Hotel Palacio de Doña Beatriz ★★★★

Eleven Rooms Behind a Gate, and a Roof Over the Whole Valley

Antigua rewards travellers who step one street off the grid, and this address steps several. The Palacio de Dona Beatriz stands inside Las Gravileas, a gated residential enclave on the eastern edge of town, in a house built in the colonial register with carved woodwork, local craft and furniture made for the rooms it stands in. There are eleven rooms, which is small enough that the owners know who is staying. The ground gives it what the historic centre cannot: a garden, a courtyard, a pool, and a roof terrace that opens onto the valley of Antigua with three volcanoes in the frame.

Why It Works

Two arguments carried it. The first is the roof, which is not a token terrace with two chairs but a genuine viewpoint over the valley, Agua to the south, Fuego and Acatenango to the west. The second is the pool, a rarity in central Antigua and the thing that turns a two night stop into a proper stay. Add jacuzzi baths in the rooms and a made to order breakfast, and the scale of the place starts to make sense: eleven rooms is the number at which a hotel can still do each of these things properly.

Why This Location

Las Gravileas is residential, gated and quiet, which is the whole point. You are a short tuk tuk ride or a walk of a few minutes from the edge of the grid, and from there the Parque Central, the cathedral ruins and the Santa Catalina Arch line up along familiar streets. The trade in your favour is the return journey: the noise of the centre is something you visit rather than sleep in. La Aurora airport is a road transfer of roughly an hour, and the road west to Lake Atitlan starts from the same side of town.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Residential, colonial, discreet, owner run

• Rooms: 11, several with jacuzzi baths

• Best For: Couples, travellers who want a pool in Antigua, anyone using the city as a base for volcano days

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The roof terrace, which takes in almost the entire valley and three volcanoes at once

• Dining: Breakfast included and cooked to order, with a short menu to choose from

• Amenities: Swimming pool, garden and courtyard, roof terrace, jacuzzi baths, massage on request, free private parking, children welcome

• Attractions: Parque Central and the cathedral ruins, the Santa Catalina Arch, Iglesia de La Merced, Cerro de la Cruz viewpoint, and the Acatenango trailheads reached from town

The Rooms, the Pool and the Garden

The interiors are the surprise here. Rather than the whitewashed minimalism that has spread through Antigua boutique hotels, this is a richer register: dark timber, carved detail, textiles and craft pieces collected rather than bought as a set, and furniture commissioned for the house. Several rooms have jacuzzi baths. Outside, the garden is mature and the pool is set within it rather than squeezed beside it, which is what a residential plot buys you. Massage can be arranged on the property. Ask for a room facing the garden if you want to wake to birds instead of the gate.

Eating In, and Eating Out

Breakfast is included and made to order from a short menu, taken in the garden when the morning is fine, which in Antigua it usually is. For the rest of the day the town is the dining room, and that is the correct arrangement here: Antigua has one of the best restaurant scenes in Central America, from the courtyard tables around the Arch to the coffee houses near the Parque Central, and the ride back afterwards takes minutes. Delivery reaches the gate if you would rather stay by the pool.

Before You Book

Eleven rooms go quickly in the dry season, so book early if your dates are fixed. Free parking on site makes this an easy base for anyone driving the Antigua to Atitlan to Peten circuit, and airport transfers can be arranged. Spanish and English are spoken. Give the gate code and the Las Gravileas address to your driver rather than the street name alone, since the enclave sits off the numbered grid that every map of Antigua uses.