Cordoba, Argentina, spelled as Córdoba in Spanish, doesn’t get a whole lot of foreign tourists, even though it’s the second-largest city in Argentina. It does have one flight a week from Chile and is less than 500 miles from Buenos Aires, but few vacationers have the city on their to-do list.
It is a pleasant mid-sized city to spend some time in though, with one of the oldest universities in the Americas and a large Jesuit monks complex joined by other Spanish Colonial buildings in the historic center.
Until recently we only had one luxury hotel in Cordoba featured, the 15-room hotel Azur Real Boutique, in the middle of the action in the city. One of our correspondents recently got into what is really the most luxurious property around, however, a sister hotel to the lovely House of Jasmines Estancia outside of Salta.
So here are the two luxury hotels in Cordoba to consider, one in the heart of the city, one on the outskirts with a lot of land.
Estancia El Colibri
As with House of Jasmines, El Colibri is a country hacienda turned into a hotel. It sits on a 250-acre farm with a whole managerie of animals, from polo ponies to quail. Here’s the opening paragraph to what our correspondent experienced when getting there:
The final leg of the journey to Estancia El Colibri took me through a bucolic countryside scene of grassy fields and grazing livestock. At the façade of the hotel—which glowed in the afternoon light and appeared to have been freshly painted for my arrival—staff members greeted me as the hotel’s fluffy brown free-range llama roamed the grounds nearby.
You certainly won’t be roughing at this property though: the rooms range from 516 square feet to 1,130 square feet and all have fireplaces, bathtubs, hand-painted walls, and radiant heat flooring. Most have some sort of outdoor space.
The food and wine here are worth the trip too, with an inviting well-stocked wine cellar and La Table restaurant that has made the hotel part of the Relais & Chateaux group since 2016. The current chef worked at a restaurant in France (where the owners are from) at a 3-star Michelin restaurant and your meals here will be memorable ones, including breakfast.
There’s also a spa on site offering a jetted tub, a dry sauna, a wet sauna, and a treatment room for massages. You can relax at the outdoor pool or enjoy activities like gourmet cooking classes, croquet, horseback riding, and bicycling around the estate.
This unique hotel is a splurge, with rates starting at $590 per night, but most guests find it to be worth the trip into the countryside for a few days.
See our recent detailed review of Estancia El Colibri in Cordoba, Argentina.
Azur Real Hotel Boutique Cordoba
Housed in a building more than a century old that was originally a rather utilitarian school, this boutique hotel emerged from a five-year renovation project by the owners to become a stylish small hotel. Classroom numbers are still above the doorway for many of the rooms, while others are duplexes added later to the top floor.
From here you can walk to most of the attractions in the center of the city and it’s a short cab ride to almost anywhere else you need to go. When you return, you’ll relax in a room outfitted with robes and slippers, capsule coffee machines, and in the duplexes, big whirlpool tubs. Or head up to the roof.
The hotel’s rooftop open-air lounge is comfortable and inviting and the warmer temperatures in Córdoba mean that guests can enjoy the space pretty much year-round. The roof deck also has a small plunge pool and plenty of lounging furniture, including day beds. This is an excellent place to enjoy the hotel’s nightly guest happy hour with regional salami, cheese, and wine.
After our review went up, management added a spa area to the basement level that has whirlpools lit by candlelight and you can schedule a massage or other treatment.
Rates are $200 to $480 depending on the time of year, demand, and which room option you choose. See our full review of Azur Real Hotel Boutique in Cordoba.
Article by Timothy
Timothy Scott is the founder and editor of Luxury Latin America and has been covering the region as a travel journalist since the mid-2000s. He has visited each country we cover multiple times and is based in a UNESCO World Heritage city in central Mexico, where he owns a home. See contact information here.
