The Best New Hotels in South America: 2024 Hot List
"Buenos Aires has many epithets, but none are quite as fitting as “the Paris of the South”—especially when you venture towards the elegant café- and park-strewn barrios of Retiro and Recoleta. It’s here, in the middle of Calle Arroyo, where Spanish hotel group Unico has unveiled Casa Lucia, one of the city’s most exciting hotel launches in recent memory. Housed in the Edificio Mihanovich—a 20-story neoclassical icon that was the tallest building in South America when it opened in 1928—the hotel (which sat closed for the past five years) has emerged from a top-to-toe renovation where porteño glamour seeps into every space. There’s the light-flushed atrium lobby, covered by a glass roof that connects two seven-story wings of the original building, as well as a spa and a 52-foot pool flanked by mirrors. Just off the central atrium is Cantina Restaurant, where the steaks would impress a hungry gaucho, and Le Club Bacan, an intimate lounge bar serving up tapas, louche sounds, and more than 400 wines chosen by master sommelier Aldo Garcia. Rooms are spacious and modern, with a cool palette of gray greens; many have outside balconies with sun loungers and outdoor showers affording wide views over the city to the Río de la Plata. It all feels like a soothing embrace in a city that—for better or worse—often skews on the side of chaos. From $600. —Stanley Stewart" - CNT Editors
