Palais Ronsard

Hotel review

If you’re looking for an opulent grown-up retreat in the Palmeraie, Palais Ronsard is a sure-fire winner. This stunning property only opened in 2019, and post covid is finally beginning to make its mark (it won the Prix Versailles for most stylish restaurant in 2020). Privately owned by French model, Adriana Karembeu, it’s a beautiful place both inside and out. You enter into an impressive marble lobby with a sweeping double staircase (which leads up to the suites on the first floor and a terrace with great views over the Palmeraie’s palms), off of which you’ll find the bar which has been styled to recreate 1930s grandeur at its finest (ruby red ceiling, deep velvet chairs and stools and a fireplace for atmospheric winter evenings) and where they offer a long list of cocktails and humidor filled with Cuba's finest. There are twenty eight rooms and suites (including six pavilions each with private garden and heated pool). The interiors have been done by Gil Dez (of Villa Gallici, Provence fame), and here he has created a spoiling cocoon filled with carefully selected antiques, bespoke parrot light fittings and gorgeous rooms and suites which evoke boudoir glamour at its finest — think huge canopied beds, velvet curtains, mirrored doors and beautifully painted ceilings. All are done in similar style, yet all are unique with their differing colour schemes, and all are as luxurious as the next, from the Prestige rooms upwards. You can expect the finest bed linens, marble bathrooms with double sinks, deep soaking tubs, separate walk-in monsoon showers and Clarins toiletries. Sumptuous is one way to describe it, but lovers of modernity and minimalism should steer well clear! As a member of the Relais et Chateaux organisation, the food standards here are high. The dinner menu is a clever mix of traditional Moroccan and Mediterranean dishes and breakfast may offer all the usual suspects, but they are cooked to perfection! The palais is set amid two hectares of mature gardens (in which you’ll find the six separate pavilions), and ground floor rooms have the added bonus of direct access to this little piece of paradise with its beautifully clipped shrubs, tinkling fountains and lily ponds and huge central pool. It’s a place of serenity and escape — you’d never know that the frenetic city of Marrakech was a 20 minute drive away! In fact this is what Palais Ronsard is really all about; it offers a very grown-up space for guests to unwind and relax amid a little slice of paradise.

Sarah Empson Review published: 03/12/2024