Casa Higueras

Casa Higueras was a private mansion built in the 1920s for a naval engineer and shipbuilder who used it as one of Cerro Alegre's main social gathering points. The $2 million restoration that converted it into a boutique hotel kept the original floorplan — five staggered levels, narrow staircases, high ceilings — which means the 20 rooms follow the constraints of the building rather than overriding them, and no two share the same layout. The Mediterranean-style terraced garden drops to an infinity pool that appears to hang over the bay. It was the first boutique hotel to open in Valparaíso, which in a city this serious about its own character is a meaningful distinction. Sea-facing terraces on the upper rooms look out over the port and the Pacific beyond.