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 (USD228.98), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Get cloistered away at Coqui Coqui Casa de los Santos, a blessed boutique stay amid the golden streets of Mexico’s ‘Yellow City’, Izamal. It has just one suite, called ‘the Convent’, which is more aesthetic than ascetic, with a crown-topped four-poster, floral tiles, chandeliers and candelabra, private terrace and two side-by-side roll-top bath tubs – one of its more devilish details. The rest of the historic casa embraces Izamal’s holy trinity of cultural touchstones (Mayan, colonial and contemporary), where pastel frescoes peel, crucifixes hang, a plunge pool shelters under ancient stone walls, a rustic kitchen hosts breakfast and the perfumería conjures a glamorous past. Amen.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A suede luggage tag each; GoldSmiths also get a bottle of Coqui Coqui cologne
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability (after all, you are the only guests). Earliest check-in, 3pm; let the hotel know in advance if you’ll arrive after 8pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £222.92 ($277), including tax at 21 per cent.
More details
Rates include a Continental breakfast. A two-night minimum stay is required.
Also
Since you’ll be immersed in Coqui Coqui’s signature scents, and living above its boutique, it’ll be hard to resist investing in infusers, oils, candles and the delicate scent bottles displayed under glass cloches.
At the hotel
Perfumery and apothecary, terrace, free WiFi. In rooms: minibar, free bottled water, tea- and coffee-making kit, the hotel’s own perfumes and bath products, bathrobes and air-conditioning.
Our favourite rooms
With just one room, Coqui Coqui Casa de los Santos feels very exclusive and like a very chic holiday home. And you needn’t take a vow of chastity to spend the night in the Convent Suite. It might be as decadently decorated as a Catholic altar, with gilded candelabra and sconces, dripping chandeliers, a four-poster bed frame topped with a crown, and floral-patterned floor tiles; however, sultry black-hued walls and painted ceiling beams, and side-by-side twin roll-top tubs placed by the window, show that its a bit of a sinner’s sanctum too.
Poolside
The hotel’s slender plunge pool, beside the kitchen, is sheltered by antique stone walls, tiled in green-and-black checkerboard, has his and hers sunloungers, and is straddled by a romantic stone bench. It’s a pace for gentle frolics rather than serious laps. After dark, a lamppost casts it in a soft light.
Spa
Here’s your chance to be slathered in the divine fragrances Coqui Coqui produce (alongside Mayan honey, aloe vera, coconut milk and rose petals), whether you’re being massaged with hands, hot stones or herbal sachets; having your face refreshed; partaking in an exfoliating ritual; or bathing in botanicals.
Packing tips
Mayan-colonial towns mean cobbled streets and pyramids to climb, so bring flat, comfy footwear. Otherwise some luxe lounging gear will make you feel more like lord and lady of the casa, and save some space for Coqui Coqui’s fabulously fragrant perfumes and candles.
Pet‐friendly
Dogs can stay, but you’ll need to let the reservations office know the size and breed of dog in advance to get their approval, and you have to sign a disclaimer at check-in. See more pet-friendly hotels in Izamal.
Children
Jesus might watch you from some of the walls, but there’s no need to ‘suffer the little children’ here – only over-18s can stay in this seriously romantic hideaway.
Make yourself at home – gather at the rustic wooden kitchen table for breakfast, sip a fresh juice in a crocheted hammock, shoot mezcal on the rooftop…
Dress Code
This casa es su casa, so guests’ choice.
Hotel restaurant
There’s no restaurant, just a rustic dining room with a hefty wooden table, cane-backed chairs, ceramic crockery and fraying straw hats hung on the walls. Only a simple breakfast of artisanal bread and spreads, fruit, juice and coffee is served, and you can take it in your room or have it plated up here.
Hotel bar
When you get thirsty, raid your minibar for wine, beer, mezcal and an array of soft drinks. There’s no bar on site, so stock up on sippables in town.
Last orders
Breakfast is served from 8am to 10am.
Room service
Breakfast can be served to your room, to be enjoyed while you’re still cosy under the covers or with a side of city-wide view.
Calle 31 N. 277 (Entre 26 y 28)
Colonia Centro
Izamal
Yucatán
97540
Mexico
Coqui Coqui Casa de los Santos sits on a very sunny street of saffron-painted colonial houses at the centre of small historic Yucatán city Izamal, just a couple of blocks from the Zona Arqueológica.
Planes
Mérida International is the closest airport, just over an hour’s drive away from the hotel. There are limited direct routes from the United States and Canada, but you’ll likely arrive via a connecting flight from Mexico City. The hotel can help to arrange transfers on request.
