How to see the Nazca Lines in Peru
Just outside of the town of Nazca, near the Peruvian coast, over 800 lines, 300 figures, and 70 depictions of plants and animals are etched into the desert floor and surrounding hills.
These are the famous Nazca lines!!!
It is now known that the lines are roughly 2,000 years old and lay undiscovered, preserved by the desert until they were found in 1926. However, the full scale of the lines wasn’t realised until the first flight over the area in 1930! It was only then that the now-famous figures of the hummingbird, condor, monkey and others were seen.
In this article, we will outline the two ways to see the Nazca lines: Booking a flight or going to a viewpoint.
We will also share how you can combine this half-day trip with a stop at the rarely visited Nazca aqueduct.
How can you see the Nazca Lines for €3?
There are only two ways to see the Nazca Lines: by plane or visiting a viewpoint just outside town. Many will say the viewpoint is free, but it’s not. It is very cheap though! For the price of the 10 soles bus and 3 soles entrance fee, you will see the lines for only €3. Of course, the main reason for taking the plane is that you will see more and see them better.
Flying at 1,500ft in the sky, the view is unrivalled. But €90 for a 30-minute flight puts a big dent in a backpacker’s budget. This is why the lookout built by the local community has become popular for those on a tight budget but still wanting to see the lines up close.
Getting to the “Pan American Road Mirador“
Near the main bus terminal in town, there are two options for heading out on the Pan American Road to the viewpoint. The two options are the local minivans, also called collectivos, which are slightly more expensive and only leave when full, or the local bus that heads towards Ica. We chose the bus, and the journey from town lasted 30 minutes.
Once at the viewpoint, you must pay 3 soles to enter, and you can stay as long as you like. The viewpoint is just a set of metal stairs and a platform that can get pretty cramped if a few guided tours arrive simultaneously. But the good thing about doing it yourself is that you can stay as long as you wish, and the tours will be gone within 5 minutes.
From this viewpoint, you can see the tree, the hands, and partly the lizard because the Pan-American road was built right through it!
After the viewpoint, you can walk for about 1 km back towards the town, where you will find a small hill, which is a free lookout. It is also considered a sacred place as all the lines point towards the hill. You can walk freely up to the summit and see the lines stretching into the desert in all directions. It’s pretty special.
Note: All of this can be done as part of a tour from Nazca. You will be brought from town to the viewpoint in a minivan, then to the circle formation a little further and then to the Maria Reiche Museum.
Pro & cons of visiting the Nazca Lines’ Mirador
PRO
- It’s cheap, easy and quick to get to
- Allows you to understand the scale of the area, which can be lost in photos and on the plane
- You can see the lines and the drawings from just a few metres away
CON
- You will only see two figures clearly and be able to make out another, just about.
- It’s a long way to travel to only see two figures
- It is so exciting to see the lines, but it can be frustrating not to be able to see more.
What can you see near the Nazca Lines Viewpoint?
If you feel motivated for a bigger walk after this little trek up the hill, get back to the road. Behind the bright blue shrine, there is a path heading up. Here, you should find an even better view of the area. But if you are roasting in the heat, stand on the side of the road and wait for any bus heading back to Nazca. There are lots of buses passing by. Make a sign for them, and they will stop to pick you up.
The price is 5 soles for two people, but tends to increase slightly. If you don’t like this type of practice, stick out your thumbs and hitchhike a ride with a local to the aqueducts.
Be aware that the sun is incredibly hot out there, and there is zero shade on the side of the road. This is the desert, after all.
Note: In Peru, it is accepted that if someone picks you up, you should pay them something small. You can either take out a few coins or simply ask, “How much?”
Visit the Nazcan aqueducts
After seeing images of several spiralling Nazcan-made aqueducts, just outside Nazca on the same road as the viewpoint, we made it our mission to find it. They are known as Puquios, but the problem was we couldn’t find much information about them online, except for seeing them as part of a tour. So with our limited knowledge, we got out of our hitchhiked ride at Achaco as we saw on maps.me. There were some aqueducts in the area, and we started exploring.
Part of exploring is getting lost, which is exactly what we did.
After about 30 minutes of aimless wandering, we finally spotted a local on his farm who kindly pointed us in the right direction. As it turns out, we had turned right when we should have turned left. It would have been easy to find otherwise, as it seemed a quite popular park for locals who come to chill in the shade of the palm trees.
There is a large car park and what looked like small local restaurants. After walking around, it became perfectly clear that we were not at a Puquios. We somehow managed to get lost and found a completely different set of water channels, known as the Achaco Aqueducts.
Tip: Upon further research, we discovered that 52 Nazcan aqueducts surround the town. The benefit of visiting Achaco is that it was empty and free but if you wish to see Puquios, head to the Cantalloc aqueducts.
For this, you will need to walk about 1 hour east of town or hire a taxi. The entrance is 7.50 soles per person, and the site is open Monday through Sunday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Here are the Google Maps coordinates.
Why flying above the Nazca lines?
After seeing the hand and the tree from the viewpoint, we felt it wasn’t enough. It got us pumped up and excited to see more. We heard that the flights’ prices could be between €80 and €100, but we decided to take a chance and see if we could negotiate them down to €65. If we could do that, we would fly above the Nazca lines!
After visiting the viewpoint and Achaco, we stopped at several agencies and tried to negotiate a cheap rate for the next morning. Some wouldn’t budge, but we found one agency, one of the airlines, Aero Paracas, and not a reseller, who would first only negotiate a rate for that evening.
As we were walking out the door, he called us back and met our price. That was it, everything was booked for the next morning. Included with the flight was a pickup and drop-off at our hostel.
