Within the pink-walled Medina, the ‘old city’, there is a greater density of chic boutique lodgings than possibly anywhere else in the world. It is a fabulous place of Aladdin cave shops and is totally car free.

Here are some suggestions for places to visit.

JEMAA EL-FNA  (the Central Market)

Jemaa el-Fna, the main open space in Marrakech, is as old as the city itself. It is thronged day and night with a carnival of local life, including snake-charmers (a few dirhams for a photograph with a snake draped over your shoulders, and a few more to have it removed); dentists (teeth pulled on the spot); scribes (letters written to order); herbalists (cures for everything and nothing); and beggars (to whom Moroccans give generously). In the evenings, the square becomes a venue for alfresco eating and entertainment of a bizarre nature with troupes of costumed acrobats, storytellers, magicians, transvestite dancers and semi-mystical gnawa musicians attended by small knots of wild-eyed devotees giddy on the repetitive rhythms. Tourists are welcome to watch but nothing here is staged for their benefit.

ALI BEN YOUSSEF MEDERSA

Place Ben Youssef (00 212 24 441 893). Visit the Ali Ben Youseef Medersa for its spectacular interiors, so striking that it upstaged Kate Winslet in the scenes they shared in the film Hideous Kinky. The 16th-century Koranic school, where up to 900 students would have lived and studied, was lovingly restored and buffed up to perfection in the late 1990s. The serene courtyard has a central water-filled basin and façades enhanced with tiling, stucco and carved cedar.

BAHIA PALACE

Riad Zitoun el Jedid (00 212 24 389 564). A 19th-century palace with lush decoration so highly worked that it verges on kitsch. Open daily from 8.45am to 11.45am, 2.45pm to 5.45pm.

CITY WALLS

Hop into a horse-drawn calèche for a tour around the outside of the city walls. First constructed in the 12th century, these form a neat circuit of six miles punctuated by about 200 towers and 20 gates. Made of pisé, the fortifications possess a pinkish tinge and glow beautifully in the setting sun. A complete whirl around takes the best part of an hour; prices are fixed by the municipality and are posted beside the carriages, which wait in line on the north side of place de Foucauld (just follow your nose).

DAR CHERIFA

8 Derb Charfa Lakbir Mouassine, off Rue Mouassine (00 212 44 42 64 63; www.marrakech-riads.net). Set in a restored townhouse among the souks, Dar Cherifa is a literary café and gallery space. Owner Abdelatif Ben Abdellah is a leading light in the rejuvenation of the old city. Here he has taken great pains to expose carved beams and stucco work while leaving walls and floors bare and free of distraction, all the better to enhance the hanging of regular exhibitions by resident local and foreign artists. The venue also hosts occasional performances by gnawa and Sufi musicians and incorporates a small library. Anybody is free to drop by, and tea and coffee are served.

KOUTOUBIA MOSQUE

Avenue Mohammed V. The centrepiece of Marrakech is the square tower of the Koutoubia minaret, attached to the Koutoubia Mosque, built in the early 1100s. It’s not particularly high but it towers over the Medina thanks to a long-standing planning ordinance that forbids any other building in the old city to rise above the height of a palm tree. The mosque is closed to non-muslims and women.

LES BAINS DE MARRAKECH

2 Derb Sedra, Bab Agnaou, Kasbah (00 212 24 381 428; www.lesbainsdemarrakech.com). Les Bains de Marrakech is an elegant spa centre located in an old townhouse pressed up against the 12th-century city walls in the southern kasbah quarter. A full range of treatments, from water massage to shiatsu, plus steam-cleaning in a traditional hammam, are on offer.

MAJORELLE GARDEN

Avenue Yacoub el-Mansour (00 212 24 301 852; www.jardinmajorelle.com). Privately owned by fashion designer and long-time Marrakech resident Yves Saint Laurent, the Majorelle Garden was created in the 1930s by two generations of French artists, Louis Majorelle and his son Jacques. The former’s speciality was furniture, the latter’s Orientalism, but the enduring Majorelle legacy is a virulent shade of powder-blue that carries their name. It colours the water channels, urns and the artists’ former studio (now a museum of Islamic art), making a striking contrast with bamboo groves, cacti, great palms and pools floating with water lilies. The effect is like walking through a Gauguin painting.

MUSEE D’ART REGIONAL DAR SI SAID

Riad Zitoun el Jedid (00 212 24 389 564). Displays Moroccan art and handicrafts, including silver Berber jewellery, pottery, marble and beautiful carpets. Open Wed to Mon.

MUSEE DE MARRAKECH

Place Ben Youssef (00 212 24 441 893; fax: 441 901). At the heart of the Medina, the Musée de Marrakech is a conversion of an opulent, early 20th-century house formerly belonging to a local grandee. Exhibits rotate but concentrate on Moroccan and/or Islamic arts and crafts such as court ceramics and tribal textiles. The star attraction is the building itself, particularly the polychromic-tiled central court. There’s a pleasant courtyard café and a very good bookshop. Crucially, the museum is one of the very few air-conditioned buildings in the old city – worth the price of admission alone during the hot summer months. Open daily.

If you want to find boutique hotels in other parts of the world the boutique hotels guide is a good place to look.

Or if luxury spas are your thing, try the Hedley-Barden Luxury Spa guide

One of the first riads to open in Marrakech. (25 years ago there were less than 25 now thereare more than 500!) Riad Nog is a romantic charm.. If you’re looking for a traditional riad, they don’t come much better; the door, at the end of an alleyway, opens into a courtyard with olive and citrus trees (and a raucous parrot). A second courtyard has a small pool; above it are two roof terraces with comfortable loungers and terracotta pots dripping scarlet bougainvillaea.

Opulent chic and top end, La Sultana has a great location in the heart of the kasbah. It has its own spa and a pavilion on the roof terrace where treatments can be taken, complete with loungers to relax on afterwards. Its not cheap but its worth it.

Riad Dar Donab is luxurious and opulent. A converted small palace, Dar Donab is mind-bogglingly ornate. The dining room drips golden chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling russet and gold drapes, while the small bar and alcoves, dominated by traditional carved woodwork, mosaic floors and ochre-coloured walls, are giddily glamorous. There is a good-sized pool and the rooms come with satin-draped beds and intricately carved plasterwork.