Casa Gangotena Boutique Hotel

Rooms and decor

Picture an old pale-pink mansion facing a cobbled square, with a tall Spanish colonial church standing across from it — that is Casa Gangotena Boutique Hotel. The building is the home of the Gangotena family, aristocrats who have been part of Quito since Spanish rule. It started as a colonial stone palace, was rebuilt after a fire early in the 20th century in a neoclassical style with light Art Nouveau touches, then opened as a boutique hotel in 2011 with the whole original structure kept intact — marble staircase, high ceilings, thick plaster walls that still hold the cool and quiet of an old house. All 31 rooms and suites are dressed in South American art, local woven textiles, hardwood furniture and Egyptian cotton bedding, with modern 5-star comfort like marble bathrooms and a soaking tub in some rooms. Open your door and you get a faint scent of wood and the kind of dead silence that is hard to find in the middle of a capital city.

Food and amenities

The heart of a stay here is the top-floor rooftop terrace — step up and you immediately understand why every review keeps mentioning it, because right in front of you is the spire of La Compania de Jesus, gold-leafed inside down to every square inch, which earns it the nickname "the most beautiful church in South America." Further off you see the Panecillo hill with its winged Virgen de Quito statue on top, and all around, the brick-tiled roofs of the old town stretching to the horizon. Downstairs is the Casa Gangotena Restaurant in a glass conservatory that looks onto Plaza San Francisco all day. The chef uses produce from local markets and Andean valley farms for contemporary Ecuadorian dishes like locro de papa, a potato soup with cheese and avocado, or encocado, coastal-style fish in coconut sauce. Breakfast is something reviews agree on — fresh-baked bread, juices pressed from Andean fruits many guests have never seen, and eggs made to order. There is also an inner-courtyard bar with tall potted trees and a half-garden colonial feel, good for an evening canelazo, the hot Andean drink of sugarcane spirit and cinnamon.

Location and getting there

The location is one of Casa Gangotena's strongest cards — right on Plaza San Francisco, the oldest cobbled square in Quito, facing the nearly 500-year-old San Francisco church and monastery. The whole area is the heart of Centro Historico, which UNESCO listed as World Heritage in 1978 alongside Krakow in Poland, as one of the first historic centres on Earth to make the list. A few minutes on foot gets you to the gold-leaf La Compania church, the Catedral Metropolitana by Plaza Grande, the Museo de la Ciudad, and the La Ronda art lane that turns into a folk-music strip at night. The Trolebus San Francisco stop is a few steps away, so the electric bus can carry you out to newer areas like La Mariscal or La Carolina park. The Mariscal Sucre airport (UIO) is roughly 45-60 minutes by car, and the hotel can arrange transfers. Get up early and you can hike a small hill to the Itchimbia viewpoint or ride the TelefériQo cable car up Pichincha in a single morning.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide — the first thing to prepare for is the altitude. Quito sits at about 2,850 metres above sea level, among the highest capitals in the world, and guests flying in straight from the lowlands often feel worn out, short of breath or get a mild headache the first few days. The hotel keeps coca tea in the lobby and gives advice on adjusting, but take the first day easy, drink plenty of water and go light on alcohol. The second thing is that there are only 31 rooms — in high season (June-August and the Christmas-New Year stretch) it fills fast and prices climb, so book several months ahead if you are planning for then. The third is that Quito's Old Town goes quiet fairly early, with most places closing around 7-8pm; if you are after lively nightlife or underground bars, plan on a taxi to La Mariscal or La Floresta, which have late bars (taxis are cheap, but have the hotel call a trusted one for the trip back). Finally, some rooms facing Plaza San Francisco catch the church bells at dawn and the square's daytime noise — if you sleep lightly, ask for a room facing the much quieter inner courtyard.

Our take

After reading through hundreds of real guest reviews, Casa Gangotena Boutique Hotel is the place that sells the prettiest-square location in Quito, the history of an old family mansion, service so warm that every voice says the same thing about being remembered by name, a rooftop view of the gold-leaf church, and a Relais & Châteaux standard no other hotel in Quito can match. If the trip in your head is waking up to breakfast in a glass room over Plaza San Francisco, walking the UNESCO old town all day, then coming back to soak in the tub and sip wine on the rooftop as the sun sets behind the La Compania church, this is about as ideal as it gets, with almost no rival in town. But if your priority is lively nightlife, a big pool, or staying with small kids who need full facilities, it may not be your first pick. Overall we give it 9.4/10, best for couples, honeymooners and luxury travelers who want UNESCO heritage close at hand and value renowned service.