Top 10: The Best Marrakech Hotels in the Medina

Modelled on the Bahia Palace, La Sultana channels a Moroccan maximalist style. Decorative techniques jostle for attention from zellig-style courtyards to carved cedarwood shutters and ceilings. The 28 rooms and suites share the same dramatic sense of style and scale: think stained-glass windows, huge brass lanterns, and king-sized beds. The rooms are mini Roman temples, with their columns and marble finishes. La Sultana’s staff rank among the finest purveyors of hospitality in the city. The food options leave you spoiled for choice: do you dine in the lantern-lit courtyard, or up on the terrace overlooking the Saadian Tombs?

The original courtyard columns and arches remain, but the house was finished with pale sand coloured tadelakt, and oyster grey paintwork on the moshrabia giving it a serene, almost beachy feel. It’s enhanced by added extras like a fantastically cool aquamarine, courtyard plunge pool, and pint-sized hammam. Staff are genuinely caring and that makes all the difference. Want a pot of tea in bed in the morning? No problem. Seeking a perfect carpet but don’t know where to start? They’ll tell you. Breakfast changes daily so you won’t get bored and there’s an honesty bar filled with local wine and beer in the library.

Jasper Conran’s 19th-century riad is a haven of effortless good taste. Its extravagant green garden and art-filled suites channel the same soignée glamour as the 1942 film, Casablanca. Walk-on roles are played by a cosmopolitan guest list, who look every inch the part lounging fireside in the luxe salons. The garden is possibly the finest feature of the house. From the dining salon it looks like a luxuriant Zuber wall print through the floor-to-ceiling French windows, and it also provides a natural screen for the 10-metre-long, heated saltwater pool. All rooms have romantic, four-poster beds swathed in romantic voile drapery, and are furnished with artworks from Jasper’s collection including glittering Indian miniature paintings, elaborate, inlaid Syrian mirrors and organic Art Deco lamps by Daum Frères.

This Marrakech riad offers art-house rooms with wow-factor, five minutes from the snake-charmers, acrobats and street-food vendors of the D’Jemma el Fna. Many of the rooms are in jewel-coloured tadelakt, while crimson walls point you in the direction of sun-bathed courtyards filled with trees strung with giant wicker lanterns lending a more streamlined feel to the sprawl. If you just want to chill there are wide galleries dotted with vintage armchairs wrapped around the main house, soaring palms shade the courtyard pool and a collection of striped sofas beneath a Berber tent on the roof make a top spot for a snooze mid-afternoon. There is a rooftop yoga terrace and a boutique showcasing the best Moroccan artisans.

La Maison Arabe has the distinction of being the original riad hotel in Marrakech. Italian aristocrat Fabrizio Ruspoli renovated the two adjacent courtyard houses in a clubby colonial style and opened to much fanfare in 1998. The sumptuous interiors have a masculine feel, sporting a hybrid African-Arabian-Oriental vibe where Moroccan craftsmanship, Oriental antiques, African artworks and Rajasthani wall hangings work together to subdue what Ruspoli calls ‘the tyranny of Morocco’. Overall the feeling is one of old-school elegance and history, something you won’t find in the city’s flasher new high-end hotels.

A hip hideaway where Italian photographer Giovanna Cinel brings a dash of Milanese moda to a traditional Moroccan riad. A small rooftop plunge pool and a hammam are also available to guests. The dream continues upstairs in the five rooms and two suites, and expect Moroccan home cooking with a contemporary twist. Look out for unusual dishes such as fresh organic cheese from Essaouira and apple and saffron pastilla. The souks, Djemaa el Fna, Jardin Majorelle and Medersa Ben Youssef are all within a 10 to 15-minute walk.

With experienced antiquarian Mohammed Bouskri at the helm, Riad Kniza is a fabulous and utterly authentic riad home and guesthouse. Restored by teams of Morocco’s most highly skilled craftsmen, the soaring salons, spacious rooms and tranquil patios make no apology for their decorative excess. On top of this artful canvas, Haj Bouskri’s beautiful antiques, Berber rugs, silk sofas and embroidered curtains add depth and personality, creating the feel of a luxurious Marrakshi home.

Riad Mena exhibits the same clever, contemporary, cosmopolitan style as its globetrotting owner Philomena Schurer Merckoll. This handsome 19th-century house has been nipped and tucked, and channels a Miami-in-Marrakech vibe. The six generous, light-filled rooms with their lofty ceilings, garden-gazing windows and enormous bathrooms are extravagantly luxurious. Breakfast on the roof terrace has uninterrupted views of the Koutoubia. It is situated on the eastern edge of the medina, an easy 10-minute walk to the Djemaa el-Fna, the Bahia and Badi palaces, and the Mellah’s spice souqs.

Crafted with care by Italian art director and owner, Umberto Branchini, Riad Joya provides a high-octane dose of Milanese chic amid the medina’s dusty lanes. Taking its cue from ancient Rome, Greece and the Maghreb, Riad Joya’s grand architecture impresses against a desert palette of sand, taupe and beige. Below stairs a traditional hammam glows in the soft light of fretwork lanterns, while the rooftop bar supplies aperitifs to guests reclining around two dainty plunge pools. With space at a premium in the medina, Joya’s seven sumptuous suites seem positively excessive.

This jewel-box mansion, once a former palace of Thami el’Glaoui, Pasha of Marrakech and Lord of the High Atlas, combines the very best Moroccan craftsmanship with 1920s Art Deco style. Service is impeccable, and it’s the details that stand out: hot mint tea on your return from the souks, fresh flowers everywhere. The rooms are gorgeously finished and all have views over one of the delightful courtyards. PepeNero, the riad’s on-site restaurant, is one of the most popular in the medina and enjoys incredible views of the Atlas Mountains. It is perennially packed out, so you must book for dinner and you should request a table in the courtyard beneath the orange trees.