Marrakech, Morocco

The Mellah Marrakech

Price per night from$274.69

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 (MAD2,538.25), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

The Mellah Marrakech Photos

Style

Small but perfectly adorned

Setting

Souk-side, soulful Mellah

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Warmth imbues every aspect of The Mellah Marrakech, from the saffron and ruby-hued décor to the welcome you’ll receive. Owned and restored by French-Moroccan entrepreneur Simo Azzouz, this riad is a passion project dedicated to art and hospitality. Authenticity shines through in hand-cut zellige tiles, artisanal camel-leather floors and tadelakt walls. Home-style cooking and Medina views from the rooftop pool are Mellah-mirroring moves that we’re also warming to.

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Facilities

Photos The Mellah Marrakech facilities

Need to know

Rooms

10, including four suites.

Check–Out

Noon, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability for an additional fee.

More details

Rates include a welcome drink on arrival and a set Moroccan breakfast daily, including a rotating selection of freshly pressed juices.

Also

While there are rooms and suites on the ground floor and an accessible courtyard and restaurant at The Mellah Marrakech, unfortunately the hotel entrance is off an alleyway that doesn’t allow vehicle access and is reached by three steps. Please note that the rooftop, pool and bar are also only accessible by stairs.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: sound system, air-conditioning, free bottled water, bathrobes, slippers and organic Botanika bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Choose one of the five rooms with a freestanding tub — locally made from traditionally sandblasted copper or brass — for extra luxury. We love The Mellah’s ground-floor Founder’s Suite, with its double shower and carefully chosen mid-century furniture, including an iconic Eames lounger.

Poolside

An impressive 10-metre pool lined with striped zellige tiling crowns the riad’s courtyard terrace, with views across the Medina.

Spa

There’s no spa at The Mellah, but with notice the hotel can offer in-room massage or beauty treatments arranged with a local therapist.

Packing tips

With everything from arty reading material to The Mellah-branded sunhats provided, you’ll just need your swimwear and a taste for tagine.

Also

Kitchen staff host cookery classes that will see you whipping up local tagines or Moroccan pancakes. You can even go into the nearby spice market with the chef to source ingredients first.

Children

Little Smiths are welcome but not especially catered for. Extra beds can be added to suites for children aged four and older for a nightly extra charge.

Sustainability efforts

Sustainability’s built in here. The hotel’s decorated in local materials wherever possible, and avoids any single use products. The hotel gets some of its energy from solar panels, and water and LED lights are on timers. It’s a zero-plastic hotel, and food waste is recycled and used as compost on the courtyard garden.

Food and Drink

Photos The Mellah Marrakech food and drink

Top Table

For lunch, choose one of the palm-shaded tables for some respite from the African heat. At sunset, ask the staff to set up a candlelit table on the upper rooftop at sunset for superior views of the Koutoubia Mosque and the distant Atlas mountains.

Dress Code

This is not a dress code kind of hotel. Come as you are, and enjoy the ‘home, but better’ ambience.

Hotel restaurant

The rhythm of the Medina is best enjoyed from the vantage point of the hotel’s rooftop terrace, where you can linger over authentic Moroccan-meets-Mediterranean fare overseen by local chef, Ilham.

Hotel bar

Petite but packing a punch in the cocktail department, the terrace bar serves post-swim and after-sunset sips. Order the summery hibiscus margarita, or the Mellah Negroni, infused with Moroccan spices.

Last orders

The kitchen serves most of the day, with breakfast starting at 8.30am, lunch at noon, afternoon tea from 3pm, and dinner from 6pm to 10pm. The terrace bar is open till 11pm, so don’t rush your post dinner nightcap.

Room service

There's nothing as formal as room service in place, but let staff know if you'd like to dine in your room or suite, and they’ll make it happen.

