If, like me, you’re intending to stay in Cusco for a prolonged period of time then the most cost effective way to do this is to either rent a room in a house or rent an apartment. There are many good deals to be found however from my experience the internet is not the best place to find them.

Before I arrived in Cusco I did quite a bit of Googling to see if I could find any websites that listed rooms and apartments for rent in Cusco but I didn’t find a great deal. However there’s no shortage of apartments to rent in Lima.

The following websites do have some Cusco listings from time to time.

Living in Peru Classifieds – The Living in Peru website is a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about living in Peru and their classifieds section is pretty decent too. You’ll probably find a few Cusco listings every week, however most are for Lima.

Craigslist Peru – Like every other Craiglist in the world, the Peruvian version has a section for apartment rentals, however Craigslist is clearly not as popular in Peru as in some other countries, and once again most of the listings are for Lima

JustLanded.com – This site has a number of apartment listings for Cusco, however several of them are out of date but haven’t been taken off the site.

South American Explorers Club – This is an excellent organisation that have a physical presence in Cusco. If you visit their clubhouse in the San Blas area  there are almost always a few apartment listings on their notice board. If you’re staying in Cusco or South America for any length of time I highly recommend joining.

The best way to find rooms and apartments in Cusco

From my experience the best way to find rooms or apartments in Cusco is to just turn up and start looking (and book yourself into a cheap hostel for a few nights while you look). If you walk around town, particularly the San Blas area, you’ll usually see several posters outside stores or homes advertising apartments for rent. There are also a couple of newspapers that contain classified listings although I never bought either. There seems to be quite a lot of accommodation for rent here, but you have to be in the city to find it.

Cost of renting in Cusco

Costs can vary quite a lot and it really depends on how much luxury you want or don’t want, and perhaps also how central you want to be. If you’re happy with something that’s simple then you can rent a room for as little as $150 a month. 1 bedroom apartments usually start at around $250-300 a month although there are certainly some better deals to be found, particularly if you don’t mind living further away from the city centre.