Sirayane Boutique Hotel & Spa ★★★★★

From your hotel room, you may be able to just make out the Atlas Mountains rising above the reddish streets, a rough-hewn landscape of lavenders, greys and whites emerging in the distance. You might be only a scant few minutes from the snake charmers, fire-eaters, merchants and acrobats of the Medina, but from the Sirayane Boutique Hotel & Spa *****, you feel miles away from the symphony of colour, sound, and smells that plays through Marrakech’s warren of streets.

This luxury boutique hotel is unmistakably traditionally Moroccan in design, with the iconic pale-pink walls and filigree metalwork throughout. However, it’s also a testament to modern Marrakech; the interior is contemporary and stylish, decorated with cool marble and dark natural woods accented with rich emerald and turquoise furnishings. With only 32 rooms, it’s an intimate experience.

In the gardens, brightly coloured flowers are blooming, and the swimming pools are surrounded by loungers and shaded by the green palm trees reaching their fronds up towards the sun. It’s closer to a tropical paradise than to the Moroccan desert. The hotel restaurant, serving both Moroccan and international dishes, looks out over this scene. After dinner, the Lounge Bar offers spectacular mountain views and serves a selection of drinks and small bites. As night falls and Marrakech finally comes to rest, there’s no place in the city more tranquil than the Sirayane Boutique Hotel & Spa *****.