Miraflores is the modern, well-off district on the cliffs south of downtown Lima where most international travellers spend their nights. Tree-lined streets, glass-fronted hotels, embassies, and high-rise apartments are arranged on a grid that ends abruptly at the Malecón, the clifftop promenade above the Pacific. Paragliders launch from cliff-edge parks; joggers and cyclists work the long ocean path; cats lounge in the central Parque Kennedy.
Practical and pleasant: safe to walk at any hour, full of restaurants from cheap menús to world-class fine dining, and the obvious base for a Lima visit. The downside is that it can feel like it could be in any prosperous Pacific city; for the Lima of colonial palaces and pre-Inca pyramids you have to go elsewhere — though even Miraflores has its huaca, Huaca Pucllana, sitting between apartment blocks.