When we pull into the rounded drive, a stone wishing well sits in the center. The river beside us rushes with urgency downstream, and a strain of music can be heard floating out of the dining room. With all the stone and archways, Molino de los Reyes feels like stepping into an old-fashioned fairy tale.
Molino de los Reyes has quite a history. It was originally built as a wheat mill in the 18th century. During the Mexican Revolution, it was a military garrison, and most recently, in 1964, it was purchased by Don Joaquin Cisneros Molino to turn into a country home for his wife, Dona Dolores Fernandez, or Lolita. The location had special significance for the couple, as the shore of the nearby river was the site of their first kiss. By the 1960s, the property was in ruins, but it still had beautiful bones. The family spent the next 40 years creating their own rural retreat that was used for family holidays and summer vacations. The hotel is still owned by the family with Don Juan’s son, now 83, the current owner, and his granddaughter, the hotel’s director.
Because of its former life as a family home, each of the 8 rooms is unique, with no clear categories – this room is slightly bigger than that one, this one has a jacuzzi, this one a view of the gardens. For a deep sense of nostalgia and history, get a room in the original main house. Exposed wooden beams on the ceiling, elaborately carved doors, and antique wooden shutters on the windows – these rooms are simply transportive to a different era. An upstairs living room, shared by all the front house rooms, has couches, a chess board, coffee table books, and an old gramophone.
The newer section of the hotel is a little more modern but still has an old-fashioned feel, and one of these rooms is 100 percent handicapped accessible. Whatever room you stay in will have something special about it. All rooms include a signature scent that you can choose when you check-in, and this scent will be pumped through an infuser as well as in the bath products in your room, so choose wisely. Bathrobes, slippers, hairdryers, lock boxes, minibar with sodas, water, beer, and coffeemakers are all standard. In my room, I also had a double vanity, a soaring shower stall, and one wall of preserved rock that they simply built the addition around.
An unexpected protagonist, the sound of the river next to the hotel’s dining room follows you everywhere on the grounds. At breakfast, you can lose yourself in its movement and sound by sitting in the glassed-in dining area or out on the large open patio.
Molino de los Reyes has been voted number two best hotel breakfast in the world by the Prix Villegiature Awards 2022, and therefore, its fame in Tlaxcala is pretty major – long before I visited several friends in the city recommended it to me. Lots of non-guests are always on hand to enjoy it, and while I’m not totally sure about that ranking, I will say I had the cazuela eggs with jocoque, and they were absolutely lovely. I also dove deep into a decadent hot chocolate, perfect for Tlaxcala in the rainy season, as well as some excellent coffee from Puebla. The bread is made in-house, and the juice tastes freshly squeezed – I can see why locals love it here.
I happened to be on hand for the hotel’s 8th anniversary party while I was there, and the tasting menu by the hotel’s chef and pairing from Cuatro Volcanes distillery and Vinoletta wines was far beyond what one would expect for a country hotel outside a town of just 11,000 people. As the hotel manager read snippets of love letters between Don Juan and Lolita, and a quartet of musicians sang ballads among the twinkling lights of the back garden, romance was definitely in the air.
The hotel’s restaurant and common spaces are donned with an array of paintings and portraits collected by the current owner over the course of his lifetime. I won’t say that everything was my cup of tea, but they did give the hotel a feeling of home and family, a nice contrast to the modern trend of chic, streamlined design schemes, muted color palates, and vapid art that makes you feel like you are anywhere and nowhere at the same time. The art is quirky, and it works. Lots of mirrored surfaces, windows that look into windows that look into windows, geode-shaped metal lamps, and pops of Mexican blues and pinks kept me noticing new things every time I walked through the dining room.
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For such a small place, they really have a full array of services on-site. A small but well-appointed spa has two treatment rooms for massages as well as a temazcal, a kind of Indigenous sweat lodge, and a lounging area pre or post treatment.
Most people drive themselves out to the hotel, but Molino de los Reyes will also provide pickup or drop-off service from the airport for an extra fee, as well as rides back and forth into town. Rooms at Molino run from $185 to $350 a night, including taxes and their famous breakfast.
Check online for the latest rates at Molino de los Reyes at Booking.com or Hotels.com.
Molino de los Reyes is cozy, with a family ambiance and also a feeling of retreat for a day or two from the outside world. I felt very well taken care of by the staff there, and any issues that popped up were immediately resolved. Tlaxcala City, just a few minutes away, is also having a bit of a moment food and drink-wise with several new places popping up like the aforementioned Cuatro Volcanes distillery or Tequexquite, led by a former chef of Sud777, one of Mexico City’s well established fine dining restaurants. Now might just be the time to book a few days at Molino de los Reyes and treat yourself to a break in the country.
