Greeting you as you enter Colima 71 hotel is a wall of photographs in sets of two, one negative image and the other a positive image of antique homes in the neighborhood. Many of the buildings can be seen tilting slightly into the soft earth below. The photographer Iñaki Bonillas wanted to document the sinking of Mexico City with a focus on this singular colonia.
Throughout the hotel are other pieces – Dario Escobar’s Quetzalcoatl sculpture, a Virgin of Guadalupe made entirely from minuscule pieces of colored straw by Oscar Morales, 100-year ceramic flower vases from Michoacán, all part of the curation of Ana Ongay, one of the hotel’s owners, in an attempt to promote both traditional Mexican craft and young artists from around the world.
The hotel is also its own kind of art piece, a former grade school renovated and reimagined by Alberto Kalach, the Mexico City architect whose industrial minimalism is unmistakable.
Rebar staircase railings, large metal sculptures, and the ubiquitous use of cement, stone tile, and wood provide an austere aesthetic that is then broken by small touches like hand-thrown pottery pieces or rough-hewn mortars and pestles. The most colorful items here you’ll find in the hotel’s lobby and gallery, as rooms keep pretty strictly to a color scheme of tans, blacks, and browns.
The hotel has six ample rooms, designed in an open floor plan with high ceilings that provide a sense of expansiveness that goes beyond the 430-592 square feet of space. L-shaped cushioned benches wrap around marble tables for working or enjoying breakfast, and a streamlined cabinet and stove area hides an almost full-sized refrigerator, a two-burner stovetop, a full set of dishes and cutlery, and a microwave.
King-sized beds are dressed in crisp, white linens and sit with a view to the street or the leafy back patio and urbanscape beyond. Additional work desks as well as closets with lockboxes, steam irons, and fluffy white bathrobes run along the wall.
For Club-level rooms, the minibar (including soda, beer, chips, and snacks), an unlimited liquor honor bar downstairs, and an unlimited 24-hour coffee bar are included in the price. For a minimum of three nights, the hotel offers guests one of their premium experiences for free. If you book other room categories, these amenities are extra.
- Buy Travel Insurance
- Get an eSim to be able to use your smartphone abroad.
- Likely to sell out: Tickets to Frida Kahlo Museum
- Guided Tours in Mexico
- Get a Car Rental
Breakfast includes light fare like avocado toast or a chia bowl, along with pastries from the famous Rosetta bakery down the street and coffee or decadent Oaxacan chocolate. There will likely not be many mornings when you want to stay in, however, as the area where the hotel is located is home to some of the city’s best restaurants and coffee shops and deserves to be fully explored.
The location of Colima 71 is one of its best attributes. Also nearby are a bevy of art galleries, vintage clothing shops, craft stores, and other high-end fashion boutiques. You could spend your entire vacation in this area and likely never get bored.
Rooms run from 500 USD to 1300 USD depending on occupancy and season.
