Where to stay in Cusco, from Ena’s Little Black Book – Belmond Hotel Monasterio, where a Spanish monastery sits atop an Inca palace and the altitude goes quiet.
A Spanish monastery built atop an Inca palace, where the walls have borne witness to 500 years of history.
Cusco sits at 11,000 feet and will remind you of this at every opportunity. The Monasterio’s gift is that it makes the altitude almost irrelevant. You check in, step through the doorway, the original Spanish coat of arms still above it, and the city noise falls away. The central courtyard, anchored by a 300-year-old cedar tree and framed by roses, is one of those spaces that makes you slow down without quite knowing why. The walls are hung with 18th-century colonial religious art, original to the building. The chapel is gilded. The arches are stone. Breakfast in the courtyard is, quietly, one of the best meals in Peru.
The hotel was built as a Spanish colonial seminary in 1595, on the foundations of an Inca palace, two civilizations layered on top of each other, which is also a reasonable description of Cusco itself. The rooms are intimate and beautifully appointed, rich with dark wood and antique detail. Request an oxygen-enriched room when you book, Cusco’s altitude is no joke, and sleeping well on the first night makes everything that follows considerably better.
I have been back since with my family. Belmond does special very well, but Monasterio does it quietly, which is rarer.
Insider Note
Book an oxygen-enriched room in advance, not all rooms have the system, and you want to specify at reservation. Two nights minimum to properly absorb the city.
Destination · Cusco, Peru
Best time to visit · May to October for the dry season; March and April can also be beautiful, with fewer crowds and lush green landscapes, just be prepared for some rain.
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