MOROCCO
Marrakech
To begin to comprehend the intoxicating and contradictory city that is Marrakech, you need a metaphor. And these days the handiest is what you drive — or, more accurately, what you’re being driven around in. You could take the high road, and survey the Red City in the cosseted privacy of a Bentley from the Royal Mansour’s fleet. Or you could go adventurously low and hire a Russian-made Ural motorcycle from tour outfitter Marrakech Insiders and observe the sensory onslaught of the city from a low-slung sidecar.
Either way, Marrakech will make its mark on you. The cacophony of hagglers and shoppers just steps from the silence of an opulent private courtyard underscores the city’s timeless tension between artistry and chaos. And increasingly, luxury abounds, making it a ripe time for a visitor wanting to live like a king while experiencing a city that resists oversimplification. Arabian, African, and European influences make for a heady mix that’s drawn in everyone from the hippies to Yves Saint Laurent and now celebrities like David Beckham (who celebrated his 40th birthday here) and pop stars such as Usher. While well-resourced travellers might come looking for the perfect imperfections of ancient handmade wares, the city may also reward them with a refinement they hadn’t expected. This is a city with a kingly influence felt acutely, thanks to, well, the king.
Specifically, King Mohammed VI, who has thrown money and resources into developing the country’s tourism infrastructure, with a grand Plan Azur turning the western beaches into coastal resorts and increasing the country’s visitors year by year. But the gateway city, accessible to Europe and dense with cultural and architectural riches, is the best introduction, with ever more hotels, luxury riads (traditional Moroccan houses built around courtyards), restaurants, and a growing nightlife boom that sizzles despite being behind fortified walls. The Royal Mansour Marrakech, commissioned by King Mohammed VI himself, remains the palace to beat, with over 50 individual riads hidden in a vast resort that is a fantasia of tile work, carved woods,
