Peru · Amazon
Iquitos
The biggest city on earth you cannot drive to, and the jumping-off point for Peru's Amazon.
Iquitos is the largest city in the world that no road reaches. It sits on the Amazon in Peru's northeastern rainforest, and you arrive by plane or by river. Rubber-boom money left tiled mansions along the riverfront. Today motocarros fill the streets, and the Belen market sells jungle produce. Most people come to go upriver: lodges along the Amazon and its tributaries, pink river dolphins, flooded forest, and the vast Pacaya-Samiria reserve.
Suggested stay
4–7 days
Language
Spanish, Quechua
Currency
PEN
Timezone
UTC-5
Why you'll love Iquitos
The river The Amazon is the city's road, and a boat out to the lodges, villages and flooded forest is how every real trip begins.
Wildlife Pink and grey river dolphins, sloths, monkeys, macaws and giant water lilies are all within a boat ride of town.
Rubber-boom city Tiled mansions and an iron house from the boom years still line the plaza and the riverfront malecon.
Jungle food Juane, tacacho with cecina, grilled paiche and fruits like camu camu and aguaje taste of the forest around the city.
Best time to visit
May-Oct
Water dropping · 31-33° days
3.749° S, 73.244° W
UTC-5 · America/Lima
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Weather & when to go to Iquitos
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best May-Oct
Conditions Jan High water · Feb Wet · Mar Wettest · Apr High water · May Water dropping · Jun Low water starts · Jul Low water, wildlife · Aug Driest, trails · Sep Low water · Oct Warming, wet · Nov Wet building · Dec Wet
Watch for Mar-Apr monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Iquitos
No month is a write-off: it is hot and humid all year and heavy rain can come any day. Roughly December to May the river runs high, and canoes can slip into flooded forest. Roughly June to November the water drops, exposing beaches and more trails.
Top things to do in Iquitos
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Amazon jungle lodge - days upriver in the rainforest
nature wildlife adventure 👍 PopularIquitos exists for this. A few days at a lodge on the Amazon or a tributary like the Napo mean canoe trips at dawn, guided forest walks, night walks for frogs and tarantulas, piranha fishing and visits to riverside villages. The further out a lodge is, the more wildlife you see.
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Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve - Peru's great flooded forest
nature wildlife adventure ⭐ Highly recommendedA huge reserve of flooded forest, lakes and blackwater rivers between the Maranon and Ucayali. Multi-day boat trips from Nauta go in for river dolphins, giant otters, caiman, monkeys and a great many birds. It is the deepest wilderness most visitors reach from Iquitos.
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Belen Market - the Amazon's great food market
food culture arts 👍 PopularA crowded, pungent market running down to the river: jungle fruits, smoked fish, grilled suri grubs, turtle eggs and the herbal-medicine stalls of Pasaje Paquito. Go in the morning, carry little, and watch your pockets. With a guide you can take a canoe among the stilt and floating houses of the lower town.
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Plaza de Armas and the Casa de Fierro - rubber-boom Iquitos
history culture artsThe main square holds the Casa de Fierro, a prefabricated iron house shipped in during the boom and popularly credited to Gustave Eiffel. The surrounding streets have mansions faced with imported azulejo tiles, the clearest sign of the fortunes rubber made here.
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Malecon Tarapaca - the riverfront promenade
culture arts history 👍 PopularThe riverside walk above the Itaya is where the city comes out in the evening, with street food, views over the floodplain and more tiled rubber-boom facades. The Amazonian museum of indigenous cultures sits along it.
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Pilpintuwasi - butterfly farm and animal orphanage
nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedA short boat ride up the Nanay near the village of Padre Cocha, this butterfly farm also takes in rescued animals, from monkeys and sloths to a jaguar. It is one of the best easy half days from town.
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Amazon manatee rescue centre - orphaned sea cows
nature wildlifeOn the road toward Nauta, a rescue centre raises orphaned Amazonian manatees for release back into the rivers. It is small and simple, and it gives a rare close look at an animal almost never seen in the wild.
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Juane and tacacho - eat like the Amazon
foodJuane is rice, chicken and egg wrapped in bijao leaves, and tacacho is mashed fried plantain served with cecina, smoked pork. Paiche, the giant river fish, turns up grilled or in ceviche. Wash it down with camu camu or aguaje juice.
Best areas to stay in Iquitos
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Centro and the Malecon
City nights $$Rubber-boom streets above the river
Explore hotels in Centro and the Malecon →
Amazon river lodges
Wildlife and rainforest $$Rainforest lodges reached only by boat
Explore hotels in Amazon river lodges →
Nauta
Pacaya-Samiria trips $River town near the Amazon's source
Explore hotels in Nauta →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Iquitos
Getting to & around Iquitos
Getting there
No road links Iquitos to the rest of Peru: fly in, usually from Lima, or come by river boat.