Tip: If you plan on flying, it is better to do so in the morning while the sun is low. This will improve the light, allowing you to see the lines, and the weather is usually clearer.
Nazca lines from the plane
There are two sections the planes can fly over. Most companies only do section one, which is the most famous and allows you to see the hummingbird, condor, heron, whale, spaceman, spider, pelican, tree, monkey, and hands. Of course, you will also see many shapes and lines pointing in all directions across the desert floor.
If you have never been on a small plane before, it should be said that it differs from a large aircraft. You feel every jolt. The sharp turns of the pilot make sure that everyone, on both sides of the plane, sees the lines correctly. Unfortunately, this means that your stomach ends up doing somersaults.
As much as he loved the view, Steven couldn’t wait for the flight to be over. He was maybe only a couple of more turns away from getting sick! He didn’t look very well as we landed and hopped out of the plane.
What is the best way to see the Nazca Lines?
After seeing the Nazca lines from both vantage points, it is not a question of seeing the lines from the sky or from the viewpoint. You should do both. The perspective from each is completely different, and it allows you to really grasp the scale.
When you travel for long periods of time, constantly checking prices and budgets and trying not to overspend, you sometimes tend to lose sight of the reason for travelling. For most of us, this will be the only time we visit Nazca, and saving that bit of money and not living the full experience from above is a bit of a shame. Isn’t this the reason we are travelling? Yeah!
If you are short on time and don’t have the luxury of going around Nazca town to negotiate prices, I recommend booking your tour online.
To make the most of your Nazca adventure, there are several types of tours available that cater to different preferences. For those already in Nazca, consider booking this 35-Minute Flight Over Nazca Lines or this 30-min flight.
Alternatively, if you’re based in Lima, you can opt for a Day trip to Ballestas, Nazca Lines, & Huacachina Oasis, which promises a thrilling day-long journey, starting with a visit to the magnificent Ballestas Islands, home to a diverse range of marine wildlife. Afterwards, you’ll board a plane to witness the Nazca Lines from above, an experience that will etch lasting memories in your heart. The tour culminates with a visit to the enchanting Huacachina Oasis, where you can enjoy a refreshing dune buggy tour across the vast sand dunes, adding an adventurous touch to your day.
Alternatively, you can choose a tour from Lima that includes the Nazca lines with a buggy tour at the Huacachina Oasis! From Lima: Nazca Lines, Huacachina Oasis, & Dune Buggy Tour.
If you have more than a day to discover the Nazca lines and the Peruvian coast, opt for a multi-day trip from Lima. Here is a selection of highly rated tours that you may like.
Visiting the Maria Reich Planetarium
We had been told before visiting Nazca that the María Reiche planetarium would be good to learn more about the history and discovery of the lines. María Reiche was a German mathematician who dedicated her life to discovering the mysteries of the Nazca lines. She is responsible for most of the information we now know about them.
The DM Hoteles Nasca, where María Reiche lived during her research, runs an evening show in multiple languages each night, which goes through a visual presentation in a small planetarium on its grounds. After the show, the astronomer will take you outside and explain some of the theories about the lines and the stars.
They will then, depending on the time of year and the clarity of the sky, let you look through a high-powered telescope to view planets, moons, and stars. We saw Saturn! The show lasts around 45 minutes and costs 20 soles. It’s a good way to spend the evening in Nazca.
Tip: If you plan on going to the planetarium, visit the hotel in advance and check the times. Shows in multiple languages run at different hours, and tickets need to be purchased in advance.
Where to sleep in Nazca?
We stayed in Nazca for around 30 hours. After arriving early in the morning, we spent the day visiting the viewpoints, the aqueduct and organising our flight. The next morning,g we had our flight early and then left for Ica and Huacachina in the early afternoon. For us, this was the perfect amount of time. Yes, it meant going quickly, but there isn’t much to do in Nazca other than the lines.
We stayed in the only hostel we could find online at the time, Nanasqa Hostel. It was basic but good. It was a bit outside the centre of town, but it was quiet, and they had a kitchen. We originally booked a dorm, and they put us in a room with a double bed and a bunk bed. However, they told us no one had booked into the bunk, so the room with an en-suite was ours.
Getting to Nazca from Cusco
After spending a while walking around all the bus agencies in Cusco, we finally booked an overnight bus with Civa for 85 soles. We left at 8 p.m. and arrived at 7 a.m. Once in Nazca, we had to take a taxi to the hostel, as the bus driver dropped us off on the Pan American road outside of town.
Heading on to Ica/Huacachina from Nazca
The journey from Nazca to Huacachina is quite short. We brought our bags to the airport for our flight, where the airline stored them. On the way back, we asked the driver to drop us off at the bus terminal instead of our hostel. This saved us from walking through town with our bags or paying for a taxi.
We took the bus to Ica from the Terminal Terrestre, which is located right next to the Cruz del Sur station (the tickets were much cheaper than Cruz del Sur). The ride to Ica should take 3 hours and cost 8 soles. From Ica you can get a taxi or a TukTuk into the sand dunes of Huacachina. We took the fun option of the TukTuk for 5 soles and it dropped us off at our hostel.
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About the Author
Jen is the Funder, Author & Photographer behind Talesfromthelens.comJen has lived for the past 15 years across Oceania and Ireland while also travelling in Latin America, North America, and Europe. She has visited more than 65 countries and set foot on every continent in the world! She is a coffee nerd, passionate about photography, wildlife, and outdoor activities.
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when did you guys go?
Hey, we visited in 2017 but we are often updating our articles to try to keep the information as relevant and up-to-date as possible.