Mamounia SPA

The spa at La Mamounia extends across 2,500 square metres within the grounds of what is arguably Marrakech's most storied hotel, a property set behind 12th-century walls amid nearly eight hectares of gardens planted with 700 orange trees, century-old olives, and palms. The interior was designed with the same intensity as the hotel itself: majorelle blue tiles line the floors and walls, oversized Moroccan glass lamps hang above a decorative cooling pool at the centre of the main room, and interconnecting treatment spaces are moody, dimly lit, and deliberately seductive rather than clinically serene. The facilities are substantial. Two traditional hammams and one private hammam suite sit alongside nine treatment rooms, six outdoor massage cabins, a relaxation room with catering service, a heated indoor swimming pool held at 28 degrees, a jacuzzi housed in its own pavilion beneath mashrabiya screens, and a full hair salon and beauty suite. The treatment menu runs to over 80 options across two product lines: marocMaroc for Moroccan-rooted rituals, and Shiseido for Japanese-influenced facial and body work, with La Ric for manicures and pedicures. The Royal Hammam is the signature experience, beginning in the steam room, followed by black soap made from pressed olives and salt, an intense kessa scrub, a mud body mask, and a pause in the relaxation room before continuing to a Tadelakt massage with argan balm and amber. A Shiseido Japanese bathing ceremony offers an alternative path: bath ritual, body scrub, hydrotherapy, and massage. Between these anchors, the menu covers hot stone, deep tissue, relaxation, foot reflexology, and a range of facials from both product lines. Post-treatment, guests can use the indoor pool, the jacuzzi pavilion, or the outdoor cabanas set among the gardens. The spa is open to non-hotel guests via a day pass. The gardens themselves, with their organic vegetable plots supplying the hotel's restaurants, give the grounds a sense of scale and seclusion unusual for a property that sits directly beside the Medina walls at Bab Jdid.