destinationsAfricaMoroccoMarrakechAmanjena

With a convenient location at the edge of Marrakech, Amanjena provides the ideal base for further exploration of Marrakech and beyond. The city itself, with its gardens, souks, art and culture, is just seven kilometres away and the resort looks out onto the snow-capped High Atlas Mountains, the highest range in North Africa.

The Moroccans call their country Maghrib which, in Arabic, means “sunset” or “west”, acknowledging this North African kingdom’s place as the westernmost Arabic country. Bordered on the north by the Mediterranean Sea (Spain is just an hour’s ferry ride away) and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, Morocco has numerous beaches and a long, dramatic coastline. With four mountain ranges, great oases and the dunes of the Sahara, Morocco is a land of remarkable geographic diversity.

From Marrakech airport, it is a ¼ hour complimentary transfer to Amanjena. A car transfer may be arranged between Casablanca airport and Amanjena, this takes approximately 2½ hours.

Amanjena means peaceful paradise and is an oasis of calm in a walled enclave, dotted with fountains and pools, embellished with verdant lawns and glittering tiles.

Pavilions
The resort's 18 air-conditioned pavilions include a bedroom-living room and spacious bathroom and dressing area. The living area consists of a high, domed ceiling, a king-size platform bed and an open fireplace. Brass lanterns and Berber carpets discreetly reinforce the Moroccan theme. Furnishings include a daybed with an accompanying table and chair. The suites have a minibar, a CD player and a TV/DVD. Bathrooms feature a stepped and columned soaking tub of green Moroccan marble highlights, along with double vanities, soaring mirrors, twin dressing areas and a separate shower. Each pavilion has its own private courtyard along with a pillared minzah (gazebo) and a fountain.

Pavilions Bassin
Six pavilions are located around the central bassin and are of the same design as the pavilions.

Pavilions Piscine
Eight pavilions, also of the same design, each have their own 25m² heated pool and an extended private garden.

Maisons
Amanjena’s four two-storey Maisons rise seven metres from floor to ceiling in a variation of the Moroccan townhouse, with trines of second-floor windows looking inward, as if to a garden courtyard. The living area, located on the main floor, features an arc-cut fireplace, a zellij wall fountain and a small bathroom. The guest bedroom, with its queen-size bed, bathroom with separate shower and toilet, change area and separate courtyard entrance, is also located on the entry level. Upstairs, the bathroom is defined by marble columns, domed shower, toilet rooms and a pillared, green-marble tub. The bedroom comes with a king-size bed and divan. The Maisons also offer a private 25m² swimming pool, a garden and minzah.

Maisons Jardin
Two Maisons Jardin have garden courtyards and feature a floor fountain, a minzah, an outdoor fireplace and butler service as well as a pantry.

Best Room in The House:-
Al-Hamra Maison
The largest accommodation is the Al-Hamra Maison, which comprises two pavilions, a large and separate living and dining area with an open fire place and its own private butler service. Al-Hamra Maison also enjoys a private 36m² heated pool and two minzah for dining and lounging. Total floorspace of Al-Hamra is well over 750m².

Open only for dinner, the Restaurant specialises in authentic Spanish cuisine. Soft lighting lends warmth to the generously proportioned room. A scalloped onyx fountain rimmed by olive trees climbs to a commanding central skylight. Moucharabieh-wood screens play at the higher reaches. The tinted plâtre ciselé walls are the colour of honeyed eggshell and chiselled with ancient Berber designs. Banquettes and tables dressed in white cloth, pink rose petals and thuja-wood settings hug the walls. During the summer months, dinner seating is moved outdoors.

The Thai Restaurant, alongside the swimming pool, is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Authentic Thai cuisine is featured for lunch and dinner. The light-filled room features banks of glass doors and coral-tadlekt walls spiked with old Moroccan leather horse saddles.

The Pool Terrace is open for breakfast and lunch, and overlooks the pool and the adjacent golf course.

Guests can enjoy private dining in their Pavilion or Maison. Special dinners or buffets to celebrate a unique occasion can be arranged.

