I blame Winston Churchill. He spent winters at La Mamounia, where he loved to paint on his room’s balcony, and once told Franklin D. Roosevelt that the hotel was “the most lovely spot in the whole world.” Word spread and now even those not staying there want a peek at what lies behind the large souk doors just inside the medina of Marrakech.
Arriving for checking in, I have to duck round a tour group outside hearing the history of the hotel. Later, a British tourist tuts loudly, furious that I’ve spoiled her photo by coming out of the grand front door for my taxi at the wrong moment.
Yet inside everything is calm. Caped doormen in fez hats welcome guests to a gleaming black marble lobby that looks more like the entrance hall to a royal palace, with silk-draped ceilings, hand-laid tiles, arched columns and an immense low-hanging chandelier installed to celebrate the hotel’s centenary in 2023. There are vast displays of roses, tinkling fountains and velvet sofas, where check in formalities are completed over dates and orange-blossom infused almond milk.
Fellow guests look like they’ve wafted in straight from a photo shoot, and it’s possible some really have as the Marrakech Film Festival is in full swing when I arrive. An immaculate French film star is autographing a stack of photos of herself in one corner, watched over by a fawning publicist, while glammed-up actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu from Emily in Paris passes by on her way to a premiere. Sean Penn and Monica Bellucci are also both said to be staying during my visit, while previous guests have included everyone from Nelson Mandela to the Rolling Stones.
Rooms certainly have A-list appeal. They’re every bit as lavish as the lobby, with ornate zellige tiles, Moroccan lanterns, Berber rugs and intricate wooden latticework. I stay in a Park Executive Suite, with red velvet ottomans, carved wooden furniture and a double balcony overlooking the gardens. The detail everywhere is astonishing, including elaborate inlaid doors, a hand-painted ceiling and a marble bathroom with dark wooden shutters. If you have even more cash to splash, you could choose to stay in one of the three private riads in the hotel’s garden, which each come with a private heated swimming pool, car parking spaces and the all-important butler.
You’ll feel utterly spoilt wherever you stay though. The vast 18th century gardens are blissfully peaceful, despite being smack bang in the centre of Marrakech, with pathways shaded by palm, olive and citrus trees for idyllic sunset strolls. Elsewhere, there are two tennis courts, a private cinema, a boules pitch, a kids’ club, a mini-mall of designer boutiques and a spectacular 2,500 sqm spa with two hammams, a barber, nail salon and an indoor pool with a swim-up day bed surrounded by columns.
The heated 650sqm outdoor pool is easily one of the best I’ve ever seen. Fashioned entirely in Murano glass, it’s surrounded by palm trees and tended to by waiters discreetly delivering champagne to impossibly beautiful people on sunloungers.
It’s overlooked by the Pool Pavilion, where huge breakfast and lunch buffets are served. There’s a choice of three restaurants for dinner; a pan-Asian serving everything from sushi to curries, a trattoria cooking up Italian classics including homemade pasta, and a Moroccan restaurant housed in a riad in the garden offering tagines and seafood dishes.
It’s just as easy to wander from the hotel into the medina to eat elsewhere. I stop for a buttery raspberry and cinnamon croissant at Bacha Coffee set amongst the orange trees in the garden of 18th century Dar eh Bacha Palace. Later, I head for lunch at La Sultana Marrakech, a boutique hotel spanning five riads. Its elegant rooftop restaurant overlooks the medina and serves Moroccan dishes with a French flair using market-fresh ingredients, with local suppliers listed in the menu.
The grilled barbequed meat for two people is a must-order, piled high with koftas and lamb chops, but I also loved the roasted pumpkin salad with local Argan oil sauce and flaky pastry parcels stuffed with spinach and goats cheese known as briouates.
Though it’s impossible to resist an amble round the city’s famous souks, there’s a much better way to explore the city properly. A vintage motorbike sidecar tour with Marrakech Insiders allows you to see beyond the famous stalls and squares and venture where locals actually live. The basic tour lasts around 90 minutes, although they also offer trips up to six hours to the Agafay desert, and each one can be individually tailored.
Mine heads away from the trudging tour groups to the new town, the trendy Gueliz district and the Palmeraie, where gated mansions mean the neighbourhood is nicknamed the Beverley Hills of Marrakech. We take in street art, art deco architecture and the chaotic Bab El Khemis flea market before dipping back into the Medina, roaring through the ornate city gates and dodging down narrow alleyways where we barely see another tourist.
If this is the real Marrakech, it’s no wonder Churchill was charmed.
Rooms at La Mamounia start from £404. For more information, please visit www.mamounia.com. Motorbike sidecar tours start from £159 for two. For more information, please visit www.marrakechinsiders.com.
