Marrakech, Where Autumn Glows Like Gold

Some cities fade when the days grow shorter. Marrakech does the opposite. As Europe turns damp and grey, the Red City glows like a slow ember — its walls awash in gold, its air heavy with warmth. Autumn here isn’t a farewell to summer, but an invitation to linger in a season of hushed beauty and quiet indulgence.

  Two retreats capture this Moroccan art de vivre with singular style. Both offer more than hospitality: they invite you into atmospheres where luxury feels effortless, sensory, and deeply human.

La Villa des Orangers — discreet, refined, and irresistibly intimate. Behind its carved doors near the Koutoubia Mosque, a different Marrakech unfolds: marble fountains, orange-scented patios, quiet corridors that feel like secrets.

The riad’s 33 rooms blend Moorish artistry with contemporary sensuality — terraces opening to Atlas views, fireplaces for cooler evenings, bathrooms where marble becomes sculpture. Dinner is as much theatre as nourishment: Moroccan classics reimagined with Mediterranean ease, best enjoyed on the rooftop as the city blushes under twilight.

Across the Palmeraie, Les Deux Tours stretches like a poem of space and silence. Architect Charles Boccara imagined it as a village — paths winding through palms, pavilions tucked into lush gardens, pools discovered rather than displayed. Each of its 44 rooms tells its own story: some minimalist, some ornate, some with private pools or panoramic terraces. The dining is equally fluid: sushi at the Yoshi Bar, a starlit feast among a thousand candles in the kitchen garden, or languid bites by the pool.

Both places understand autumn’s rhythm: hammams where steam writes its own poetry, spa rituals that anchor you, yoga under fading sunlight, even a barber’s chair in the open air. It’s luxury with personality — curated yet alive, indulgent yet never overdone.

For the cosmopolitan man seeking depth with edge, Marrakech in autumn is less about chasing the endless summer than about savoring the season’s glow. It’s a city of contrasts — ancient and contemporary, frenetic and serene — where fall doesn’t signal retreat, but renewal.

In Marrakech, autumn is a golden hour stretched into weeks. And the real luxury is the way it makes you linger.

La Villa des Orangers – Relais & Châteaux
6 rue Sidi Mimoun, Place Ben Tachfine, 40000 Marrakech, Morocco
www.villadesorangers.com

Les Deux Tours
Douar Abiad, Circuit de la Palmeraie BP 153, 40000 Marrakech, Moroccoé
www.les-deux-tours.co