The best hotels in Marrakech, Morocco

Morocco’s glittering bohemian city is brighter than ever – with a flash-pack of fabulous places to stay. The city is known for its riads – a traditional property set around a central courtyard – as well as its grand-dame hotels made from marble. There are a cluster of big-name players scattered across Marrakech – The Oberoi, Four Seasons, and Mandarin Oriental among them – as well as smaller, independently owned hangouts offering a fresh take on this frenetic metropolis. From palaces owned by the royal family to pretty riads that host local creatives for months at a time, these are our favourite hotels in Marrakech.

El Fenn
It’s easy to forget what a game-changer El Fenn was when it opened two decades ago on the edge of the medina with just six jewel-toned bedrooms, plumes of bougainvillaea, and a rooftop that felt like a fabulous house party. It has gradually expanded into a wondrous labyrinth of 13 interconnected buildings, three pools, and 41 bedrooms in blush pinks, mustards, and acid yellows. Various sun-dappled courtyards lead to a new wood-carved annexe, which references traditional Arabic motifs in the latticework and stained-glass windows.

La Mamounia
This is where Charlie Chaplin and Churchill chose to hole up, and Hitchcock filmed “The Man Who Knew Too Much”. Retreat from the hubbub to the huge gardens, with their beekeepers, lemon trees, secret ice-cream parlour, and the loveliest pool with a palm tree in the middle. For a riad-style stay, there are three houses on the grounds, but the rooms with views out to the Koutoubia Mosque and over the rooftops of the Red City are the ones that give you the best sense of place.

Farasha Farmhouse
Marrakech has been abuzz with the arrival of new medina and Palmeraie hotels in the past year. But it’s this farmhouse embedded in an olive grove between the Atlas and Jbilet mountains that feels most like a gear-shift in the city’s hotel scene. The smooth space looks like a sleek art gallery, with shimmering tadelakt surfaces. In the wispy gardens, an adobe house has been turned into a stylish casita, where traditional clay contrasts with oxblood and mustard zellige tiles.

Caravan by Habitas Agafay
The rocky sparseness of Morocco’s Agafay desert has long attracted travellers wanting a break from the sensory explosions of Marrakech. Each en suite tent – solar-powered, with eco-bathrooms – embodies stylish pared-downness: no minibars or TVs, just wooden floors and earthy cream and ochre tones. Weekenders sink into pouffes and Berber rugs inside the communal glass-wrapped lounge.

Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech
This sprawling desert oasis offers an elevated take on barefoot luxury, with modern, palatial architecture, a vast outdoor swimming pool, a hammam-inspired spa, and even a golf course. The heart of the hotel is its outdoor water area, a series of glass-clear tiered ponds that cascade down to meet the 150-metre swimming pool, shaded by palm trees. The resort cleverly found a type of grass that needs less water to thrive, blending sustainability and beauty.

Selman Marrakech
Reminiscent of an ancient summer palace built for a prince and his horses, this hotel reads like a love letter to Marrakech, complete with grand stables and Arabian stallions dotted around the palatial Ottoman architecture. The rooms themselves are wonderfully considered, with large beds, tiled dining tables, and sofa nooks, divided by hand-carved wood panelling. There are several restaurants spread out around the resort, with a favourite being the Pavilion, located between the horse paddocks, for breakfast.

Nobu Hotel Marrakech
With a name as reputable as Nobu on the door, good service and an even better restaurant offering are practically scribed into the brickwork. Marrakech is the brand’s first foray into Africa, and its interiors remain respectful of the location. The rooftop is as beautiful as the 360-degree views it offers. Every bedroom is a suite bedecked in mahogany wood and rich furnishings.

Maison Brummell Majorelle
Despite being home to the colour-popping Jardin Majorelle, the Majorelle neighbourhood has never quite had a worthy place to stay – until now. From the outside, the dusty-pink modernist cube reflects the hues of the medina. Inside, it’s a sculptural masterpiece of clean, sloping lines, neutral tones, and smooth surfaces. Each of the eight bedrooms is spacious, in shades of walnut, concrete, and brushed brass.

Rosemary
Belgian ceramist, textile artist, and all-round creator Laurence Leenaert has already been a key player in redefining a new Marrakech aesthetic with her Lrnce brand. She has etched, chiselled, and hand-painted this five-bedroom riad into a brain-ticklingly artistic guesthouse. Inside one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the medina, the riad wraps around a giant jacaranda tree, all the way up to the tangerine rooftop.

Izza
Spread across seven interconnecting riads in the less decorous part of the old medina, this newcomer is an intriguing proposition. Inspired by the late American socialite-designer Bill Willis, the riad is also a space for forward-looking digital art. Some of the courtyards have little plunge pools, and there’s a beautiful rooftop that feels like a secret garden refuge, with day beds and an excellent locavore restaurant.

Royal Mansour
The Royal Mansour is not so much a hotel as an imperial palace. Owned by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, it is set within five pink-walled hectares beside the Red City. It’s made up of 53 guest riads, each three storeys high, with up to four bedrooms, indoor-outdoor living spaces, and private rooftops with plunge pools. The classic Moorish architecture has been updated in the serene and stylish pool, and the spa enclosed in a filigreed metal structure as ethereal as lace.

The Oberoi Marrakech
This grand hotel, carved from marble, was 10 years in the making. Crouched before the Atlas mountains on 28-acres of olive groves, it’s one of the most extraordinary stays in the city. The spa manager comes from Es Saadi and oversees the wellness programme in a space set on a sparrow-skimmed, reeded lake. The mix of Mughal and Berber paintings reminds you that you are firmly in Marrakech but never far from Rajasthan.