Hotel Los Juaninos

Room 216, Hotel Los Juaninos, Morelia, Mexico; 52-443-312-0036; hoteljuaninos.com.mx. There are 30 rooms; doubles are $160; suites range from $195 to $290. Room 216 is $160.

As you stand at the window in room 216 of Morelia's hotel Los Juaninos, the first word that comes to mind might well be divine. In front of you are the decorative dual bell towers of the glorious cathedral (one of the country's most exquisite) that graces this charming colonial city midway between Mexico City and Guadalajara. The hotel itself, also an architectural gem, was built in the late seventeenth century as the home for the city's reigning bishop, but his residence there was short-lived: The faithful objected to having their offerings spent on the construction of an extravagant clerical home, and Church leaders, taking a page from the book of St. Francis of Assisi, finally succeeded in assuaging their congregation by turning the palace into a hospital in 1700. At the end of the nineteenth century, the building underwent another "conversion"—into a hotel. In this, its present incarnation, guests can experience services of a higher order.