Ten rooms inside a restored 1920s mansion on Calle Junín, in the San Marcos colonial quarter, the quietest Old Town street and Quito's most concentrated experience of restored colonial intimacy.
"Ten rooms, three eras, one block from anything that matters in the Old Town, a colonial Quito stay calibrated for the traveller who wants the city behind closed shutters, not across a public lobby."
Illa Experience Hotel opened in 2018 in a comprehensively restored 1920s Republican-era mansion on Calle Junín, on the western side of the San Marcos quarter, the quietest of the Old Town's residential streets, and the historic centre's most carefully preserved colonial fabric. The building had served for most of the twentieth century as a multi-family residence; the four-year restoration programme, led by Ecuadorian architect Adriana Hoyos and the Pacheco family ownership, kept the original façade, courtyard, and stone-and-adobe envelope while building a small modernist extension at the rear that opens onto a private garden and a rooftop terrace with views of the Itchimbía hill and El Panecillo.
The ten rooms are organised across three floors and three thematic eras. The ground floor, Hacienda, is built around restored colonial-era textiles, hand-carved Andean beds, and adobe walls left as part of the wall surface. The first floor, Republican, references the early-twentieth-century Quito haute bourgeoisie with parquet, brass fittings, and writing desks in Ecuadorian rosewood. The top floor, Contemporary, is a quiet modernist counterpoint with glass-and-steel detailing and views to the rooftop terrace. Every room has Italian linens, an espresso machine, original Andean art curated by the Ecuadorian Center for Contemporary Art, and a small private balcony or terrace.
The hotel's central proposition is the dining program. Nuema, the on-site contemporary Ecuadorian fine-dining restaurant by chef Pía Salazar and chef Alejandro Chamorro, was the city's most decorated kitchen for its decade in San Marcos before relocating; the present restaurant continues to run a tasting menu in the Andean-and-Pacific vertical, including the country's best-known chocolate-and-cocoa-pod close. Breakfast is served in the original colonial courtyard; afternoon Andean canelazo tasting is part of the daily programme; the rooftop bar runs a sundowner programme at 6 p.m. on the terrace with the most unexpected view of the Old Town's bell-tower skyline.
Service is the property's quiet, unspoken proposition. The 2:1 staff-to-room ratio runs hotter than every other Quito boutique; every guest has a personal concierge for the duration of the stay; daily Old Town walking tours, the canelazo tasting, in-room espresso, and laundry are folded into the rate. The hotel's small spa runs two cabins with a Pachamama-themed Andean-herb treatment ritual; the rooftop hot tub looks across the tiled roofscape of San Marcos. For travellers who want the quietest, most personal Old Town stay, Illa is the answer.
For a Quito honeymoon with the calmest possible centre of gravity, Illa is the considered alternative to the headline Plaza San Francisco and Plaza Grande addresses. The top-floor Contemporary suites with private terraces overlook a quiet residential street; the Nuema tasting menu is the most romantic dinner table in the country; the rooftop hot tub at midnight, with the Itchimbía hill silhouetted behind, has no equivalent in the Old Town.
A 10-room hotel with no public lobby in the conventional sense is the most comfortable solo booking in Quito. Single covers are welcomed at every meal, the courtyard breakfast and rooftop sundowner programmes are both calibrated to single occupancy; the Old Town's San Marcos and La Ronda quarters are within a five-minute walk; the in-house historian runs a private Old Town walking tour on request.
An anniversary at Illa works at every intensity, a Hacienda-floor room for an unfussed long weekend, a top-floor Contemporary suite for a milestone. The rooftop terrace can be reserved as a private dining room for two; the Andean-herb spa runs a couples' programme with a hot-tub close; the kitchen runs an in-suite chocolate-and-Champagne turn-down on request without anyone needing to ask twice.
Calle Junín E1-44 y Montúfar
San Marcos, Old Town
170130 Quito, Ecuador
Plaza Grande 7 minutes on foot; La Ronda 5 minutes; Mariscal Sucre Airport (UIO) 45 minutes by car.
10 rooms across 3 thematic floors
Hacienda from USD 459/night
Republican from USD 620/night
Contemporary Suite from USD 1,299/night
Includes breakfast, walking tour, canelazo
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
1920s mansion; opened as hotel 2018
Member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World
On-site fine-dining restaurant
Rooftop terrace and hot tub
Private courtyard breakfast
Spa with two treatment cabins
Fitness centre and sun terrace
Daily Old Town walking tour
Personal concierge per guest
From USD 459/night. The Contemporary-floor suites book three to four months ahead for the dry season (June, September) and for the Galápagos high-season shoulder weeks; six months for the Christmas-and-New-Year window.
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