Stylish, contemporary suites come with en-suite bathrooms and open fires. Some rooms offer exclusive access to private terraces facing a rooftop plunge pool. Meals are served in an enchanting courtyard filled with orange trees framed by delicately carved plasterwork pillars and huge carved doors. From Dh2,500 (£153) a night for a double room with en-suite bathroom. Prices include breakfast, light lunches and soft drinks.Smaller, cheaper, but also soaked in charm, the Dar El Assafir (24 bis, Arset el Hamed, Bab Doukkala) is another pretty riad, just outside the Medina. Spotless guest rooms, decorated with ornate plasterwork and tiled bathrooms, are spread over two converted houses with one courtyard containing a delightful plunge pool and terrace and another filled with date and banana palms.

Suites start from Dh850 a night, with doubles from Dh780, including breakfast.Talking of breakfast, how about lunch?For a special lunch, head for the tranquil Ryad Tamsna (23 Derb Zanka Daika), back in the Medina. Hidden away in the Jewish district, this once crumbling but grand house has now been transformed into a boutique, book shop, gallery and restaurant. Beautifully and simply decorated, the restaurant serves a daily changing menu of Indian, Lebanese and Moroccan-inspired dishes from Dh200. A gallery exhibits work by local artists and a bookshop sells a range of Moroccan interiors titles as well as copies of 1920s travel posters and photographs.And perhaps a siesta afterwards?In Marrakesh, temperatures can reach 32C-38C by mid-afternoon. If it gets too hot, take a siesta or book a sauna, rigorous massage and scrub session at one of the city’s hammams.

Expect intensive and dedicated pampering to within an inch of your life. One of the most chic hammams in Marrakesh is housed within the stunning Le Palais Rhoul guesthouse (on Dar Tounsi Route de Fez Km 6). A hammam with massage costs Dh220.Actually, I’m not that sleepy after allAlternatively, visit the funky art gallery, Ministero del Gusto (22 Deb Azouz, El Mouassine). Just inside the souk, this new space, owned by Italians, stylist Alessandra Lippini and furniture designer, Fabrizio Bizzarri, sells contemporary works by international artists and designers.In Gueliz, the modern quarter of Marrakesh, the Jardin Majorelle was created in the 1920s by the French painter, Jacques Majorelle. Majorelle was the artist whose images of the crowds and kasbahs of Morocco appeared on the first travel posters. Now owned and beautifully maintained by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Paul Berge, this small botanical garden adjoins their villa, Willowtree House, and is filled with rare cacti, bamboo, agave and waterlilies, which contrast brilliantly with the cobalt blue of the garden pavilion.Time for a drink …For an early evening drink and snack in the new town, try another landmark, the Caf?ar de l’Escale, on Rue Mauretania.