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 (USD112.17), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
If the high altitude at Met Hotel La Paz doesn’t take your breath away, those painterly views of the Andes – from the lofty roof terrace; from your light-filled room; from the super-smart penthouse suite – surely will. There’s eye candy of a different stripe in the striking lobby, where vivid artworks by emerging Bolivian artists jockey for position with towering native cacti, and diners gorge on Mediterranean fare in the open-plan restaurant. Further sensory diversions await in the spa and pool, and it’s just a short walk to elevation both literal and metaphorical via the city’s sensational cable-car system.
12 noon. Check-in is 2pm. Both are flexible, with free courtesy check-in from 10am and check-out until 3pm when availability permits. Check-in from 7am and check-out until 6pm can be arranged for an additional fee.
Prices
Double rooms from £101.50 ($127), including tax at 13 per cent.
More details
Rates include breakfast in the Dominga Restaurant, served between 7am and 10.30am. Expect a heaving buffet of fruits, breads, hams, cheeses, eggs, pancakes, yoghurt and cereals complemented by à la carte options such as avocado toast and omelettes.
Also
Much of Met Hotel La Paz is accessible. Door frames have been widened and the open-plan lobby (also home to the bar and restaurant) has an elevator providing access to all floors. Rooms haven't been specially adapted, but most are spacious enough to accommodate wheelchair users.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: 50-inch smart TV, minibar, kettle with tea and coffee, free bottled water, desk, remote-controlled curtains and blackout shades.
Our favourite rooms
Because La Paz is encircled by mountains, you’re basically guaranteed a view from your spacious room, which features all mod cons (remote-control blackout curtains, 50-inch smart TV, WiFi) and textiles that nod to Bolivia’s ancient Tiwanaku culture. But for the best bragging rights, you’ll want to go right to the top of the hotel for the Met Suite’s penthouse vistas, not to mention a decadent bath tub and oodles of extra space.
Poolside
There’s a small L-shaped pool in the spa, open 8am–9pm.
Spa
The 350sq m wellness club comprises a sauna, steam room, pool, jacuzzi, hammam and garden area, and there’s a treatment room for massages and facials.
Packing tips
High altitudes can knock wind from the sails of the most seasoned traveller. Pack potassium-rich dried fruits – apricots, banana chips, prunes – and a good, voluminous water bottle to counter the worst of the effects of that rarefied mountain air.
Also
Met Hotel La Paz lays claim to the biggest hotel gym in town, open 24 hours for guests. The hotel also has a partnership with nearby La Paz Golf Club, the highest golf course in the Americas, with an elevation of 3,260 metres.
Children
Children are welcome but there are no specific kid-friendly facilities at the hotel.
Sustainability efforts
Met Hotel La Paz has its eco credentials down to a fine art, from the colourful Bolivian paintings that adorn its walls to the locally sourced produce that supplies the kitchen. There’s a full recycling programme in place (including rainwater) and single-use papers and plastics are generally avoided. Energy is generated through solar panels and conserved via use of LCD lighting and motion sensors throughout the hotel.
Take your cocktail aperitif up to the roof terrace for flamboyant mountain sunsets in flamingo pink, terracotta red and achacha orange.
Dress Code
Bold, technicolour Bolivian-style prints for the win. But don’t forget to layer up if you’re venturing out in the evening – that pesky mountain climate means temperatures can dip below freezing year round.
Hotel restaurant
Located in the striking open-plan lobby, Dominga is a vision of gleaming white marble punctuated by vibrant Bolivian art pieces and desert greenery. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serving local specialities and Mediterranean classics.
Hotel bar
Guests and locals mingle over cocktails at the long, curved marble bar in the lobby and sip strong Bolivian coffee on comfy sofas among the cacti.
Last orders
Dominga is open from 7am until 10.30pm (breakfast is served until 10.30am).
Set some 3,300 metres above sea level in the Andean valleys, Met Hotel La Paz is a worthy addition to the Bolivian capital’s affluent Calacoto neighbourhood, 10 kilometres from bustling downtown La Paz.
Planes
El Alto International Airport is around 35-45 minutes from the hotel, depending on traffic. Transfers for up to three people can be organised for US$17-18.
Automobiles
You need nerves of steel to drive in La Paz, where reckless risk-taking and an audacious disregard for red lights, speed limits and seat belts are treated like badges of honour. Masochists who fancy a piece of the action can rent cars at the airport and park what’s left of their vehicle in the hotel lot on arrival.
