9 places, from £213 to £1105 a night.
The Oberoi Marrakech plays in the palace class: Andalusian-inspired architecture, zellige columns, long reflecting pools running to the Atlas, sprawling gardens. Eighty-four rooms and villas, some with private pool, a large spa, service tuned to the letter. It is one of the highest-rated addresses in Marrakech, at a price and a distance from the centre to match the ambition.
Clinging to an Atlas spur above Asni, an hour's drive from Marrakech, the Kasbah Tamadot is Sir Richard Branson's Moroccan house, bought after a hot-air balloon flight and opened to the public in 2005. Twenty-eight rooms and suites, four Berber tents on the hillside, two heated pools, a spa: you come for the mountain, not for the medina.
The Amanjena is a landmark: the first Aman resort opened in Africa, in 2000, a set of pavilions and pisé houses laid out around a great pool drawn from the Menara basin. On the outskirts of town, along the Amelkis golf course, it holds the very top of the range: spa, heated pool and service to match. A budget outside the norm, no equal in town.
Commissioned by King Mohammed VI and opened in 2010, the Royal Mansour does not rent rooms but 53 private riads, linked by a maze of lanes inside the medina, a few steps from the Koutoubia. A medina within the medina, where staff move through underground galleries and never cross paths with guests. It is the most expensive address in Marrakech, and one of the most discreet.
In the Palmeraie, the Ksar Char-Bagh is a small palace built like a ksar, drawn from the Alhambra: paved courts, fountains, olive and fig trees across several enclosed hectares. Only around fifteen suites, three pools and an underground red-marble spa. You come for the calm and the space, far from the bustle of the medina.
The Park Hyatt is the contemporary take on the Marrakech luxury resort: a broad complex at the edge of the Al Maaden golf course, south of the city, cut through with water gardens and reflecting pools. Rooms and villas in a wood-and-earth design, one of the largest spas in town, several pools, a real kids' club. A branded 5-star, comfortable and family-friendly, off the medina.
Set on 20 hectares of olive trees along the Royal Golf Road, the Mandarin Oriental fields almost only villas with a private pool, each behind its own wall. You come for space and remove, ten minutes by car from the medina, not to sleep in the middle of the city.
The Es Saadi Palace is the flagship of an Hivernage institution: an eight-hectare park where suites, villas and ksars sit around the largest pool in the neighbourhood. There is a Dior spa, three restaurants, a casino and the Théâtro, one of the best-known clubs in town. An old-school resort-palace, a stone's throw from the medina without its clamour.
In the Palmeraie, twenty-five minutes from the medina, the Palais Namaskar strings out 41 rooms, suites and villas along reflecting pools and water gardens, under a golden dome. You come for space, quiet and a top spa - not to head out into town at any hour.
