This Is One of the Best Hotels in Mexico City — and It Changed the Way I Plan Trips

I hate letting other people plan my trips, but this Mexico City hotel's concierge changed my mind.

As someone who travels for a living, I have a hard time letting go of the reins when planning a trip. My only exception to the rule is trusting local pals who can give me an insider’s view of a new place — which was unexpectedly what I got during a recent trip to Mexico City, thanks to the concierge team at Las Alcobas.

Located in the city’s posh Polanco neighborhood, just around the corner from the lush expanse of Chapultepec Park, Las Alcobas sits on the corner of Avenida Presidente Masaryk, affectionately known as CDMX’s Rodeo Drive. The 35-room boutique hotel, voted the No. 2 city hotel in Mexico in Travel + Leisure's 2022 World’s Best Awards, opened in 2010 and has consistently ranked among the top luxury destinations for travelers seeking a sense of home while visiting Mexico’s capital — but with all the upscale amenities of a five-star hotel.

Operated by the property owner, Samuel Leizorek, the independent hotel — designed by Yabu Pushelberg, the firm responsible for various Edition and Rosewood hotels — is the only member of Marriott’s prestigious Luxury Collection in Mexico City and strives to exceed expectations from the start. Upon arrival, the property offers a “Stay-Strategy” check-in with the concierge in order to establish what delights and intrigues guests the most, helping to create an ideal itinerary for any length of stay.

The day I arrived, after chatting with the concierge and taking in the earth-toned lobby and spiral staircase, I made my way to my bright and spacious room, where I soon discovered perhaps my favorite thing about the hotel: bath service. I ordered a “Jet Lag” bath, which meant a staff member came to run the bath for me (a spectacular luxury) and infused it with a sachet of herbs designed to help me relax and reset after the nearly six-hour flight. After toying with the variety of bubble settings on my personal jacuzzi tub, I felt rejuvenated and ready to explore the city.

Typically, I feel strongly about planning my own trips. I have a good sense of what I like — natural wine, good food, wandering aimlessly, self-guided architecture and museum tours — and how I want to spend my time, which is part of why I love traveling alone. But I also tend not to overplan things (read: I leave everything to the last minute), which has come back to bite me a handful of times while traveling in Mexico City, a place that's largely reservation-based when it comes to restaurants, museums, and nightlife. I’ve had a number of plans spoiled by waiting around to get into a bar or missing out on tickets to a museum because I didn’t book ahead.

At Las Alcobas, the expert concierges take all the guesswork out of wondering how or when to get somewhere. During my three-day stay, they handled all the ticket purchasing, reservations, and luxury transportation, allowing me to fully immerse myself in the activities they set up to help me get a better sense of the city. Most importantly, they have VIP access to certain activities, restaurant reservations, and more, which further elevated my experience — even landing me a hard-to-come-by reservation at Pujol, one of the city’s foremost gastronomic experiences.

“Years of connections with connectors in the city grant us an organizational skill that allows us to tailor curated experiences with a distinctive set of eyes,” the hotel’s chief concierge and Les Clefs d’Or member Aarón Caballero tells T+L. “These personalized experiences begin with our concierge investing the time upfront to know the guests' interests and make a tailor-made experience to fit their desires and needs, and exceed their expectations at every turn.”

On my second day — after a mouthwatering breakfast of chilaquiles verdes and green juice at the hotel’s Anatol restaurant — I was driven in a luxury SUV to the Coyoacán neighborhood for their Murals, Paintings, and Markets half-day guided art history tour focused on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s love story. The tour is part of their newly launched Curated Experiences program, which offers guests personalized itineraries full of insider access. The hotel’s most popular tour is the Luis Barragán Masterpieces experience, which focuses on private showings of the preeminent Mexican architect’s award-winning homes around the city.

“It is like having a friend who is selecting only places they know would be the best and you would enjoy,” explains Caballero. “Our Curated Experiences also ensure that all the different local factors — traffic, holidays, or hours of service for museums — are known, which can save a lot of hassle, especially for first-time guests. Our experiences are seamless.”

Among their other half- and full-day tours are local taco and tequila tastings, hot-air balloon rides over the pyramids in Teotihuacan, private gallery visits with a former curator for the city’s Tamayo and Jumex museums, boat rides through the floating gardens of Xochimilco, and more.

Beyond being a tranquil home base in a vibrant city that’s pulsing with energy, Las Alcobas helped me realize that in order to properly unwind on vacation, sometimes you have to let other people — those with local insight, especially — take care of the planning. For the few days I spent at the property, I wasn’t heads down in Google Maps, trying to navigate myself to this museum or that wine bar, and the resulting sense of presence I felt was a vacation in itself.

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