Marrakech
Bar Guide

The most famous hotel bar in Africa, and one of the genuinely great hotel bars in the world. La Mamounia's Le Bar opened in 1923 and the Moorish interior has been updated with extraordinary care. The cocktail menu references Moroccan ingredients, the service is impeccable, and the room itself is worth an hour of anyone's time regardless of what they order.

Seven floors above the Medina, Kabana's rooftop terrace has unobstructed views over the old city to the Atlas Mountains. The bar operates on a licence obtained through the adjacent riad hotel, and the cocktail list is more sophisticated than the setting would lead you to expect. Sunset here is one of the great views in North Africa. Book ahead for a terrace spot.

The Churchill hotel's namesake bar is Hivernage's most reliable live music venue. The Gnawa musicians who perform Thursday through Saturday draw on a tradition that predates the city's tourism economy by centuries. The cocktails use Moroccan argan oil, orange blossom water, and locally distilled spirits. A place with genuine cultural depth.

The belly dance performances have made Le Comptoir famous, but the bar programme is serious enough to stand on its own. The North African-inflected cocktail list runs to 40 drinks, the wine list is French and Moroccan, and the two-floor townhouse setting is beautiful. Come for the 10pm show, stay for the drinks.

The French colonial post office converted into Marrakech's most charming café-bar. The terrace on the corner of Boulevard el Mansour Eddahbi is ideal for people watching, the wine list skews Moroccan and French, and the Art Deco interior is the most photogenic bar room in the new city. Open from noon and better the later you arrive.

Twenty minutes from the Medina in Marrakech's palm grove, the Palmeraie Palace bar has been serving guests since 1992 and has not dramatically changed since. The pool terrace bar is a throwback to a more decadent era of Moroccan tourism, and the cocktails are honest rather than clever. An antidote to the Medina's self-consciousness.

Three floors above a Medina alley that most visitors never find, Nomad's rooftop is the best value drinking spot in the old city. The bar operates through the restaurant licence, serves a focused cocktail list and Moroccan wine, and has views across the rooftops that cost nothing to look at and relatively little to drink beside.

The most reliably good bar in the French quarter, Kechmara serves a crowd of expats, local creative professionals, and the city's more adventurous visitors from 5pm onward. The music policy leans toward jazz and soul, the beer list is short but thoughtful, and the cocktail menu reads as the work of someone who has actually drunk broadly.

The nightlife annexe of the So Sofitel is where Marrakech's late-night crowd gravitates after the restaurants close. The DJ programme runs from 11pm and the bar serves until 4am, which is unusual for the city. The cocktails are mixed from a short but serious list, and the crowd on a Friday night reflects the full internationalism of modern Marrakech.