Flight
Coronel FAP Francisco Secada Vignetta International Airport (IQT)
The airport is on the south edge of the city, around 20 minutes by taxi or motocarro to the Plaza de Armas. Most lodges will meet you at arrivals.
Ferry
Slow cargo boats come downriver from Yurimaguas and Pucallpa over several days, with hammocks strung on deck. Faster boats come upriver from the Peru-Colombia-Brazil border at Santa Rosa, opposite Leticia and Tabatinga.
Getting around
Motocarro
Three-wheeled motorcycle taxis are the city's transport and its constant noise. Agree the fare before you set off.
TBC
Boat
Public river boats and hired peque-peques leave from the city's ports for Padre Cocha, villages and lodges. Lodges arrange their own transfers.
TBC
Walk
The centre, plaza and malecon are compact and easy to walk, though the heat slows everyone down.
Free
Day trips from Iquitos
Padre Cocha and Pilpintuwasi
Half dayRiver village and butterflies
A short boat ride up the Nanay to a riverside village and the Pilpintuwasi butterfly farm, where rescued monkeys, sloths and other animals live. An easy first taste of the river.
Getting there
ferry
Around 20-30 min by boat up the Nanay
Quistococha
Half dayLake and park
A lagoon surrounded by forest, with a small zoo and a sandy beach where locals swim at weekends. Paiche and other Amazon fish are kept on show.
Getting there
car
Around 30 min south by motocarro or taxi
Allpahuayo-Mishana Reserve
Half dayWhite-sand forest reserve
A reserve of rare white-sand forest close to the city, known to birders for species found almost nowhere else. Go early with a guide.
Getting there
car
Under an hour by car along the Nauta road
Nauta and the birth of the Amazon
Full dayRiver confluence
Drive the only road out of Iquitos to Nauta, then take a boat to where the Maranon and Ucayali meet and the Amazon is usually said to begin.
Getting there
car | ferry
Around 2 hr by car on the Nauta road, then boat
A little history of Iquitos
Iquitos began in the 18th century as a Jesuit mission village on the Amazon. It stayed small until the Peruvian state set up a river port and naval base here in the 1860s, as steamships opened the upper Amazon.
The rubber boom from the 1880s made it rich almost overnight. Rubber barons built tiled mansions and imported an iron house, while the tappers in the forest were forced labour, abused on a vast scale. The worst of it, in the Putumayo, was exposed by Roger Casement. When plantation rubber from Asia undercut the wild trade in the 1910s, the boom collapsed. Oil, timber and tourism later brought the city back.
Jesuit missionaries found a mission village on the site.
Peru establishes a river port and naval base, and Iquitos begins to grow.
The rubber boom begins, bringing sudden wealth and forced labour in the forest.
Roger Casement's report on abuses in the Putumayo rubber trade is published.
Plantation rubber from Asia collapses the wild-rubber boom.
Oil exploration in the region brings a new wave of growth.
Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, filmed around Iquitos, is released.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type A / B / C
230 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+51
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Peru eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Iquitos
▸ When is the best time to visit Iquitos?
May to October is the best-weather window, with somewhat less rain. No month is a bad choice, though: it is hot and humid all year. High water from roughly December to May lets boats into flooded forest. Low water from roughly June to November exposes beaches and trails.
▸ Can you drive to Iquitos?
No. No road connects Iquitos to the rest of Peru. You fly in, usually from Lima, or take a river boat that spends days coming from Yurimaguas or Pucallpa, or upriver from the Colombia-Brazil border. The only highway runs about a hundred kilometres south to Nauta.
▸ How many days do I need in Iquitos?
Plan four to seven days. That gives you a day in the city for Belen, the plaza and Pilpintuwasi, and three or more nights at a jungle lodge. Pacaya-Samiria trips usually take several more days on top.
▸ Do I need vaccinations for Iquitos?
Yellow fever vaccination is commonly advised for the Peruvian Amazon, and malaria and dengue are present, so see a travel clinic well before you go. Bring strong insect repellent and long sleeves for dusk.
▸ Is ayahuasca safe in Iquitos?
Iquitos is known for ayahuasca retreats, but the brew is a powerful psychoactive that interacts dangerously with some medicines and health conditions. Retreat standards vary widely, and there have been serious incidents. Talk to a doctor first, research any centre carefully, and never take it with a stranger you met on the street.
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