If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR188.60), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
There’s the air of an artists’ enclave about Izza Marrakech, a boutique hotel in the heart of the Medina where the city’s bohemian Seventies heyday blooms back to life. Seven historic riads have been revamped with fine Moroccan craftsmanship and a world-class contemporary art collection. Yarns are spun and inspiration sought in the lantern-lit courtyards, library and rooftop restaurant and bar. But refuge – or romance – can be found in the spa, hammam and exquisitely designed Moorish-meets-minimalist rooms.
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A cocktail or mocktail each on the rooftop terrace
Noon. Check-in is at 3pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £148.10 (€175), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €2.15 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates at Izza Marrakech include a breakfast of Moroccan classics and modern European favourites, plus still-warm pastries and a selection of juices.
Also
Unfortunately, Izza Marrakech is not suitable for guests with limited mobility.
At the hotel
Spa and hammam, lap pool, two plunge pools, rooftop terrace, art collection, library, tea salon, three courtyards, fitness centre and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: OLED TV, air-conditioning, Nespresso coffee machine and tea-making kit, minibar, Egyptian cotton bathrobes, babouche slippers and bespoke Izza bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Every room is individually designed, each taking inspiration from a different artist or aesthete who once called Marrakech home, but fine Moroccan craftsmanship is a common thread throughout. For an apartment-style stay, swing for Izza, a spacious split-level suite that takes its name from the woman whose ancient home once stood on the site of the hotel. After a few hours flitting between the library and private plunge pool, you might also find yourself daydreaming about putting down roots for a generation or two.
Poolside
A lantern-lit 10-metre lap pool forms the focal point of one of the hotel’s three courtyards. There’s also a plunge pool in another courtyard, plus one on the rooftop terrace.
Spa
Modern art adorns the walls in Izza’s neroli-scented spa, but the wellness practices are rooted in ancient Moroccan knowhow. Tailored individual treatments, such as aromatherapy massages and hydrating facials, are available. But for all-out cosseting, commit to the full hammam ritual – an oil bath, followed by exfoliation with a kessa glove and botanical black soap, a scalp massage, body wrap, ginger-infused body massage, and a honey face mask. The spa is open daily from 10am to 8pm, and the hammam can be opened on request with two hour’s notice. There’s also a 24-hour fitness centre with Tonal smart gym equipment and a Peloton treadmill.
Packing tips
Take your cue from your room’s namesake – that could mean a Kerouac paperback, a YSL smoking jacket, or Grace Jones queued up on your playlist.
Also
zza is home to contemporary art collection Museum in the Medina, with work by Hassan Hajjaj, Leila Alaloui and many more woven into the hotel’s design. Things tip into sci-fi territory with an NFT display and an AI video installation on the terrace.
Children
All ages are welcome, and cots can be added for free to the Christina, Yves and Izza rooms on request, but Little Smiths are at risk of third-wheeling at this romantic stay.
That’ll largely depend on your taste in photography – snag a sofa underneath Sebastião Salgado’s Amazonia series, or a wingback chair beneath Leila Alaoui’s Les Marocains.
Dress Code
Top-to-toe YSL is one route. Otherwise, invest in Morocco’s homegrown indie designers – a beaded Bakchic kaftan or a woven bag from Sarah Maj, maybe.
Hotel restaurant
It’s hard to know where to look at Izza’s leafy rooftop restaurant – will you sit and admire celebrated photography series from the likes of Leila Alaoui and Sebatião Salgado, gaze starry-eyed at Refik Anadol’s space-age AI work using imagery from the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter, or let your attention be caught by bird’s-eye Medina views? Wherever you settle, do so in the best company, because the menu of sharing plates is designed to foster sociability – although when the sea bass carpaccio, smoked aubergine batbout and crab croquettes dipped in saffron mayonnaise arrive, don’t be surprised if the chatter drops to gluttonous silence.
