Peru.

Life orbits Miraflores and Barranco, the two coastal districts where most students end up. Barranco is the bohemian heart, muralled streets, live music, cheap ceviche and bars that run late. Daytime is beaches, surfing at Waikiki, long lunches and cafe study sessions. Peruvians are warm and sociable, and once you are in a friend group you will never be short of a plan.

Nightlife starts late and leans on salsa, reggaeton and the odd pisco-fuelled house party. Barranco's bars and clubs are the go-to, while Miraflores is a bit more polished. Drinks are affordable, and the local move is a pisco sour followed by dancing you did not plan for. It is a proper party city if you want it to be.

Peru is affordable but not dirt cheap by the time you factor in Lima rents and all the travel you will inevitably do. Reckon on 600 to 1,050 euros a month depending on your district and lifestyle. The daily menú (set lunch) keeps food costs low, local markets are a bargain, and transport is cheap. Miraflores and Barranco cost more than outer districts.

Your real budget killer will be weekend trips, especially the Cusco and Machu Picchu circuit.

• Menú (set lunch): €3
• Monthly transport: €25
• Room in a shared flat, Miraflores/Barranco: €280
• Pisco sour in a bar: €5
• Ceviche at a cevichería: €7

Most exchange students rent a room in a shared flat or opt for a homestay in their first weeks. Homestays plug you straight into local life and food, while shared flats give freedom, expect roughly 250 to 400 euros for a room in a decent district. Facebook housing groups for foreigners in Lima and your university's international office are the best starting points.

Aim for Miraflores or Barranco if you want to be near the coast and the nightlife, or Surco and San Isidro for something calmer and safer. Book a hostel for your first week and view rooms in person, photos flatter, and location relative to your campus matters hugely given Lima's traffic.

• Room in shared flat: €250-400/month
• Homestay with meals: €400-550/month
• Best districts: Miraflores, Barranco, San Isidro, Surco

Lima's traffic is legendary, in a bad way. The Metropolitano bus corridor and the Line 1 metro are cheap and useful if your route lines up, but they get rammed. The informal combi minibuses are an experience but confusing for newcomers. For most trips, ride apps, Uber, Cabify, DiDi, Beat, are cheap, reliable and much safer than flagging a taxi.

Between cities, Peru's long-distance buses are excellent: overnight coaches with reclining seats from operators like Cruz del Sur cover huge distances comfortably. For Cusco or the Amazon, budget flights save you a punishing 20-hour bus ride.

• Metropolitano / metro ride: €0.70
• Uber across Lima: €4-7
• Overnight bus Lima to Cusco, from €25

Lima hosts Peru's top universities for exchange: the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), widely regarded as the country's best, with a green campus in San Miguel; the Universidad del Pacífico, strong on business and economics; and the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC). PUCP has the widest range of subjects and a well-run exchange office.

Teaching is mostly in Spanish, so solid intermediate Spanish makes a real difference, though business schools offer some English-taught courses. The style is more continuous-assessment and seminar-based than a giant European lecture. Sort out how your credits map to ECTS with your home coordinator early, as conversions are not always one-to-one.

Check your own passport's rules, as they vary. In practice most EU, UK, US, Canadian and Australian citizens enter Peru visa-free for up to 90 days, enough for a short stay but not a full semester. For a proper exchange you want the student visa (Visa Temporal de Estudiante), which your host university helps you arrange once you have an acceptance letter.

You can apply at a Peruvian consulate before travelling or, in some cases, enter on the tourist stamp and change your status with the immigration authority (Migraciones) after arrival. Either way you will need your acceptance letter, proof of funds, a criminal record check and health insurance. Start the paperwork early, Peruvian bureaucracy rewards patience.

• Up to 90 days visa-free for most Western passports
• Student visa needs acceptance letter, funds proof, police check
• Confirm the process with your university before booking flights

Peru is a genuine gastronomic superpower, and eating well is the everyday joy of living here. Ceviche, lomo saltado, ají de gallina, anticuchos (grilled beef heart skewers) and causa are staples, backed by Chinese-Peruvian chifa and Japanese-Peruvian nikkei traditions. Lima has some of the best restaurants on the planet, but the real magic is a cheap cevichería or a market stall.

Culturally, Peru blends Andean indigenous heritage with Spanish colonial history and is proudly regional, a limeño and a cusqueño will tell you they are worlds apart. People are warm, family matters, and timekeeping is relaxed. A bit of Spanish, respect for Quechua culture in the highlands, and enthusiasm for the food will win everyone over.

Your exchange base will be Lima, the capital and the country's clear hub for international students and top universities.

• Lima, a sprawling coastal capital with world-class food, the surf-and-nightlife districts of Miraflores and Barranco, Peru's best universities, and easy flight connections to Cusco and the rest of the country.

Peru is a traveller's paradise and your weekends will fill themselves. The headline trip is Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, a flight or long bus from Lima and worth every sol. Closer to home you have the desert oasis of Huacachina for sandboarding, the Nazca Lines, and the Paracas and Ballestas Islands for wildlife. The white city of Arequipa and the deep Colca Canyon are further south.

Longer breaks open up Lake Titicaca, the northern beaches around Máncora, and the Amazon from Iquitos or Puerto Maldonado.

• Cusco & Machu Picchu, the big one, ~1.5h flight
• Huacachina & Ica, sandboarding and pisco, ~4h bus
• Paracas & Ballestas Islands, coastal wildlife, ~3.5h bus
• Arequipa & Colca Canyon, white city and condors, ~1.5h flight
• Máncora, northern surf beaches, ~2h flight

Save yourself some classic newcomer pain:

• Book Machu Picchu entry tickets and the train weeks ahead, they sell out and are capped daily.
• Take altitude seriously in Cusco (3,400m); arrive, rest, sip coca tea before you hike.
• Use ride apps, not street taxis, especially at night and from the airport.
• Carry small notes; taxis and markets rarely break a 100-sol bill.
• Do not underestimate Lima traffic, pick housing close to your campus.
• Learn some Spanish before arriving; English really does not get you far here.