La Mamounia

La Mamounia is named after a wedding present. In the 18th century Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah gave his son, Prince Al Mamoun, an orchard here, and the hotel has grown up inside what is left of it: eight walled hectares of roses and orange trees, olives and palms. Henri Prost and Antoine Marchisio designed the palace for the railway company, crossing Moroccan building with the Art Deco then in fashion, and the lobby keeps both: black and white marble laid like a chessboard, carved stone columns, a ceiling painted red and gold. Down the middle hangs the chandelier made for the centenary, strands of light looped like a necklace in honour of Berber jewellery, so the hall comes dressed for dinner.

Recommended for anyone who wants the Medina on the doorstep and a wall between it and the bedroom: the Koutoubia, Jemaa el-Fna and the souks are a few minutes' walk, the last of them through narrow streets. There is no kids club, but there is babysitting, and the cinema, games room and billiard room take children and parents alike. The indoor pool does not. It is kept for over-18s, or over-16s with an adult, which leaves the grown-ups a pool of their own. Of the four restaurants, book Le Marocain, where Rachid Agouray cooks the traditional dishes; by day Le Pavillon de la Piscine sits beside the main pool, where palms grow on an island in the middle. Churchill made the hotel his winter retreat, painted watercolours from its balconies and left his name on one of the bars. From the Exceptional Suites the Koutoubia's minaret stands framed in the open windows, under carved wooden ceilings. It is the view to have brought a paintbox for.