Morocco Beyond Marrakech: New Soulful Luxury In The Mountains, The Seaside And The Desert

“Marrakech is often on the itinerary, but people want to see other parts of the country,” says international travel designer Alex Wix, who has lived in Morocco’s Red City for ten years and has run the Marrakech-based, multi-awarded travel agency Wix Squared for the past five of them. “Some people skip it altogether, because they don’t want to be in a city or they already know it.”

And since getting to Morocco is increasingly easy from Europe and the US (thanks to direct flights from New York and Miami to Casablanca, which is only two hours from Marrakech and not much further from the countryside wonders that surround it), the country has new appeal for people who want to get off the beaten path, to get into nature, to choose quiet over chaos.

During their years in Marrakech, Wix and her husband and business partner, James, have used much of their free time to explore places that are still close to the cultural capital but emotionally a world away. They know the latest places, but also the best, and the smartest.

She continues: “We’re trying to be more sustainable. We’re looking at ways to work with hotels that are aware of contributing to the environment in a positive way. That can be organic farms, solar panels or slowing down the pace of travel. A lot of our clients had to postpone during the pandemic, and now they want to appreciate things more.”

And it turns out that Morocco, within a fairly tight radius of Marrakech, has a lot of things worth slowing down for and appreciating. (In fact, even the margins of Marrakech are increasingly worth visiting, especially the northern industrial zone of Sidi Ghanem, home to innovative brands like the handwoven caftan makers Marrakshi Life and cutting-edge art showplaces such as MCC Gallery, where one exhibition included carefully tended live sheep when I visited last autumn.)

And so when Wix invited me to experience a softer side of Morocco, I accepted. First off: Olinto, a new contender for refined accommodations in the Atlas Mountains, about an hour from the city and a paradise of trekking, mountain biking and eating homemade tagine on the terraces of Berber villagers’ homes, with the views over the terrain spreading out as welcomingly as the aromas of cumin, cinnamon and saffron that waft up from the clay pot.

If Marrakech is increasing its rural accommodation alternatives outside the city, so is Essaouira, a coastal fishing city that’s known for its Jewish history, Portuguese fort and strong trade winds that make the crescent beach a popular spot for kite surfing.

Maybe it was off the beaten track ten years ago, but my excellent guide pointed out that the city’s popularity has exploded in the past ten years, with foreigners moving in and apartments being reborn as Airbnbs. Beyond the trappings of surfer culture, the city center has grown into a place of international cafés and a bustling medina of its own.

So much for relaxation, one could say. Or one could say, “Let’s go to the countryside,” because now there’s a lovely new place to do so. The owners of Essaouira’s stylish Villa Maroc hotel have maintained a private three-bedroom villa about six miles from the city center for a number of years now. In late 2019, they added 11 striking new accommodation structures for couples or solo travelers and turned their Les Jardins de Villa Maroc into a full-fledged hotel.

Officially they’re called eco domes, although during n the course of an overnight on the property, staff described them to me as the Star Wars village (perhaps trying to tie themselves to the well-known filming sites in nearby Tunisia) and as a Smurf village, which I take to be a term of endearment.

The rounded, mud-walled structures have locally made furnishings and finishes, like geometric textiles and woven leatherwork. They’re compact (because eco, you know?), but they have access to a lovely pool and garden, as well as a restaurant that serves a pleasing breakfast and, on request, a dinner that might begin with olives, smoked eggplant and bread, and finish with a giant dish of oven cooked fish—fresh from the fishing city’s market—with tomatoes, potatoes and spices, presented by a cook who can easily be imagined as a doting grandmother.

Speaking of simple but delicious cooking, the Agafay Desert, less than an hour from Marrakech, is an increasingly popular spot for lunch or dinner excursions (combined with camel riding and poolside sunbathing). Lately, a number of stylish new accommodations have been popping up on the dunes, like the luxurious tented camp called Inara and, recently, the first African outpost of the Tulum-based boho-chic group Habitas, which opened Caravan Agafay late last year.

Instead, I found myself at a classic. La Pause was one of the pioneers in the area, welcoming busloads of tourists for lunches and dinners, and gradually adding accommodations over the years. Now there are a variety of tents, but the rooms to book are the mud houses, built with thick walls the traditional climate-controlling construction. In a reversal of many of the best-known luxury tented camps around the world, La Pause full-on European-style bathrooms with flushing toilets and hot showers, but no wifi nor even electricity. (The Pause in the name is meant to be taken seriously—forget about catching up on work while you’re here.)

This makes for a particularly atmospheric dinner experience in the garden, in which waiters carry heavy trays of tomato soup and aromatic tagines to tables under tents that are lit only with candles, lanterns and bonfires. Back in the mud houses, there’s the romantic ritual of lighting the tiny fires inside the room—watching the details become illuminated as my companion moved through the room with matches in one hand and a candelabra in the other was one of my peak travel experiences of 2022.