El Minzah Hotel

El Minzah opened in April 1930 on what was then Rue de Fes and is now Rue de la Liberte. It was commissioned by the Scottish aristocrat John Crichton Stuart, fourth Marquess of Bute, who lived in Tangier, and built between 1928 and 1930 in a Spanish Moorish manner. The Andalusian patio is still the heart of the building, entered through a carved sandstone portal and iron studded doors. There are 140 rooms, most of them looking over the garden or the bay of Tangier. The Caid's Bar is part of the city's own mythology: in the years when Tangier was an international zone and after, Rita Hayworth, Rock Hudson, Yves Saint Laurent and Paul Bowles all passed through it. The hotel keeps a wellness centre with a hammam, a sauna and a hot tub, and two restaurants. Stay here when the point of Tangier is its history, and when you want the medina and the Grand Socco a few minutes away on foot.