Boutique and historic hotels

A century and a half of hotels

The great historic hotels of Egypt and Morocco tell the story of travel in both countries. In order:

• 1869, Giza. The Khedive, viceroy of Egypt, builds a hunting lodge at the foot of the pyramids; it becomes a hotel in 1886. Today it is the Marriott Mena House, in 16 hectares of gardens, 760 m from the Pyramid of Khufu.
• Late 19th century, Essaouira. A palace is built against the ramparts, near Bab Marrakech; it is now the Heure Bleue Palais, a 33-room Relais & Châteaux with a rooftop pool.
• 1899, Aswan. The British travel agency Thomas Cook builds the Old Cataract on a granite cliff facing Elephantine Island; it opens in 1900. Mandarin Oriental has managed it since May 2026.
• 1923, Marrakesh. La Mamounia opens at the gates of the medina, in eight hectares of gardens.
• 1920s, Dakhla. A lobster depot is built on a rocky outcrop facing the lagoon. Restored over eight years, it is now Palais Rhoul, a house of 12 rooms and suites.
• 1930s, Casablanca. A townhouse in the Art Deco district becomes Hôtel Le Doge, 16 rooms each decorated after an artist of the period.

Other houses had a first life before becoming hotels. In Tetouan, Blanco Riad occupies an 18th-century courtyard house, once the Spanish consulate and then the pasha's residence. In Tangier, Palais Zahia opened in 2017 in the former headquarters of the State Bank of Morocco, on the Petit Socco. In Chefchaouen, Riad Cherifa joins two Andalusian houses more than 150 years old. In El Gouna, La Maison Bleue was designed to receive the town founder's friends. In Dubai, the XVA Art Hotel has occupied the former home of the Seddiqi family since 2003, in the heart of Al Fahidi, the district built from the 1890s onwards by merchants from Persia on the banks of the Creek: fifteen rooms around shaded courtyards, each hung with works by the XVA gallery's artists. In Nizwa, Oman's former capital, the Antique Inn links several earthen houses around 300 years old, a few minutes' walk from the fort and the souk: you come in through studded wooden doors, take coffee and dates in the majlis, the Omani reception room, and breakfast on the roof, facing the fort's great tower.

Houses of earth and stone

Charm also comes from local materials, found in more recent houses too.

In the Egyptian oases. In Siwa, Adrère Amellal and Taziry Ecolodge are built of earth and salt in the oasis tradition and lit by candles: Adrère Amellal, 40 rooms at the foot of the "white mountain", runs on full board with two excursions a day; Taziry, west of town, on bed and breakfast, with its own Arabian horses. In Fayoum, Lazib Inn is in Tunis, the potters' village, above Lake Qarun.

On the Nile. In Aswan, the Sonesta Nouba uses Nubian architecture, and each of its 45 rooms has a terrace facing the river. In Luxor, Al Moudira is built around ten courtyards and furnished with doors, tiles and stained glass salvaged across the Middle East. On the river itself, the Nour el Nil dahabiyas, traditional sailing boats of nine or ten cabins, sail from Esna to Aswan in five nights; the Nile cruise page compares them with motor ships.

In southern Morocco. Kasbahs and houses of pisé, rammed earth, line the road to the desert. Dar Ahlam occupies a kasbah in the Skoura palm grove, with no reception desk or set menu, and meals served in a different spot each day; L'Ma Lodge, in the same palm grove, has only seven rooms. In the Dadès gorges, Dar Jnan Tiouira is run by the family of a high-mountain guide, and Dar Rihana by three brothers from the valley. In Taroudant, Dar al Hossoun is built of pisé in a garden of nearly 900 varieties of arid-zone plants. At 2,200 m in the Aït Bouguemez valley, Touda Ecolodge is run by an Amazigh team.

On the Creek, in Dubai. Old Dubai has its sand-coloured houses topped with wind towers, the barjeel, which catch the breeze and send it down into the rooms. The XVA house has three. A few minutes' walk away, the Al Seef Heritage Hotel, opened in 2018, takes up this architecture in a district rebuilt along the Creek: 190 rooms in low-rise houses, some looking onto the water, from about €140 a night for two. On the coast, Jumeirah Al Qasr, opened in 2004 at Madinat Jumeirah, is a 294-room palace in Arabian style set among canals travelled by abra, the traditional wooden boat, with a 2 km beach. Both hotels are recent; only the XVA occupies an old house. Walking season runs from November to March: in summer the heat tops 39 °C in the afternoon.

In Oman's mountains and desert. In the Hajar mountains, recent hotels use the local stone and sit on the edge of the drop. On the Jebel Akhdar, at around 2,000 m, Alila Jabal Akhdar scatters its 86 grey-stone suites and villas in small pavilions above a gorge, and the Sahab, run by an Omani group, has just 27 rooms on the canyon's edge; the larger Anantara has its pool villas on the cliff. Further west, near Al Hamra, a 400-year-old town of earthen houses two to four storeys high, The View spreads some thirty separate rooms over a hillside at 1,400 m; on the Jebel Shams, the Jebel Shams Resort has simple chalets a few steps from the canyon viewpoint. In the neighbouring village of Misfat al Abriyeen, residents have turned old houses into guesthouses. On the plain, Al Nahda occupies a former mango plantation at Barka, in the Batinah. In the Wahiba Sands, the Desert Nights Camp lines up air-conditioned tented suites, and Canvas Club sets up a camp for a single group; on the coast, the eco-lodge of the Ras al Jinz reserve puts you next to the turtle beach. Muscat has its fortress hotel too, Al Husn, above a cove, for guests aged 16 and over. These hotels are recent; only the Antique Inn occupies an old house.

