Blog — Hotel Hacienda Mérida

Condé Nast Traveler, May 2008 — the Hot List edition

The Story · 2008

The Condé Nast Traveler surprise

How a small eight-room hotel in Mérida woke up on the Best New Hotels in the World Hot List.

It was early 2008, about a year and a half after we first opened our doors. Only the Original was receiving guests then — just eight rooms — a small boutique hotel in Mérida, Yucatán, with the same goal we hold today: to help our guests discover Mérida in the best possible way, whether through guided suggestions or simply a delicious breakfast of fresh, organic products.

The inspectors must have come and gone without saying a word — that is how it is done. We got the news through a relative in Europe who had bought the magazine: there, in the May edition of Condé Nast Traveler, in the annual presentation of the 136 hotels selected that year, stood our name — Best New Hotels in the World, Hot List 2008.

For a very long time we were the only hotel in Yucatán on that list — and still today, one of the few. It was a great honour: for our team, and for ourselves. The long hours and the attentive service had paid off.

City Guide

A slow Sunday in Mérida's Centro Histórico

Sunday in Mérida is another breed of day.

All week the Centro buzzes — engines, market stalls, the hum of a city at work. Then Sunday arrives, and Mérida exhales. Every Sunday morning for more than fifteen years, from 8 until 1, the heart of the city closes its streets to traffic and hands them back to its people: only bicycles, walkers and roller skates — down the grand Paseo de Montejo and Calle 60, around Plaza Grande, then along Calle 62 through the barrio of San Juan, all the way to the oldest part of Mérida: La Ermita.

People come in family — grandparents pedalling at their own pace, children weaving figure-eights ahead, fresh juice pressed on the corners. What began as a Sunday experiment has become a beloved tradition, and there is no more beautiful way to discover Mérida: the route strings together its most iconic places like beads on a thread.

Our advice: start slow. Breakfast around the pool, under the arches — fruit, yogurt and granola, fresh and light. Then step out of the door and let the Sunday current of families carry you down the avenue. By noon you will drift back, warm and happy, to the cool water of one of our three pools.

Colonial architecture at Hotel Hacienda Mérida

The Story · Summer rains

Once in a while, a river called Calle 62

Summer rain in Yucatán comes with an extra kick.

In summer, the afternoon weather in Mérida changes fast. The sky darkens over the Centro Histórico, and we rarely know how big the storm will be — or how long it is going to last.

Over the course of Hotel Hacienda Mérida's history, there have been a couple of times when the river called Calle 62 came out of its bed — and poured straight into our reception, which sits about three steps up from the street. The current always comes from the north — born of the downpour over Paseo de Montejo, swelling as it gathers by Parque Santa Ana, then charging down Calle 62 like a torrent, sweeping past our doors before it roars on towards Parque Santa Lucía on its way south. Joke aside, the street rises into a river within the hour — and within another, the water is gone. It is impressive.

During that time, you could literally take a canoe and let the rapids lead you to Plaza Grande and the cathedral. With a steady paddle they might carry you on to the barrio of San Juan — or even to the oldest part of Mérida: La Ermita.

The Story · Breakfast

Our partnership with BOCU Mérida

The best French bakery in town — and how it reached our breakfast tables.

This is the story of chef Regina Escalante, a rising star of Mexican cuisine. After studying at the Institut Paul Bocuse in France, she came back to her hometown to open Merci — a contemporary mix of French technique and local Yucatecan products that quickly became one of the most loved tables in Mérida for breakfast.

After opening the second Merci, she decided to open her own bakery — first out of necessity, to supply her two restaurants. BOCU was born.

BOCU now holds a lot of "bests" in town: the best sourdough bread, the best brioche, the best croissant — and the original croissant de pepitas de calabaza. We are glad — and proud — to serve a few of their products at the hotel, fresh every morning at our à-la-carte breakfast menu.

The Yellow Deluxe room at Hotel Hacienda VIP

The Story · Hotel Hacienda VIP

The story behind the Yellow Deluxe

The only traditional Yucatecan room with seven-metre-high ceilings.

The great houses of Mérida were built this way for a reason: in the Yucatán heat, warm air climbs and stays high above your head, so the room below remains naturally cool. And rooms like this used to be dark, too — shade was the other half of staying cool.

So when this 1850 mansion was restored, the darkness was let go and the room was dressed in yellow — the glowing Yucatecan yellow of Izamal, the famous golden town that gave the colour its name. A room once kept dim now holds the warmest light in the hotel, and many guests call it the best room in the house for waking up slowly.

While you're here, look closely at the doors: in both hotels, every door follows the same historical specification — each carries a little window-door fitted with a mesh and small bars, so the air could pass freely while no one could enter.

Funny fact: the bars sometimes look like prison bars — but they were made for ventilation, from the days before air conditioning and fans, when a room was cooled by the breeze, the shade, and those seven-metre ceilings.

A fashion editorial shoot beside the courtyard pool at Hotel Hacienda Mérida

The Story · On set

Quietly, a favourite set for the magazines

For years the camera has found its way to our arches, our palms and the still water of the pool.

Long before a guest ever clicks “reserve”, many have already seen our courtyards — they simply didn't know it. Through our friends at Yucatán Productions, the hacienda has spent years as a quiet, recurring location: the kind of place a stylist remembers, returns to, and likes to keep to herself.

For us it has been a window onto another world. We have watched famous models step out of the shade and come alive the instant the shutter clicks; we have seen renowned photographers wait, patiently, for the light to fall just so across a column. A whole production set is a small, choreographed city — the early call times, the racks of wardrobe under the arcade, the reflectors and the hush, the golden hour chased twice a day — and our patios have hosted it again and again.

Over the seasons our arcades have stood in for the pages and lookbooks of Jockey, Free People, Anthropologie, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Glamour, Sport Expert, Vogue and the archives of Getty Images. Different brands, different decades of style — the same backdrop.