4 Best Hotels in Alamos, Sonora

Sonora's swankest hotel rambles across the grounds of five restored colonial mansions; you'll be entirely secluded from the outside world by the walls of these former haciendas. In gracious courtyards and lining long porticos are centuries-old pieces of religious art and hand-carved antique furniture, all collected by the American owners. The spacious bedrooms also have antiques, as well as fireplaces. A 100-year-old bar brought from Cuernavaca presents for your pleasure 400 different varieties of tequila, and a spa gives massage and beauty treatments. All rooms here are no-smoking.

This hotel, whose name means the "House of Treasures," is an idyllic and romantic converted 18th-century convent. The rooms were once nuns' cells, but they're no longer austere—they've now got fireplaces, tile baths, antique furnishings, and striking local art. The restaurant is excellent, and the in-house guitar trio provides the mood music.

The four rooms in this restored hacienda are gorgeous, with antique furnishings and wood-and-glass doors leading outdoors. A small courtyard holds a café and a tiny pool not much bigger than a hot tub. The American owners, a bird expert and a yoga teacher, are building El Pedregal, a 20-acre retreat just outside of town.

Although it was built in the 1950s, this New Orleans–style hotel feels a century older. Facing the Alameda and just steps from the public market, the hotel's wrought-iron-and-marble courtyard calls to mind a more refined era. The owner, who named the place after his late father, plays acoustic guitar and violin in the comfortable wood-paneled lobby upstairs.