Marrakech, Morocco

Dar Rhizlane

Price per night from$295.36

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (MAD2,700.01), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Dar Rhizlane Photos

Style

Perfumed petit palais

Setting

Amid Andalusian gardens

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Set back from the bustle of the Medina, Dar Rhizlane is styled like a Moroccan palace in miniature. The hotel’s façade is veiled from its upmarket Hivernage locale by a curtain of centuries-old eucalyptus trees. Cross the threshold and you’ll find an abode fitting of Scheherazade, with stuccoed suites named after prized Arabic perfumes, grounds studded with palms and papyrus, a poolside pavilion swathed in bougainvillea, and a Med-Moroccan restaurant with a lamplit terrace.

Smith Extra

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Afternoon tea served in the lounge or by the pool, plus VIP set-up in your room with personalised touches

Facilities

Photos Dar Rhizlane facilities

Need to know

Rooms

21, including 19 suites.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include a buffet breakfast with pastries, pancakes, fresh bread, fruit and yoghurt. Halal, vegetarian and gluten-free options are available.

Also

Four of the Orient Suites are wheelchair accessible, as are Dar Rhizlane's communal areas, including the restaurant, bar and poolside terrace.

At the hotel

Gym and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, climate control, bathrobes, slippers and bespoke bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Every room at Dar Rhizlane is filled with typical Moroccan features like ochre tadelakt walls, intricate stuccowork and zellige tiles; all have private terraces overlooking the gardens or the pool. The Orient Suites are larger, with a separate living space. For a splurge, swing for the all-white Suite Blanche, the largest of the lot, with floor-to-ceiling French windows and a sprawling terrace of cerulean-blue tile.

Poolside

The heated pool is in the Andalusian gardens, surrounded by palms and fragrant bougainvillea, which cascades down walls and billows out over the tiled terrace. Plump white day-beds line three sides; on the fourth, there’s an alfresco bar where you can sip margaritas under a shady portico.

Spa

The focal point of Dar Rhizlane’s spa is the hammam, styled in the traditional manner with a domed roof of decorative brick, marble benches and teardrop windows that let in a sliver of sunlight. There are two treatment rooms, where you can get massages inspired by wellness rituals from East and West, as well as facials, manicures and pedicures. The compact gym has a range of cardio machines and free weights; personal trainers are available for private sessions and nutrition advice.

Packing tips

A copy of Elias Canneti’s The Voices of Marrakech, an evocative account of the city as it was in the 1940s.

Also

We aren’t exaggerating about the grounds smelling divine: there’s a rose garden, an orange grove and an abundance of hyacinths and bougainvillea to scent the air.

Children

Little Smiths are welcome, but this romantic bolthole is best suited to couples. An extra bed can be added to some rooms. With 24 hours’ notice, babysitting can be arranged from MAD200 an hour.

Sustainability efforts

Dar Rhizlane draws some of its power from solar panels, uses low-flow water systems and participates in a carbon offsetting project. Local materials and non-toxic paints were used during the refurbishment, and food waste from the restaurant is composted.

Food and Drink

Photos Dar Rhizlane food and drink

Top Table

If it’s balmy, go for a table under the portico. In the cooler months, try to snag a spot inside, near the fire.

Dress Code

Kaftans and billowy shirts will serve you well during the day. Up the glamour in the evenings, when all eyes are on the terrace.

Hotel restaurant

Restaurant La Mimouna channels the elegance of a Moorish villa with its cedarwood ceilings, chandeliers, patterned stucco and collection of Berber-style artefacts. The terrace ratchets up the romance even more, with tables arranged under an arched portico and dotted around a verdant courtyard, where the palm fronds are lit by lamplight after dark. Chef Chguifi Badr draws inspiration from across Morocco and the Mediterranean, pairing his signature couscous and tagine dishes with juicy fillet Mignon steaks and lamb shanks glazed with honey from the Atlas Mountains.

