I opted to stay at the Atton Hotel which is now the Pullman Lima San Isidro, at Av. Jorge Basadre 595 in San Isidro, to be near my friends the Mexican Ambassador and his wife. I found it to be a good central location from which to get to downtown, to Miraflores, Barranco and to some of the city’s great museums.
The hotel is very attractive and contemporary with a nice lobby, small bar and large restaurant and terrace where the morning breakfast buffet is served. The rooms are large and contemporary. I also thought the staff was excellent. They handled my airport transfers, made taxi reservations with their preferred CMV company, confirmed airline reservations and printed boarding passes and were helpful with other matters as well! I used CMV for several transfers and also for a guide/driver to walk me through downtown Lima seeing the sites, colonial buildings, churches, museums and the large central market.
San Isidro is a very nice and attractive neighborhood with hotels, many foreign Embassies and restaurants. Malabar is one of the best and is listed at #7 in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants.
I opted for Tanta in San Isidro, for a light dinner after having eaten my way through Lima and its exceptional cuisine. Owned by chef Gaston Acurio, plus with reasonable prices, it is good for casual Peruvian specialties, salads, sandwiches and pastas. It has an attractive patio and indoor seating. I had a very good tamal (a Peruvian tamale) and a very good ceviche. Pancho Fierro 115.
Museo Larco: A lovely small museum with wonderful displays of ceramics, textiles, metal work and jewelry from Peru’s many ancient civilizations dating from BC. One of the best things to see is the storage area where you can walk through the glass cases and see thousands of examples of items that were excavated. Don’t miss having lunch on the terrace at Cafe de Museo, which is a Gaston Acuria restaurant. They have some lovely salads and lighter fare. Av. Bolivar 1515, Pueblo Libre, not far from San Isidro.