10 places, from £38 to £383 a night.
Ten rooms, a roof pool facing the Koutoubia, and everywhere a bold design stance: deep green, brass, golden mosaic, bathtubs set in the middle of the room. The Mellah Hotel turns its back on the classic riad decor for a designer-house aesthetic, in the old Jewish quarter. A sharp address, at a high price, chosen for its style.
The Fashion Boutique Hotel wears three stars on its plaque, but lines up a level above: a rooftop pool-bar with an Atlas view, a spa with hammam, a restaurant, all on avenue Hassan II. Thirty-five rooms in contemporary decor, a service travellers place at the top, five minutes from the station.
The Longue Vie has a consistency rare in Marrakech: no score of its drops off, from one line to the next. A contemporary 4-star on avenue Hassan II, two minutes from the station, with a rooftop pool open to the Atlas, a spa and free parking. The kind of address with no bad surprise, at a still reasonable rate.
In Guéliz, fifteen minutes on foot from the Majorelle garden, the Residence Eden is not a classic hotel but an aparthotel: flats with a fitted kitchen and sitting room, and on the roof a pool facing the quarter's antennas and the Koutoubia minaret. A format for anyone wanting to cook, spread out with the family and keep the centre within walking reach.
The Ksar Anika is a large Mellah riad playing the boutique-hotel card: eighteen rooms across two patios, a pool under a glazed roof, a spa with hammam and a table. You are two steps from the Bahia palace, in a quarter in full change, for an entry rate that stays reasonable for the class.
The 2Ciels plays the pleasure boutique on several levels: a pool in the patio, another on the roof with a bar-lounge that livens up in the evening, a spa, two tables including a seafood one. Eighty-five rooms in Art Deco decor, on the edge of Guéliz and Hivernage, facing the tennis club and near the galleries. An address to stay in as much as to head out from.
In Hivernage, along the Menara gardens, the Four Seasons lays out 141 rooms and suites across sixteen hectares of planted palm grove. A single-storey address, built around its pools and its ochre pavilions, ten minutes by car from the medina without its bustle at the door.
Les Jardins de la Koutoubia is a medina institution: a large 5-star hotel planted at the foot of the minaret, three minutes from Jemaa el-Fna. Around a hundred rooms, a pool in a tree-lined patio, a spa, and roof terraces looking down on the Koutoubia. You get the comfort of a real hotel and the location of a riad, without the lanes.
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.
The Amani plays the aparthotel format: suites in Moroccan decor, sitting corner and kitchenette for some, on avenue Mohammed VI, in Hivernage. On the roof, a small pool, a solarium and a panoramic restaurant facing the Koutoubia and the Atlas. Downstairs, a spa with hammam. Three-star at a small price, for anyone wanting space and a central address without breaking the bank.
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