Antigua Casona San Blas

About Antigua Casona San Blas

The hotel fills a colonial casona on Calle Carmen Bajo in San Blas, the district it calls bohemian. The house dates from roughly 1750 to 1800. Its carved wraparound balcony was rebuilt to copy the original, original adobe went back into the walls, and the restoration finished in June 2016 under Peru's Ministry of Culture. Guests today find garden views and courtyard fireplaces.

Rooms come in four types. Traditional rooms have terracotta brick floors, a king bed or twins and a garden outlook. Superior rooms switch to hardwood floors and add a heated towel rack and a standing balcony. Suites sit in the old casona, each with its own layout, a sitting area and a bathtub. Every room has a radiator, and turn-down brings hot water bottles for cold Cusco nights.

Meals are at Piedra & Sal, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and leans on Peruvian dishes such as aji de gallina and alpaca. The Spa at Antigua offers a jacuzzi, sauna and steam room, plus a mild hyperbaric chamber with 40 minute sessions meant to ease the first days at altitude. Exhala Yoga, a heated studio, holds classes daily.

Perfect if you are

• Couples and honeymoons
• Acclimatising to altitude
• History and architecture

Good to know

• Book spa and hyperbaric chamber sessions in advance, and note that the hotel itself says the surest cure for altitude sickness is to descend to a lower elevation.
• Cusco nights are cold: rooms have radiators and staff leave hot water bottles at turn-down.
• The hotel sits on a slope, so a taxi can be easier than walking back uphill while you adjust to 3,399 m.