Iquitos
Iquitos is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province and Loreto Region.
Iquitos is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the ninth-most populous city in Peru. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road that is not on an island; it is only accessible by river and air.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Iquitos
5 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Casa de Fierro
La Casa de Fierro, located in the city of Iquitos in the jungle of Peru, in front of the major square between Próspero and Putumayo streets, is a large iron residence built during the rubber boom at the end of the nineteenth century. The house was bought by the Bolivian explorer and entrepreneur Antonio Vaca Diez.
700 m · cultural heritage site in Peru · Wikipedia - 02Cathedral of Iquitos
The St. John the Baptist Cathedral also called Iquitos Cathedral is the main Catholic church in neo-Gothic style in the city of Iquitos in Peru, with an important value in the historic center of the town.
600 m · cultural heritage site in Peru · Wikipedia - 03Puente Nanay
The Nanay Bridge is a bridge located in the center of the Department of Loreto, Peru, which connects Bellavista-Nanay, in the north of the city of Iquitos, with the south of the Santo Tomás del Nanay area. The Nanay, with its 2283 meters in length, is the longest bridge in Peru, surpassing the President Guillermo Billinghurst Bridge, a 723 m long hanging cable bridge, located in Puerto Maldonado, of the Departament of Madre de Dios.
6.1 km · bridge in Peru · Wikipedia - 04Ex Hotel Palace
Old Hotel Palace is a modernist building in Iquitos, Loreto, Peru. It was a hotel and was built between 1908 and 1912.
700 m · building in Iquitos, Peru · Wikipedia - 05Walk of the Amazon Heroes
The Walk of the Amazon Heroes is a museological boulevard median, only pedestrian, along Avenue Mariscal Cáceres in Iquitos, Loreto, Peru. It is a recent place in the city.
400 m · park in Peru · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
The riverfront is just one block from the Plaza de Armas. In the low water season it will retreat and thus not be terribly visible. The waterfront walk also seems to be the place where local high schoolers go to canoodle, so if you stroll it be prepared to see lots of this. There is a somewhat big crafts market right below the walk, called Anaconda Center.
- 01Iquitos Cathedral
- 02La Plaza 28 de Julio
The biggest square in Peru, there are very good 'Chifa' (Peruvian Chinese) restaurants around the square.
- 03Casa de Fierro
- 04Ex Hotel Palace
- 05Amazon Rescue Center
- 06Complejo Turístico de Quistococha
Km 6.5 of Iquitos Nauta highway (12 km south of the main square).
From Wikivoyage: Iquitos, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
Jungle trips. Jungle trips are the main reason to visit Iquitos as it serves as a launch point for trips into the Amazon. Single day or multi-day trips can be booked. You are taken out on a boat and can view wildlife such as monkeys, alligators, giant lily-pads, baby caimans (sort of like mini-alligators), anacondas, boas, tarantulas, and more.Your taxi driver or hotel concierge will be more than happy to contact a…
From Wikivoyage: Iquitos, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
If you are new to Iquitos and the Amazon, you are in for a real treat. The food in Iquitos is excellent. It is an exotic blend of Peruvian, Brazilian, and Colombian food with influences from the Andes and the Pacific Coast. Try the 'juane' and the 'tacacho'.
- 01Amazon Bistro
At one block from the main square, in front of the river, a French old-style brasserie.
- 02Dawn on the Amazon
Easy to find at the end of the boulevard on the corner of Nauta is the place to go to eat and meet.
- 03Huasaí Restaurant
Jirón Fitzcarrald 131 (half a block northwest of the Plaza de Armas),.
- 04El Kikiriki
Napo # 159 (one block north of the Plaza de Armas, away from the river),.
From Wikivoyage: Iquitos, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Iquitos
- Airports
- Coronel FAP Francisco Secada Vignetta (IQT), 8 km
- Stations
- Crnl. FAP Francisco Secada Vignetta International Airport, 7.6 km · Lieutenant Bergerie airport, 1.4 km
- Pucallpa → Iquitos535 km · quickest by air, 4h 2m · S/220–340
- Chiclayo → Iquitos804 km · quickest by air, 4h 23m · S/270–420
- Trujillo → Iquitos802 km · quickest by air, 4h 38m · S/280–440
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Iquitos
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Iquitos. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inUpon exiting the airport, there will be several mototaxis and a few cars waiting to win your fare to town.
- Get inAverage rate for a mototaxi into the center of town is S/10 and for a car is S/20.
- Get inMany mototaxi drivers may try to bring you somewhere other than where you requested to go because they earn commission.
- Get inThe trip to Iquitos from Coca (officially Francisco de Orellana) in Ecuador takes over 8 days in one of the three slow cargo boats that ply the route.
- Get inThere are 2 rapido (fast boats) per week between Pantoja and Mazán, a small village before a big bend in the river about 45 minutes by mototaxi and speedboat from Iquitos.
From Wikivoyage: Iquitos, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 011,063 km
- 021,182 km
- 031,345 km
- 041,450 km
- 051,984 km
If you know how people move in Iquitos – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Iquitos
- Iquitos Districtdistrict of Peru600 m
- Punchana Districtdistrict in Loreto, Peru2.7 km
- Belén Districtdistrict in Loreto, Peru1.6 km
- San Juan Bautista Districtdistrict of Peru5.1 km
- Iquitos metropolitan areaMetropolitan area of Peru2.6 km
- Punchanacity in Loreto, Peru4.1 km