Mexico City, Mexico

Volga

Price per night from$385.49

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD385.49), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Night at the museum

Setting

Colonia Cuauhtémoc corner

More glamorous gallery than hotel, Volga in Mexico City is named after the longest river in Europe, but it’s Mexican all the way, with artworks by local creatives, food by star Baja-born chef Edo Kobayashi and a mezcaleria on hand to enliven afternoons. The Distrito Federal design den also makes a detour to the Far East, with interiors that channel a calm Japanese aesthetic: smooth concrete, warm woods, clean lines and stylistic simplicity. You might need to be a VVIP to access all areas (which include an omakase dining concept for 10 lucky daily diners), but the lively lobby and rooftop pool, bar and terrace are open to all.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome treat on arrival and a 2pm check-out; those staying three nights or more also get US$100 per room to spend on food and non-alcoholic drinks

Facilities

Photos Volga facilities

Need to know

Rooms

49, including 16 suites.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Also

There’s an accessible room for guests with mobility issues, plus an elevator to reach the restaurant and rooftop.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, concept store, rotating artworks, mezcaleria. In rooms: Nespresso coffee machine, minibar with free snacks and drinks, smart TV, Bose speaker, digital lighting controls, and Aromaria bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Many of the rooms have balconies overlooking the atrium – one of the biggest can be found in 205, which is especially of use if you want to keep an eye on the happenings down on the patio (don’t worry: there’s excellent sound-proofing).

Poolside

The slender pool on the roof is more of a swimming lane for lengths – clock some up between 9am and 7pm.

Spa

There’s no spa yet, but a menu of in-room treatments has been compiled for tense guests.

Packing tips

Volga is a temple to modern design with striking architecture, eye-catching artworks and statement staircases – pack your most effortlessly intellectual-looking attire.

Also

Anyone hoping to counteract the taco indulgence can do so at the gym next-door, since Volga has helpfully arranged for its guests to have access.

Children

Volga welcomes guests aged 18 and up only.

Sustainability efforts

The bath products are by eco-friendly and sustainability-focused brand Aromaria, the menus are seasonal and locally sourced, and lighting controls are digital to minimise energy consumption.

Food and Drink

Photos Volga food and drink

Top Table

There’s likely to be a line out the door for a seat in the omakase room, but don’t miss your place in the queue.

Dress Code

Minimalist magic.

Hotel restaurant

Elora was created by a Baja California-born chef with Japanese heritage – Edo Kobayashi has expanded his empire of restaurants in the city to include this fitting fixture, where Mexico meets the Med (via the Far East) within Volga’s extremely zen walls. Happily he looks homeward for the omakase concept, set in what was initially one of the guestrooms, now taken over in the noble name of supplying sushi and sashimi to a select few each night. 

Hotel bar

The drinks flow throughout Volga, whether you’re up on the rooftop, down in the patio or have called in at the mezcaleria for a tasting; and regular DJ sets and live-music nights cater to the cool crowd. There may or may not also be a secret drinking spot within the hotel, but we couldn’t possibly comment. 

Last orders

Bookings for the restaurant can be made for 4pm all the way up until 11.30pm. The bar by the pool is open from 11am to 7pm; the lobby bar calls time at 10.30pm.

Room service

Available around the clock.

Location

Photos Volga location
Address
Volga
Río Volga 105 Cuauhtémoc
Ciudad de México
06500
Mexico

Volga is in Mexico City’s Colonia Cuauhtémoc, around the corner from main thoroughfare Avenida Paseo de la Reforma and the iconic (and rather tall) Angel of Independence.

Planes

The capital’s Benito Juárez international airport is a half-hour drive from the hotel. Round-trip transfers can be arranged for US$145.

Automobiles

You won’t need wheels to get around Mexico City (app-hailed taxis are readily available and the main neighbourhoods that tourists stick to, Roma and La Condesa, are within 20 minutes or so on foot). If you have come by car, there’s free valet parking 200 metres away and a drop-off spot outside the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

With a stay at Volga, you’re in the centre of the sprawling metropolis that is the Distrito Federal – around the corner is the lofty Angel of Independence, buzzy boulevard Paseo de la Reforma and the rest of Colonia Cuauhtémoc, which is currently enjoying a renaissance. Already ahead on the trend scale however is Colonia Roma (especially Roma Norte) and Condesa – at the former, don’t miss coffee shops, cute boutiques and obscenely good restaurants galore. The heart of the latter is the Amsterdam hippódromo, once a racing track and now a leafy oval for locals to jog or walk their dogs around. You’ll need your wits about you, but an evening trip to Plaza Garibaldi to hear some Mariachi magic is a must. Agave pilgrims should call in at the Museum of Tequila and Mezcal first (yes, there are tastings). 

Local restaurants

Taco enthusiasts will find solace (and delicious things in wraps) at both cheap and cheerful fast-food favourite Taquería Orinoco and slightly more upscale El Califa, both of which have outposts all over the city and, helpfully, near Volga in Colonia Cuauhtémoc or along Reforma. And you may be a long way from the Balearics, but Pastelería Mallorca will provide sweets, seafood and lots of Spanish ham. 

Local cafés

Join the Mexicans in their Sunday (or daily) tradition of churros at Colonia Cuauhtémoc’s El Moro outpost, on Rio Lerma.

Local bars

More rowdy rooftops await at the Andaz hotel in Condesa and closer to home at the Sofitel’s Cityzen. And for a speakeasy within stumbling-home distance, try your hardest to locate Hanky Panky – and make sure you ring in a reservation first.

Reviews

Photos Volga reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this buzzy new hotel in Mexico City and unpacked their artworks and artisan-market finds, a full account of their city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Volga in DF’s Colonia Cuauhtémoc…

We can’t promise dinosaurs, de-mummified Ancient Egyptians or reawakened knights in shining armour, but spending the night at Volga in Mexico City is like sleeping within the hallowed walls of a sleek shiny museum. The U-shaped hotel – which has imported its comfort levels and aesthetic all the way from Japan – is a temple of concrete, warm woods and artistic lighting, with copper-coloured spiral staircases, a nine-storey atrium, slabs of rock and tropical vegetation gracing the walls. It may have just opened, but it’s already catering to a cool crowd, with a rooftop pool and bar, a mezcaleria, and a restaurant at the bottom of the atrium, which most of the rooms gaze down upon. There are DJs and live music most nights of the week (with sound-proofing in place for anyone turning in early), a restaurant expanding the empire of the Baja Californian star chef Edo Kobayashi and a concept store in case you weren’t feeling on-trend enough (unlikely). And, unlike sleeping in an actual museum, there’s no sleeping bag required.

Book now

Price per night from $355.72