San Miguel de Allende Hotel Guide: Casa de Sierra Nevada

Where: Hospicio No. 42, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

4/21/2008 at 10:16 AM
Tags: Mexico Hotels, San Miguel de Allende Hotels, Hotel Video Tours, Orient-Express Hotels

Once again, HotelChatter contributing editor Tim Leffel is moving around Mexico, checking out the hotel scene in the colonial heartland. If you have a question about where to stay in Guanajuato or San Miguel de Allende, hit us on the tipline, or just comment below, and we will do our best to get you some sort of answer. Enjoy.

Prior to 2006, Casa de Sierra Nevada was already the top hotel in town. But then the Orient-Express company took over, making it their second hotel in Mexico after Maroma in the Riviera Maya. They got straight to work, sprucing up the place and renovating the main restaurant (in what was once the home of the local archbishop). While they were at it, they bought a cooking school just down the street.

Two years later they're still adding on to their collection of rooms in different buildings. A new spa will be finished next month and some additional guest rooms will up the total from the current 31. The newest section of the hotel (for now) is Casa Limon, where six suites surround a courtyard, a library, and a swimming pool set in a grassy lawn.

The video tour here is a trip through one of the Colonial Room Suites in that Casa Limon section. With this one--number 444--you get your private plunge pool/whirlpool on a terrace, two big flat-screen TVS, an iPod dock, and a spacious double-vanity bath with separate tub and shower--both lit by a skylight.

Naturally, the room comes stocked with all the pampering goodies: thick towels, robes, Molton Brown toiletries, and soft cotton sheets with a high thread count.

Published rates are roughly $300 to $600, with the suite featured here at the top of that range.