach, cold water, less to do after dark |
Best things to see in Trujillo
1. Ruins of Huacas del Sol y la Luna
These are the best preserved ruins in Trujillo, and in my opinion, some of the most evocative outside of Cusco. Huaca del Sol is the largest single pre-Colombian building in Peru, and consists of 140 million adobe bricks. These buildings were built by the Moche, a people who inhabited this land a thousand years ago.
They are undoubtedly one of the most fascinating of the colourful cast of civilisations ancient Peru produced before the Conquistadores arrived. The Moche linger in the mind of the traveller, as they flit between a hunger for mass human sacrifices and producing very delicate works of art.
Huaca del Sol y la Luna is the perfect place to explore this strange dichotomy between slaughtering prisoners and a brilliant artistry.
A huaca is the Quechua name for a sacred place, and in this case, means two huge pyramids of adobe dedicated to the sun and the moon.
To reach the Huacas, which are twenty minutes from the city centre, you can take a collectivo, but I found it easier and not much more expensive to take an Uber for . The drive itself is fascinating, the town thinning out and finally giving way to rolling sands, where you feel a lot more removed from civilization than you really are.
The Huacas are accompanied by a fantastic museum, which I would recommend visiting first. Entry is . This modern museum houses artefacts discovered within the Huacas.
Fans of gore will enjoy the sacrificial knives and clubs still coated in blood, while art-fans will enjoy the carefully wrought jewellery made of turquoise and beaten gold. Moche pottery is also fascinating. They were seriously talented at rendering individual portraits onto ceramics and creating scenes of everyday life, like fishing off the same coast you will likely visit in Trujillo.
With a bit of context, hit up the pyramids. Entry is only allowed as part of a guided tour in either English, Spanish or French. This costs .
The Pyramid is adorned with huge wall art showing processions of captives, flowers and a map of their mythology among many others. The most haunting sight is the image of their god, a spidery creature known to archeologists as “The Decapitator”. Spooky. He also features on the wall of the playpen in Trujillo’s McDonald’s!
The views over Trujillo and the Pacific from the summit are fantastic, and your guide will explain much about how this culture rose and fell in the challenging desert conditions.
2. Colonial houses
Trujillo was founded by Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, and named after his hometown in Extremadura, and has many sumptuous examples of Peru’s colonial architecture.
Trujillo has always been a driver of Peru’s culture: independence was first declared here, and it has since been a hotbed of bohemians, poets and ideas, much concentrated on the baroque salons and ornate colonial houses.
If you only see one, make it Casa Urquiaga. This is a glowing ultramarine blue colonial mansion, set on the Plaza de Armas and is basically impossible to miss.
Within, panelled suites house exquisite furniture like a writer’s desk used by the great independence leader Simon Bolivar, who directed many campaigns from here. There is also a small collection of artefacts recovered from the surrounding area. The free entry is a nice touch.
Another interesting pick is Palacio Iturregui, a neoclassical mansion just off the Plaza de Armas. It is now a social club, so opening hours for all of the rooms are erratic, but the courtyard is always open and serves good food and coffee.
I also became something of a regular at a cafe called Ole, just behind the Plaza de Armas. It is a beautiful colonial building with smiley staff, a brilliant strawberry juice and frequent live music performances.
3. Museo de Arqueología UNT
Even without its artefacts, this museum is worthy of being on the list of colonial buildings to visit. Within a stylish courtyard house is a millenia-long journey from the first flickers of civilisation on Peru’s North Coast to the better-known Incas, via a series of little-known cultures, each with such unique styles of art. It also featured mummies.
I learnt that the name Peru comes from a people named Viru, who lived in Trujillo’s proximity! The museum also had an interesting guest exhibition on the Nazca Lines. Well worth the to enter.
4. Ruins of Chan Chan
Chan Chan holds a lot of records. It is both the largest Pre-Colombian city in the whole Americas, and the largest site made out of adobe in the world. It was built by the Chimu people who controlled the region after the Moche.
They were renowned as goldsmiths, and when the Inca conquered them, they deported many of their skilled artisans to Cusco to make jewellery for the emperor.
Though, they left the city with much of its treasure intact for the Spanish to loot. Now it lies deserted and only partially explored half an hour from the centre of Trujillo. It is hard to imagine that 60,000 people once lived here.
Tours are available or you can get a collectivo from Ovalo Grau. Find one bound to Huanchacho and ask to be dropped off at Chan Chan, expect to pay . Entrance costs ten soles and tickets also include entry to Huacas Esmerelda and Arco Iris.
