The Best Boutique Hotels in Mexico City

Any definitive list of Mexico City’s top boutique hotels has to include crowd-pulling, effortlessly cool Condesa DF, from Mexico’s homegrown Grupo Habita. At the triangle-shaded rooftop bar, you can rub shoulders with the city’s hippest residents, as you sip cucumber mezcal mojitos and snack on Japanese-inspired salmon sashimi bites. Rooms are pared-back – the perfect antidote to all the action elsewhere – daubed in creamy shades and minimalist wood-paneling. Outside, Condesa and La Roma wait to be explored.

Bohemian travelers flock to Chaya B&B for its note-perfect design, set around a leafy, church-spying courtyard, where low-slung hammocks lure guests to come and hang out. Further cementing the laid-back feel is a resident dog who totters about the place and a long communal table where you can trade tips over breakfasts of piping-hot Chiapas coffee, quesadillas and Mexican mole sauce. Even better is its location: set atop Barrio Alameda, a recently renovated complex on the edge of Alameda Park, that harbors a host of independent shops and restaurants.

One of the most inviting aspects of this urban oasis in the Cuauhtémoc neighborhood is its translucent glass pool – ideal for slaking the heat after a long day exploring Mexico City’s heady ‘hoods. After cooling off, work your way through the restaurant’s organic seasonal menu, crafted by plant-forward chef Joaquin Cardoso, who learnt his skills at the Crillon and Plaza Athénée in Paris. Don’t miss in-house concept store, Taxonomía, too: a local favorite for fashion, accessories and ceramics created by local Mexican designers.

Set within a 16th-century palace, this extravagant hotel is fit for a king (or queen). In the lobby, an immense Louis XV chandelier towers above check in, setting the tone for the the hotel’s palatial decor, which also includes a Tiffany-style stained-glass ceiling, imported from France in 1908. To top it all off, zip upstairs in a gilded antique elevator to the rooftop bar for an expansive view of the vibrant Plaza del Zócalo below.

Step inside this unassuming townhouse in Roma Norte to find an immaculately styled three-bedroom hotel – little sister to larger La Valise in Tulum. Each suite has its own flare. For a night beneath the stars, bed down in La Terraza, which comes with a sliding bed, that can be wheeled onto the terrace on command. Though La Valise doesn’t have a restaurant, room service is on hand from Rosetta, an age-old Roma mansion run by leading chef Elena Reygadas.