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HACIENDA PUERTA CAMPECHE |
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CAMPECHE, MEXICO
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The Hacienda Puerta Campeche offers a new twist on the colonial hotel. Set in the heart of the historic city of Campeche - a UNESCO World Heritage site two hours' drive north-west of Cancún - this 15-room retreat combines the grandeur of a country house with the convenience and intimacy of an urban hang-out. The hotel is the latest endeavour from Roberto Gonzalez, a Mexican banking billionaire who has transformed a clutch of abandoned rural haciendas into some of the Yucatán peninsula's most luxurious places to stay. Hidden within the yellow-walled colonial city centre, the hotel - or at least a part of it - has been carved out of a row of restored 17th-century town houses, with a new addition added in the same style. The bedrooms in the old wing vary in shape while those in the new part are more regular. All are extravagant in size and have enormous bathrooms with adobe-tiled floors, hammocks and pale-limestone sinks. The restaurant, La Guardia, serves classic Yucatán cuisine with an emphasis on fresh seafood; the bar has the style and ambience of a colonial-era private club. What the pool area lacks in size, it makes up for in panache. It is built into the ruins of a roofless house, and flows into several different rooms.
WHEN TO GO
May, before the summer heat and in time for the annual Rice Festival in nearby Escárcega
ROOM TO BOOK
Rooms in the old wing have the highest ceilings and are closest to the pool
CONTACT
Hacienda Puerta Campeche, 71 Calle 59, Pro 16 and 18, Campeche, Mexico (00 52 981 816 7535; fax: 999 923 7963). Doubles from US$159
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