Casa Cartagena

Top choice in Cuzco


Fusing modern with colonial, this Italian-owned boutique hotel is dripping in style. Its 16 suites feature walls with oversized stripes, king-sized beds, iPod docks, bouquets of long-stemmed roses and enormous bathtubs lit by candles. There’s a lovely on-site spa and room service is free.

Management boasts that both Neruda and Che Guevara bedded down in this historic mansion, actually a modest pension half a century ago: no word on how their politics fit in now.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Cuzco attractions

1. Museo de Arte Precolombino

0.04 MILES

Inside a Spanish colonial mansion with an Inca ceremonial courtyard, this dramatically curated pre-Columbian art museum showcases a stunningly varied, if…

2. Museo Inka

0.09 MILES

The charmingly modest Museo Inka, a steep block northeast of the Plaza de Armas, is the best museum in town for those interested in the Incas. The…

3. La Catedral

0.14 MILES

A squatter on the site of Viracocha Inca’s palace, the cathedral was built using blocks pilfered from the nearby Inca site of Sacsaywamán. Its…

4. Iglesia del Triunfo

0.14 MILES

Cuzco’s oldest church houses a vault containing the remains of the famous Inca chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega, who was born in Cuzco in 1539 and died in…

5. Museo de Arte Religioso

0.15 MILES

Originally the palace of Inca Roca, the foundations of this museum were converted into a grand colonial residence and later became the archbishop’s palace…

6. Plaza de Armas

0.19 MILES

In Inca times, the plaza, called Huacaypata or Aucaypata, was the heart of the capital. Today it’s the nerve center of the modern city. Two flags usually…

7. Iglesia de La Compañía de Jesús

0.21 MILES

Built upon the palace of Huayna Cápac, the last inca to rule an undivided, unconquered empire, the church was built by the Jesuits in 1571 and…

8. Museo Machu Picchu

0.21 MILES

This newish museum exhibits 360 pieces from Machu Picchu taken by Hiram Bingham's expeditions and recently returned by Yale University, including stone…