Pristine palaces, rooftop restaurants, crowded souks and the seemingly ever-present sunshine make Marrakech a popular year-round getaway. But – as anyone who has visited can attest – it’s a busy city with an all-hours, non-stop bustle.
In Marrakech, the hustle (and the bustle) is all part of the appeal, but staying just outside the medina means you can dip in and out as you please. Less than a ten-minute drive from the market stalls and meandering alleyways of the fortified old town, Four Seasons Resort Marrakech, with modern Moroccan design, fragrant gardens, lounger-lined pools and plenty of al fresco restaurants feels more like a do-nothing beach resort.
If you’ve come for the balmy temperatures – rather than the sightseeing and bartering – you’re also in the right place. Alongside 139 rooms, the hotel has two floodlit tennis courts, a free kids’ club, a boutique spa, three restaurants and 40 acres of immaculate, flower-filled gardens. Everything you need to stay put.
The Vibe
Four Seasons hotels are famous for their meticulous service, but this resort is pleasingly unstuffy. Check-in comes with a glass of sugary mint tea, waiters will happily chat and share a joke over breakfast, and the pool attendant greets everyone by name as he chooses the perfect lounger for each guest.
There are as many families staying as hand-holding couples, but space for all to avoid each other. Polished pathways weave past fountains and flowerbeds to a central ornamental pool framed by palm trees and overlooked by the restaurants in the main building. Everywhere twinkles with lanterns and fairy lights once the sun goes down. Though there’s a main road beyond the gates and the airport is just ten minutes away, it’s all exceptionally peaceful, with rooms spread throughout the grounds in discreet two-storey residences.
The Rooms
Rooms range from oversized doubles with a balcony to sprawling two-bedroom villas with private pools, a spacious living room and a kitchenette. Ground-floor patio suites are our top choice, with a tiled dressing area, plunge pool and a leafy terrace complete with a dining table and a pair of sun loungers for sunset drinks before dinner. All are contemporary, luxurious and come with Moroccan flair: taupe rugs share space with bronze-topped bedside tables, carved wooden wardrobe doors and gold lanterns that cast patterns on the ceiling when lit, while large marble bathrooms show off splashes of sage green.
The Food + Drink
Don’t even think about going anywhere until you’ve had breakfast. The buffet laid out in Quattro is a delight, groaning with vast bowls of hummus, perfectly symmetrical cut fruit, glass bottles of freshly squeezed detox juice and a bakery’s worth of pastries from colourful glazed donuts to mini fruit tarts. Hot dishes are made to order with stand-out options including eggs Benedict with truffle, and egg tagine with tomato ragout. After dark, the same restaurant offers Italian fine dining, homemade pasta and seafood platters, spilling out onto a starlit patio in front of the fountains.
At lunchtime, dishes such as lobster salad, burrata Margherita pizza and popcorn shrimp are served under the olive trees at Azzera restaurant by the adults’ pool, or can be delivered straight to your lounger if moving feels like too much effort.
Inara serves food all day, but it’s worth booking a table for dinner on its lantern-lit terrace overlooking the gardens. The sharing plate of Moroccan briouat – flaky pastry parcels filled with beef, vegetables, goat’s cheese or chicken – will have you fighting over the last morsel. There are traditional dishes including tagine and couscous on the menu, but the Arabic mix grill of chicken skewers, kofta and za’atar pide (flat bread) is a must-order. Finish off by sampling a selection of ice creams and sorbets in flavours including date, saffron, rose petal, orange cinnamon and star anise.
The Little Extras
If you’re travelling with children, there’s perhaps no better hotel in Marrakech. The kids’ club for under 12s has soft outdoor play zones and its own shallow swimming pool, but there’s also a teen room that older children can use when they fancy, with a pool table, games consoles and table tennis. Elsewhere, there’s a huge 35-metre family pool plus a separate quiet pool for sipping cocktails away from the splashing. Cool boxes of iced water appear the moment you arrive, and there’s a range of complimentary suncream poolside.
The hotel can also arrange private yoga lessons, a hammam ritual or Moroccan cooking classes, and there’s a free car service available to ferry guests to restaurants in the medina each evening.
The To-Do List
Everything from a day trip to Casablanca to hot air ballooning over the desert can be sorted by the concierge, but it’s hard to resist the lure of the medina and its souks. A vintage motorbike sidecar tour with Marrakech Insiders is the best way to explore away from the busy tourist spots, squeezing down narrow side streets, whizzing round rarely visited neighbourhoods and stopping for photos at The Palmeraie, a 900-year-old oasis with over 100,000 palm trees.
Get your breath back over lunch on the rooftop of La Sultana Marrakech, dining on tiled tables overlooking the Moulay El Yazid Mosque and the medina beyond. The menu includes the best market produce and Moroccan street-food dishes, including lamb tagine and a kofta burger flavoured with souk spices. Afterwards, wander back through the medina to the main square, Djemaa el-Fna, stocking up on spices, argan oil skincare, olive oil or locally inspired clothes along the way, or wind your way towards one of the city’s best spas to be brushed, buffed and pampered.
All image credits: Four Seasons Marrakech
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