Riad Azoulay

Guests enter through the old Mellah, Marrakech's former Jewish quarter, where the Riad Azoulay stands a short walk from the Bahia and Badia palaces and about ten minutes on foot from Jamaa El Fna square. The building dates to the founding of the district around 1540 and takes its name from the Azoulay family, who owned it from the early 1800s and produced rabbis and royal advisers across generations. It is a compact stay, with nine suites arranged around a small ground-floor courtyard. Marble floors, carved plaster ceilings and cedar woodwork survive from the original construction, along with walls finished in tadelakt plaster, and the Italian owners who bought the property in 2005 restored it using the same traditional materials and techniques, working with designer Sandro Solerti. A plunge pool sits at the centre of the guest area, used for breakfast and afternoon tea by day. In the evening, staff serve dinner by candlelight around the pool, and incense drifts through the pillared courtyard. Suites come with air conditioning, private safes and Egyptian cotton linen; the Royale suite sleeps four across a four-poster bed, a mezzanine and a single. Downstairs, the wellness centre runs a traditional hammam on Carrara marble benches, with black soap and rassoul clay treatments drawn from Moroccan practice. Breakfast is included and served fresh each morning.