Olinto Atlas Mountain Retreat

Style

Slow-tempo arcadia

Setting

High(brow) Atlas

Olinto Atlas Mountain Retreat is the labour of love of Prince Fabrizio Ruspoli di Poggio Suasa, whose aristocratic French-Italian roots trail back to Charlemagne’s era, via Fellini-inspiring playboys, revolutionaries and one of Handel’s most important patrons (for whom the retreat is named). Ruspoli was the driving force behind iconic Marrakech stay La Maison Arabe; but he – and those cosied away in Olinto’s nine very private pavilions – has found the most happiness in a leafy enclave of the High Atlas, where he’s designed, styled and landscaped a timeless botanical paradise. Olinto is filled with his rare antiques and artworks, and is given over to nurturing both rising musical talents and peace-seeking guests – a noble(’s) pursuit enriched with simple pleasures.

Facilities

Rooms

Nine pavilions. These include three suites which have a separate sitting room and private pool.

Checkout

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability and on request. Earliest check-in, 2pm.

More Details

Rates include a famously hearty Moroccan breakfast: pastries, fluffy flatbreads, pancakes, homemade exotic jams and yoghurts, honey and amlou (argan oil and almond spread), hot drinks, and eggs as you like them. A two-night minimum stay is required.

Also

The owner descends from the fascinating Roman Ruspoli family line, dating back to a general under Charlemagne in the eighth century. Beginning as papal nobility, the line includes one of Handel’s most important patrons, Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli, a member of the 17th-century Arcadian Academy (who adopted the Latin pastoral name Olinto). And there are more luminaries in the prince's ancestry: the Marquis de Lafayette, who was influential in the American Revolution; Alessandro ‘Dado’ Ruspoli, who inspired Fellini’s La Dolce Vita; and Charles Haas, who the character Swann in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is based on. And Prince Fabrizio himself has been a pioneer of hospitality, creating the first boutique riad in Marrakech in the 1990s with the iconic La Maison Arabe. Even more impressive, he’s been the sole visionary for Olinto, acting as architect, interior designer and garden creator.

Hotel Closed

The hotel closes for a month in the low season from mid July to mid August.

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Pet Friendly

Pool

On-Site Restaurant

Room Service

Spa

At the Hotel

Lush gardens designed by the owner, Atlas Mountain-view courtyards with fountains, roof terrace, flowering pergolas, kitchen garden, ponds, hammam, reception building, boutique, plug adaptors to borrow, laundry service, and free WiFi. In rooms: roof terrace with a day-bed; private garden and courtyard; fireplace; underfloor heating; smart TV with Netflix; desk; selection of Moroccan pastries; free minibar with soft drinks, beer and wine (restocked daily); Nespresso machine; teas from the Moroccan Botanist; and Botanika bath products.

Our Favourite Rooms

There are just nine pavilions, each fittingly named after a dominant plant here, blown like seeds across the estate. Each is cocooned in its own private walled garden with a courtyard where you can watch the sun set over the Atlas and a day-bed on the roof for sunbathing. Everything here conspires to make your stay as romantic as possible, and Moroccan craftsmanship comes to the fore – attention has been utterly lavished on detail: zouak doors as intricately etched as Arabic script, carved plaster, mashrabiya screens, woven rugs, leather panels, perforated lanterns, etched frames around TVs… Even the tea is rare and precious, in a beautiful wooden box from the Moroccan Botanist boutique. Plus, important pieces from the Prince’s collection of art and antiques have been moved in to add the personal touch that pervades throughout the retreat. There are no let-downs in the bunch, but our picks are the three Pavilions with Private Pools (Lavender, Lantana or Eucalyptus), each of whose private pool comes with a spectacular panoramic view of Atlas peaks.

Poolside

The views continue to be superlative from both of the hotel’s two pools – one sprawling and freeform with edges that match the organic lines of the property’s ponds; the other smaller and heated with a few four-poster day-beds. And you needn’t schlep anywhere except your lounger, because staff are just a Whatsapp alert away (if they’re not already discreetly keeping an eye) for drinks and snacks. The retreat’s three suites each come with a heated infinity pool in their private gardens.

Spa

A Moroccan getaway isn’t complete without hammam-ing it up at least once, and the hotel has a dedicated space for the traditional restorative ritual. You can book a range of massages and treatments too. For those who like to stay active, there's a polished fitness centre stocked with the latest kit.

