A Luxury Escape to Marrakech & Royal Mansour

Two full days to move through the city at whatever pace suits you. The obvious starting point is Jardin Majorelle, the cobalt-blue botanical garden created by French painter Jacques Majorelle and later restored by Yves Saint Laurent.

For LGBTQ+ travellers, it carries an additional resonance: Saint Laurent lived openly in Marrakech for much of his adult life, and the garden and the YSL Museum beside it stand as a lasting, quietly defiant expression of that. Both deserve an unhurried morning.

From there, the medina. The souks around Rahba Lakdima and the Mellah are best explored without a fixed plan and with a private guide, who will open up workshops and ateliers that don’t appear on any map: weavers, silversmiths, leather workers, and spice merchants operating much as they have for centuries.

The Bahia Palace and the Saadian Tombs are ideal for an afternoon visit, when the light shifts and the main sites thin out.

Set aside one afternoon entirely for the Royal Mansour spa, a 2,500-square-meter sanctuary across three floors that is one of the most complete spa experiences in Africa. The hammam circuit, which moves through steam rooms, hot rooms, marble slabs, and a traditional black soap scrub, takes the better part of an afternoon and is worth every minute of it.

The spa’s treatment menu extends to over 80 options, drawing on Moroccan botanicals and techniques that the property has developed in collaboration with leading international houses.

Back at the hotel, the question of where to eat is a good one to have. Sesamo, the Italian restaurant helmed by three-Michelin-starred chef Massimiliano Alajmo, makes a compelling case for staying in. So does Le Jardin, the terrace restaurant set among the lush hotel gardens, which serves some of the best fresh seafood in Marrakech. The rooftop of your own riad, with a glass of something cold and the city spread below, is always another option.

A private car heads south from Marrakech through the Oukaimeden foothills toward the High Atlas. The shift in landscape is quick and striking: the ochre plains give way to mountain villages, terraced valleys, and the rising peaks of the Atlas range, with Mount Toubkal, the highest point in North Africa at 4,167 meters, visible on a clear day from the road.

The excursion takes in the Asni valley and the Berber villages of the Ourika valley, where a private guide opens up the daily rhythms of mountain life in a way that a self-guided visit cannot. Lunch is at one of the valley’s better small restaurants, where the tagines are cooked over charcoal, and the setting is the High Atlas itself. The drive back to Marrakech in the late afternoon light, with the city reappearing below on the plain, is its own kind of pleasure.

Return to Royal Mansour for the evening. After a day in the mountains, the private courtyard and the plunge pool and the quiet of your own riad are exactly what’s needed.

The fifth day is deliberately unscheduled. Marrakech at its own pace, without a programme, is a different city from the one you tour. Sleep late. Have breakfast on the riad rooftop. Revisit a souk that caught your attention earlier in the week. Commission something from a craftsman whose work you admired. Spend the afternoon in the hotel gardens with a book. Book the private hammam suite at the Royal Mansour spa for a session that doesn’t share a schedule with anyone else.

For the final dinner, La Grande Table Marocaine is worth returning to for a longer, more celebratory meal. The private dining experience, available on request, offers a completely exclusive table within the hotel’s grounds: the most considered way to close out five days in one of the world’s great hotels.

A final morning in the riad before a private transfer to Marrakech Menara Airport. There is a version of this day that involves an early walk through the medina before the souks fully open, when the lanes are quiet and the light is at its best. The Royal Mansour team can arrange whatever you need. The city will be there when you come back.

Best time to visit: March to May and September to November offer the most comfortable temperatures in Marrakech. Summer is intense, often above 40°C, though the Royal Mansour gardens and the cool interior of your private riad make even the hotter months manageable. Winter evenings are cool and the city is quieter.

Dress code: Conservative dress is appropriate in medinas, souks, and religious sites, with shoulders and knees covered for both men and women. Royal Mansour maintains a smart dress code in its restaurants and bars after 6pm.

Dining reservations: La Grande Table Marocaine and Sesamo are in high demand and should be booked well in advance. Our team handles all reservations as part of the trip planning process.

Homosexuality is technically illegal in Morocco, and public displays of affection are not advisable for any couple. In practice, many LGBTQ+ travellers visit Morocco and find it a welcoming destination, particularly in Marrakech. Royal Mansour has a long track record of welcoming international guests with discretion and warmth. Our team will provide a full pre-departure briefing.

Royal Mansour is the kind of property that rewards knowing how to use it. We know which experiences to book in advance and which to leave open, how to move through the medina without losing the pleasure of it, and which guides bring genuine knowledge rather than a rehearsed route. For LGBTQ+ travellers, we work only with operators who have a real commitment to welcoming our community, and we will brief you fully on travelling in Morocco with confidence and awareness before you depart. Every detail is arranged. Nothing is left to chance.