Peru Holidays and Festivals

Peru has 16 national holidays, fixed by law, plus regional ones. Sixteen sounds like a lot. Most will not touch your trip. A few will.

Peru’s national holidays

The 2027 dates are computed from the law and the Easter calendar; the official list is not out yet. A holiday that lands on a Sunday stays on the Sunday.

Non-working days: días no laborables

The non-working rows are días no laborables, not holidays: for the public sector only, with the hours made up later. Private employers may opt in. The decrees say why: beside a holiday, the extra day makes a long weekend, and long weekends get Peruvians traveling. New ones appear by decree, sometimes months ahead.

What closes on a national holiday

Government offices close. For everyone else a holiday is a paid day off, and working it costs the employer a 100% surcharge, so many offices shut. Tourism keeps going; the non-working-day decree names transport, airports, hotels and restaurants as businesses that may keep staff on. Do government errands the day before, and carry some cash (see money in Peru).

The dates that move a trip

A lone midweek holiday rarely changes a trip. Long weekends and big festivals do, including three regional ones that never appear on the national list.

Easter week and Ayacucho

Holy Thursday and Good Friday make Easter week a four-day weekend, and a good part of Peru goes somewhere. Easter Sunday is not on the list; it is a Sunday already, in the southern autumn. To see Semana Santa rather than dodge it, go to Ayacucho. The Ministry of Culture declared its Holy Week national cultural heritage in 2022.

Virgen de la Candelaria in Puno

Every February, Puno on Lake Titicaca gives the month to the Virgen de la Candelaria: processions, two big contests, several thousand dancers and musicians, mostly Quechua and Aymara. UNESCO listed it as intangible heritage in 2014. Not a national holiday. Still, if Titicaca is on your February route, decide early whether you want to be in the middle of it.

Corpus Christi and Inti Raymi in Cusco

June belongs to Cusco, whose Fiestas del Cusco run June 1 through 29. Corpus Christi, 60 days after Easter, carries fifteen images of saints and virgins to the Cathedral. Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun, is always June 24. A holiday, yes, but only in the Cusco region, under a 1977 decree-law. It is staged at the Qorikancha, the Plaza de Armas and, for the final act, Sacsayhuamán. The grandstand seats, sold by EMUFEC, the city’s festival company, have sold out more than a week ahead.

Fiestas Patrias

July 28 and 29 are the two Independence Days. The 28th brings a Mass and Te Deum with Lima‘s historic center closed to traffic; the 29th, the military parade on Avenida Brasil. Add Air Force Day on July 23, the Battle of Junín on August 6 and any non-working day in between, and late July into early August is when Peru travels.

Machu Picchu entry is capped per day, and the Ministry of Culture has opened extra ticket windows in Machu Picchu Pueblo for this holiday. Book the entry ticket, the train and the Cusco hotel together, and early, or start with our Machu Picchu tours.

Christmas and New Year

December puts the Immaculate Conception and the Battle of Ayacucho back to back on the 8th and 9th, then Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, early in the southern summer. December 24, 26 and 31 are not national holidays. December 26 and January 2 have been public-sector non-working days before, so check the table for your year.

Plan around the long weekends

The useful question is not “is it a holiday”. It is whether Peru is traveling the same days you are. For weather and crowds by month, see the best time to visit Peru. To build Inti Raymi or Fiestas Patrias into an itinerary, or keep them out of it, ask for a custom Peru tour, or start with our Peru overview.