For a walled medina that still works as a city, and for the houses hidden inside it. Riads open behind unmarked doors, the souks run from morning, Jemaa el-Fnaa fills at dusk, and the High Atlas stands behind it all. It is under four hours from London, which makes it a long weekend.

Where is the best area to stay in Marrakech?

The medina on a first visit, for the walk out of your door into the souks. Choose the Palmeraie, twelve kilometres out, if the point of the trip is a pool and silence, and accept the drive each time you want the city. Gueliz suits those who want restaurants and galleries, with the old city ten minutes away by taxi.

Is a riad better than a hotel in Marrakech?

For a first visit, yes. A riad puts you inside the medina behind one door, around a courtyard, with a roof terrace above the noise. The trade-offs are small rooms in the older houses, stairs, and a walk to any car. Those who want space and a large pool should look to the Palmeraie.

How many days do you need in Marrakech?

Three nights is right for a first visit: a morning in the souks, a day for the palaces and the Majorelle Garden, an evening on Jemaa el-Fnaa, and one afternoon on your own roof doing nothing. Add two more for the High Atlas, which is close enough for a day trip and better for a night.

When is the best time to visit Marrakech?

March to May and September to November, when the days are warm and the evenings on a roof are comfortable. The summers are long, hot and dry, so a pool stops being optional. Winter days are mild and the nights are cold, with snow on the High Atlas, which is when the view from the roofs is at its best.

Boutique Hotels in Marrakech, Morocco

Where to stay in Marrakech

The medina is the place to sleep on a first visit, and no car reaches most of its doors. El Fenn began in 2002 as a holiday-home idea, when Vanessa Branson and Howell James found a collapsing courtyard house beside Bab El Ksour; it opened with six bedrooms, has since absorbed the neighbours, and dinner on its roof is the one to book. Riad Kheirredine, in Sidi Ben Slimane, is the quieter Italian version, furnished by Marina Guarena and Giuliano Brugnatelli from both countries, and someone meets you at the walls to carry the bags. Le Farnatchi joins the 17th-century riads James Wix spent three years restoring into ten suites, adults only, with Le Trou au Mur on the roof; it closes in August. Members book at rates we hold for the Club.

Royal Mansour stands against the ramparts, commissioned by the King: 53 private terracotta riads, built by more than 1,500 Moroccan artisans, with tunnels under the lanes so that a breakfast tray never crosses a guest's path. It is the most expensive way to avoid Marrakech, and a good one.

Twelve kilometres out in the Palmeraie, Hotel Tigmiza is the Laraqui family's 2.5 hectares of palms with the Atlas behind them and a restaurant, Lallati, worth staying in for. The price of that quiet is a drive every time the city calls, so ask the desk for a guide and do the souks in one long morning.

How to see Marrakech

Go to the souks in the morning, with a guide for the first hour; the lanes defeat a phone. The sights worth the queue are indoors: the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Bahia Palace built for the Grand Vizier Ba Ahmad, then the ruins of El Badi. Non-Muslims cannot enter the Koutoubia, so its minaret is a thing to look at, as Churchill did.

Outside the walls lies Gueliz, the new town the French laid out after 1912. Jacques Majorelle's blue villa and garden are here, saved by Yves Saint Laurent. A petit taxi from Gueliz to the Bahia takes about ten minutes.

What to eat and drink

Tagine is everywhere. The dish that belongs to the city is tangia, meat sealed in a clay jar and left in the embers of a hammam's furnace, and pastilla, pigeon or chicken under sugared pastry, is the one for an occasion. The stalls on Jemaa el-Fnaa are worth one evening for the theatre and not a second for the food. Wine is poured in the hotels and in Gueliz, and Morocco's own is better than its reputation: ask for a Volubilia.