LISTEN, Bogotá really is “The Capital of Cool”, but too much ‘cool’ can be taxing so the Four Seasons Casa Medina Bogotá is where you’ll want to escape to.
Take it from me, I’ve been there so many times, the security officers at immigration always suspiciously ask me “Why do you visit so often?”, Yes, Bogotá’s traffic is a nightmare.
Yes, the city is enormous and it can be draining to get from point A to point B. Yes, I’m one arequipe away from a food coma every. Single. Day. But none of this matters when you feel like you’ve found your home away from home.
Brick and stone adorn the entrance of Four Seasons Casa Medina
Four Seasons Casa Medina Bogota designed after Spanish colonial style
And it makes sense—Four Seasons Casa Medina was quite literally someone’s house. Designed by Colombian artist-architect Santiago Medina Mejia, the building is located in the capital exclusive Zona G, the financial district where the absolute best restaurants in the city are.
You’ll literally walk out the hotel, turn the corner and choose one of the many dining options, unaware that you’ve accidentally just walked into the new favourite restaurant that’ll have you dreaming of coming back to Bogotá next month—I’m warning you. It happened to me.
You’ll be having those dreams that very same night, while you sleep on Egyptian cotton sheets in one of the hotel’s 62 rooms.
Every room in Four Seasons Casa Medina is different
Woodwork in one of the penthouses at Casa Medina
Because Casa Medina is historically designed as a family residence, no two bedrooms or suites are the same. Some bedrooms offer a balcony overlooking the property’s interior gardens. Others offer a wood-burning fireplace in front of a leather-tufted couch. The suite I’m staying at offers both. This is exactly why I’m having fantasies of never leaving.
The foyer at Casa Medina and its swirling staircase
The staircase droops down from the top floor, wrapping itself around the piano
Four Seasons Casa Medina’s architecture looks to recreate the Spanish colonial style, both outside—as shown by its by its facade with brick, stone, arched windows, and Mediterranean roof tiles—and inside.
I’m always wary of using the word “rustic” to describe an interior’s architecture, but at Casa Medina, rustic elements are executed in the most carefully refined artisanal detailing, and you’ll see it everywhere from the bedrooms’ doors to the mosaico hidráulico tiles on the floor of Castanyoles—Casa Medina’s Spanish restaurant, a greenhouse in the building’s courtyard.
You’ll also see it from the raw, wooden beams and exceptionally exquisite armoires in the bedrooms, to the spiral staircase that droops down from the topmost floor all the way into the foyer, wrapping itself around the huge bouquet fresh flowers that are delivered every week.
Stained glass windows and chandeliers adorning the staircase
Mosaico hidráulico tile at Catalonya
One of the things Four Seasons did so well was to maintain the residential, intimate character of Casa Medina, even when they built their expansion. There are mezzanines, and interior balconies, and stained glasswork, and chandeliers, and artwork everywhere you look.
This isn’t accidental, it’s absolutely intentional. Not for a second do you ever feel like you’re at a hotel, but rather that you’re discovering, making your way through a quiet countryside mansion that just so happens to be located right smack in the middle of one of Latin America’s busiest cities.
by Regner Ramos