La Sultana Marrakech

La Sultana is in the Kasbah, the quarter inside the medina walls that holds the Saadian Tombs and the Royal Palace, and it backs onto the Moulay El Yazid Mosque. The restoration began in 2001 and was carried out with Morocco's historic monuments authority: the vaulted cellars of a former royal granary became the patios, and the woodwork, zellige and plasterwork were restored by master craftsmen rather than replaced. There are twenty-eight rooms and suites and no two are alike, each built around one of the patios. The roof terrace runs to two thousand square metres, with the Koutoubia minaret on one side and the Atlas on the other. There is a heated pool, a spa, a gym, two restaurants and a cocktail bar. Choose it if you want the historic quarter rather than the shopping one, and you would rather have a building with a past than a new one built to look old.