Arequipa Self-Guided Audio Walk: Santa Catalina Monastery Inside and Out, Casa del Moral and San Francisco
2 hours and 30 minutes
About this experience
In 1579 a wealthy widow founded a convent in Arequipa, and it grew into a walled town of nuns that turned a blank stone wall to the street for almost four centuries. All its famous red and blue is inside. Start at the Casa del Moral, whose carved doorway puts a crown and puma heads on the street, then follow the convent's quiet walls, learn where its colors come from, and cross to a Franciscan square that was once a cemetery. Then go in: the novices' cloister, the indigo Cloister of the Orange Trees, lanes named for Spanish cities, the laundry of halved wine jars, a little square where the nuns held a Sunday market, and the great cloister. Thirteen stops at your own pace, in English or Spanish: six outside, about 0.9 km and 40 minutes, then seven inside, allowing one and a half to two hours. The outside walk works on its own. Entry to the monastery is not included.
- Experience type
- Day tour or activity
- Duration
- 2 hours and 30 minutes
- Guide
- Spanish, English
- Audio guide
- Spanish, English
- Categories
- Walking tour · Cultural and theme tours · City tours
What's included
Self-guided audio tour in English and Spanish: 13 stops, 0.9 km, 2.5 hours Stops at carved Casa del Moral, convent's bare stone walls, San Francisco's square GPS map and walking directions in your phone browser, no app needed Lifetime access: start any day, at any hour, and replay it
What's not included
A live guide: you set the pace and the pauses A fixed start time: begin whenever you arrive Museum and monument tickets, all optional extras Tip or gratuity Food and drinks Entry or admission fee
Please note
To start the tour, enter the ticket code from your confirmation on the Roamer redemption page linked there. Do this before you set off, while you still have signal. The tour then opens in your phone browser, with no app to download. Bring a charged phone and earphones. Mobile data helps; if you have none, open the tour on wifi before you set off. Best time: Any afternoon if you start the outside walk by about 1:30 PM, so you have the full hour and a half to two hours inside before the monastery closes at 5 PM; or a Tuesday or Wednesday, when it stays open until 8 PM (last entry 7 PM) and you can start as late as about 4:30 PM. A clear day for the volcanoes from the roof lookout, if it is open. Checked 6 October 2026. Getting to the start: the Casa del Moral is at Calle Moral 318, about five minutes' walk north of the Plaza de Armas. By taxi, ask for the corner of Calle Moral and Calle Bolívar. To go inside, start the outside walk by about 1:30 PM: it takes about forty minutes, the visit takes one and a half to two hours on your own, and the monastery closes at 5 PM. On Tuesday and Wednesday it stays open until 8 PM (last entry 7 PM). Closed Good Friday, 25 December and 1 January. Checked 6 October 2026. Santa Catalina Monastery: adults 50 soles, foreign or Peruvian; cards accepted, tickets also online. Guides are optional and hired at the door. Photos are allowed, without flash indoors. Checked 6 October 2026. Inside the monastery, the café serves traditional desserts made by the nuns, and the shop sells the convent's own products. Two short detours from the top of Calle Santa Catalina, between stops 3 and 4: about five minutes west along Calle Puente Grau is the Puente Grau bridge, built in the 1880s and meant from the start as a viewpoint, with El Misti and Chachani upstream; or east along Calle Puente Grau to the traffic lights at Calle Jerusalén and up into San Lázaro, the sillar lanes that tradition calls the city's first barrio, and Campo Redondo, a steep little square named for a conquistador. Walk San Lázaro by day. The roof lookout at Plaza Zocodover, if it is open, is up a steep stair. The stop works from the square below. The Casa del Moral is a small house museum; no official hours or price are published. Check at the door. Checked 6 October 2026. San Francisco: the tourism ministry's 2016 sheet gave the church as free and the convent museum as 5 soles, open Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 17:30. These hours are old: check at the door. Checked 6 October 2026. The gate at the north end of the little pedestrian San Francisco street (between stops 3 and 4) has no published hours and it may be shut at night. If it is shut, walk back down Calle Santa Catalina past the first corner to the second stretch of Calle Zela, turn left along it to the San Francisco square, and walk a few steps up the pedestrian street to the Fundo El Fierro: tap its stop to play it. Between stops 3 and 4, cross the end of Calle Zela, then Calle Santa Catalina at the zebra crossing just south of the Zela corner and keep to the right-hand sidewalk up Santa Catalina and along Calle Puente Grau, a busy one-way street whose traffic comes toward you. You do not need to cross Puente Grau. Sidewalks on Calle Moral and Calle Bolívar are narrow, and Calle Zela has a stop for tour coaches: watch for traffic. Between stops 5 and 6 you cross the second stretch of Calle Zela, which has no marked crossing; its cars come from your left. Inside the monastery there are steps in places: the laundry is a level down, the lanes are paved with uneven river cobbles, and the stair to the roof lookout, if it is open, is steep. Arequipa sits at about 2,300 meters: walk slowly, drink water and wear sun protection. Most of the outside walk has little shade. If you take the Puente Grau detour, the sidewalk near the bridge crosses the mouths of a side street and a slip road with no marked crossing: stop at each and watch for buses and cars. In San Lázaro, some lane mouths have had chains or barriers since a 2025 dispute over the pedestrian zone: walk round them. Public transportation nearby
Itinerary
- 1Day 0
Casa del Moral: A Doorway That Shows Everything
381 Calle Moral, Arequipa
A carved doorway puts a family's rank on the street. Crowned arms, flat relief and puma-headed waterspouts on a colonial house a block from the convent.
- 2Day 0
Calle Bolívar: The Side Visitors Never See
322 Calle Simón Bolívar, Arequipa
The quiet side of the convent that visitors never see. Beyond these walls a small community of nuns still keeps part of Santa Catalina closed.
- 3Day 0
Calle Zela: Where the Color Comes From
Calle Francisco de Zela, Arequipa
The convent's north wall hides the secret of its color. Red earth and indigo in limewash, laid on with sheepskin boards behind bare stone.
- 4Day 0
Fundo El Fierro: From Jail to Craft Market
211 San Francisco, Arequipa
An old jail that now sells carved stone and silver. Artisans' stalls and the city's municipal history museum share the Fundo El Fierro's courtyard.
- 5Day 0
San Francisco: A Square That Was a Cemetery
211 San Francisco, Arequipa
A Franciscan church of sillar and brick faces a former cemetery. Begun to a plan of 1569, it was nearly lost in the 2001 earthquake and restored by 2004.
- 6Day 0
Santa Catalina Monastery: A Wall That Shows Nothing
300 Calle Santa Catalina, Arequipa
A bare stone wall hides a walled town of nuns. Founded in 1579 and opened to visitors in 1970, the monastery keeps all its famous color inside.
- 7Day 0
Inside the monastery
301 Santa Catalina, Arequipa
Seven stops inside on a ticketed visit that you play by tapping: Novices' Cloister, Claustro de los Naranjos, Calle Córdoba, Calle Toledo, The Laundry, Plaza Zocodover, Claustro Mayor.
Meeting point
Casa del Moral, Arequipa 381 Calle Moral, Arequipa, Arequipa, PE
Pick up
Pickup is not provided.
Cancellation policy · Arequipa Self-Guided Audio Walk: Santa Catalina Monastery Inside and Out, Casa del Moral and San Francisco
Standard Viator policy
- Cancellation 0–24 hours before departure: 100% cancellation fee.
- Cancellation 24–24000 hours before departure: 0% cancellation fee.
Good to know
Operated by Roamer and sold by AGORA. Your voucher and booking reference arrive by email straight after payment.