Staying in this country of extremes can take you from the luxuriously sublime to the ridiculously simple, from the grand hotel of legend to the roadside inn with the most human warmth and the least facilities. The Morocco guide is only our second foray beyond Europe (after India) but it has been richly rewarding. Our selection aims to give just a taste of what is available in this colourful and captivating country.
Unless specified, prices are for two people sharing a room for one night and include breakfast but no other meals.
The coast
Dar Nour
Tangier (00 212 62 112724)
300Dh (£18)-1,000Dh (£63)
Not only is it beautiful, it is unusual, brilliantly positioned and serves totally memorable breakfasts. Pure Tangier white outside, the 'house of light' is utterly personal inside, the home of an intellectual that exudes the energy of rich culture: books everywhere, eye-catching pictures and sculpture, antiques and hangings. Rooms are as vertical as the house, the odd duplex and two staircases, two windowless womb-like salons - so restful - and two kitchens. Then up you climb to the flowering terraces to contemplate the panorama and dine on superb food.
La Maison des Oiseaux
Moulay Bousselham (00 212 37 432543)
Half-board £18 per person
Gentiane's white house stands in thriving shrubbiness, all organic simplicity and taste. It is relaxed and homespun, a place where everything seems to work without the need for rules. Rooms are gently harmonious in their mix of carved furniture, Moroccan tiles, Gentiane's paintings, sculptures and bits of driftwood. The bedding is excellent and there is good home cooking. Read the books, use the field glasses, and consult your wonderful hostess on the rarer feathered friends.
Dar Liouba
Essaouira (00 212 44 476297)
£35-£47
Maria, the attentive Russian owner, is a designer and her house reflects her talent. The broad main room is sheer seduction with its lit tle indoor garden. From here, the salon entices you into its clean-cut elegance of white, sand and warm flame until you succumb to the sweep of the superb staircase and move on up. Bedrooms are full of light that dances over rich cottons, beautiful objects, carved alcoves. If possible, dine with this fascinating artist who receives visitors so brilliantly.
Jack's Apartments
Essaouira (00 212 44 475538)
£18 (double room) - £76 (apartment for eight)
Jack's apartments are all higgledy-piggledy in a couple of old houses, painted in white with typical blue Essaouira woodwork, side by side on the ramparts facing the sea. Each flat is charming, with a sitting area, one or two bedrooms, a cooking/eating space and an excellent tadelakt or zellige tiled bathroom. The top-floor flats may be a steep climb but the view is worth the effort. Self-catering couldn't be sweeter.
Marrakesh region
La Sultana
Marrakesh-Medina (00 212 44 388008)
£126-£365 including soft drinks
The most dazzling luxury riad hotel in the medina. Four riads steeped in history, each with different atmosphere, one a showcase for Moroccan art deco; another a little gem of finely worked cedarwood and tadelakt. There are salons for all seasons and creative gourmet meals; a superb spa and wellbeing centre; vast panoramic terraces. Bedrooms are luxurious, all decorated on a different animal theme, with antiques, works of art and exquisite craftsmanship. The owners provide stylishly personal service.
Angel's Riad
Marrakesh-Medina (00 212 44 380252)
£22-£44
The house breathes simple gaiety and Claudia's calm, young presence will convert you. She speaks seven languages and has created a haven of relaxation (with a hammam plus treatments). There is good organic Moroccan food. The gentle, welcoming rooms are big and light for so small a riad, sweetly done with plain walls, heaps of bright little cushions and the occasional star in an iron lamp. Bathrooms are superb in their top-quality ivory tadelakt and sober good taste.
Riad Maizie
Marrekesh-Medina (00 212 44 385928)
£1,133 per week, including breakfast
The English owners of this old family house have kept it genuine while installing good lighting and bathrooms (not en suite to save the shapes). Colours are stimulating, furniture is mosaic-topped or hand-painted and beds as wide as possible in those narrow riad rooms over the citrus patio. There's a really good kitchen off the dining room, an amazing pink salon, a plant-filled roof terrace from where you can salute the Atlas mountains. Nourdine manages brilliantly and will even shop for you. A lovely traditional family house for you, your family and friends.
The Garden Room
Marrakesh-Guéliz (00 212 44 331610)
£38
After years in Norway, Jennifer found her sunspot in a tidy little street behind the Majorelle Gardens. Artist and designer, she has brought all her strands together in this beautiful conversion of house and garden room: bejmat floors, pale sandy walls, curvaceous bathrooms, sculpted spaces. Furniture is a few well- loved pieces in old wood, natural wicker, hand-wrought iron... all bathing in light from the flourishing little garden. Jennifer is embedded in the local design scene where her mix of northern minimalism and Moroccan tradition is much admired.
Villa Maha
Marrakesh-Palmeraie (00 212 44 329578)
£94-£250
The house, the garden, the palm trees are all new, white flowers bloom among ponds, papyrus before a vast green lawn. A superb plum tadelakt living room is the showcase for inlaid Syrian armchairs, French period pieces, deep scarlet sofas and a magnificent dining table. Olivia's family, oriental antique collectors, also run a fine restaurant in town: Villa Maha's art, food and wine cellar reflect these interests. Bedrooms - three in the main house, two in the lodge, the smallest in a garden house - are elegant too, and restful. Olivia is a peerless hostess.
Tigmi Tagadert
24km south of Marrakesh (00 212 66 934 964)
£110 for two half-board
Max's hilltop retreat is a cluster of reconstructed village houses between Marrakesh and the mountains. You are led onwards and upwards through endless courtyards, corridors, arches and alcoves where light and dark play games with your eyes and level-changes confuse your geography. The peace of the place can now take over. Materials and forms are organic: irregular walls of stone and plaster, tadelakt bathrooms, quietly furnished bedrooms for rest and refreshment. The monastic serenity does not preclude gentle yet high-class hotel service.
