Casa Polanco Boutique Hotel

Style

Golden ages

Setting

Prosperous Polanco

History is writ large in Casa Polanco Boutique Hotel, a bed and breakfast in one of Mexico City’s most monied neighbourhoods, set at the edge of the second largest park in the world. It’s part Spanish colonial mansion that’s housed aristocratic families since the 1940s, and part sleek modernist block built by architect Claudio Gantous over four years. Its whiplash era shifts are testament to the country’s pacy dynamism and an homage to Mexican craftsmanship – furthered by the love that’s been given to the interiors, from gently restored stucco ceilings and marble floors, to treasure-hunted antiques (the work of design team M+M), and statement pieces from innovative studios. And, in this best-of-both world, there are lingering drinks with leafy views, spa escapism and romance that spans the ages.

Facilities

Rooms

19, including five Suites.

Checkout

12 noon. Check-in, 3pm.

More Details

Rates include an à la carte daily breakfast, complimentary minibar, tea time with drinks and snacks from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, a welcome amenity, two pieces of pressing per stay and electric bikes on request.

Also

The grand entranceway to the original house has some stairs, but within there’s a lift to all floors and spacious ground-floor rooms that may suit guests with mobility issues.

Fitness Center

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Room Service

Spa

At the Hotel

Spa and gym, library, restaurant, honesty bar, pressing service, bikes to borrow, lounging terraces, concierge, free WiFi. In rooms: TV, Bang & Olufsen speakers, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, bathrobes, Xinu bath products.

Our Favourite Rooms

Stick with the classics – the hotel’s newer rooms are easy on the eye, with dark woods, parquet flooring, luxe marble and white walls, but for that true lord-or-lady-of-the-house feel, you’ll want to stay in one of the four mansion rooms. There are three Premier rooms and one Grand with a sleek modern bath tub; all are spacious and light-flooded, with park views, and each has something special: an intricate stucco ceiling, windows with Eastern-style arches, curlicued ironwork. The two ground-floor rooms interconnect, and the two on the upper floor have balconies. Of the more modern rooms, we’d pick the Lincoln Park suite with its super-sized terrace.

Spa

The spa’s glazed cabin (big enough for two) is set overlooking the park atop the new annexe, so you feel far removed from the city hubbub. There’s a small but considered treatment menu for gentle unwinding after you’ve exhausted the shops in Polanco, and ambient lamps made by respected native designer Héctor Esrawe to set the scene. And, the hotel’s gym adds a touch of glamour to your work-out, not only with its hifalutin Technogym equipment, but with its original art nouveau feature windows and chic styling.

Packing Tips

A hefty credit limit to allow for temptation, and gear for going out – Polanco is party-hard with label-draped denizens and a high concentration of the city’s be-seen hotspots, so you’ll want to look the part.

Also

The concierge can help set you up with an entourage of personal shoppers, drivers and whoever else can be of service.

Children

The casa may have once been a family home, but now it's more of a love nest.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

Mexico City may be a go-go-go megalopolis, but you wouldn’t know it to sit on the hotel’s terrace and look out upon the leafy peacefulness of Lincoln Park. We’re also rather taken with the cosy corner sofas in the library lounge.

Dress Code

Burnished back-in-the-day looks or au courant couture.

Hotel Restaurant

Waft through the hotel’s entrance hallway – an art-lined, marble-floored space from which a staircase spirals up – past the check-in desk and through the colonnaded arches and you’ll find yourself bathed in sunlight in the hotel’s glass-roofed atrium, La Veranda. It’s here where you can take breakfast (a buffet or locally inspired à la carte options), tea or an apéritif on a comfy sofa and under a parasol on particularly dazzling days. The focus is on the most important meal of the day, but the concierge can point you in the right direction when it comes to lunch and dinner.

Hotel Bar

Make yourself at home – if you’re anything like us, this means helping ourselves to liberal servings from the honesty bar – here a chic decanter-laden drinks trolley in the library. It’s largely stocked with spirits – some of which are free for guests – and there's plenty of wine offerings, too.

Last Orders

Breakfast runs from 7:30am to 11:30am; tea time is 5.30pm to 7.30pm; lunch and dinner are served from midday until 11pm.

Room Service

On request you can take breakfast in bed.

Planes

Mexico City Airport is the nearest international hub, just a 25-minute drive from the hotel. It’s well connected to both Americas and Europe with plenty of direct flights. Hotel staff can arrange transfers (around US$65 one-way).

Trains

There are two subway stations within walking distance of the hotel: Auditorio and Polanco, both on Line 7. From the airport, board at Terminal Aérea on Line 5, ride it one stop to Pantitlan on Line 9, then head west to reach Line 7.

Automobiles

Driving in Mexico City can be chaotic with a (sometimes very) fast and loose approach to the highway code, tiresome traffic jams and street vendors vying for your attention, but as long as you keep your wits about you it’s a definite possibility (or you can hire a driver to navigate the city for you). Most international visitors start their road trips in Mexico City, heading north to see the likes of San Miguel de Allende, or south to beach hop the Yucatán, so you’ll likely survive a city stay without a car. There's no private parking at the hotel, but plenty of available spaces in the surrounding streets.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

The hotel acts as more of a beauteous base from which to propel your adventures, but they can offer you a massage, call in a personal trainer or take part in mat Pilates, Yoga classes and Meditation sessions. Home to one of Mexico’s most expensive streets (the luxury-boutique-lined Presidente Masaryk Avenue) and one of the largest parks in the western hemisphere (the Bosque de Chapultepec), the Polanco neighbourhood is certainly one of CDMX’s most significant, attracting the city’s wealthiest and flocks of culture vultures. There’s much to grab your attention, but first, hit the line-up of designer labels along Presidente Masaryk Avenue if you have pesos to burn, or explore the – relatively – less expensive options at glamorous open-air mall Antara Polanco. Once you look the part then you’re all set to go promenading through Chapultepec Park (all 17,000 acres if you have the stamina…) There’s enough to do within its borders to distract you for days: see giant pandas at the zoo; trace the city’s history exploring the collections of exceedingly grand Chapultepec Castle (home to the National Museum of Cultures); chart eclipses on the famed Aztec Sun Stone, just one of the fascinating artefacts at the National Anthropology Museum; and see Mexico’s most profound modern artists on display at both the Rufino Tamayo Museum and the Modern Art Museum (which has amassed over 3,000 paintings). The latter has a selection of Frida Kahlo’s works, but you may prefer seeing them in the more personal setting of her peacock-blue home, in the Colonia del Carmen neighbourhood to the south. Just as colourful, with its planes of pink and orange, is architect Luis Barragán’s jawdropping futuristic casa on the southern border of Chapultepec. Parque Lincoln (opposite the hotel) doesn’t have as much going on, but its sculptures and graffiti scrawls, genteel lakes for toy-boat races and hugely popular playground make it worth wandering through. Soumaya Museum has a huge collection of pre-Hispanic and European treasures (notably a trove of Rodin works) for you to lay your eyes on, but the undulating building they’re housed in is an attraction in itself. Teatro Teicel has a programme of plays and musicals, the iconic Paseo de la Reforma will take you to the central Zócalo and surrounding monumental buildings if you walk its length. And, you’re just a short hop from the hipster havens of Roma and Condesa.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .