Patio Andaluz Hotel

Guests arrive through arched courtyards filled with light and garden colour, into a house built at the close of the 16th century and now protected as a national monument. Hotel Patio Andaluz is a 32-room boutique hotel set inside Quito's old town, 150 metres from Independence Square. It is a short walk from the rest of the historic centre too: seven minutes to San Francisco Square, five to La Compañía church and its gilded interior, six to Teatro Sucre. Rooms come in three types — standard, duplex, and superior — each with a king or queen bed, a 32-inch television, and air conditioning; superior rooms sit on the fourth floor with views over the old town roofline. The main patio holds the hotel's restaurant, serving Ecuadorian and international dishes, while a separate wine cellar pours tapas and cocktails in a quieter, closed-off room. A coffee shop off the patio serves Ecuadorian coffee and chocolate, and guests can try a free chocolate tasting on site. Cooking classes run for groups of five or more, built around a single classic Ecuadorian dish, cooked and then eaten. Staff speak nine languages between them, from Spanish and English to Hindi and Russian. Check-in runs from 3pm. The old town itself was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, and the hotel sits inside its boundary rather than beside it.