Upon request, intimate dinners accompanied by local music can be organised in the Caidal Tent, a traditional and romantic setting located in an olive grove.

Health & Beauty Centre Statistics 
The hammam or steam bath is central to Moroccan life. Unsurprisingly, it has pride of place at the heart of the Amanjena Health and Beauty Centre.

Facilities
Each hammam (one each for men and women) is complemented by showers, washrooms, a changing area and glassed-in whirlpool. The Centre also features a timber-floor gym.

A Selection of Treatments & Therapies
Massages, including Shiatsu and Reflexology, Body Scrubs, Wraps & Baths, Manicures, Pedicures, Facials and Waxing.

Yoga at Amanjena
Yoga and Relaxation courses are available on request.

Library
Ceiling lanterns and Arabic carpets colour the two storey room. Light filters in from dozens of windows cut, on varying levels, into the Library’s tadlekt walls. Recessed glass shelving keeps books, magazines and newspapers, as well CDs and DVDs and the distinctive green pottery of Tamegroute, in the Moroccan Sahara. There is also a selection of travel books and boardgames available. Library tables are of wild-cherry wood inlaid and stained to an ebony gloss. The room’s upper level is cloaked in a Moucharabieh-screened railing, which runs round most of the room. The fireplace is framed by cozy masria (Moroccan daybeds). A laptop is available for Internet access.

Boutiques
There are three boutiques within the cedar-ceiling colonnade that follows the swimming pool. The shops have some exclusive objects including a good selection of Moroccan art and handicrafts, jewellery, brass lanterns, pottery and antiques. All the linens, which include shawls, tablecloths, kaftans and djellabas, are hand-woven. Some of the boutiques’ offerings are created exclusively for Amanjena.

Health and Beauty Centre with Hammam 

Swimming Pool
Amanjena’s heated outdoor 33m swimming pool is finished in zellij (mosaic) of glittering green écaille de poisson tiles. The patio is filled with chaise longues and bordered by hibiscus flowers. The pool area features a pisé-style arch over a wide wall fountain and a separate shallow pool.

Tennis Courts
Two clay tennis courts, floodlit for night play, are available with complimentary rackets and balls. The tennis grounds include a central arched pavilion with minzahs for drinks and rest breaks.

Medina
From the Arabic madina (city), the medina is the very quintessence of Marrakech.
This 'fully preserved historic town', as UNESCO terms it, is a World Heritage Site, containing myriad alleyways, old fondouks (inns), hammams and a vast number of souks. Follow the smells of cumin, mint tea and barley bread baking in communal ovens. Lose yourself amid the streams of Marrakchi merchants and shoppers.

Place Djemaa el Fna is a vast city square, which comes alive at dusk with storytellers, magicians, snake charmers, acrobats and dancers.

Other attractions include the 70m Koutoubia minaret and the luxurious 16th century El Badi Palace.

Souk Trawling
Apart from the three boutiques within Amanjena, there is a profusion of shopping options within Marrakech. A number of specialist antique shops have recently opened and the numerous souks display great diversity.

Rural markets, with their vegetables, sheep heads, mules, saddles and portable steam baths, are a delightful distillation of everyday Moroccan life. Amanjena offers shopping tours taking in the Medina.

Hiking/Biking
The High Atlas Mountains are an easy drive from Amanjena and the foothills commence just a 45-minute drive away through fields of corn and barley and olive groves. Guests may spend a morning or afternoon visiting remote Berber villages and their markets, or dazzling pieces of the past from ancient mosques to crumbling kasbahs. Alternatively, there is hiking in the hills, with its innumerable trails.

For climbers, Mount Toubkal is Morocco’s highest and, at 4,165m, it is the third tallest peak in Africa. Mountain bikes may be rented for riding the paved pathways leading from Amanjena to the golf course and the garden villas.

Guests may also explore the Marrakech palm oasis on trails passing clumps of wild grape, hibiscus, and olive groves.

Golf
There are two golf courses in the immediate vicinity of Amanjena, with the Amelkis Golf Course next door and the Royal Golf de Marrakech only a few minutes away.