Auberge de Tameslohte
15km south of Marrakesh (00 212 44 484840)
£19-£38
Intelligent and full of the simple joys of life, Jérôme and Michèle welcome you to their delightful farmhouse inn. In the en suite rooms are ochre-tinted walls, blue doors, beams and wicker, warm Berber blankets and good kilims. Or sleep in your own space in the garden: a camel and goats-hair tent furnished with good beds, pretty rugs, lanterns and a chest for your things. Life centres on the pool area, which has a straw-roofed bar, tents with pretty embroidered tablecloths and a barbecue. Your relaxed hosts, who are fans of 4x4 cross-country treks, can arrange shooting expeditions.
Atlas Mountains
Dar Al Abir - Espace Al Arkam
Asni (00 212 44 484757)
Half-board £23 for two
Jean-Jacques left success and consumerism to get back to basics in the High Atlas with his Berber wife. Their earth village house of almost monastic simplicity is adorable in its rose-hung, rug-strewn patio, convivial in its big salon. The food is exceptional. One and a half hour's walk away is their mountain retreat where you sleep in nomad tents and visit remote Berbers to briefly share their lives. A fine centre for eco co-operation and personal develop ment, there's no other place like it - you may discover hidden meaning in yourself and your life.
Fez
Dar Ziryab
Fèz-Ville Nouvelle (00 212 55 621561)
£57-£176
Here in the quiet air of the new town is a genuine guest-house inhabited by an exceptional man of letters and passions and his mother, who cooks with such refined subtlety that your idea of Moroccan food will be transformed. He has decorated his big new house in beautiful style with the best materials, including a splendid Moroccan salon. Bedrooms have a touch of drama, be it a carved or painted bedhead, draperies or cushions, niches or fireplace.
Oasis Valleys
Auberge Tombouctou
Merzouga (00 212 55 577091)
Half-board £16 pp including camel ride to overnight bivouac; £10 without oasis trip
An unbeatable combination of a new pisé (reinforced mud) kasbah and a private oasis two hours' camel-ride away for sensational overnight bivouacs. Coming from a long line of caravaneers who plied the Merzouga-Timbuktu route, the Ettayeks still know all the camel-drivers in the area and organise treks across the dunes to their super little oasis where you arrive to watch the sun go down, eat entirely Berber food cooked in the glowing embers while the drums keep time and songs go up, sleep in nomad tents and, if you're lucky, watch the moon rise over the same dune.
Dar Raha
Near Zagora (00 212 44 846993)
£22-£30
Here are the real riches of Morocco: a thoughtful, creative, committed trio of owners have made Dar Raha into a place for encounters. Under their guidance, you discover local history, architecture and culture, meet craftsmen and families, and glimpse their gentle, traditional lifestyle. The big old family house sits proud and cool beneath a protecting kasbah. Its long mysterious corridor leads past the dining platform to a dramatic patio whose four huge pillars rise pale and unadorned to the light above. Sober pisé architecture, minimal decoration, simple comforts.
The South
La Gazelle d'Or
Taroudannt (00 212 48 852039)
Half-board £290-£320 for two
The Gazelle d'Or has an atmosphere all its own made of luxuriating gardens, turtling doves, salons that coddle the weary guest and a club-like group of cottages that make it feel oh-so-select. So when you can tear yourself away from your smart garden house, you have to choose between library or cards room, tennis court or croquet lawn, riding or the driving range, the excellent restaurant or the poolside buffet - or simply a long exploration of those acres of really fabulous gardens. Expensive perhaps, special definitely.
Kasbah Itran
Near Ouarzazate (00 212 44 837103)
Half-board £22-£38 for two
Lots of sharing, lots of humanity, the genuine welcoming simplicity of a Berber family. The Kasbah of the Star is run by the dynamic brothers Ahmed and Lahcen; others living in the luxuriant valley willingly receive foreign families for the day: you might gather roses for rosewater, steam in the village hammam, wander in the fertile gardens. Rooms have ochre-washed cement floors, thick Berber blankets and rugs, minimal handmade furniture. Some have stupendous views of valley and sky, some just have internal windows, all have the right feel.
Chez Pierre
Gorges du Dadès
Half-board £33 per person
Pierre bought a mountainside and built a marvel on it, a vertical poem in brick and stone. His little inn climbs the slope and tempts you to follow, up the steps, under the arch, out of the tunnel into the light of a leafy terrace-salon. Fabulous food is served on this level: his big white cliff-hanging restaurant is one of the best in southern Morocco. Rooms are very simple with lots of space. Bathrooms are lovely, the apartment is palatial, it's all brand new and one feels it has belonged here forever. Exceptional.
Ksar Massa
Chtouka Ait Baha (00 212 61 280319)
£82; full board £138
On six hectares of national park, Ksar Massa boasts many rare and wonderful birds that hang out on this stretch of coast - flamingoes, cranes, ibis. Then it's your turn, at the squiggly-chaired sea-view bar in this picture of a brand-new ksar - or is it a mud hut of vast proportions with high-pressure hot water from dinner-plate shower heads, superb towels and refined cooking? In any case, it is a very special place for lovers of space, peace and real comfort.
Maison d'Hôtes Les 3 Chameaux
Tiznit (00 212 48 719187)
Half-board for two: £30-£34
Between desert and ocean, the house of the three camels is a converted colonial fort. The renovation has been done with deep respect for the colours and shapes of the area: low arches, colours of sand, earth and sea foam, nothing gaudy or overdecorated, simply a few lovely carpets on chequered floors, natural tatoui ceilings. For meals, choose between the smart dining room, the relaxed Moroccan salon and the convivial nomad tent; the food in all three is delicious.
