morocco · October — May
The riad behind the door you almost missed. La Mamounia's gardens at six. The souk read with the right guide. Marrakech, the city Camille's American clients add to their European summer at the last minute — and then come back to every winter.
Hotels
Book the room — handled personally.
Palace · 53 riadsThe King of Morocco's private hotel — 53 individual riads behind the medina walls, each with a plunge pool, a butler and a roof terrace.
Resort · PalmeraieTwelve acres of garden and water mirrors in the Palmeraie — a Stark-cool palace twenty-five minutes from the medina.
Palace · since 1923The 1923 hotel set inside a seventeen-acre walled garden five minutes from Jemaa el-Fna — the most photographed address in Marrakech.
Palace · Arabian horsesJacques Garcia's Atlas-facing palace built around a haras of purebred Arabian horses — 80-metre pool, signature dinners in the stables.
Festive · clubs, line-ups, long lunches
Reserve the table for the night out — handled personally.
Dinner show · HivernageThe Hivernage room where the music does the work — aerial dancers, Gnawa, and a six-course Moroccan menu.
Garden · HivernageThe Lotus group's outdoor extension — a Marrakech garden under candle and lantern, with a kitchen that follows the season.
Belly dance · Hivernage
Music venue · Casino Es Saadi
Asian fusion · Music
Asian fusion · Hivernage
Cantonese · Mandarin OrientalThe Hakkasan Group's Marrakech outpost — modern Cantonese on the terrace of the Mandarin Oriental, with a resident DJ.
Levantine · GuélizAuthentic · the quiet rooms
Reserve the quiet dinner — handled personally.
Desert lunch · AgafayAn olive grove in the lunar Agafay, thirty kilometres from town — no electricity, no wifi, lunch under a Berber tent.
Italian · Guéliz
Rooftop · Medina
Desert dinner · AgafayThe Agafay camp built for the long lunch and the slow dinner — Gnawa, Berber dance, fire show, then back to the city.
French · CountryFour kilometres out of town under hundred-year-old olive trees — French country cooking, candles, a magician at the door.
Rooftop · Medina
Luxury camp · AgafayThe Agafay's polished camp — private lodges with terraces, a pool, a spa, and dinner under a 360-degree desert panorama.
Rooftop · Medina
Traditional Moroccan · GuélizFounded by the Chab sisters in 1985 — the only serious Marrakech kitchen entirely run by women, three generations on.
Café · Medina
Rooftop · KasbahOpposite the Saadian Tombs — the rooftop café that lets you read the Kasbah quarter the way the medina rarely lets you read itself.
Gastronomic · Es Saadi PalaceFatéma Hal's Moroccan kitchen on the third floor of Palace Es Saadi — the most serious Moroccan tasting in the city.
Rooftop · Medina gates
Rooftop · MedinaTables
Book the table — handled personally.
Sunday brunch · GolfSport · tennis, padel, polo, golf
Book the court · the green · the chukkers — handled personally.
Golf · 27 holesThe city's oldest course — a 27-hole layout under century-old olives, with the calmer clubhouse lunch of the three.