When to Go to Ica

Travel Tips Types:
Climate, peak seasons, Holidays and festivals

By Lorraine Caputo

Ica has a desert climate with sunny days and temperatures reaching to 32°C (89°F). Nights tend to be cool, falling to 9°C (49°F). The warmest months are December to March.

Ica has several festivals to salute the noble grape and its spirits:

• March—Festival de la Vendimia—The grape harvest festival with fairs, contests, parades, concerts and a Harvest Queen, who stomps the first grapes of the season
• End of August—Festival Regional de Pisco—to judge the region’s best pisco brandy
• September—Semana Turística de Ica—bodega tours, wine competitions and pisco tastings are part of the Hill during Ica’s Tourism Week, as are Peruvian Paso horses, cockfights and an international sandboarding competition.

Ica also has its share of religious observations:

• March / April—Semana Santa (Easter Week)—Begins on Palm Sunday with the procession of Señor del Triunfo. Ends Easter Sunday with the marking of Christ’s resurrection and the Procesión del Borrachito. Streets are decorated with carpets and triumphal arches.
• Second and third weeks of October—Fiesta del Señor de Luren—Legend says the patron saint of Ica came from Lima in 1570, but got lost in the desert, where it was found by the Luren couple. The biggest day of the festivity is the third Monday of October, when the statue traverses the streets of the city from dusk to dawn.