The Oberoi

The Oberoi, Marrakech opened in 2019 on the Ouarzazate road, with 84 rooms, suites and villas in 28 acres of citrus orchards and old olive groves. Most accommodation has a private pool. It holds Two MICHELIN Keys and its central patio reproduces the 14th-century Medersa Ben Youssef. Nothing is walkable.

"Eighty four keys, almost all villas with private pools, in a Medersa Ben Youssef inspired palace holding two Michelin Keys and a thirty metre outdoor pool."

Aggregate 9.2/10 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 The Oberoi special?

The Oberoi's signature is architectural quotation done at full scale. The central patio is a direct homage to the 14th-century Medersa Ben Youssef, one of Marrakech's most important monuments, reproduced at hotel scale in carved cedar, stucco and zellige. Most hotels gesture at Moroccan craft; this one commits to a specific building, and the result is a courtyard that reads as a monument rather than a lobby. The second move is water. A 120-metre ornamental Grand Canal bisects the estate and is aligned on the Atlas Mountains, so the mountains sit at the end of a formal axis of water rather than appearing incidentally over a wall. The canal is a water feature and not for swimming. The spa then sits on its own island in a natural water body surrounded by olive and citrus trees, which is a genuinely unusual piece of planning. The hotel opened in 2019, which makes it the newest of the Marrakech grandees, and its own awards page lists Two MICHELIN Keys 2025, Conde Nast Traveller UK Readers' Choice Best Hotels in Africa 2025, and Travel + Leisure India Editor's Choice Best International Leisure Hotel 2025.

Which room should you book?

The Oberoi, Marrakech has 84 rooms, suites and villas, and the great majority of them come with a private pool, which makes it effectively an all-villa resort with a small non-villa tier attached. The entry category is the Deluxe Room with a private terrace. Above that sits the Royal Suite with its own private heated pool, and then the villa ladder: Premier, Deluxe, Family, Presidential and Royal Villas, all with private pools and gardens. The practical read is simple. If you are choosing between this and a medina riad hotel, you are trading walkable location for your own pool and your own garden wall, and here you get both at almost every level rather than only at the top. Villa layouts also make this workable for families and for multi-generational groups in a way a small riad room never is. Interiors use the same carved cedar, stucco and zellige vocabulary as the public spaces.

Where should you eat and drink?

The Oberoi runs four venues and the one to know about is Rivayat. Its menus were created by chef Rohit Ghai, who holds a Michelin star in London; that star is personal and was earned in the United Kingdom, and Rivayat itself does not hold one, because the MICHELIN Guide publishes no restaurant selection for Morocco and no restaurant in the country is starred. What Rivayat is, straightforwardly, is serious Indian cooking, which is rare in Marrakech and a real point of difference. Tamimt covers international cooking from a show kitchen with an Atlas-view terrace. Azur does light meals and snacks under a frescoed dome with pool and canal views. Vue is the bar, with wines, champagnes, single malts, cocktails and snacks against the Atlas skyline. Plan the budget honestly: food and beverage prices are the most common complaint in published guest reviews here, and there is no cheaper alternative within walking distance.

What is the spa and pool like?

The Oberoi Spa sits on its own island in a natural water body surrounded by olive and citrus trees, with private therapy suites, hammams, and both Moroccan and Western rituals alongside herbal treatments. There is an air-conditioned fitness centre and a yoga studio overlooking the water feature. Swimming is the strongest part of the wellness offer and it is unusually well specified: a 30-metre outdoor pool and a 20-metre indoor pool, both temperature-controlled and open from early morning to late evening, plus private pools in the villas and the Royal Suite. The indoor pool matters more than it sounds, because Marrakech is genuinely cold on winter mornings and hot enough in high summer that indoor swimming is the sane option. The 120-metre Grand Canal is ornamental and not for swimming.

Where is The Oberoi, and how do you get there?

The Oberoi is out of town and honest about it: the hotel's own figures put Jemaa el-Fna and the ancient walled city at 25 minutes' drive, and Marrakech Menara Airport at 17.5 km and 25 minutes. Nothing is walkable. What you get instead is 113,312 sqm, about 28 acres, of citrus orchards and centuries-old olive groves on the Route de Ouarzazate, with Atlas Mountain views and a 120-metre canal aligned on the mountains. It is the same broad corridor as Amanjena, which means the same trade: space, silence and private pools in exchange for a car ride to everything. Decide this before you book rather than after. If your trip is about the souks, the medersas and eating your way around the medina, a riad hotel inside the walls will serve you better. If you want an estate to stay in, with day trips into the city, this is the stronger address.

What do guests consistently say?

Guest reports on The Oberoi follow a consistent pattern, and it runs mostly in one direction: the physical product wins almost everyone over. The Medersa Ben Youssef patio, the canal, the olive and citrus estate and the private pools draw praise across published reviews, and the hotel's 2025 awards, including Conde Nast Traveller UK Readers' Choice Best Hotels in Africa, reflect that. Where opinion splits is service style. The Oberoi runs a very formal, butler-led model, which reads as flawless to guests who want anticipation and stiff or over-attentive to guests who want to be left alone; both reactions appear regularly and neither is wrong. The two operational complaints that recur are the drive time to the medina, at 25 minutes each way, and food and beverage pricing, which is the single most common criticism because there is no cheaper option within walking distance. Neither is a defect in the hotel; both are reasons to choose it deliberately.

Honest cons: who should skip it?

The location is the first honest objection. The Oberoi sits out on the Route de Ouarzazate, every excursion into the medina is a 25-minute drive each way, and nothing at all is walkable, so guests who want to step straight into the old city should book inside the walls instead. Second, food and beverage prices are the single most common complaint in published guest reviews, sharpened by the fact that there is no cheaper alternative you can walk to; over a week that adds a meaningful amount to the bill. Third, service style divides opinion. The model is very formal and butler-led, which some guests read as flawless and others find stiff or over-attentive, and if you prefer relaxed, informal service you will notice. One more point of clarity: the 120-metre Grand Canal is an ornamental water feature, not a swimming pool. Finally, the hotel publishes no rate, so budget for the top of the Marrakech market.