Detailed Review
Originally built as luxury villas, these three charming houses designed by the internationally acclaimed French architect Charles Boccara are located about a mile from the main road circling the Palmeraie, in a Biblical setting of palm trees looking towards the High Atlas Mountains. Tastefully decorated reception rooms and charming bedrooms were designed with a great attention to detail. Each villa has its own colourful private garden and a small swimming pool.
Press Quotes
"The six villas, designed by Morocco's most famous architect, Charles Boccara, are built among orange, olive and palm groves and have lofty ceilings and private terraces. You can rent a room or a private villa." Conde Nast Traveller
Independent Reviews
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"Relaxing oasis in the Palmeraie, though shared villas can impact on privacy"
Charles Boccara designed this Palmeraie hotel of six villas each divided into suites and rooms. No TVs, relaxing, informal meals under the trees and in a quiet neighbouhood make this a choice for those who need to de-stress. Lack of maintenance has taken its toll though the original charm is still apparent. Following two recent changes of management (and following that, most of the staff) Les Deux Tours is refinding its direction.
Les Deux Tours
By Joanna Monkhouse
Marrakech’s Palmeraie is a strange place – vast sandy tracts of land crisscrossed by dirt tracks and the occasional tarmac road, populated by palm trees in varying degrees of sparsity and, every now and then, huge houses behind high walls.
Down one of these tracks, 15 minutes from the medina, Les Deux Tours is identified by the two round gate towers that inspired the hotel’s name. This is now only the entrance for the restaurant, the new main entrance is located on the other side of the property, so guests no longer drive between them when they arrive. The collection of villas was originally designed as private houses by Charles Boccara, a Frenchman who has probably been the most influential architect in the modern Moroccan trend.
Each of the six villas has a mix of four superior and deluxe rooms (one has five) decorated using traditional techniques (zellige, tadelakt, carved plasterwork) with hamman-style ensuite bathrooms (domed brickwork walls and ceilings and piles of fluffy white towels). Though showing signs of age, the rooms still have charm. Deluxe rooms are worth going for if you can, some have private terraces. If you’re going in a group and can take the entire villa, so much the better as the walled garden and small ‘bassin’ pool (which, disappointingly, are often unfilled) are shared by the guests of all four rooms. Whilst this lack of privacy is not likely to pose too much of a problem, the private suites definitely merit consideration. Influenced by the Aman-inspired trend, each of these most recent additions at Les Deux Tours, completed Summer 2003, has a private pool and garden. Although spacious and super-lux, the suites upstairs can overlook the pool and garden of those downstairs.
Gardens surround the buildings, with fruit trees, palms, bougainvillea and scented flowers at every turn. Water flows around the grounds along small canals. There is a hamman (traditional steam bath) with massage rooms. The large swimming pool is next to a Berber tent where a buffet breakfast is served in peak season. The cathedral of a dining room is another new development and in warm weather the tables spill out onto the terrace. A stylish bar has also been added. Breakfast, lunch and dinner can be served on request in the gardens, on a private terrace or by the fireplace in your room. Service can be on the slow side and the hotel lacks the intimacy of some of Marrakech’s more recent openings yet Les Deux Tours suits those who value the charm of a boutique hotel with the anonymity of a large one.
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