Is any hotel really fit for a king? Perhaps if it were built by one. That’s what makes Morocco’s Royal Mansour properties so special—they’re all masterminded by the country’s King Mohammed VI, whose vast business holdings grew to include hospitality when he opened the Royal Mansour Marrakech, near one of his palaces, in 2010.
Today, it’s one of the region’s most popular hotels, and the 61-year-old billionaire opened a second location in Casablanca in early 2024. He has also turned his attentions north to the coastline of the Alboran Sea, opening the Royal Mansour Tamuda Bay in October.
This is big news, especially for Northern Europeans, Brits, and Scandinavians who seek relief from cold, gray, seemingly interminable winters but would prefer a beach a bit closer than the Maldives.
A 90-minute drive east from the airport in Tangier, the Tamuda Bay hotel comprises 19 sand-colored blocks set against a private beach. Their backyards, so to speak, are palm-tree-filled gardens designed by Luis Vallejo, who owns the Bonsai Museum in Madrid. Its 55 rooms and suites spill out onto terraces; some have balconies overlooking the sea. High standards are upheld in all sorts of ways, from the stationery embossed with guests’ names to the panama hats (available for loan or purchase) in the closets.
The interiors were designed by the London-based firm Muza Lab, which has drawn on the region’s cultural heritage. The décor uses warm, washed-out shades of yellow, pink, orange, and beige, with a focus on comfort—high-quality linens, soft furnishings, and the occasional pouf. The bathrooms, though, are unabashedly luxurious affairs of black-and-white marble, equipped with Dyson hair dryers.
The lobby’s mosaic floors depict scenes from Roman times, and a wall installation includes 95,000 seashells that were collected from the beach on the grounds of the hotel. Antique Berber jewelry is used as ornamentation on the walls of La Table, the hotel’s French restaurant, and the sculpted symbols in the lobby mimic those used in kilims that are woven in the nearby town of Tétouan. (Don’t miss its medina, which is one of the best preserved in the country.)
Art is everywhere. The hotel’s collection has been curated by the Paris-based group Atelier 27, and the most impressive works are made by Ghizlane Sahli, who uses silk thread to turn waste such as plastic-bottle caps into marine-themed masterpieces. Even in the spa, a replica of the moon hangs above the indoor swimming pool, and as the sun sets outside, stars twinkle in the “sky” above.
Despite its whimsy, the spa is serious. The first medical facility of its kind to open in Africa, it spans 43,000 square feet and is set over three floors. Doctors are on hand to provide health assessments and supervise longevity treatments. They can also design weight-loss and detoxification regimens.
Good luck with that, though—the food at Tamuda Bay is exquisite, especially the carbs. Freshly baked msemmen (flatbread) and baghrirs (pancakes) are among the highlights at breakfast. They’re served with amlou, a paste made from ground almonds, honey, and argan oil.
At La Méditerranée, the most formal of the hotel’s three restaurants, the Spanish chef Quique Dacosta’s highlights include a simple but faultless paella served under a mother-of-pearl ceiling designed by the artist Maya Romanoff. At Coccinella, an Italian restaurant from the brothers Massimiliano and Raffaele Alajmo, who operate several restaurants in Italy, each bite (ending with tiramisu) is better than the last.
Then again, everything at Tamuda Bay surpasses expectations. Perhaps it’s because it operates under very different standards.
The writer was a guest of Royal Mansour Tamuda Bay, where rates begin at $450 per night, including breakfast
Mary Lussiana is a Lisbon-based writer and reviewer of hotels
