The gorgeous outdoor pool at Santa Clara, Sofitel Luxury Hotel.

A weekly series featuring luxury hotel expert Mary Gostelow’s hotel pick of the week.

Cartagena, Colombia‘s historic Sofitel Santa Clara (a Sofitel Legend hotel) is not only arguably the country’s best luxury hotel but also an icon of South America. It has a past, and it is also has a commendable affinity for sustainability.

A Botero sculpture nestles in the hotel gardens.

When the French-Irish GM, Richard Launay arrived in 2011, he found the inner courtyard of the five-floor former convent was, thanks to dense undergrowth, too dark. He called in landscape gardener Pablo Maciá’s septuagenarian mother, Senora Gloria Escobar, who agreed in no uncertain terms, it needed completely replanting, with real ‘Colombian’ trees and plants. Pablo Maciá stripped out the alien undergrowth and planted afresh, with Betel, Centenary, and Manila Palms, and Anthurium, Frangipani and Ylang Ylang, Hibiscus and Jasmine, plus coastal ferns and horsetail. Two years later local flowers began to appear and now the gloriously light garden is also home to many Colombian birds, including tiny indigenous humming-birds, who are nurtured with feeders filled daily with sage-flavored sugar water.

A typical narrow street in Cartagena’s walled town of Santa Clara.

Santa Clara is a converted 17th century convent lovingly designed by its majority owner, local architect José Alvaro Arias. Of the 122 rooms and suites, Botero Suite is the gem, named after Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero and designed by his daughter, Ina Botero.

Rooftop lounging at Sofitel Santa Clara.

Santa Clara is an ancient walled city that is home to many artists and literati. Among its many annual cultural events is the Hay Festival Cartagena, this year 29 January – 1 February 2015. Take time to explore the fascinating narrow streets around the hotel, but also find time to stay in and enjoy the big outdoor pool and the sensational Sisley spa. I also love breakfasting in El Claustro, the former convent bakery: walk over a glass-covered ancient well to pick up health drinks and a copy of today’s issue of YOUR national newspaper. Lunch poolside and dine on French-Colombian at the super-fun bare-walled 1621, named for the convent’s birth.

Read last week’s Hotel of the Week here.

Mary and hotel GM Richard Launay.