Creative Commons licensePhoto by flickr user Gilles 92

With Marrakech, the trick is to stay in the medina for a few nights before heading to the Palmeraie, the city's answer to a weekend in the country. It only takes twenty minutes to plunge back into the souks from La Palmeraie and you swap roosters and the call of prayer for views of the majestic Atlas Mountains, herb gardens, lawns for the children to run around on, spacious bedrooms and grown up sized swimming pools. For a long weekend away it really doesn't get any better. Here are our favourite hotels. The order by which the hotels are listed bears no reflection on our preference.

Written by Daisy Finer