In the medinas. Riads, houses arranged around a courtyard, have their own page, Riads: El Fenn, La Sultana Marrakech, Riad Fès, Karawan Riad and the riads of Chefchaouen.

What charm asks of you

These addresses have their constraints, which Sabaro states on each hotel page.

Few rooms. Six rooms at Dar Rihana, seven at L'Ma Lodge, nine suites at Karawan Riad, 12 at Palais Rhoul and La Sultana Oualidia. Sabaro recommends booking these houses first, then building the rest of the trip around them.

A different kind of comfort. At Adrère Amellal, there is no electricity. In the medinas, cars often stop at the city gate: at Blanco Riad, car access is difficult and there is no parking; at Lina Ryad in Chefchaouen, you arrive on foot up many steps. At the XVA in Dubai, rooms measure 12 to 17 m² and the only place to eat is the vegetarian café; at the Al Seef Heritage, the pool and spa are those of the group's neighbouring hotel, with a shuttle. At the Antique Inn, the rooms in the original house are small and dim, with mattresses laid on the floor in the traditional way, and the bathroom is sometimes outside the room. On the Jebel Akhdar, the road is open only to four-wheel-drive vehicles, checked by the police at the foot of the mountain. At Canvas Club, there is no mains electricity or phone, and the shower is in the open air.

Renovations. A historic hotel is restored in stages. At the Old Cataract, the historic part is open and the Nile Wing is under renovation until July 2027. In Luxor, the Winter Palace, the historic hotel of the East Bank, is closed; its reopening as a Mandarin Oriental is announced for 2027. In Dubai, Al Fahidi Fort, the city's oldest building, has been closed for restoration since 2021. Sabaro checks the state of works at every booking.

For a trip for two in these houses, the Honeymoons page helps you choose the season and the room.

Tunisia: medina houses, the Bay of Tunis and an eco-lodge in Nefta

Medina houses. In Kairouan, the Palais Harran occupies a restored 13th-century mansion a few steps from the Great Mosque: seven rooms, a Tunisian breakfast and Kairouan cooking for guests. In Monastir, Dar Benti has seven rooms and suites around a patio and a pool, in a lane of the medina a short walk from the ribat. In Sousse, Dar Antonia arranges its suites around a fountain patio, with a butler.

Above the Bay of Tunis. In Carthage, the Villa Didon has ten suites on Byrsa Hill, above the Punic ports, with a cantilevered pool, a marble hammam and more than twenty works of art. In Sidi Bou Said, Maison Dedine has five rooms and four stacked terraces facing the bay, for guests aged 16 and over.

A designer house in the desert. In Nefta, near Tozeur, Dar HI Life is an 18-room eco-lodge designed by the French designer Matali Crasset, on the edge of the Corbeille, an amphitheatre-shaped hollow once rich in springs: rooms on stilts, cave rooms or rooms on the sand, a hammam and a geothermal hot-water bath.

Turkey: Cappadocian caves, Istanbul mansions and Aegean stone houses

In the tuff of Cappadocia. Cappadocia has a large share of the country's boutique hotels, carved into the rock or built of stone. In Uçhisar, the Museum Hotel, the region's only Relais & Châteaux, displays hundreds of Hittite, Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman objects; Argos in Cappadocia occupies a restored village facing Pigeon Valley. In Ürgüp, Kayakapı Premium Caves occupies a restored cave quarter; in Ortahisar, Tafoni Houses furnishes its finest suites with restored antiques.

Istanbul's historic houses. In Galata, the Georges Hotel Galata occupies an 1882 house 50 m from the tower, the Ecole St. Pierre a school founded in 1842, and The Bank Hotel an 1876 bank building in Karaköy. In the old city, the Hotel Ibrahim Pasha joins two Ottoman houses on the edge of the Hippodrome, with a roof terrace facing the Blue Mosque.

The stone houses of the Aegean. In Alaçatı, Alavya occupies six houses in the old village and has received a Michelin Key; the Alaçatı Taş Otel, a 130-year-old Greek house, stays open all year. In Şirince, above Ephesus, Markiz Konakları puts its guests up in konaks, the multi-storey Ottoman mansions. In Ayvalık, CavlıHane 1885 keeps the courtyard and stone façade of an 1885 house; near Assos, Biber Evi is a 200-year-old konak next to the Temple of Athena. In Datça, Mehmet Ali Ağa Konağı keeps a room painted in 1831.

The cities of Anatolia. In Bursa, the Kitap Evi is a konak on the Tophane ramparts that was once a bookshop. In Ankara, the Divan Çukurhan occupies an Ottoman caravanserai facing the entrance to the citadel; in Konya, the hich hotel occupies houses around two centuries old, separated from the Mevlana Museum only by the garden wall. In Edirne, Edirne Osmanlı Evleri joins two mansions about a century old; in Kars, Kar's Otel occupies a former Russian building.