Mexicasa: The Enchanting Inns and Haciendas of Mexico

I love this book. It came quickly and in perfect shape. Thanks !

A book filled with all the colour and magic of Mexico. An excellent representation of the architecture and colour of a vibrant country. Well written and photographed.

I can't say enough about the quality of the pictures in this book. Startling and brilliant color. Nice writeups about the inns and haciendas. For anyone traveling to Mexico and looking for unique and historical places to stay, this would be a great book to read before the trip. Highly recommend.

You can almost feel the colours and shapes, taste the food and smell the flowers in this lavishly illustrated book on Mexican Haciendas and Hotels. I can see why allot of the people that started these Inns sold everything they had and moved to Mexico to start a new life. This book will be an inspiration to architects and would also make a great coffee table book. Be careful to check the binding when you get it. The glue on mine all fell off in chunks after the first read!

What Gina Hyams and Melba Levick have created here is a wonderful compilation of photos of 21 of Mexico's most spectacular and beautiful inns and bed & breakfast places.Melba Levick must have had a ball taking these shots. There's hardly a picture that isn't beautiful in its own right - and there must be at least 300 of them. For this observer, the Mexican talent for blending and matching and mixing colors is the highlight of page after page. We see gardens and patios and pool areas and bedroom and dining areas and a host of living spaces where the eye is simply enchanted by the way the owners of these homes have decorated their various spaces. My own personal favorite is, of all things, a bathroom wall composed of talavera tiles where almost no two tiles on the wall match each other.All the houses are fully described by Gina Hyams and in most cases she gives us anecdotes and stories about how the various places came about. Thus, for instance, in Hacienda Katanchel in the Yucatan,we read that the present owners discovered the place in 1996. It had been abandoned for 35 years and originally dated back to the 17th century. So what they acquired were 740 acres of dense jungle in which were buried many crumbling buildings with trees growing through walls and ceilings. They gradually cleared the mess away and started building and renovating in a blend of Mexican, Mayan and Spanish styles. And you should see the place now.On a less ambitious scale, we read about Mesón Sacristia de la Compañia in Puebla. This began as a family-run antique store which the owners turned into a restaurant and then an inn. It has one extra little twist for people who stay there - everything in the place is for sale. The owners are continually having to replace dishes and furniture.And so the stories go... Pick up a copy and give your coffee table a treat.