Hotel bar

Bar Majorelle is tucked under a covered walkway of decorative brick, overlooking the gardens. Take a pew at the counter or sink into a lounge chair on the lawn — our preferred spot for knocking back a Moroccan Sunset, made with vodka, fresh orange juice, pomegranate syrup, mint and a hint of ginger.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7am until 11am; lunch runs from noon until 4pm, and for dinner, it’s 7pm until midnight. Drinks flow at Bar Majorelle from 9am to midnight.

Room service

A reduced menu from La Mimouna is available around the clock.

Location

Photos Dar Rhizlane location
Address
Dar Rhizlane
Avenue du Président Kennedy
Marrakech
40020
Morocco

Dar Rhizlane is in Hivernage, an upmarket Marrakech neighbourhood known for its 20th-century villas, buzzy restaurant scene and lively nightlife. The medina is a 10-minute drive away.

Planes

Touch down at Marrakech Menara Airport, a 15-minute drive from the hotel (if the traffic plays nicely). Private, one-way transfers are available from MAD150 per person.

Trains

If you’re already in country, you can roll into Marrakech train station on an Al Atlas service from Casablanca or Fez. The station is a five-minute drive from the hotel.

Automobiles

Navigating the roads in central Marrakech can be a frenetic experience, so most guests leave the driving to seasoned locals. If you’re willing to brave the scrum, you can leave your wheels in the hotel’s free, private carpark.

Worth getting out of bed for

If you’re keen to impress at your next dinner party, the prep starts here, with one of Dar Rhizlane’s cookery classes, held in a glass-walled pavilion overlooking the gardens. The chefs will impart all the secrets needed to whip up authentic tagine, pastilla, couscous and other Moroccan classics. In the Medina (a 10-minute cab drive away), you’ll find the Ben Youssef Madrasa, considered the pinnacle of Saadian architecture, as well as the Berber archives of the Maison de la Photographie. Once you’ve had your fill of the souks and fondouks, seek repose at Le Jardin Secret, a majestic palace complex with beautiful Islamic gardens. Head to Gueliz (the new town) for galleries showcasing emerging North African artists; try Galerie Siniya 28 and the Comptoir des Mines for starters. 

Local restaurants

The clink of glasses mingles with the clack of boules at Petanque Social Club, an art deco restaurant and lounge in Gueliz. Hidden behind an unmarked blue door, this soigné hangout is a vision of 1920s elegance, with period furnishings and a walled garden shaded with block-printed parasols. The menu is Mediterranean-Moroccan, covering oysters, clam cassoulets, grilled bream and hangar steaks. Palais Jad Mahal ups the theatrics with belly dancers and acrobats working the room and menus featuring Thai, Moroccan and French flavours. Italian favourite La Trattoria occupies a Moorish villa with a 1920s dining room centred around a pool. It’s the go-to for beef carpaccio, slow-cooked veal and pappardelle with truffle cream, but it’s the period interiors that really steal the show. 

Local bars

Fellow Smith-stay El Fenn has a vast rooftop bar with day-beds, red-and-white striped parasols and unbeatable views of the Koutoubia Mosque. The mixologists work from a 30-foot-long marble bar, shaking up tipples like the El Fenn Margarita, which introduces dried hibiscus flowers and a dash of ginger juice into the mix. 

Reviews

Photos Dar Rhizlane reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this slower-flecked hotel in Marrakech and unpacked their cedarwood perfume from local boutique Moro Marrakech, a full account of their Red City break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Dar Rhizlane in Marrakech… 

Spread over a peaceful plot in the Quartier Hivernage, Dar Rhizlane feels worlds away from the frantic commerce in the Marrakech Medina. Designed by Tunisian-born architect Charles Boccara and styled by owners Ahmed and Catherine Sadki, this Moorish pad channels the cloistered luxury of a Moroccan palace, with water gardens, splashing fountains and tadelakt-finished pavilions in which to hide from the sun.  

Individual suites are named after prized perfume scents — Musk, Sandalwood, Jasmine — nodding to the fragrant gardens and flower-filled balconies visible in every direction. By day, seek repose among art deco lounges, cool off in the zellige-tiled pool or hold space in the cavernous, marble-clad hammam. Come evening, the convivial terrace is lit up with countless lanterns and candles, stirring up scenes of romance that would rival Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca. 

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Price per night from $295.36

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