Marrakesh Hotels

Marrakesh has exceptional hotels. Five stars are dropped at every turn, the spas are superb, and the loving attention to detail is overwhelming. If, however, you'd prefer not to spend a fortune sleeping in the bed that Brad Pitt once graced, solid budget and mid-range options abound. They're small, clean, and suitably Moroccan in style to satisfy adventurous penny-pinchers.

A building explosion is still taking place in the Palmery, where billion-dollar palaces are de rigueur. These range from tasteless embarrassments of riches to rustic embraces of expensive simplicity. At least 20 minutes from the medina, Palmery retreats master seclusion and space at the same time, and are ideal for romance, quiet, and golf.

To take on the historic heart of Marrakesh and live like a pasha of old, head to one of the medina's riads. Riad restorations, many by ultrafashionable European expats, have taken over the city; you'd trip over them, if only you know where they were. Anonymous doors in the narrow, twisting derbs of the medina, and especially the souk, transport you to hidden worlds of pleasure. There are cheap ones, expensive ones, chic ones, funky ones, plain ones… the list goes on. You can reserve by the night, and in some cases even rent the whole riad.

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