Mexico City, Mexico

La Valise Mexico City

Price per night from$404.85

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 (USD404.85), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Cosmopolitan connoisseur

Setting

Belle Époque boulevard

Urbane roamers will delight in the reverie-inducing rooms at La Valise Mexico City, a boutique hotel in the fashionable Roma district. Once the preferred haunt of the city’s Francophile elite, Roma is full of leafy boulevards lined with decadent early-20th century townhouses, and with its sculpted stone and ornate ironwork, this one’s up there with the best of them. Now in its second heyday, the area draws a more youthful and artistic crowd, but this eight-suite refuge has not only kept its stately cloak, it’s got a silky new lining within. The artwork and furniture follows a cosmopolitan design scheme that splices European and Mexican styles with a hint of something more dreamlike – think beds that can be slid out under the stars and a revolving moon that masquerades as a door.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of wine and a bag of organic Mexican coffee

Facilities

Photos La Valise Mexico City facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Eight suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £387.99 ($490), including tax at 21 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast, an in-room affair of freshly-squeezed juice, seasonal fruit, pastries and yogurt with granola.

Also

In-room massages can be booked with the hotel staff.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout; laundry. In rooms: flatscreen TV with Apple TV and Netflix, speakers, minibar, free bottled water, Loredana bath products. The Polaris and Moon suites also have a kitchenette.

Our favourite rooms

Each suite has something that appeals to your inner dreamer. In Gravity, it’s a hammock and swing; in Moon, a giant rotating moon that acts as a dividing door; in Cilene, an outdoor bath tub. Polaris may just edge it, however, coming with a bed that can be slid onto the roof terrace so you can sleep beneath the stars.

Packing tips

Channel Kerouac or Kahlo – loose shirts and a Harrington for the former; bright, boldly-patterned dresses for the latter. Penchant for road travel/oversized eyebrows optional.

Also

The building’s historic layout means it’s not well suited to wheelchair users.

Children

Children over 12 are welcome at the hotel, but due to the limited facilities and small size, it’s best suited to adults.

Food and Drink

Photos La Valise Mexico City food and drink

Hotel restaurant

There’s no restaurant, but with Roma and Condesa on the doorstep, all sorts of culinary delights are within walking distance.

Hotel bar

You’ve got beer in your minibar and more hip watering holes nearby than you could shake a copper-coated cobbler at.

Last orders

Breakfast is served in-room from 8am.

Location

Photos La Valise Mexico City location
Address
La Valise Mexico City
Tonalá 53
Roma Norte
06700
Mexico

La Valise is in Colonia Roma, a charming district to the west of Mexico City’s historic center.

Planes

International flights land at Benito Juárez, which can be reached direct from London and most European hubs. It’s a 30-minute drive from the airport to the hotel, but traffic can add another 30 minutes in some cases. The Smith24 team can arrange your flights and transfers; call anytime, day or night.

Trains

Unless you’ve packed light, we’d probably give the Metro a miss on your way to the hotel. You’ll likely have a hard time getting on with a suitcase.

Automobiles

You won’t need a car if you’re staying in the city; taxis are relatively inexpensive and the fast, wallet-friendly Metro system has you covered elsewhere. Prospective drivers should be aware that the roads can be congested and chaotic at times. If you do want to hire, the Smith24 team can arrange it.

Worth getting out of bed for

The haunt of a liberal and up-and-coming crowd, Roma is one of the Mexico City’s creative hubs, attracting residents with artistic, architectural and musical leanings. Having changed apace with this crowd, the boulevards of this once aristocratic area are now scattered with many of the city’s best restaurants, cafés, art galleries, boutiques and vintage shops. Photographers (or keen Instagrammers, for that matter) will discover an endless visual bounty simply by wandering the wide, leafy streets, where you'll find decorative Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings sitting alongside clean-lined Modernist styles. Those looking to get in touch with the local art scene will enjoy galleries like OMR, which has done much to promote Mexican art on the international scene, and Kurimanzutto, a go-to for homegrown contemporary woks. In Del Carmen, slightly to the south, you’ve got the Museo Frida Kahlo, where you’ll not only come face to face with the home and studio of the iconic artist, but also get a snapshot of the bohemian lifestyles that were led by the city’s intellectual class. If you’ve got time to kill, don’t pass up a trip to the ancient city of Teotihuacán, standing since around 100 BC. The vast Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon are a sight to behold.

Local restaurants

Roma and Condesa’s burgeoning popularity has been nothing but good news for the restaurant scene: from hip coffee shops to fourteen-course fine-dining, both districts are home to some of the city’s best offerings. Right at the top of the list is Pujol, considered by many to be the best restaurant in the city. By taking national staples and elevating them to their creative best, head chef Enrique Olvera managed to break the mold, proving to critics that Mexican cuisine can sit comfortably at the fine-dining table. Another upmarket option is Lorea, a stylish and understated restaurant with only two choices: a nine- or 14-course tasting menu. Continually changing to reflect the seasons offerings, the gourmet-size dishes offer a snapshot of Mexico’s best ingredients, all of them combined with creativity and flair. Local favourite Contramar often produces a queue at peak times, but it’s well worth waiting for their grilled octopus and refined fish tacos. It’s a sociable spot too, playing host to long, leisurely lunch groups at the weekends – perfect for a little people watching.

