The Best Hotels and Resorts in Mexico, Central, and South America: The Gold List 2024
Consider Gold List the answer to the question our editors get asked more than any other: What are your favorite places to stay? Our 30th annual iteration of the world’s greatest hotels and cruises captures nearly a year’s worth of work: This collection represents hundreds of hours of researching, scouting, and impassioned debating by our team of editors in seven cities across the globe. But more than that, it reflects our ongoing love affair with the places where we stay, which often become our gateways to entire destinations. Read on to inspire your next trip.
See the full Gold List here.
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Courtesy Belmond Casa de Sierra NevadahotelBelmond Casa de Sierra Nevada, a Belmond Hotel, San Miguel de Allend – Mexico
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Gold List 2024 
Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023The babble of a courtyard fountain, a breeze that shoulders its way through stone arches: Casa de Sierra Nevada, A Belmond Hotel is an unquestionably sensory experience. But the more elemental charms of this historical marvel, whose 17th- and 18th-century buildings are scattered across San Miguel de Allende’s Centro district, are only part of its allure; the rest it owes to the human touch. I arrived at my suite—a corner unit cleaved from a former mansion—to find my wedding portrait set into a carved tin frame; one afternoon, I returned to find textured strips of paper on my reading stack—bookmarks. Chef Alejandra Puente told me about her daughter as we contemplated fresh avocados at the local market, gathering up the bounty we would need for my private cooking class. This is hospitality at its finest. From $630. —Betsy Blumenthal
Courtesy CIRQA - Relais & ChâteauxhotelCirqa - Relais & Châteaux – Arequipa, Peru
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Hot List 2020In Peru’s city of Arequipa—where colonial archways and bright white volcanic stone make the White City especially easy on the eyes—Cirqa is an extension of this unassuming yet elevated aesthetic. The 11-room boutique is set in a former monastery, which dates back to 1540 (the same year that Arequipa was founded), and that history whispers to guests at every turn: from the moment you knock on the discreet wrought-iron door to enter; as you are guided through dimly lit halls with barreled ceilings and candles flickering in the corners; and when you emerge into a hushed, light-filled courtyard, temporarily removed from the throbbing city center just outside Cirqa’s walls. The rooms, meanwhile, boast gaping arched windows, free-standing tubs in some, and soothing modern designs. Nothing here agitates. On the terrace, alpaca fur is slung over washed wood chairs, while over at the restaurant, crisp white wines are always being proffered, and Arequipeño flavors like crayfish and rocoto pepper play alongside fresh produce from the valley. But after a day of climbing nearby volcanoes or embarking on fascinating art history tours, nothing calls like that sapphire dipping pool in the courtyard, traditionally called pozas. Suffice to say, Cirqa is in a league of its own among Arequipa’s hotels—but very much in-line with its sister outposts from the same Peruvian team, which include five-star darlings Titilaka (in Puno) and Atemporal (in Lima). From $450. —Megan Spurrell
Courtesy Belmond Copacabana PalacehotelCopacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel, Rio de Janeiro
$$$ | Gold List 2018, 2024 Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023The first time, I came for the beach. I was tracing a palm-fringed world of cold beers and hot swimsuits, beach volleyball, tan lines, and pristine sands, 3,000 miles around the Brazilian coast. Copacabana was where I began. For glorious Brazilian beaches, Copacabana is ground zero. But the last time—and there were many visits in between—I came just for the hotel, the elegant Copacabana Palace. It was the hotel that created this place; that made this strip of sand famous and helped to conjure the idea of the beach as central to Brazilian identity. When the Copacabana Palace opened a hundred years ago, it occupied an unheralded neighborhood, amid modest houses and fishermen’s shacks. Until then, Rio de Janeiro had been centered on the old downtown areas of Centro and Castelo, and the 19th-century mansions of leafy Santa Teresa. But a new age of leisure arrived in the post-war years. Sunbathing was suddenly a thing, and Coco Chanel made having a tan fashionable. Designed by French architect Joseph Gire, the Copacabana Palace adopted the elegant art deco lines of the grand hotels of the French Riviera. A Parisian dancer, Mistinguett, reputed to have the most beautiful legs in the world, arrived for the hotel’s inauguration, and suddenly everyone’s gaze turned south to Copacabana, to the new hotel and to the glorious beach that was its doorstep. A century on, the Copacabana Palace is still a Rio icon, bestriding the Avenida Atlântica on that incomparable bay. The style is classic opulence: vast chandeliers, acres of marble and Brazilian hardwoods; a sanctuary among the city’s endless partying. But this is Brazil. The Palace may be grand, but it is also fun. It pulls you into a cheeky Brazilian embrace: comforting, perhaps, but always a little flirtatious. At breakfast overlooking the famous pool, beautiful and lively Brazilians are all around. Ken Hom is the storied chef behind Michelin-starred Pan-Asian restaurant Mee, though my favorite is the Cipriani, an elegant Italian that would impress in a top Roman hotel. There is a rooftop tennis court, and, across the avenue on that famous beach, hotel staff attend guests with umbrellas and loungers, cold towels, and sun lotion. Around the hotel’s centenary, it is still impossible to think of Rio, or that famous beach swooning round the bay, without the Copacabana Palace. From $441. —Stanley Stewart
Explora PatagoniahotelExplora Patagonia National Park – Chile
$$$ | Gold List 2024 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023Explora’s lodge in Patagonia National Park, set in remote southern Chile’s Chacabuco Valley, is the best way to see this still-pristine and untouristed swath of wilderness. There’s access to miles of amazing hiking trails, gin-bottle blue glacial rivers and lakes, and ample opportunity to spot the native wildlife thriving on this government-protected parkland sustained by ecotourism. That the lodge is supremely chic, with excellent food and the most enthusiastic, kind, and knowledgeable guides makes it a true treasure. The room decor is exactly right for the location, simple but so beautiful with wide-planked floors, beamed ceilings, wood-framed windows, and built-in armoires. Colors are neutral and echo the surroundings rather than compete with them—stone gray throw blankets and pillows, beige armchairs, white walls–and artwork is at a minimum—maybe a tasteful landscape photograph in a simple black frame. It’s all very understated and elegant without feeling at all overthought or precious. The main lodge is the heart of the property and where the casual reception desk, sweet bar, dining room, and lounging spaces are. It’s where you meet your guide in the morning, gather for a beer or a pisco sour after a trek, read before dinner, and take all of your meals. Food and drinks are all-inclusive here, which makes everything easy and stress-free. For such a small lodge, the food is stellar. Like with the decor, it’s about quality and attention to detail—nothing flashy but everything extremely well executed. From the general manager to the guides and the chefs—everyone is warm, professional, and extremely capable. From $920. —Rebecca Misner