The new Royal Mansour, recreated within an emblematic art deco building from the 1950s, stands in the heart of the city with views over its white roofs out to the impressive Hassan II Mosque. It features 149 rooms, suites and apartments alongside Moroccan, Japanese and French restaurants and a large, very sleek, spa.
The new hotel sits within easy reach of the main sights and provides wonderful views over the city. It’s located in a district designed by French architect and urban planner Michel Écochard, who was instrumental in the design of the city during the late 1940s and early Fifties. Casablanca International Airport is approximately 45 minutes away by car.
It has been an enormous undertaking, and eight years of work, to bring this legendary hotel back to its 1950s heyday when it was the first five-star hotel in the city – and home to everyone who was anyone. The original building, designed by Emile-Jean Duhon, was deconstructed wall by wall, with certain elements preserved such as the patio, the grand spiral staircase and the vintage red blinds on the exterior of the property. New additions include a glass walkway on the 23rd floor, suspended in the air, connecting the two towers.
Today the hotel shimmers with opulence. Find 70 different types of marble and works from artists such as Charles Kalpakian, who has made a stylised map of Casablanca in the lobby in marquetry form using glass, mirror, brass and copper, with a Thirties accent. Opposite that is a paludarium, a cross between an aquarium and a terrarium and a nod to Casablanca’s role as Morocco’s largest port. Inside it, more 1,000 fish dart through the water while above it, suspended from the lobby ceiling, 600 fish silhouettes in Bohemian crystal twirl, illuminated by 149 (one for each room) fireflies.
Seven hundred staff for 149 rooms should mean seamless service and it does. Room service remembered I like milk in my coffee and brought it on day two without being asked. The facilities are impressive, particularly the spa (the 11m indoor pool, with counter-current swimming, had not yet opened on my visit) which is spread over two floors and more than 2,500 square metres. There are, of course, hammams for men and women, a sauna, steam room, hairdressing and beauty salons. Treatments use MarocMaroc, Bellefontaine Switzerland and Australian brand Subtle Energies. Leonor Greyl hair products are used throughout the rooms and in the hairdressing salon.
You’ll also find the first Moroccan outlet of the French brand Le Salon Barbier, which dedicates itself to male grooming. Housed on the hotel’s 20th floor, it features sweeping views over Casablanca. There is a gym, which is open 24/7, with personal trainers providing boxing coaching and a Proverb stretching class alongside cardio machines, Pilates and a yoga studio.
Though slightly corporate in feel, despite the art deco accents, and a little too brown in colour for me (brown leather clads the Nespresso machine and trims the telephone), the nevertheless sumptuous rooms are designed to offer everything the modern traveller needs, with a clearly “no expenses spared” brief.
Generous desks come with a printer and a shredder, there is a revolving watch winder in the safe and there are nifty technology ports in the walls. Luxurious details include underfloor heating in the grey marble bathrooms.
Impressive in both quality and variety. La Grande Table Marocaine delivers local, traditional, specialities such as M’quila of little fish from the Casablanca coast with tomato and olive chermoula or royal pigeon and almond pastilla (pie). Served on beautifully crafted and intricately inlaid wooden tables to a background of local musicians playing string instruments and views over Casablanca from its 23rd floor perch, it is a standout experience.
On the ground floor, La Brasserie, with acclaimed chef Éric Frechon at the helm as consultant, serves dishes such as Wagyu beef tartare with French fries and mesclun salad. Spilling out into a courtyard, the restaurant shares this space, preserved from the hotel’s previous life, with Le Sushi Bar by Keiji Matoba. There, against a backdrop of bespoke Japanese masks and a sky of blown-glass cherry blossoms, indulge in the omakase menu delivered with aplomb.
The Bar pays homage to prohibition time and the first American bar in Morocco, Le Diplomate. Behind its marble counter is a wall showing all the art deco listed buildings in Casablanca. Try the salad of green beans with artichokes, toasted hazelnuts, and bread with hazelnut butter from the Éric Frechon menu there.
Breakfast is served on the rooftop with a vast buffet on offer, but do try the traditional Moroccan bread option, which comes with msemen and harcha varieties and is accompanied by melted butter and honey from the Atlas Mountains.
Double rooms from MAD 6,000 ($617) in low season; and from MAD 12,000 ($1,233) in high. Breakfast included.
There are four adapted rooms available.
The hotel is more suited to adults, but children are not unwelcome.
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