Other
Not just an exemplar of urban mass transit, La Paz’s extraordinary cable-car system is a tourist attraction in its own right. It’s cheap, it’s efficient, it covers most of the city and, well, don’t even get us started on the views. Hop aboard the green line at Irpavi station just a few blocks from the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
La Paz is the world’s highest capital city, with an elevation of around 3,640 feet above sea level, meaning all pursuits here should be undertaken at a leisurely (and perhaps very leisurely) pace. Start your gentle adventure with a sightseeing ride aboard the terrific Mi Teleférico. Like an airborne metro, the city’s remarkable mass-transit cable-car system traverses the skyways of La Paz and neighbouring El Alto, affording awesome aerial views of these bustling cities. Peer down on tightly packed terracotta rooftops and gaze across snow-capped mountain peaks. Take a ride at sunset for the magical sight of a million city lights twinkling beneath the burning Bolivian sky. Best of all, a one-way ticket costs only about 40 cents and you can do a full loop of the network for US$3-4, meaning more cash for a nerve-steadying Bolivian singani (brandy) afterwards.
Back on terra firma, take the guided La Paz walking tour for essential local insight into the city’s culture and traditions. Wander cobbled Calle Jaén, where crumbling colonial façades in cornflower blue, turmeric yellow and peachy pink will make your socials sing. And hit up sprawling Plaza Murillo for pretty La Paz Cathedral and the mustard-yellow Bolivian Palace of Government (known colloquially as Palacio Quemado, the Burnt Palace, thanks to its fiery past). Perch on a bench to join elderly locals pigeon-feeding and people-watching over chilled mocochinchi (sweet peach cider) from the square’s street vendors.
Also not to be missed is the sensory carnival that is the Witches’ Market. Run by yatiri (Bolivian witch doctors), this is your one-stop shop for amulets, talismans and potions that promise long life, fertility and endless good luck. But you’ll need to look elsewhere for your common-or-garden souvenir trinkets, unless of course you consider powdered dogs’ tongues and dried llama foetuses suitable gifts to take home to Aunty Ethel.
Outside the city, otherworldly rock formations and alien landscapes straight from the mind of Salvador Dalí await intrepid explorers. The clue’s in the name at Valle de la Luna, where soaring clay spires born out of eroded mountains might give the impression you’re really walking on the moon. Similarly out of this world are the spiky rock formations at Valle de las Animas, like the primitive city skyline of some long-forgotten civilisation, all overshadowed by the steadfast, timeless backdrop that is Illimani, Bolivia’s highest mountain.
Local restaurants
If Met Hotel La Paz’s Mediterranean menu has given you a taste for the European, go full Swiss chalet mode at La Suisse. Recently relocated to the 38th floor of the Green Tower (La Paz’s tallest building, no less) this popular eatery has swapped its stereotypical wood-panelled interiors for gleaming glass and marble surfaces. But the dizzying mountain views and hearty fondue dishes might still have you believing you’re in the Alps rather than the Andes, especially after that second Maracuya Sour cocktail, laced with punchy Bolivian singani spirit.
For something a little more local in flavour, hit up Ancestral, where traditional Bolivian dishes are cooked over wood-fired grills. We’re talking seared Bolivian rib-eye steaks, burgers so succulent you’ll swear the local yatiri had a hand in their preparation, and sweet and nutty charred artichoke hearts that might just change your life. Watch the chefs at their fiery work in the open kitchen or take in views of the pretty garden from where the tomatoes in that zingy chutney you’re scoffing were recently plucked. There’s also a peaceful terrace for alfresco dining at lunch and on warm evening
Local bars
Another Green Tower favourite, within stumbling distance of Met La Paz, Cielo Bar lets those incredible city views do the talking. Its cocktails are no slouches either: smoky, boozy affairs served at intimate tables and cosy sofas, and along the sleek lamplit bar.
Also just a kilometre or so from the hotel, Wave Club is your one-stop shop for happy hour cocktails, live DJs, all-night dancing and a whole floor of karaoke booths in which to unleash your inner Mariah.
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 art-loving hotel in La Paz and unpacked their weird and wonderful powders and potions from the famous Witches’ Market, a full account of their high-altitude holiday will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Met Hotel La Paz in the world’s highest capital city…
It might be in the lower Zona Sur district of La Paz, around 300 metres below the city centre, but the still-dizzying altitude and sensational Andean mountain views at Met Hotel La Paz mean it's just as capable of leaving you breathless. Step inside for equally gasp-inducing interiors by Brooklyn-based design studio Los Designers, all light-filled spaces, lofty ceilings and gleaming space-age marble surfaces juxtaposed with soaring desert cacti and succulents. Eye-popping original artworks from Bolivian artists including Maximiliano Siñani and Erika Ewel adorn the walls and, should you want to get a little closer to maximum La Paz elevation, it’s eight floors up to the panoramic roof terrace, where a signature singani-laced cocktail might take you higher still.
