Maison Nalos

Maison Nalos has one of those backstories that makes you like a hotel before you have even stayed there.

The story started in 2003, when the owner's parents bought what was essentially a ruin in the Medina. It remained unfinished for almost two decades until their daughter Colline decided to bring it back to life. The inspiration came partly from the birth of her son, Solan. In fact, Nalos is Solan backwards, which might be our favourite hotel-naming story in Marrakech.

The result feels very different from the ornate, maximalist riad you might picture when thinking about the city. Maison Nalos mixes Moroccan materials and craftsmanship with a slightly retro 1970s mood. There are rounded plaster forms, patterned cement tiles, tadelakt, warm terracotta shades and plenty of beige, but somehow none of it feels too polished or overly designed. It is warm, quiet and very good-looking without screaming about it.

There is also something appealingly personal about the place. It is small enough to feel like somebody's very beautiful Marrakech home rather than a hotel dropped into a riad.

Why we like it: The 1970s influence makes it feel fresh, but the real charm is that Maison Nalos still feels completely personal.

IZZA Marrakech

IZZA is not really one riad. It is seven old houses stitched together into one wonderfully confusing little world.

There are courtyards, hidden staircases, a swimming pool, terraces and rooms appearing where you don't expect them. Getting slightly lost is part of the fun. The hotel's own description is a "House of Friends", and that actually sums it up quite well. IZZA feels less like somewhere you retreat to your room and more like somewhere you wander around until you find a courtyard, a drink or somebody interesting to talk to.

Art is everywhere. More than 300 contemporary and digital works form what IZZA calls its Museum in the Medina, with Moroccan craftsmanship sitting alongside photography, generative art and pieces by contemporary artists. Even the bedrooms are named after creative figures connected to Marrakech's counterculture. Then there is Bill's Bar, inspired by legendary Marrakech interior designer and bon vivant Bill Willis, and Noujoum upstairs for dinner on the rooftop.

It could all become a bit much, but somehow it doesn't. There is enough greenery, water and shade to keep the whole thing feeling relaxed. IZZA is for people who want the romance of staying in the Medina but would prefer their riad with a little more personality and very good cocktails.

Why we like it: It feels part hotel, part private house, part gallery and part very good Marrakech house party.

Les Jardins de la Médina

The clue is very much in the name here.

Walk in from the streets of the Kasbah and suddenly you are standing in an enormous garden filled with palms, orange trees, birds and enough greenery to make you forget that you are still inside Marrakech's old city. At its centre is a proper swimming pool, surrounded by places to disappear with a book for several hours. The whole garden covers around 3,000 square metres, which feels almost absurd when you remember what is happening on the other side of the wall.

Les Jardins is more established and a little more traditional than some of the newer design hotels on this list, but that is part of its appeal. This is the place for mornings under the trees, long lunches in the garden and an afternoon that accidentally becomes a pool day. There is also a hammam and spa upstairs for when even lying under an orange tree starts to feel overly ambitious.

And despite all that greenery, you are not staying at some resort miles outside the city. Jemaa el-Fna is around a 15-minute walk away. You can spend the morning getting completely overstimulated in Marrakech and be back beside the pool by lunch.

Why we like it: Few hotels pull off the trick of giving you a real garden escape without asking you to leave the Medina to get it.

Riad Brummell

Riad Brummell understands something very important about boutique hotels: small can be much more fun.

Hidden near Dar el Bacha and Le Jardin Secret, this 19th-century riad was restored by Barcelona-based architect Claudia Raurell. Rather than filling the place with predictable "Moroccan hotel" decoration, the design brings together original architecture, tadelakt and handmade terrazzo with vintage pieces, modern furniture and objects that feel as if somebody collected them because they genuinely liked them.

The Brummell philosophy is essentially "less bling, more soul", and you can see it here. The courtyard is filled with plants and water, while upstairs the rooftop has ochre loungers, umbrellas and a little plunge pool for recovering from the Medina. There is an honesty bar rather than a formal hotel bar, which tells you quite a lot about the mood of the place.

It is stylish, but not precious. Design-led, but not the sort of hotel where you are afraid to move a cushion. And because it is so small, staying here feels much closer to borrowing somebody's extremely well-designed Marrakech house for the weekend.

Why we like it: Riad Brummell gets the balance right between old Marrakech and very good contemporary design, without trying too hard at either.

The Mellah Hotel

Some Marrakech hotels calm everything down. The Mellah turns the colour up.

Hidden in the city's historic Jewish quarter, the first thing you notice is how playful it feels. White walls and black-and-white zellige sit alongside yellow sofas, orange trees, vintage furniture and contemporary photography. Music runs through the communal spaces and there is art almost everywhere, including work by Moroccan photographer Mous Lamrabat and ceramicist Bouchra Boudoua.

The bedrooms get moodier. Think deep greens and reds, brass lamps, velvet curtains and freestanding copper bathtubs. Then upstairs everything opens up again onto the rooftop, where a long pool, bar and cabanas look across the roofs of the Mellah towards the Atlas Mountains. Sunset drinks here feel like a very sensible reason to get back to the hotel early.

What we particularly like is that The Mellah does not feel as though it is trying to freeze Marrakech in time. The craftsmanship and architecture are Moroccan, but the music, art, furniture and general energy belong very much to the Marrakech of now.

Why we like it: It is colourful, creative and slightly sexy. Not every riad needs to whisper.

Jnane Rumi

And then there is Jnane Rumi.

Unlike the other hotels on this list, this one sits outside the Medina in the Palmeraie. Getting here means leaving the noise and narrow streets behind and disappearing into Marrakech's old palm grove. Behind the walls is a former private residence surrounded by mature gardens, more than 150 palm trees and one extremely inviting swimming pool.

The house was originally designed by architect Charles Boccara and has been sensitively reworked rather than reinvented. Inside, arches, tiled bathrooms and Moroccan craftsmanship sit alongside European antiques and a serious collection of contemporary North African art. It feels collected rather than decorated. There are books everywhere, fireplaces, strange little pieces of furniture, bright colours appearing against earthy walls and the sort of rooms where you keep noticing something new every time you walk through them.

But the gardens might be the best part. Breakfast can become lunch beside the pool. Lunch can become reading under a palm tree. Dinner can happen on your own terrace. The boundaries between hotel and private home, and between inside and outside, become wonderfully blurry. It is expensive, yes, but it feels like the sort of place you remember long after you have forgotten what the room cost.

Why we like it: Jnane Rumi feels less like checking into a luxury hotel and more like being invited to stay at the Marrakech home of somebody with exceptional taste.

So, where should you stay in Marrakech?

For a first visit, we still love being inside the Medina. There is something about stepping out of a quiet riad and immediately finding yourself back among the shops, scooters, cafés and souks that is difficult to recreate anywhere else.

Maison Nalos is the intimate, design-led choice. IZZA is for art, atmosphere and a little more going on. Les Jardins de la Médina wins when you want a real pool and proper greenery without giving up the old city. Riad Brummell is small, stylish and wonderfully relaxed, while The Mellah is the one we'd pick for a more colourful, contemporary Marrakech.

And if the hotel itself is a big part of the trip, Jnane Rumi is the exception worth leaving the Medina for.

Because Marrakech is exciting, beautiful and occasionally completely exhausting.

Having somewhere very good to disappear to is part of the point.