Berber Lodge

Oumnass, a village in the foothills outside Marrakech, holds Berber Lodge inside a garden of century-old olive trees. The walls are adobe brick, made on site from earth dug out of that same garden. Local wood shaped the ceilings — eucalyptus, Atlas cedar, wild bamboo — and the floor tiles were fired in a neighbouring village. It is a quiet, low structure that reads more like a Berber village than a hotel. Ten rooms and suites range from the Classic lodges, with stone terraces and garden views, up to the Cabane Deluxe, a standalone house with its own bedroom, living room and private garden. Most rooms keep a fireplace and a private terrace facing the pool or the Atlas foothills. The pool itself runs 20 m by 7 m, set among the olive trees. Furniture mixes local rattan, Moroccan antiques such as old bridal chests, and a private collection of twentieth-century pieces gathered by the owner, a French-Swiss designer who has lived in Morocco since 2002. Meals lean Moroccan and Mediterranean, cooked to a set daily menu by a kitchen team of four and supplied partly from the on-site vegetable garden. You can hear little beyond birdsong and wind in the olive canopy. Beyond the garden wall, the Agafay desert and Atlas villages are within reach by taxi for the day.