Local cafés

Artisanal coffee shop Almanegra (meaning black soul) is right below the hotel, occupying a minimalist space with a cool, calm atmosphere. There’s always at least two types of bean on offer, one of them a homegrown variety. On days when the mercury’s sky high, try one of their curative cold brews.

Local bars

Art deco-inspired Licorería Limantour is a local hero, spearheading Roma’s craft cocktail scene (and securing a place on the World’s 50 Best Bars list on the way). It tends to be a bit more touristy than some of the lesser-known alternatives, but the skill of the mixologists makes it up for it. Just over the district border in charming Condesa, Darwin-inspired cocktail bar Baltra sweeps drinkers away from the city streets, surrounding them with enough exotic flora and fauna to transport them to far-off shores. It’s not all looks though: there’s an award-winning team behind the bar, making this one a rare bird indeed. Those more inclined towards beer will find a friend in El Deposito, a craft beer bar with over 100 different brews to choose from, both foreign and domestic.

Reviews

Photos La Valise Mexico City reviews
Hazel Sheffield

Anonymous review

By Hazel Sheffield, Travelling scribe

It must be a kind of sixth sense – that, or Google – but our host Ana knows exactly who we are when we arrive for our stay at La Valise in Mexico City. She greets us the instant we push open the tall white door on a corner of Tonala, a gorgeous, tree-lined street in the trendy Roma district and leads the way to our room on the second floor without even asking our names.

There are only three rooms at La Valise, based in an early 20th-century French-inspired building. The most sought after is undoubtedly La Terraza, on the top floor, which has a king sized bed on rails, so you can wheel it out to siesta al fresco in the afternoon, or to sleep under the stars. The concierge will even set up a projector if you ask nicely, giving new elegance to the ritual Netflix and chill.

The other rooms are El Patio, which has a hammock in an interior courtyard, and our very own La Luna, the middle suite, so called because of the giant rotating moon sculpture that separates the bedroom from the living area.

Ana gives us the tour. The graphic patterned kitchen has black marble surfaces, a nespresso machine and – most importantly – a fridge stocked with complimentary beers and sodas.

French-Mexican designers Chic By Accident are responsible for the art deco touches, including a black fibreglass coffee table and twin upturned chrome lamps on leather-covered columns.  The couch, long enough for Mr Smith to stretch out on completely, is black velvet with gray piping, with light covers thrown over the arms to snuggle up under after hours.

We’re shattered from a long day of travelling, so I make my plans for the evening the minute I spot the roll top bath and mandarin salts in the enormous bathroom. This and the separate toilet are brightened by windows overlooking an internal courtyard. A vintage leather chair and two robes hang in the hallway between the two.

While the guest house doesn’t have a separate restaurant, concierges are on hand to deliver room service. Mr Smith cracks open the Coronas and we pursue the menus in the room for nearby Rosetta – which is, the menu proudly informs us, ranked 33rd on the San Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list – and Taqueria El Califa, a popular local taco spot.

A long soak and a rinse in the spacious rain shower among the dramatic Sixties tiles, and we are snug in our waffle-towel robes ready for the knock at the door. Caesar, another friendly concierge, delivers our feast from Rosette: burrata bathed in anchovy jus, tortellini in a poultry broth and a salt-encrusted sea bass, plus a big brown bag of melt-in-the-mouth focaccia.

After dinner, with a turn of the fibreglass moon, we are installed in the gigantic bed. The room has air conditioning but the careful location of the bedroom in the inner room of the suite and layers of light bedding mean we escape without using it, waking only when dappled sunlight filters past the moon and onto the bedroom walls.

It quickly becomes clear that nothing it too much to ask for the hotel staff – we get to know four by name. They are available at any time of day or night to help guests, refill the fridge and, as happened to us, unlock the safe when we bungle the code at 9.30pm on a Monday night, before an early flight the next day.

In the morning Ana arrives with a tray of complimentary breakfast: fresh juice, bowls of fruit, granola and yoghurt and some pastries. Coffee comes in a variety of Mexican and international blends from the Almanegra coffee bar on the ground floor, which is handy, because neither of us can work out how to use the Nespresso machine.

We open the French doors and plan our day in Roma. The district sprung up when wealthy Mexicans moved west from the city centre and so its shaded avenues are full of hidden design shops, bars and restaurants.

Down Jalapa we discover three record shops and a fantastic little bookshop called La Incredible Libreria, which also sells art, stationery and curiosities. Round the corner on Zacatecas, Broka Bistrot is only visible after lunchtime, when a door is propped open showing the way in from the street. Behind a curtain we find a breezy hidden terrace, open to the sky, where a whole artichoke soaked in pesto and served with a creamy sauce is the perfect compliment to a cocktail or two.

The margaritas are plentiful and cheap at the nearby Embajada Jarocha, a Mexican haunt where live music entertains locals into the small hours. We are blown away by the tasty shrimp ceviche and sink several margaritas, though not enough to give us the Dutch courage to join the families on the dancefloor. Several hours later, we stumble back to La Valise and start to type in the code to open the door. It springs open before we can finish and Cesar appears, welcoming us with a smile.

We’re still wondering how the staff at La Valise seem to know what we need before we need it. But we’re certain that this is one hell of a place to stay.

 
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Price per night from $404.85