Puno Tours and Puno as Your Base

Puno is the town on the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca where every island boat leaves from, and most people give it two nights: one day on the lake, and a half day for the tombs of Sillustani or the churches of the shore road. The town sits at 3,827 m, so plan your first afternoon slowly. The tour at the top of this page is the classic half day on land: the chullpas of Sillustani above Lake Umayo, from $19, rated 4.7 from 246 reviews (checked October 2026), with pick-up in central Puno and the entrance fee included.

Check dates for Sillustani

Sillustani

Sillustani stands 34 km north of Puno, about 35 minutes by road, on a headland above Lake Umayo. It is famous for its chullpas, round stone towers built to hold the remains of the leaders of the ancient Colla people of the altiplano; some reach 12 m and are wider at the top than at the base, according to the Peruvian Congress’s profile of the Puno region. A small site museum nearby keeps pieces of the Colla, Tiwanaku and Inca cultures. The site is open ground, windy and at about the same height as Puno, so take a warm layer and walk slowly up the paths between the towers.

Afternoon departures reach the tombs in the low light before sunset, when the stone turns gold and Lake Umayo goes dark blue. Morning departures leave the afternoon free for a short Uros trip.

The town

Puno itself is a working town rather than a pretty one, but it rewards a slow walk. Start at the Plaza de Armas and the cathedral, follow the pedestrian Jirón Lima for cafés and restaurants, and walk down to the port, where the island boats tie up. The Yavari, an iron steamship that Peru ordered from Britain in 1861 and shipped to the lake in pieces, is moored as a museum ship at a lakeside hotel jetty on Avenida Sesquicentenario.

Chucuito and the shore road

Drive 18 km south and you reach Chucuito, known as the City of the Royal Treasury because taxes were gathered there in the colonial era, with the Renaissance churches of Santo Domingo (16th century) and La Asunción (17th century) on its square. The same road continues to Juli, 79 km from Puno, called the Little Rome of America for its colonial churches, and on to Yunguyo and the Bolivian border at Kasani, the way to Copacabana.

The Candelaria festival

Every February Puno fills for the Festivity of the Virgen de la Candelaria, centred on 2 February, when dance groups in costume and masks parade through the town. UNESCO inscribed it on its intangible heritage list in 2014. If your dates fall in early February, book your hotel early and expect boats and buses to be busy.

How many days in Puno?

• One night: arrive in the afternoon, take the classic Uros and Taquile day, leave the next evening.
• Two nights: add Sillustani or the shore road; the best balance for most people.
• Three nights or more: add the Amantani homestay, or a day over the border on the Bolivian side.

Where tours pick up

Almost every tour on this site collects you from your hotel in central Puno, or from the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas. Stay within walking distance of the square and you are close to everything; the where-to-stay guide has a hotel map.

Hotels near the Plaza de Armas, Puno

How these facts were checked

Puno’s altitude is from the Municipalidad Provincial de Puno (munipuno.gob.pe). Sillustani, Chucuito, Juli, the Yavari and their distances are from the Peruvian Congress’s profile of the Puno region (congreso.gob.pe), and the inscription of the Candelaria festival from the Ministry of Culture’s 2025 annual report, read 27 October 2026. Tour prices, ratings, times and inclusions are from GetYourGuide, checked October 2026.