Palais Namaskar
This is "Arabian Nights gone mega-luxe", says Thorpe. Palais Namaskar is in the exclusive Palmeraie district. It's expensive rooms start from £315 a night, rising to £5,020 for the four-bedroomWater Palace but it's spectacular, with suites and villas of "mind-boggling" proportions. "Even standard rooms have a private plunge pool." Dress for dinner and enjoy traditional French cuisine spiced up with Moroccan flavours.
Visit palaisnamaskar.com; 00 212 524 299800.
Riad Adore
You'll fall in love with this riad in Dar El Bacha, says Cond Nast Traveller. It's made of two houses knocked into one, so "there are two courtyards, one with a fantastically cold plunge pool where you can float on your back and gaze up at the cobalt-blue" sky. A small hammam offers "a good scrub-down and massage", and the bedrooms are "hidden behind Arabic screens and accented in shades of silver, champagne and charcoal". Opt for the Victoria suite, which has "a little balcony overlooking the pool for breakfasts".
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Doubles from £115 (riadadore.com; 00 212 524 377737).
Riad Kniza
This riad (above) boasts an excellent location just inside Marrakesh's medina (the marketplace quarter). It's close to the famous Bab Doukkala gate and is "perfect for the souks and the new town", says Annabelle Thorpe in The Sunday Times Travel Magazine. "The owner has used local artisans and traditional Moorish designs to create an opulent retreat without a hint of grandeur. Real love has been applied: wrought-iron lamps, inlaid tables and honeyed walls glow behind hand-carved screens." Make time to have a chat with the owner, Mohamed Bouskri he's been "guiding guests for four decades His stories are riveting."
Doubles from £177 (riadkniza.com; 00 212 524 376942).
Dar Hanane
This six-room hotel is in "one of the oldest houses in the medina, though you'd never know it", says Tara Stevens in The Guardian. "It's arranged around a central courtyard shaded by bitter-orange trees. You can sip tea by the fire in the first-floor salon", or take a cookery class with the owners. Bedrooms "have colourful details candy-striped easy chairs in the Garden room and turquoise pom-pom blankets in the Berber room". Head to the roof to enjoy great views of the Atlas mountains.
Doubles from £73 (dar-hanane.com; 00 212 524 377737).
Hotel du Tresor
"There's a wonderful feeling of fadedglory at the Tresor (above), which has been opensince the early 1950s," says Cond NastTraveller. The "pressed-concrete floor andwall tiles have weathered elegantly, andthe 14 bedrooms are fabulously kitsch".The hotel is popular with locals andtourists alike it offers "serious eye-candyat bargain-basement prices". Recentadditions include an "iceberg-green pool"and a string of "sardine-can lanternsthrough the giant orange tree in the courtyard, perfectly capturing" the city as itonce was. Just beware that the hotel dcor may not be for everyone "in the Orangesuite, for example, there are head-spinning vermilion walls and sunflower-patternsheets on the four-poster, and in the bathroom a claw-footed tub and workingfireplace shaped like a pregnant belly".
Doubles from around £40 (00 212 524 375113).
Riad Al Jazira
If you want to avoid the kitsch north African dcor that covers many riads, this 17th-century property is the place to go. It "consists of three houses knocked into one, with an unusually minimalist dcor", says Stevens "simple white furnishings, potted paddle-leaf cacti and the odd contemporary artwork". The owner also owns Dar Zellij "one of the best restaurants in town for traditional Moroccan fine dining".
Doubles from £63 (riad-aljazira.com; 00 212 524 426463).
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