Hotel Plaza Colón

Hotel Plaza Colón holds the best position in one of the Americas' oldest colonial cities: directly on Granada's Parque Central, facing the yellow neoclassical cathedral across the square's mango trees and horse carriages. The building is a faithfully rebuilt colonial mansion of thick walls, high ceilings and heavy timber balconies, and its street-front rooms—with rocking chairs on deep verandas above the plaza—offer one of Central America's great people-watching perches.

Interiors carry the colonial theme without fuss: dark hardwood beds, tiled floors, tall shuttered windows and, in the quieter interior rooms, views over the pool courtyard where palms shade a decent-sized swimming pool—welcome in Granada's heat. Service is personable and unhurried, in keeping with the city.

Breakfast is taken in the courtyard, and while the hotel's own restaurant scene is modest, the Calle La Calzada's bars and restaurants begin at the corner of the square. Granada's essentials radiate from the doorstep: the isletas of Lake Nicaragua, Masaya's volcano and craft market, and the Mombacho cloud forest are all easy outings. For colonial atmosphere at gentle prices, Plaza Colón remains the city's first choice.