Location

Photos The Mellah Marrakech location
Address
The Mellah Marrakech
13 Derb Alaati Allah
Marrakesh
40000
Morocco

Named after the old Jewish district in which it sits, The Mellah is right in the heart of Marrakech’s old town near the Bahia Palace.

Planes

Marrakech Menara Airport is a few kilometres from the city and is served by major international airlines. A taxi to The Mellah takes around 20 minutes and costs about €12 – the hotel can arrange private transfers from MAD 300 one-way.

Trains

Marrakech train station, the end of the line for Morocco’s ONCF railway network, is about 15 minutes away by taxi. It’s a good option if you’re city hopping between Marrakech and Casablanca, Tangier, or Fez.

Automobiles

Driving in central Marrakech is tricky, but you can hire cars at the airport if you wish, and there’s paid parking around five minutes from The Mellah.

Worth getting out of bed for

The Mellah, Marrakech’s historical Jewish district, has been alive with spicy scents and bustling souks for centuries. Today, ochre walls, jewellery stalls and carved doors still evoke the area’s past, but the restored riads and kosher bakeries occupy alleyways that offer a peaceful respite from the busiest parts of the city. Wanders through the Medina might including taking in the mosaics of Bahia Palace and the performers of Djemaa el-Fna square alongside your souk sifting. For something more modern-day, the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden is a well curated display of diasporic creativity about 20 minutes from the city centre. Le Jardin Majorelle, restored by Yves Saint Laurent, is a vividly azure oasis with a museum dedicated to the designer nearby. When you’re tired of the crowds at ground level, take to the skies. With a skyline dominated by rooftop terraces housing traditional restaurants, buzzy cocktail bars and even belly dancing shows, going upstairs is always a good plan in Marrakech.  

 

Local restaurants

Outside of The Mellah itself, Le Tanjia is lauded for elevated traditional tagines and couscous dishes. Post 9pm, belly dancers make an entrance, turning an intimate romantic meal into dinner and a show. Head over to Jemaa el-Fnaa and modern Moroccan eatery Le Salama. It sits across three floors above the square, with panoramic views of the city, and a tasting menu that riffs on Marrakech’s culinary hits (briouates, tagines, brochettes).

Local cafés

The much-vaunted Nomad offers up fresh eats in the Medina – a welcome lunch-time respite from Marrakech’s heavier stews. There’s melon gazpacho, tuna tartare and dukkah-glazed cauliflower to be sampled in the low-key dining room or on the shady terrace. Its sibling Café des Épices sits just across the way, tadelakt clad and serving up Moroccan breakfasts and spiced coffees. 

Local bars

Bars used to be banned in the Medina; today, though, you can find watering holes tucked away. Kosybar is a popular spot for candlelit cocktails, and it also offers a tempting wine list. Or visit the elegant piano bar at La Maison Arabe for a members’ club feel.

Reviews

Photos The Mellah Marrakech 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 elevated riad hotel in Marrakech and unpacked their souk-bought spices and branded sunhats, a full account of their artily authentic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside The Mellah  Marrakech… 

Closing the door to your hotel room and feeling like you could be anywhere is not something you’ll ever experience at The Mellah Marrakech. Every detail has been painstakingly chosen to evoke the warmth and poetry of this mystical Moroccan city, which infuses the riad with character like spices through a tagine. The ancient studded-wood entrance is a fitting prelude to a stay that begins with a welcome drink in the zellige-tiled courtyard. The décor has been crafted by master artisans and curated with an artful eye by owner-restorer Simo Azzouz, who’s given each room its own personality (although all come with king-sized beds, cylindrical tiled showers and Moroccan brass lighting). Pieces by local artists Mouss Lamrabat and Bouchra Boudoua complement modernist furniture. And a stunning rooftop pool terrace with views over the Medina is a welcome contemporary addition.  

Rounding off evenings listening to The Mellah’s curated playlists with a signature Negroni in hand is an excellent antidote to days spent immersed in the bustle of Marrakech.  

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Price per night from $269.06

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