Selman Marrakech

It took four years to build this hotel at the base of the Atlas Mountains. French designer Jacques Garcia included black-and-white zellij tile work and other intricate Moorish details. Each of the hotel’s five guest riads (typical Moroccan houses) comes with a private garden and heated pool. At the spa, guests can choose from hydrotherapies and traditional remedies such as a facial mask that uses rhassoul clay from the mountains. The hotel’s stables house 16 Arabian purebreds, which visitors can meet on a stable tour when the steeds aren’t roaming the property. From $392. 212/(0) 52-445-9600. This appeared in the January/February 2013 issue.

With so many high-end hotels and riads in Marrakesh now, all the fancy options start to blur into each other. But Selman, a 61-room hotel a short drive outside the medina, is distinctive for a few reasons. First is the rich yet tasteful design, courtesy of Jacques Garcia, channeling French and Moorish styles. Breathtaking as the rooms and public areas are, I found them less transporting to the eye than the sixteen Arabian stallions that are kept on property. (The owner raises horses.) Surely, no hotel in the world can boast a retinue quite like that. And lastly there’s the knockout spa, with treatments from celebrated French dietician and holistic doctor Henri Chenot. The 12,000-square-foot spa offers a pretty nifty high-tech take on cupping therapy and a comprehensive hydrotherapy program, which makes sense. With miles of desert just beyond, you’re likely to appreciate the magic of water even more.