The hotel also has a café serving Moroccan pastries, fresh juices and coffee from a sustainable Casablanca producer. Across the board, the emphasis is on all things local, seasonal and sustainable, with spices sourced from the souk and fresh produce from nearby organic farms.
Hotel bar
Bill’s Bar takes both its name and its free-spirited style from interior designer and Marrakech’s socialite-in-chief of the Seventies, Bill Willis. Art-strewn and patterned with intricate zellige tiles, it would make a worthy backdrop for one of Bill’s star-studded soirées. We can’t promise Grace Jones and Mick Jagger on the guestlist, but elegant craft cocktails and a curated wine list are guaranteed.
There’s also a bar on the rooftop terrace, where you can watch dusk settle over the Medina as you nurse the house speciality, a zesty muddle of limoncello, basil, honey and prosecco.
Last orders
Breakfast is served from 7.30am to 10am, lunch from noon to 2.30pm and dinner from 7pm to 10pm. Bill’s Bar pours from noon till late.
Room service
A separate room service menu is available from 8am to 10am and noon to 9.30pm.
Izza Marrakech is in the midst of the Medina, miraculously serene for a hotel just a 10-minute stroll from the souk.
Planes
Marrakech Menara Airport is a 25-minute drive away. The hotel can provide a free transfer from the airport, and return transport can be arranged for an extra €20.
Trains
Breeze in on the Al Atlas service from Casablanca or Fez to Marrakech train station, a 20-minute drive from the hotel. Staff can arrange transfers for €20 each way.
Automobiles
The Marrakech traffic is best left to the nerves-of-steel locals, and there’s no parking at the hotel. You’re in the heart of the Medina, with major cultural highlights within walking distance, so no need to bring your own wheels.
Worth getting out of bed for
YSL’s time in Marrakech is a major source of inspiration at Izza – see why at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, just by the Jardin Majorelle. Keep the culture coming at Comptoir des Mines Galerie, which celebrates contemporary African artists, and the House of Photography of Marrakech. And if you’ve fallen hard for Hassan Hajjaj’s work around the hotel, head to Riad Yima to browse a gallery and boutique devoted to the artist’s work.
Local restaurants
Jewel-toned Moroccan salads and just-fried briouats are on the menu at Al Fassia, a women-run restaurant working with ingredients fresh from the garden or from small local suppliers. With its shaded courtyard and cool mid-century design, converted riad Le Jardin makes for a mirage-like sight in the midst of the Medina hubbub; the prospect of chicken pastilla, feta-stuffed pastries and orange-blossom puddings seals the deal.
Local bars
Izza’s café, tea salon and bars have all bases covered, but for a change of perspective, Café des Épices is a scene-y rooftop spot to sip a fresh mint tea.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this cultured hotel in Morocco and unpacked their hand-woven textiles and souk-sourced spices, a full account of their bohemian city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Izza Marrakech…
Back in the Sixties and Seventies, beat poets caroused with rockstars and haute couturiers at the parties of interior designer and all-round Marrakech character Bill Willis. Fast-forward a few decades, and boutique Medina stay Izza Marrakech is recapturing those swinging, imagination-sparking glory days.
Willis is a hallowed name around here, with the hotel drawing much of its design inspiration from his era-defining style. Sensuous interiors capture his signature blend of modern minimalism and traditional Moroccan elements like cloudlike tadelakt plastering, keyhole arches and intricate zellige tiles. Spend a whiskey-sour-fuelled evening at the bar, and you’ll sense the influence of Bill’s front-page-worthy bashes, too – with any next-morning regrets soothed by tailored hammam treatments or a head-clearing lap of the pool.
Rose-tinted reminiscence about the good old days aside, Izza’s eyes are firmly on Marrakech’s cultural future. Local artisans were enlisted for each design flourish, and digital exhibitions catapult the art collection into the here and now. The current gen of globetrotting creative types are already sharing small plates and style recs at the rooftop restaurant – consider this your invitation to Marrakech’s coolest soirée since 1979.
