San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Casa Hoyos

Price per night from$219.85

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (MXN3,640.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Snake-belly pink pad

Setting

Colonial old town

All minimalist concrete punctuated by symmetrical, Andalusian-style arched balconies and geometric tiles, Casa Hoyos is a Wes Anderson movie location come to life (complete with old-school elevator). AG Studio's overhaul of this 18th-century home features lush cacti springing from traditional mirrored planters on every floor, artful, modern details drawn from the Hoyos family shield, and a terracotta-tiled pool terrace where views across the city’s rich palette of rooftops, domes and spires make a fine spot for expertly mixed tequila cocktails any hour of the day.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A glass of sparkling wine each on arrival

Facilities

Photos Casa Hoyos facilities

Need to know

Rooms

16, including four suites.

Check–Out

3pm. Late check-out can be organised for a fee, where room availability permits. Earliest check-in, 12 noon.

Prices

Double rooms from £226.37 (MXN4,732), including tax at 30 per cent.

More details

Rates include a Continental breakfast served daily in the courtyard; an American breakfast is also available for an extra charge.

Also

Casa Hoyos partners with the gym at nearby Boom Fitness, where panoramic views from the treadmills create the illusion of running through the local landscape, but without all the dust and sweat. Access to Boom Fitness is only available four hours a day, so be sure to let reception know in advance.

At the hotel

Concierge, honesty bar, free WiFi. In rooms: air-conditioning, smart TV, espresso coffee machine, bottled water, Loredana bath products, bathrobes and slippers.

Our favourite rooms

Bedrooms at Casa Hoyos are a delicious melange of dusky pinks, gleaming black-tiled floors, oversize frosted-glass porthole windows, vibrant local art and bespoke furniture from A-G Studio. Bathrooms sparkle in old-school turmeric and terracotta, but really up the ante in Master Suites, where the Jacuzzi hot tub is big enough for two – and a couple of large glasses of bubbly.

Poolside

Head skywards, where the small rooftop plunge pool (heated on request) is flanked by loungers, wicker bucket seats and, yes, more cacti. Ceviche, tacos, cocktails and more are served from the terrace bar here from noon. The pool is open daily, from 8am to 5pm.

Spa

The hotel's gallery can be transformed into a small treatment room for on-request massages, just let reception know in advance so they can organise it for you.

Packing tips

Sensible shoes for blister-free mornings strolling the colonial city’s cobbled alleyways; a broad-brimmed hat for sunny siestas by the rooftop pool.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs up to 15kg are welcome in Single Design rooms at an additional nightly charge of US$80 a pet. See more pet-friendly hotels in San Miguel de Allende.

Children

Casa Hoyos is an adults-only property.

Food and Drink

Photos Casa Hoyos food and drink

Top Table

The old-world romance of the cactus-festooned courtyard means it’s difficult to play favourites.

Dress Code

Casual. Seating is outdoors so light layers are recommended for languid epicurean evenings.

Hotel restaurant

Chef Hiran Patel is at the helm of the Indian-fusion restaurant Ghar, which means ‘home’ in Hindi. Ember-grilled large dishes and punchy small plates, such as nopales battered in chickpea and turmeric flour served with smashed avocado and morita oil, elevate Indian flavours and Mexican ingredients to take you far from home. However, the feeling of home very much remains as you share plates and stories, sip cocktails, or squabble over that last Vindaloo mussel…

Hotel bar

Rooftop bar Bekeb is fast becoming one of the city’s hottest spots for cocktails, thanks to the imaginative drinks (signature lavender sour or smoked mezcal cocktail served under a cloche, anyone?) and dreamy rooftop views of Parroquia’s pink spires and beyond. And, if the buzz up top becomes more of a roar, guests can retreat to the exclusive-use honesty bar in the first-floor lobby.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 8am to noon; light bites and drinks are available on the rooftop terrace from noon until 5pm every day, except Tuesdays, when it's closed for the day.

Room service

Currently unavailable.

Location

Photos Casa Hoyos location
Address
Casa Hoyos
Mesones No.14, Centro
San Miguel de Allende
37700
Mexico

Casa Hoyos is a hip urban hideaway set amid rose-pink spires and terracotta domes in the beguilingly baroque Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende, a block from El Jardin, the verdant main square.

Planes

Guanajuato airport, about 90 minutes’ drive from the hotel, is served by direct daily flights from a number of major US hubs. It’s about an hour from Queretaro airport and just under four hours from Mexico City. Taxis and bus services to San Miguel are available from all three airports.

