Palacio Nazarenas, A Belmond Hotel

Palacio Nazarenas stands on a quiet plaza just behind Cusco's main square, on foundations laid by the Incas. The building has had many lives: an Inca temple, a palace reworked in the 1500s for the conquistador Mancio Serra de Leguizamón, a Jesuit college from 1644 and later a convent. Belmond restored it and opened it as a hotel in 2012. There are 55 suites, set around cloistered courtyards with fountains and native plants. Original Inca walls and colonial carving sit alongside heated marble floors, soundproofing, butler service and, for anyone feeling the altitude, oxygen-enriched air in the rooms. The larger suites have balconies, and the finest look over the Plaza Nazarenas. Mauka, led by the Peruvian chef Pía León, cooks with ingredients from Cusco and the Andes, and Senzo Bar serves small plates and pisco cocktails. Hypnôze Spa draws on Andean traditions, and some treatment rooms have glass floors over the ancient stonework. The heated outdoor pool was the first in the city. The old chapel is now a guest lounge with objects found during the restoration, and there is a library and a secret garden.