Morocco and southern Spain were favourite destinations when I was a student in Manchester in the 1970s. We could get a cheap package tour flight to Alicante, ditch the package holiday, jump on a bus to Malaga and then onto Algeciras to take a ferry to Tangiers. We left behind the (more often than not) rainy skies of Manchester for the piercing azure of Morocco
It may be on Europe's doorstep, but landing in Marrakesh after a short flight from London feels like entering another world – a land of steaming souks and narrow alleys, honking donkeys and tinkling fountains. Marrakesh has no airs and graces; the city is blazingly and unashamedly itself. There's a rough-around-the-edges wildness to it, and a tolerance towards illicit pleasures, that has long attracted counter culture thrill-seekers. Keen to evoke the spirit of the city's hedonistic heyday in the '60s is boutique hotel IZZA, which recently opened its carved chestnut doors to guests. Hidden down an unassuming side street in the old medina, the hotel's 14 rooms are named after freewheeling creatives, from beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, to singers Grace Jones and Marianne Faithful, who came to Morocco in search of Orientalist mystique and made Marrakesh their playground. On arrival we're offered small glasses of chilled milk steeped in orange
It may be on Europe's doorstep, but landing in Marrakesh after a short flight from London feels like entering another world – a land of steaming souks and narrow alleys, honking donkeys and tinkling fountains. Marrakesh has no airs and graces; the city is blazingly and unashamedly itself. There's a rough-around-the-edges wildness to it, and a tolerance towards illicit pleasures, that has long attracted counter culture thrill-seekers. Keen to evoke the spirit of the city's hedonistic heyday in the '60s is boutique hotel IZZA, which recently opened its carved chestnut doors to guests. Hidden down an unassuming side street in the old medina, the hotel's 14 rooms are named after freewheeling creatives, from beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, to singers Grace Jones and Marianne Faithful, who came to Morocco in search of Orientalist mystique and made Marrakesh their playground. On arrival we're offered small glasses of chilled milk steeped in orange
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