Villa des Orangers

La Villa des Orangers is the Relais & Chateaux choice in Marrakech for couples who want the medina on foot. A 1930s mansion at the foot of the Koutoubia, it holds 32 rooms, suites and villas, two heated outdoor pools and a 250 sqm spa, five minutes from Jemaa el-Fna.

"A Relais and Chateaux mansion five minutes from Jemaa el-Fna with two heated pools and a private riad, though the rooms are small and there is no lift."

Aggregate 9.3/10 on our editorial scale (Room & Design, Service, Location). Independently scored; see our methodology. This is our opinion, not an aggregate of user reviews.

Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission from bookings at no cost to you. We never accept payment for placement. Hotel status, room counts and awards were verified against official sources in July 2026. Michelin does not operate a restaurant guide in Morocco, so no restaurant listed here is starred; Michelin Keys are a separate award for hotels.

What makes Villa des Orangers special?

What sets La Villa des Orangers apart is that it is a genuine private house that became a Relais & Chateaux member, not a hotel built to look like one. The property is a 1930s mansion behind high ochre walls in the Sidi Mimoun quarter, midway between the Royal Palace and Jemaa el-Fna, with the Koutoubia minaret a couple of minutes away on foot. The scale is domestic rather than palatial: 32 rooms, suites and villas arranged around courtyards, orange trees and two heated outdoor pools. The rarest thing here is the Private Riad, a 185 sqm two-bedroom house let as part of the hotel, with its own banana-shaded pool, patio and solarium. That is a self-contained riad inside a working hotel, which almost no property in this bracket offers. Relais & Chateaux membership is the meaningful affiliation, and it comes with the group's usual candour: the listing states plainly that the building is multi-storey without an elevator and that children are accepted but not recommended. Guests who want a small, adult, quiet address inside the medina walls, with the souks and the square reachable on foot in minutes, get exactly that.

Which room should you book?

Room size varies more than at most Marrakech hotels, so the category you book decides the stay. There are 32 rooms, suites and villas in the Relais & Chateaux count, starting with the 20 sqm Deluxe Room and Deluxe Terrace Room, which are genuinely small by luxury standards. Above them sit the 23 sqm Junior Suite, the 30 sqm Small Terrace Suite and the 40 sqm Grand Terrace Suite, where the private outdoor space starts to matter. The 100 sqm Master Suite and the 55 sqm Family Suite give proper living space, and the 185 sqm Private Riad is a two-bedroom house with its own pool, patio and solarium. Interiors keep the character of the 1930s residence rather than resetting it as a contemporary hotel, and terraces face the courtyards and the old city. The practical caveat is structural: the building is multi-storey and there is no lift, so every room is reached by stairs across several levels. Ask for a terrace category if outdoor space matters, and say so at booking if stairs are a problem.

Where should you eat and drink?

Dining here is a single restaurant, so plan on variety coming from the city rather than the hotel. The kitchen serves classic Moroccan dishes with French and Mediterranean influences in the house dining room and its courtyard, with tables set under the trees in warm months and by the fire when Marrakech turns cold, which it does on winter evenings. Relais & Chateaux bills it as one of Marrakesh's dining hotspots. That single-venue set-up is the honest trade-off against the four-restaurant resorts on the other side of the walls: there is one menu and one room, and after several nights you will want to eat out. The compensation is location. You are five minutes on foot from Jemaa el-Fna and inside the medina, so the whole of the old city's eating is walkable, which is not true of the out-of-town estates. For the record, no restaurant in Morocco holds a Michelin star, because Michelin publishes no restaurant selection for the country.

What is the spa and pool like?

Wellness is built around a 250 sqm spa and two heated outdoor pools, which is a lot of water for a 32-key medina hotel. The spa runs to roughly 2,700 sq ft and holds a large hammam, a beauty centre, a solarium and treatments drawing on Moroccan and other rituals, so the traditional scrub-and-steam sequence is available on site rather than booked out in the souks. The pools are the differentiator: an 18-metre heated pool in a courtyard, long enough for actual lengths, and a smaller heated plunge pool on the roof terrace with views over the old city to the Atlas Mountains. Guests in the Private Riad get a third, private pool. The hotel's published facilities focus on the spa and pools rather than a fitness centre, so travellers who train daily should check before booking.

Where is Villa des Orangers, and how do you get there?

The location is the strongest argument for this hotel: Sidi Mimoun, inside the medina walls, at the foot of the Koutoubia mosque. The minaret is a couple of minutes away on foot and Jemaa el-Fna is about five, which puts the souks, the food stalls and the evening theatre of the square within walking distance of your room rather than a car ride away. The Royal Palace sits on the other side, so the hotel is roughly midway between the two. Marrakech Menara Airport is around 10 to 15 minutes by car, because the airport is only about 5 km southwest of the old city. What this address is not is secluded. Rue Sidi Mimoun is a busy thoroughfare and you hear it as you arrive, although guests consistently report that the noise disappears once the door in the ochre wall closes behind them. Cars cannot enter most of the medina, so expect a short walk from the nearest drop-off with a porter, and factor that in if you travel with heavy luggage.

What do guests consistently say?

Guest feedback splits cleanly along category lines. Reviewers who book a terrace suite or the Private Riad describe a small, calm house that feels private in the middle of the medina, and the recurring theme is the contrast between the busy street outside and the silence inside the walls, which guests raise unprompted. The two heated pools and the orange-tree courtyards draw consistent praise, as does the walk to Jemaa el-Fna, which people measure in minutes rather than taxi fares. Reviewers who book the entry-level 20 sqm Deluxe Rooms report a different stay, with the room size the most common reservation. Stairs come up too, because there is no lift and rooms are spread across several floors, so guests with mobility limits and guests with a lot of luggage both notice. Relais & Chateaux states that children are accepted but not recommended, and the feedback reflects that: this reads as a couples' hotel, and families tend to be happier in the Family Suite or the Private Riad than in a standard room.

Honest cons: who should skip it?

Three things should decide against this hotel. First, there is no lift. Relais & Chateaux flags the property as multi-storey without an elevator, and rooms are reached by stairs across several levels, which rules it out for anyone with limited mobility and makes arrival with heavy cases a chore. Second, it is not a family hotel and does not pretend to be: Relais & Chateaux states that children are accepted but not recommended, which is unusually candid and should be taken at face value if you are travelling with young children. Third, the entry-level rooms are small. The Deluxe Room and Deluxe Terrace Room are 20 sqm, modest by international luxury standards, so the gap between the smallest and the largest categories is wide enough that two guests can have very different opinions of the same hotel. Add the practical medina realities: Rue Sidi Mimoun outside is busy, vehicles cannot reach the door, and there is one restaurant, so dinner variety means walking out into the old city.