Automobiles
While you can xplore Izamal easily on foot, a car will come in handy for venturing further out into the Yucatán, opening up sparkling cenotes, hidden temples and more. Only charged street parking is available.
Worth getting out of bed for
Whether painted its signature bright yellow to appease Mayan sun deity Kinich Kak Moo or to mark the Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1993, pueblo mágico Izamal certainly shines. Photographers can turn their Insta grids into El Dorado, and the curious ochre hue makes for cheery street-strolling. Well-placed to enlighten yourself about the city’s culture and history, Coqui Coqui Casa de los Santos sits at the intersection of Mayan mythology and Catholic colonialism, with the Itzamatul pyramid to one side (closed to visitors, but visible from the roof terrace) and the Franciscan sprawl of the 16th-century Convento de San Antonio de Padua (itself built on top of the Pop-Hol-Chac pyramid). If you're eager to clamber up something ancient, Kinich Kakmó has some uneven stairs that reward you with sweeping views. Recently unearthed Temple of Kabul has a well-preserved stucco face on its side and Hun Pik Tok, near the central plaza, and Chaltún Ha (along Calle 38) complete the circuit. Get to know the three cultures of Izamal (Mayan, colonial and contemporary) at the Centro Cultural Y Artesanal, which has a collection of jewellery, carvings, weavings and life-size Dia De Los Muertos figures. After, wander over to palm-tree-studded Parque Itzamna for a lazy ride in one of the rainbow-hued horses and carriages idling by its side. It’s easy to explore the fascinating Chichén Itzá complex, just an hour’s drive from Izamal, on a day trip; pack swimwear too, because you can make a pit stop at the dazzlingly blue, vine-draped Ik Kil cenote, before heading back to catch the town’s Sound and Light show (if it’s a Thursday, Friday or Saturday) or for a last dip in the casa’s plunge pool and drinks on your just-the-two-of-you terrace.
Local restaurants
Izamal might not have the culinary clout of say Oaxaca or Mérida, with very much a local dining scene, but you’ll still find yourself well-fed on menus that call on ancestral tradition. Take Kinich, named for the pyramid it sits next to, where you’ll dine under a vaulted palapa on Yucatecan plates: fire-roasted sausages from Valladolid with a tomato, sour orange and bean soup; chicken in a fiery consommé of burnt chilli, tomato, onion, epazote tea and regional spices; and white-tailed deer meat in a spicy almond sauce; with papaya candies for dessert. La Casona del Izamal has a similar feel – expect to be seated beneath a lot of woven palm fronds as you eat various meats marinated in chilli and orange – but is worth stopping by for its steak- and suckling pig-stuffed panuchos, rich cochinita pibil and crispy shrimp in four-cheese sauce. Its range of breakfast tacos also calls for a morning visit (before 11am).
Local cafés
For a grab-and-go bite, seek out the stalls selling marquesitas: crêpes filled with cajeta (thickened caramel), tropical jams, condensed milk, Nutella and sometimes cheese, too.
Local bars
Your best bet for a late night is to stock up on chilled cervezas, and maybe a bottle of tequila if shots are your game, from a nearby bodega to enjoy on your roof terrace; Izamal’s drinking scene is sparse and geared towards a college crowd. But, if you want radioactive-hued drinks amid decorated skulls, hit La Caterina (named for one of Dia De Los Muertos’ most recognisable figureheads), an easy stumble away.
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 you-and-me hotel in gilded Izamal and unpacked their perfumes from the boutique and Otomi-embroidered blouses, a full account of their spiritual awakening will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Coqui Coqui Casa de los Santos on the Yucatán Peninsula…
You might think a hotel awash with Catholic iconography, solemn saint portraits and crucifixes – with a sole suite named ‘the Convent’ – might be more rosary-clutching than romantic. However, Coqui Coqui Casa de los Santos is truly a heavenly host (after all, you’re the only guests) and makes a very cosy love nest. Its one and only room has a private terrace with city-wide views (overlooking the Itzamatul pyramid, Convento de San Antonio de Padua and saffron-hued streets of pueblo mágico Izamal); his and hers bath tubs set side by side, and a four-poster bed dramatically topped by a golden crown. And the casa continues to charm, with bold tiling, a plunge pool tucked into an ancient-stone terrace, artfully weathered baby pink and blue frescoes, swooshy white curtains revealing a rustic dining space, swaying crochet hammocks, and a museum-like room dressed like an altarpiece. And, in lieu of an incense-fuming censer, there’s a headily scented perfumería with dainty bottles under glass cloches, diffusers and candles to buy. So, let the power of Christ compel you, and plan a pilgrimage to this very special sanctum.
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