Love Park, Lima

Love Park is a small clifftop garden in Miraflores, perched on the green bluffs above the Pacific in Lima's most polished district. Opened in 1993 and inspired by the parks of Barcelona, it is best known for a sweeping mosaic wall and a large sculpture of an embracing couple that gives the park its name.

Its significance is romantic and civic. The centrepiece statue, called El Beso, or The Kiss, by the Peruvian artist Víctor Delfín, shows two lovers locked in an embrace and has become a symbol of the city's coastline. A long, undulating bench faced in broken-tile mosaic, echoing the work of Gaudí, is inscribed with playful phrases about love drawn from Peruvian writers.

The park sits on the Malecón, the chain of clifftop gardens and paths running along the edge of Miraflores high above the shore. From its railings the view opens over the surfers of the Costa Verde below, the curving beaches and, on clear evenings, a glowing Pacific sunset. Paragliders launch from the bluffs nearby and drift over the coast.

For visitors, it is a place to pause and take in the setting. The park is free and open, popular with couples, families and photographers, and busiest at sunset when the light turns the sea gold. It combines easily with a walk along the Malecón to the Larcomar shopping terraces cut into the cliff, or a descent to the beaches for surfing. Compact and easy to reach, it offers one of the finest free viewpoints in Lima. For travellers exploring Miraflores, this cheerful clifftop garden captures the city's relationship with its dramatic Pacific edge. A small craft and food market often sets up along the clifftop path, adding to the gentle weekend bustle high above the surfers on the Costa Verde.