Automobiles

Adventure-seekers are in for a treat as the expansive landscape of Guanajuato state – arid desert one minute, rainforest the next – lends itself perfectly to road trips. Hire a car at the airport in Mexico City and meander gently north via the ancient Aztec ruins at Teotihuacán, the city of Guanajuato, and Bernal’s monolithic volcanic boulder, one of the world’s largest. There’s free valet parking for guests a block from the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

The pleasing quietude of the paved courtyard and sunkissed roof terrace make the casa hard to leave. You could easily spend entire days eschewing the cultural wonders beyond the front door in favour of shuttling gently from massage room to patio to rooftop pool. Step outside though, and you’ll soon discover why San Miguel de Allende is so in vogue with in-the-know LA and NYC hipsters right now: colourful buildings in turmeric yellow, sky blue and pomegranate red showcase magnificent Mexican and colonial Spanish architecture along wonkily-cobbled Unesco-listed streets, meaning snap-happy – and high-heeled – visitors won’t get anywhere fast. 

The city’s main square, El Jardin, more than lives up to its name. Here, perfectly manicured laurel trees provide shade for an afternoon of high-quality people watching, and mariachi bands add a festive atmosphere on weekends. The square is also where you’ll find the city’s most photographed building. Best snapped at dawn or dusk, Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel is a fine Gothic confection in pale pink stone, its soaring towers often earning it not unreasonable comparisons to a wedding cake.

San Miguel de Allende morphed into something of a cultural mecca when bohemian artists and artisans gravitated here in their hundreds in the wake of the Mexican War of Independence. You’ll find evidence of this everywhere, but no more so than in the thriving markets where colourful handpainted ceramics, woven tote bags and unique silver jewellery are yours for a song – assuming you barter like a pro. The covered Mercado de Artesanias is open daily, while Tianguis Organico in the Instituto Allende art school is the place to go for artisan foodie treats on weekends – trust us, that fresh-off-the-grill chicken quesadilla oozing cheese will do wonders for your mezcal-cocktail hangover.

Local restaurants

A short stroll in the direction of the Parroquia brings you to Cumpanio, a French-Italian restaurant, brunch bar and bakery that lays claim to a menu of over 120 dishes. Good luck deciding what you’re going to eat… Will it be the ricotta and pumpkin flower ravioli? Or perhaps beef braised in beer, with polenta and asparagus? In the unlikely event you’re still hungry after that you can drop by one of their three dedicated Panio bakery outposts to pick up a cheeky cruffin or cronut on the go.

Also just off the square is the Restaurant. The contemporary fare here is way more imaginative than the unassuming name might suggest, with dishes like braised coffee-and-ancho-chilli ribs and ricotta cavatelli with spicy fennel sausage served in a sunny Moroccan-style courtyard with climbing vines and neoclassical pillars.

Local cafés

Aficionados of churros and Mexican soap operas will find much to enjoy at San Augustin Chocolate & Churros, where owner and star of countless telenovelas Margarita Gralia serves up the sweet doughy treat alongside a variety of hot-chocolate dipping sauces. A galaxy of photos and posters of Margarita through the ages adorns the walls. We’ll leave it to you to decide which of these two national treasures – Margarita or her churros – is the main attraction here.

You don’t have to be a semi-celebrity to run a café in this town…but it helps. US artists Cheryl Finnegan and Jaime Shelley’s Café Rama is part taco joint, part pop-art gallery, part jewellery store and – in a city that loves its food and wears its art on its sleeve – 100 per cent San Miguel.

Local bars

It doesn’t get much more Mexico than sipping tequila in a 17th-century stables, home to the Dragones of San Miguel regiment’s horses during the Mexican War of Independence. Now a small-batch tequila producer with a tiny six-seater tasting room tiled in black obsidian, Casa Dragones offers tours and intimate tasting sessions of its trio of tequilas. Because one is just never enough.

Set in a colonial building behind a colourful red-and-yellow facade La Adelita is a real slice of old Mexico, where locals huddle round small tables sipping tequila and mezcal, and punch-packing mojitos keep the atmosphere lively until well after sundown.

Reviews

Photos Casa Hoyos reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this cool casa in San Miguel de Allende and unpacked their handcrafted mercato bargains and slightly soggy churros, a full account of their city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Casa Hoyos in San Miguel de Allende...

Casa Hoyos, named for the family who have owned it for four generations (and nearly 100 years), rather suits its ultra-glam 21st-century makeover. Visionary designers at A-G Studio have created a highly contemporary look in desert-hot hues that nevertheless honours the house’s illustrious past. Sunset-pink tiles take their cue from a snake’s belly on the Hoyos family crest, corncob yellows represent the building’s stint as a grain exchange and tinkling golden windchimes nod to its banking heritage – back when locals knew it colloquially as the Banco del Frijol (bean bank).

An image of the virgin Dolorosa de Loreta, rendered in talavera tiles, presides over a striking pink console table (the casa’s restored and repurposed original foreign exchange counter) that overlooks the courtyard below. In a city that’s celebrated for its vibrantly coloured buildings, Casa Hoyos is certainly no slouch.

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Price per night from $219.85