Photo: PROMPerumulti-day guided expedition that will bring you from Cusco down the Manu Road into the park. It’s an ideal trip for birders, with clay licks where parrots and macaws gather on mineral-rich riverbank cliffs. They’re best viewed at dawn, so expect to be up early. Hiking is expansive, too. Short trails lead to viewpoints over steep valleys, where you might spot tanagers, toucans, and, at specific mating areas, the nearly neon-orange Andean cock-of-the-rock. In the lowlands, travel is often by motorized canoe along long stretches of the Madre de Dios and Manu rivers, bringing you closer to wildlife along the park’s waterways.
The park is home to more than 1,000 bird species, hundreds of mammal species, and thousands of plant species. Lodging is intentionally low-impact and fairly basic, typically limited to cabins, huts, and simple ecolodges. So while this isn’t a trip for the luxury-minded traveler, it’s a great way to get close to nature in a park that, for the most part, maintains the remoteness of American counterparts like Gates of the Arctic and Dry Tortugas national parks.
You’ll need to commit to at least five days, and preferably seven, for a good experience in the park. Logistically, Manú is demanding, so if you go, lean into that as part of the appeal. The classic access route begins in Cusco, which you’ll likely reach via a connector from Lima, with a long overland drive along the Manu Road to river ports such as Atalaya or Shintuya. From those gateway points, it’s a full-day boat journey to lodges near the reserved zone. A small airstrip at Boca Manu is used by some tour companies to shorten the approach, but independent travel without a licensed guide and proper permits is not allowed. 