FORBES
When La Maison Arabe opened, way back in 1998, it was the best riad-hotel in Marrakech. It had to be: It was the only one. Now the city has something like 900 riad-hotels (traditional courtyard houses, which I’ll just call “riads”), but La Maison Arabe still gets my vote for one of the best.
see photosItalian aristocrat Fabrizio Ruspoli was ahead of time when he bought the property and oversaw three years of renovations to transform it into a chic riad. Now it’s grown to 26 rooms (most with fireplaces and private terraces) in two buildings that flank a serene swimming pool.
That size is precisely its selling point, and why a night here (from $200) costs considerably more than at most of those other riads. La Maison Arabe lands perfectly in the sweet spot between riad and hotel.
Whereas a seven-room courtyard hotel can feel overly intimate, here there are plenty of glamorous nooks and flower-filled courtyards to hide out in, a gorgeous spa, and a staff that’s better suited to a small (or for that matter, large) hotel than a guest house. When I stayed (as Ruspoli’s guest) a concierge reorganized my flights, an IT guy connected me to the flaky Moroccan Wi-Fi after midnight, and nearly everyone spoke fluent English—something I didn’t even find at the Four Seasons.
Despite the polish, it’s decidedly not an international hotel. It has charm, old-school elegance, and history you won’t get in the city’s flashy nouveau (or newly redone) palace hotels. Its oldest part debuted in 1946 as the first restaurant open to foreigners—Winston Churchill always got the corner table, and Charles de Gaulle and Jackie Kennedy dined here too. Ruspoli decorated it with furnishings and metalwork from the city’s best artisans but reined in what he calls “the tyranny of Morocco” by leavening them with Rajasthani wall hangings and antique Chinese doors, and the clubby jazz bar has a 1930s colonial feel.
And it has a better location—in the heart of the medina, a short stroll from the central Jemaa el Fna square and souks that probably drew you to Marrakech in the first place. (Best of both worlds again: It has Private Garden club in the Palmeraie, a 15-minute shuttle away, in case you’re craving a quiet afternoon in a desert oasis.)
It’s a travel truism that the best food in Marrakech is in riads, and La Maison Arabe is no exception. But it outpaces its competitors with a hands-on cooking school whose four-hour workshops are focused on a single dish (tagine, pastilla) and teach as much as they entertain. Marrakech has no shortage of places where you can eat well during your stay. With La Maison Arabe, you can eat well after you check out.
7/05/2012 @ 9:39AM |2,265 VIEWS
