• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

El Sueño Hotel & Spa (left) features eclectic décor. The terrace at La Purificadora (right) sports a pool and lounge area.   (Photo: Courtesy of El Sueño Hotel & Spa; La Purificadora)

Rub shoulders with Mexico’s elite at La Purificadora (from $140), a fashionable property run by the company behind Mexico City’s buzzy hotel Condesa df. Built from the ruins of a water-purification plant, the building pairs factory aesthetics (reclaimed wood, loft-style ceilings) with modern luxuries like a rooftop pool.

Expand your art knowledge at El Sueño Hotel & Spa (from $133, breakfast included), where each of the thirteen high-ceilinged rooms is named for a female Mexican artist and decorated to evoke her spirit. The hot tub on top of this former eighteenth-century mansion offers a retreat from the frenetic streets of the centro historico.

Stay close to the massive central plaza at Hotel Provincia Express (from $33, breakfast included), a no-frills inn that’s outfitted with large quantities of Puebla’s brightly colored, intricately patterned talavera tile. The rooms are modest in size but immaculately maintained.

Published on Mar 3, 2011 as a web exclusive.