Brand
JW Marriott
Hotel reviews, stays, and stories.
Cusco sits high enough that most people need a couple of days before they can do much, so the JW Marriott El Convento pipes extra oxygen into the rooms and keeps coca tea going downstairs. That is a strange thing for a 16th-century convent to be doing. The monks left in 1836, and the building went on to hold shops, drinking halls and a chocolate factory before an earthquake emptied it; Marriott bought and restored it in 2006. The work turned up Spanish and Inca artifacts, and two exhibition halls of them are open on site. At the bar, Freddy made us a coca leaf pisco sour. Our one regret is the room — we took a classic Inca room, and next time we’d pay for a balcony over the courtyard.