Hotel B

The Pacific drifts up the century-old staircase, and the light through the 1914 skylights still seems to be waiting for another era's salons. In this Belle Époque mansion in Barranco, reborn as Relais & Châteaux with the patience of an antiquary, a private collection of Peruvian contemporary art lives alongside a working gallery next door and a care that never raises its voice. It is the slower, more elegant reading of a Lima that rarely stops.

The Junior Suites in the historic wing, with their original skylights and views over the inner garden, are the first to ask for; for longer stays, the Master Suite opens directly onto the rooftop. The restaurant, Mediterranean-Peruvian in spirit, serves a long, ritual lunch of northern oysters and house-made pasta; by evening, the bar becomes a literary salon. On clear nights, request the private dinner on the terrace.