La Sultana Oualidia
Set just above a sleepy sea lagoon on Morocco’s wild west coast, about halfway between Casablanca and Essaouira, La Sultana Oualidia is the perfect antidote to the hubbub or Fez or Marrakech, offering wonderful views, peaceful gardens and 12 beautifully designed rooms and suites.
The main building rises upwards, all turrets and terraces, offering views of the lagoon. Colourful fishing boats chug by all day, flamingos congregate in the estuary, and a sandy beach leads to a surf-pounded seashore.
Rooms are works of art, with guests given mobile phones with which to contact their butler should they want to make spa appointments, order drinks to their private terrace or arrange anything from yoga and kayaking to surfing and birdwatching. The stone-walled spa includes a hammam for two people, two treatment cabins and a heated pool, with a larger fresh-water pool waiting outside.
Foodies, meanwhile, are treated to oysters on the jetty jutting out over the lagoon, delicious local seafood at La Table de la Plage, and Moroccan and French specialties at the glass-roofed Sultana restaurant.