Morocco’s new glamour

Marrakech has long had whatever special power it is that spellbinds every kind of traveler. The City of Roses – among its other charming monikers – has been the inspiration for Winston Churchill’s watercolors and fashion of Yves Saint Laurent; haute hippies (think the 1969 rooftop picture of Talitha Getty in a caftan); and not-so-haute hippies (yes, they’re still here).

Perhaps more than many destinations, Marrakech has gone through distinct phases in the last decades. I first visited in the early 1990s, hiking around the Atlas Mountains and paying $5 a night – including gristly mutton tagines, but not hot water or electricity – in order to save pennies for a final two-night stay in La Mamounia. This, of course, was when the iconic grand hotel was really the only luxury game in town. In the years since my first visit, La Mamounia reopened after a three-year massive re-vamp (more on that below) and the number of design-forward private riads (palaces and private courtyard homes renovated as guesthouses) has catapulted into the hundreds.

But after a decade of turning luxury inward to secret courtyards behind non-descript walls, Marrakech is bringing back glamour – of the best, most ostentatious and decadent kind – in a building boom that includes nearly 20 new hotels opening by the end of this year. If you are wondering where the beautiful people have gone, look no further. They are here, being waited on by a clutch of servants who travel via underground tunnel at His Highness Mohammed VI’s own Royal Mansour, watching the Arabian horses at Selman emerge from their own equine blow-dry room, wearing jeweled Hublots in the pool at La Mamounia. The city’s transformation makes it virtually all things to all travelers, with exoticism (snake charmers in the astounding medina, Djemaa el-Fan), amazing cuisine (via

longstanding favorites, new hotels, and reimagined regional around town), and truly off-the-hook properties, all in a virtually seasonless place that doesn’t take much longer to reach from New York than London. On a trip earlier this year, we stayed in eight hotels in as many days, and toured many more. My recommendation: Switch up your trip by staying in more than a single property. Since the new properties are themselves destinations, you’ll want to try a few.

My experience at Royal Mansour began in one of the fleet of house cars – a Mercedes 600SL – whose uniformed, white-gloved driver picked me up amongst the chaos near the medina, rifling through the streets in a perfectly choreographed ride that culminated in a dramatic slow-down to 5mph down the private drive in order to best appreciate the grandeur. Hoteliers describing the place to me had