Packing Tips

Be prepared to follow in Prince Fabrizio’s footsteps as an aesthete with a collection of beautiful objets – the hotel’s boutique sells furnishings, handicrafts and more.

Also

Staff who’ve been hired from the surrounding Berber villages offer warm polished service and can be summoned via Whatsapp. And, they’ll ferry you about the property by golf cart if needed.

Children

In the interests of being more ‘shhh’ than ‘shush’, the hotel is for over-14s only.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

It’s rare you get a suite that’s so secluded – there’s even walls to shade you from prying eyes, so take sundowners in your private garden. Otherwise, revel on the bar’s roof terrace with its all-round Atlas views.

Dress Code

Twin with the spectacularly patterned and coloured doors and tiles with zouak- and zellige-inspired pieces.

Hotel Restaurant

Being built on a former olive farm, and blessed with thriving kitchen gardens, the hotel restaurant is able to keep both the produce and menus deliciously fresh (and provide lashings of liquid gold to dunk pillowy flatbreads into), shifting with the season. Dishes dabble in flavours from both sides of the Med – with plenty of enticing sweet-savoury combos typical of the region – you might have the likes of surf ’n’ turf briouates, crab tartare with tropical fruit, beef-and-date tagine or rosemary-pimped monkfish skewers. For most of the year, tables are set under a wisteria-entwined pergola as the sun sinks behind the Atlas, but the hotel’s restaurant also has a dining room as elegantly dressed and thoughtfully crafted as your pavilion – hung with early-18th-century art and engravings, coated with colourful zellige and bejmat tiling – with a fireplace for chillier nights.

Hotel Bar

Rainbow sprites dance over the sultrier brick, leather and wood interiors of art deco bar Les Zwaks, as sunlight shines through its stained-glass windows. You don’t need any embellishment of the mischief and magic here: with a lost-in-time feel and a drinks list healthily weighted with local and international wines and classic cocktails (plus signatures such as the Olinto Mule with saffron-infused vodka; Marrakech Negroni with star anise, cloves and cinnamon; or raspberry mojito), there’s fun and flirtation afoot. Follow the trail of emerald-green tiles that shine like dragon skin to the roof terrace, where the Toubkal National Park and Moroccan royals’ vast protected hunting grounds make for incredible scenes whichever way you look.

Last Orders

Breakfast is from 8am, lunch from 1pm, and dinner from 7pm.

Room Service

You can dine in your pavilion’s private garden (or in bed) at all times (there may be delays during restaurant hours).

Planes

Marrakech Menara is around an hour’s drive away along a scenic rocky route. Taxis cost around €70 one-way; or Olinto can help arrange a private SUV transfer for up to four guests (€150 each way).

Automobiles

If you’re planning to shuttle back and forth between Marrakech or explore further in Morocco, a hire car will be handy. But, there’s a rare kind of peace here, so we suggest you hop in a taxi or transfer, then stay put.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Olinto Atlas Mountain Retreat enjoys a privileged position within its own microclimate, so even when the surrounding peaks are snow-capped, the estate’s lush greenery endures. Designed by Renaissance man Fabrizio himself, this perfumed idyll of lavender bushes, oleander and rosemary, swaying acanthus, gnarled olive trees, lolling white roses, slender cypress and more are set to reach Majorelle levels of interest (indeed, they’re already being considered as a stop for garden-focused tours). And lucky you gets to stay among them and explore at leisure. More demanding – yet still rewarding – is conquering the peaks of the High Atlas with sure-footed Berber guides or trekking and horseback riding in the foothills, and marvelling at the Tinmel Mosque’s grand corridors of keyhole arches and sacred stonework (please note, the mosque’s interior is closed until 2024). Getting out into the region presents an opportunity to really get to know it and its people, by breaking bread, drinking tea and chatting to families on visits to village houses and lunching on tagine and the like in a mountaintop auberge, and visiting women’s cooperatives to buy beautifully crafted rugs and argan-oil products. And, back at Olinto, you may get invited into Prince Fabrizio’s living room for a piano recital; in his role as patron – and appreciator – of the musical arts, he’s invited rising and arrived stars of the scene (France’s Roger Muraro, Italy’s Pietro Bonfilio, South Korea’s Hyuk Lee…) to give rousing intimate performances (which guests can attend for free) and stay for residencies. And when you’re not in a musical reverie, you’ll be daydreaming among the flowers, sipping a chilled vin gris, getting scrubbed smooth in the hammam, or reaching a state of bliss amid the pools, pergolas and peak views as you do nothing at all.

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This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .