Bakkal Farm Agrolodge

Bakkal Farm does not present itself as a hotel but as a farm you inhabit. The estate stretches in open countryside, about fifteen kilometres north-east of Marrakech, along the Fès road, on the Ouled Hassoune side. You are in real agricultural country here, not in the Palmeraie where the resorts line up: fields, olive trees, a kitchen garden feeding the house. The architecture cuts across the expected Moroccan decor. No zellige or ochre tadelakt, but clean pale-concrete volumes, white walls and huge glass panels that drop to the ground and frame the olive grove. Only seven rooms, which sits closer to a large country home than to an establishment.

The stay follows this farm logic. The rooms, waxed concrete on the floor and fireplace, open through large glass walls onto the garden and the plain. Comfort is contemporary and stripped back, Berber rugs and white linen for sole ornament. Outside, a long mirror pool stretches in front of the house, lined with sun loungers under the palms, and returns the glass facade at nightfall. But what makes the address is the table. The kitchen, Mediterranean and Moroccan, draws on the garden and is served under the pergola, on large wooden tables where napkins are embroidered with chillies and tomatoes. Halal, vegetarian and vegan options, continental breakfast: you dine on site, and it is quite fine, because there is no restaurant on foot. The house also offers yoga, open-air film evenings and walks nearby. It is this agricultural and contemporary stance that places Bakkal Farm alongside the other ecolodges around Marrakech, while keeping it apart.

That leaves the trade-off of the country, and it weighs. Thirty minutes by car from the medina, there is nothing on foot around: no souk, no neighbourhood café, every outing to town has to be planned by taxi, rental car or house shuttle. For a first stay built around Marrakech and its lanes, this is a real drawback, and the remove stays the most discussed strength of the address. The outdoor pool is not heated, worth planning outside the hot season. Finally, the 9.5 score on Booking, excellent, rests on a still modest review base (around forty): the picture is flattering but asks to confirm over time. From around £170 a night, Bakkal Farm speaks to couples and travellers wanting the country, space and a kitchen-garden table, and who accept the drive to visit the city - not the convenience of a city-centre base.