Thirty-one rooms inside a restored 1920s Gangotena family mansion on Plaza San Francisco, Ecuador's only Relais & Châteaux address and the most considered boutique stay anywhere in the Andes north of Cusco.
"The rare South American hotel that justifies the Relais & Châteaux badge in every department, a restored Quito mansion that has made an art form out of polite, unhurried, hyper-local service in a city that the rest of the luxury circuit still routes around."
Casa Gangotena occupies the corner of Plaza San Francisco and Calle Cuenca, in a position that has held a building of consequence since the sixteenth century, the original Spanish governor's residence, rebuilt as a Republican mansion in the early twentieth, and acquired by the Gangotena family, one of Quito's founding Creole families, in 1926. The present house, completed in 1932, is a four-storey neo-Renaissance and Art Deco hybrid by the Italian architect Antonino Russo. After eight decades as a private residence, the property was acquired and restored over a four-year programme by the Metropolitan Touring group, and reopened as Casa Gangotena in 2011.
The restoration brief, overseen by Ecuadorian designer Adriana Hoyos, was to keep the bones of the 1932 house visible at every turn while bringing the building to a contemporary five-star standard. Original parquet floors, plaster mouldings, stained-glass cupolas, the marble staircase, and the Art Deco fireplaces in the public salons were preserved in situ. The 31 rooms across three floors are arranged in three categories, Garden View, Junior Suite, and the headline Plaza Suite, which faces directly onto Plaza San Francisco's south colonnade. Bathrooms are travertine; soft furnishings are by Ecuadorian artisans; the in-room library on each floor stocks first-edition Quito-and-Galápagos titles curated by the in-house historian.
The dining program is the property's quiet headline. The ground-floor restaurant runs a tasting menu by chef Andrés Dávila that reads as an essay on Andean ingredients, high-altitude Imbabura beef, Galápagos line-caught fish, Pacific shrimp from Esmeraldas, the full vertical of Andean tubers, and a thirty-cocoa-bean tasting that the kitchen sources directly from the Esmeraldas and Manabí cocoa estates. The rooftop terrace is the city's most romantic sundown drink, looking directly across at the seventeenth-century San Francisco church and the dome-and-spire skyline of the Old Town. Afternoon tea in the patio salon and breakfast in the conservatory complete the daily rhythm.
Service is what the Relais & Châteaux mark is for, and Casa Gangotena earns it. The 1.5:1 staff-to-room ratio is at the top of the South American boutique market; the concierge desk runs the city's deepest list of private historians, Otavalo and Cotopaxi day guides, and Galápagos extension specialists; complimentary daily Old Town walking tours, an afternoon empanada-and-canelazo tasting, and bicycle hire are folded into the rate. For travellers running an Ecuador circuit, Quito, Otavalo, Cotopaxi, Galápagos, Casa Gangotena is the considered Quito anchor.
For a Quito honeymoon, typically a two-night opening leg before Galápagos or Cotopaxi, Casa Gangotena is the unambiguous answer. The Plaza Suite with its 1932 parquet, floor-to-ceiling shutters opening to Plaza San Francisco, and original Russo fireplace is the headline booking; the rooftop sundowner table at 6:30 is the city's most photographed first night. The concierge handles the Galápagos onward leg directly through Metropolitan Touring's own fleet.
An anniversary at Casa Gangotena fits at every intensity, a Garden View for a long weekend, the Plaza Suite for a milestone year. The kitchen's tasting menu with the Esmeraldas cocoa close is the most considered private dinner in Quito; the patio salon (a small private dining room under a stained-glass cupola) is the headline reservation. The hotel runs an in-house pianist on Friday and Saturday evenings.
For solo travellers, the hotel runs the most thoughtful single-occupant programme on the South American continent, single-supplement-free midweek shoulder dates, the in-house historian as walking companion, a curated bookshelf in every room, and a sociable rooftop bar that handles single covers without ever drawing attention to them. The Old Town's plazas and museums are at the door.
Bolívar Oe6-41 y Cuenca
Plaza San Francisco
170401 Quito, Ecuador
Plaza Grande 6 minutes on foot; La Compañía 4 minutes; Mariscal Sucre Airport (UIO) 45 minutes by car.
31 rooms across 4 categories
Garden View from USD 418/night
Junior Suite from USD 580/night
Plaza Suite from USD 750/night
Includes breakfast and Old Town walking tour
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
1932 mansion; opened as hotel 2011
Relais & Châteaux (only one in Ecuador)
Rooftop terrace bar
Tasting-menu restaurant
Patio conservatory breakfast
In-house historian and library
Daily Old Town walking tour
Spa room with two cabins
Complimentary canelazo tasting
From USD 418/night. The Plaza Suite books three to four months ahead for June, August and November, February shoulder windows, and six months ahead for the Galápagos high season.
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