MET Hotel La Paz

Rooms and decor

Picture an old mansion in the middle of La Paz's upscale residential south, reworked top to bottom into a 5-star Andean-modern boutique — that's MET Hotel La Paz, open in the Calacoto / Zona Sur district on Av. Fuerza Naval. The roughly 32 rooms and suites are put together with obvious care. Open the door and the warmth hits straight away: Bolivian pine floors, walls hung with terracotta-and-blue alpaca textiles handwoven by local communities, lamps cut from volcanic stone, and local ceramics throughout. King beds run soft and deep with good linens, and the marble bathrooms come with rain showers and a separate tub. Some upper-floor suites add a jacuzzi facing the Andes and a private balcony for morning coca tea. What reviewers agree on is that every corner feels genuinely Bolivian — not a global chain pasting on local design as an afterthought. If you care about the story behind the furniture and materials, this place will land.

Food and amenities

The heart of the hotel is the top-floor restaurant, where big glass windows open onto a panoramic stretch of the Andes — on a clear day you get Illimani at 6,438m and Mururata lined up as a backdrop, like having coffee on the front of a postcard. The menu leans modern Bolivian, built on local ingredients: highland quinoa, llama, trout from Lake Titicaca, and organic produce from the Yungas valley. Several reviews single out the wood-fired pizza and the homegrown Tarija wine. Downstairs is the indoor pool, kept at a comfortable warm temperature and quiet because it's small and uncrowded — a rare advantage in La Paz, where most hotels have no pool at all. Beside it sits the in-house spa with small treatment rooms for a relaxing massage after the tiring drive down from El Alto airport. There's also a lobby cafe and bar open all day, free coca tea to help with the altitude, and a concierge who can arrange Uyuni or Death Road tours on the spot.

Location and getting there

MET Hotel's location is one of the more interesting things about it for La Paz. Instead of sitting in the centre at 3,650m, colder all year round, the hotel went into Calacoto / Zona Sur, down in the valley about 300 metres lower. That makes the average temperature roughly 3 to 4 degrees warmer and the altitude noticeably gentler — reviewers consistently say their first night was easier and they woke without the headache they'd get downtown. Calacoto is a quiet, upscale residential area with good coffee shops, newer restaurants, and the MegaCenter mall a few minutes' walk away. El Alto International Airport (LPB) is about 45 minutes away by car, while the centre — Plaza Murillo, the Witches' Market, Iglesia de San Francisco — runs about 20 to 30 minutes by car. You can also take the Mi Teleferico Green line from Irpavi station (a 10-minute drive from the hotel) and transfer to the Yellow line up to the sights — cheaper and a far better view than a taxi, at roughly $0.40 a trip.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. The biggest trade-off of the Calacoto location is that you're well away from all the main sights — walk out the door and there's nothing genuinely must-see nearby. Every trip into town means a taxi or the Teleferico, and those fares add up if you're going back and forth several times a day. If your trip is about soaking up the centre on foot every day, staying in Sopocachi closer in may be the better value. The other thing reviews flag is that MET Hotel is still new, so some service details aren't fully ironed out — a few guests mention slower-than-expected check-in, English that isn't smooth on every shift, and menu items not available as listed on the site. Rates also run noticeably higher than comparable hotels in La Paz, given the design and added amenities, so weigh that carefully if your budget is tight. And most important of all — even though Calacoto is lower than the centre, it's still 3,300m, and altitude sickness can still hit. Rest enough on your first day and sip the coca tea the hotel serves free.

Our take

After working through real reviews and checking the location and amenities in detail, MET Hotel La Paz is a 5-star boutique that clearly dares to look different from the rest of the hotels in this city — a well-balanced Andean-modern design, an indoor pool and spa that are hard to find in La Paz, plus panoramic Andes views from the top-floor restaurant that many reviewers rate among the highlights of the trip. If your mental picture is landing in La Paz and wanting to settle in comfortably, adjust to the altitude in a warmer area that breathes easier, head into town once or twice a day, and value design with a story behind it, this place fits well. But if you want to step out the door straight into the Witches' Market and Plaza Murillo, or you're traveling as a budget-focused backpacker, this isn't the one. Overall we give it 9.1/10, best for couples, honeymooners, and design-minded travelers who want to dodge the deep cold and altitude headaches of the centre.