Residencias Artísticas el Hayuelo — Hotel in Boyacá

This is a truly a wonderful oasis, a small estate of studios and apartments, some detached, others like ours part of a group of three apartments in a bungalow style house. They are all set in a marvellous well maintained, multi acre garden, with fine views from the windows and veranda to the town of Villa de Leyva and the mountains beyond.||All the apartments are self-catering with a fairly basic but certainly adequate kitchen, comfortable beds, very good showers and access to a sun terrace and veranda.||Consuelo Quintero the manager and owner of the estate was at the gate to greet us after our four hour journey from Bogota by car. She soon had has moved in for the first night and then moved out again the next morning to a bigger apartment than we had booked. We were only residents apparently and she was anxious we had the best, without extra expense: what wonderful generosity.||The apartments design were quirky to say the least for the European visitor more use to conventional four walled design. The apartments are built literally over a boulder encrusted landscape. No problem for the builder as he incorporated the large size boulders into the design and made them a feature of the rooms - unusual and great fun, we loved them.||This was a perfect base for us to explore Villa de Leyva and the surrounding attractions, of which there are many. For us it was far better than a hotel, there are excellent shops in the town to buy food and drink, the cooker might have been small but it didn't deter the chef and we ate royally, both inside at night and on the terrace for breakfast. It was a joy to stay there and as for Consuelo, she is a saint! When we needed Colombian healthcare (which was excellent) Consuela was chauffeur, interpreter and real friend; we would have been quite lost without her. ||We can't recommend this place strongly enough, go to Villa de Leyva, stay at ||Residencias Artistica el Hayuelo, you won’t forget it. We haven’t.||Chris and...

Consuelo and her family have spent years developing a series of boutique residences, nestled amidst the boulders in Villa de Leyva. Each building has been individually created in harmony with the environment. The local geology has been respected to such an extent that one residence is built into the landscape and uses a boulder for one of its walls. Another residence is built to reflect the style of the indigenous settlements once found in the area. All are located in a beautiful garden full of flowers, visited regularly by the local wildlife.||||Consuelo was incredibly kind during our stay and was a great source of knowledge about the local area. We learnt lots about past and present Colombia from chatting to her and her family, who have inhabited Villa de Leyva for many generations.||||The accommodation is really comfortable and fully equipt for self catering. The town is really lovely and has a couple of small but well stocked grocery stores, many galleries and lots of really nice coffe shops. We really enjoyed visiting the...

This is a rustic guest house about 1 1/2 miles from the main plaza of Villa de Leyva. It's a very beautiful property that is often used as a residency by artists. The grounds are strewn with boulders that are then built into the guest rooms (for instance, our shower and kitchen were built into boulders), there is a large nursery with many potted plants, and over all the grounds are very bucolic and peaceful. At night it is almost like being alone in the middle of the woods, you can hear a pin drop.||||The walk to Villa is easy and will take about 15 minutes down a main road. We didn't find it inconvenient to walk to the town square, and the location is helpful in that it is right next to the Casa Terracota (a major attraction of the area) and is pretty close to El Infiernito (the Muisca megaliths), a very scenic 40-minute walk.||||The owner and her staff are friendly, and English is spoken if you do not have any Spanish (not by the owner, though).||||I would recommend this as a great place to stay if you are looking to stay...