Otro Oaxaca

If you follow the boutique hospitality scene in Mexico, the name Grupo Habita is likely all you need to hear before reaching for that “book now” button. As long as you’re here, though: two-plus decades into the Habita journey the pathbreaking partnership of Carlos Couturier and Moisés Micha is still at it, and in Otro Oaxaca they’ve had help from the local architect João Boto Caeiro, who has masterfully mixed traditional Oaxacan textures and materials — and overt references to Zapotec archaeological sites — with modernist geometries and minimalist interiors. The result is both unmistakably Oaxacan and quite unlike anything else in town.

With a mere 16 rooms Otro Oaxaca is modest in scale and always intimate. And with four room categories there’s plenty of variation, from the substantial Superior rooms, with their king beds and patio views, to the 80-square-meter Town House, with its terrace and panoramic views. Nor are the public spaces anything less than impressive — there’s a rooftop plunge pool with a view of the Church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, and a subterranean spa whose 20-foot circular pool feels like a man-made cenote, lit from above by an open porthole. And in a city as food-focused as Oaxaca, it’s only natural that Otro’s restaurant should present chef Saúl Carranza’s personal take on the classic flavors of the region.