Three of the best new hotels in Marrakesh for an elegant break

Of all of the new riads in booming Marrakesh, which hosted four million tourists last year, the Dar Al Dall is probably the most opulent. Restored over seven years by the design-loving Belgian financier Pierre Ferland, it is in the buzzy Kaat Benahid district, a short walk from the historic Medersa Ben Youssef theological school.

Like its inconspicuous wooden front door in the mud-walled medina, the riad is traditional but polished. Just beyond the shaded, lamplit entrance hall lie the sun-drenched ground-floor living quarters: a gold-walled sitting room, a glamorous lamplit mirrored dining room, a marbled hammam and a bedroom, all facing the fountain in a 100 sq m, palm-planted charbagh courtyard. Upstairs, four enormous first-floor suites look over the quadrangle, rich with velvets and silks, traditional zellige-tiled fireplaces in Sahara tones and contemporary Moroccan artwork. The most spectacular suite, Iming, has an intricately carved and painted ceiling, and a minimalist brass four-poster from which to admire it.

The bespoke touch is, as Ferland’s hotelier son Alex explains, the USP of their new hotel brand, This Time Tomorrow, led by the courteous manager Youssef Mouhssan, who worked at La Mamounia and Royal Mansour. He oversees the menus devised by the private chef Zakia Rabbaa, can book experiences from lessons with a royal calligrapher to photographic walking tours and arrange private scrubbings in the little marble hammam or Berber musicians to play during sundowners on the rooftop. If you wanted to take over a medina home for a special gathering, there can be few lovelier than this.
Details B&B doubles from €405, thistimetomorrow.io