Set in an 1892 neoclassical townhouse in the heart of La Candelaria, this was the first high-end hotel to open in the neighborhood in years when it began taking reservations in 2013. More intimate than the Hotel de la Opera, every piece of woodwork at Orchids has been immaculately restored, and spaces have been updated with contemporary pieces of art. It’s like 19th-century bourgeois crossed with a 21st-century gallery. Details old and new mesh seamlessly with the vertical gardens and a glass elevator in an interior atrium. Salons and libraries—named after Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde, with collections of leather-bound books and pre-Columbian ceramics and even a few Achuar shrunken heads (recreations of course)—are ideal for browsing, while the Les Pêcheurs de Perles hammam, with a Jacuzzi and steam room blanketed in mosaic tiles, completely cuts you off from the world outside.