Palais Namaskar

Palais Namaskar opened in April 2012 on the far side of the Palmeraie, about 12 km north-east of Jemaa el-Fna, on a five-hectare site between the High Atlas and the low Djebilet hills. It was laid out on Feng Shui principles, with Oriental, Moorish and Andalusian lines outside, calm contemporary rooms inside, and water everywhere: lakes, cascades and reflecting pools that run through the gardens and around the buildings. There are 41 rooms, suites, villas and palaces in all, a 650 m² spa, two restaurants, a lounge bar and a rooftop bar, so it works as a resort rather than a base for the souks.

Every unit has its own terrace and access to an outdoor or private pool. The ladder starts with the 33 m² Superior Room, with a private terrace, a bath and separate toilet, and the 44 m² Deluxe Room, with a private entrance, a dressing area, a double shower and a 90 m² terrace. Junior Suites, at 90 m², add a fireplace, an outdoor shower and a terrace with a private pool; Pool Suites, at 108 m², open onto 180 m² of garden with a pool off the living room. Beyond them come walled Pool Villas of 127 m² with a garden pool and an outdoor bath, the gold-domed Pool Palace by the main pool, and two palaces and a villa of 460 to 487 m² in gardens of up to 2,000 m².

The view is the reason it is in this edit. From the rooftop Nomad Bar you look out over the palms, with the Atlas on the southern horizon on a clear day and the sun going down to the west over the Palmeraie; below, the gardens' still water picks up the colour of the evening sky, and after dark there are cocktails, tapas and a resident DJ. The Lounge Suites, set between the panoramic bar and Le Namaskar restaurant, take the same outlook from a 50 m² terrace of their own, and the two largest palaces have first-floor terraces facing the Atlas. At ground level the mirror pools and palms fill the photographs, and the hotel hires the gardens out for shoots and weddings.

The trade is distance. The Medina is about 24 minutes away by car, nothing useful is within walking distance, and every trip into town means a taxi or a car arranged through the hotel. Book it for a slow, warm break of pool, spa and sunsets, with a terrace or a pool of your own and the Atlas on the horizon, and plan one or two evenings in the city rather than every night.