The visit will begin at an onsite museum showing some brilliant examples of Chimu metallurgy and models that give a good idea of its scale and how much closer it once was to the sea.
Only a small portion of the city is accessible to visit, and the archaeologists have focused on showing it how it once was.
There is a bit of a weird sense that you are visiting brand new ruins, but many authentic examples of Chimu art, like representations of waves and fish still remain. Walking through the courtyards, tombs and labyrinthine audience rooms is a haunting journey into a disappeared world.
Many of the ruined streets and pyramids of Chan Chan are roamed by huaqueros (graverobbers), so it is advisable to stay in the publicly accessible parts and soak up the frontier feel of treading a half-excavated and half-civilised ruin.
5. Huaca Esmerelda and Arco Iris
If Chan Chan tickled your historical fancy, you can further explore the fascinating Chimu culture at two more archeological sites which are included in the Chan Chan admission.
Huaca Esmerelda is close to Chan Chan, and can be reached on the same collectivo journey. Only found in 1920, this site consists of four tiers of walls inscribed with the classic Chimu designs of waves, fish and nets.
Huaca Arco Iris is truly striking. It is better preserved than much of Chan Chan and its walls are inlaid with huge motifs of rainbows and mythological creatures like dragons.
Within the temple complex, the bones of child sacrifices were found and are displayed at the summit of the pyramidical building. It was most likely a fertility shrine as the rainbow represents rain, the lifegiving element in traditional Andean belief, but like so much else here, it is shrouded in mystery.
To reach Huaca Arco Iris, get a taxi the ten minutes from the centre of Trujillo. Expect to pay .
Things to do around Trujillo
1. Huanchacho
Once an ordinary fishing village, Huachacho is now effectively a suburb of Trujillo and a top backpacking destination.
Its rise to fame began with its postcard perfect Cabalittos del Totora, reed boats used by its native fishermen for centuries. They even claim that surfing was invented here rather than Hawaii. Watch the fishermen ride the waves into shore and make up your own mind.
The beach is not particularly special – a rocky beach more like those of England than the Caribbean – but it is undeniable that there is a vibe in the air here.
Streets abound with bleach blond surfers holding their boards, surf rentals and yoga studios. It is extremely laid back, and one can imagine spending a clutch of relaxed days here just soaking it up.
The surf scene is also brilliant. Rental and instruction is cheap at for two hours, and the breaks are gentle enough for beginners. Though the water is freezing! A wetsuit is a must.
To reach Huanchacho, catch one of the four public buses, a garish yellow colour, serving this route, A, B, C and H. Expect to pay
2. Complejo Brujo
Reaching this secluded Moche ruin was a bit of a mission, but it was an absolutely fascinating place and a standout of my stay in Trujillo.
Brujo means wizard in Spanish, and alludes to the fact that this site has been a shamanic center for thousands of years, all the way up to today.
Attracted by the five-thousand-year-long human presence here, the Moche people built pyramid-shaped huacas here, with evocative views of the rolling Pacific crashing onto a barren shore. Only recently excavated, the body of a female ruler was found with a sumptuous wealth of jewellery made of gold, silver and turquoise. The desert conditions even enabled wooden artefacts to survive. The huaca also contains well preserved paintings of Moche gods in colour.
The modern museum takes the visitor through the millenias of human occupation here, how the finds changed our understanding of the Moche culture and the fascinating reconstructed life of its female ruler. There is a second huaca there that has not been excavated yet, so who knows how big this site could be.
The easiest way to visit is on this guided day trip, this Viator guided trip includes transport from Trujillo and a guide who explains the Moche civilization, the temple murals, and the story of the Lady of Cao (check whether the museum entry is included when you book).
There is also the option of visiting independently. To get to Brujo, catch a collectivo to Chocope from Ovalo Grau. This will take an hour. From there, get another collectivo to Magdalena de Cao, which will take twenty minutes. From there, take a mototaxi for the remaining ten minutes and set a pickup time. I spent two hours at the site.
Here’s where to go next from Trujillo (depending on your Peru route):
- Heading north to the beaches? Check out our complete Guide to Mancora: Peru’s Ultimate Chillout Spot
- Heading into the mountains? Huaraz is 9 hours south – Peru’s trekking capital.
- Taking the detour inland? This Cajamarca to Chachapoyas Guide covers the cloud forest route – often skipped by backpackers heading for Lima, it’s Peru’s best-kept secret.
- Facing a long bus day? Our Peru transport guide covers buses, flights and PeruHop.