A Luxe Mega-Riad Is Coming to Marrakech

May 5, 2009 at 9:26 AM | by juliab | 0 Comments

Anyone who's been to Marrakech will be able to testify to the myriad of places to stay. We used to chalk this up to entrepreneurship on a national scale, but apparently it's been planned at the highest level: the king himself has decreed that he wants 10 million tourists bedding down by 2010, and he wants 160,000 extra beds to put them in.

One that looks particularly exciting is Le Royal Mansour, a mammoth collection of 53 riads (traditional Moroccan houses) stuck together to make 78 bedrooms, as well as a 2500 square-meter spa and hammam, and tunnels running underneath the complex for staff to get around stealthily.

Although part of us thinks that if you stay in Marrakech, you really should stay in a riad, another part remembers how you can hear every cough or squeak of your neighbors' in a riad — and how the bathroom is usually on top of your bed. So maybe this will be a good marriage of the two.

Anyway, despite its size, Le Royal Mansour will still be very central; it's built into the medina walls themselves. That's a very good thing because our past experience tells us that most of the places with more than about eight rooms are stuck in the boring New Town, far from the medina action.

Although you might stay in-house here more than you'd imagine: the rather-luscious-looking Yannick All�no is down to be the chef, and he's picked up three Michelin stars since 2002.

Rates have yet to be confirmed, but it should be starting a soft opening on September 1st, and it's slated to be fully functioning by November.

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