Photo: Courtesy of Royal Mansour Collection
What’s the vibe?
It is, to put it simply, one of the most show-stopping spa interiors I’ve ever seen in my life. Stepping through the small wooden doorway of one of the hotel’s signature dusty pink plaster buildings, I felt like I was entering Narnia: opening up before me was a soaring, three-story atrium with natural light pouring in, lending the all-white space a divine, supernal glow. As I was poured a mug of mint tea and led to a daybed, the sound of gently babbling water from a nearby fountain and the scent of orange blossom and rose made the space feel almost comically idyllic. (As a friend I was traveling with observed—jokingly, but also not: “It’s giving heaven.”)
And that’s just the lobby: Head down into the basement, and you’ll find a state-of-the-art fitness center, as well as a nail salon helmed by the pedicure whizz Bastien Gonzalez, once described in the pages of this very magazine as the world’s foremost “foot virtuoso.” Upstairs, there are private spa suites that come with their own private hammams, plunge pools, and sweeping views of the hotel’s palm tree-studded estate, as well as a blissful relaxation area with cocoon-like pods that come with duvets for a little nap. (Why don’t more spas let you do this?) But the crown jewel, for me anyway, is the 22-meter indoor pool, which sits under an elegant, orangery-style glasshouse shaped in the form of a Moorish arch. The fact that you’re just a few hundred meters away from the dust and the shouting of the souk feels almost absurd.
Photo: Courtesy of Royal Mansour Collection