Morocco by design: Jasper Conran transformed Yves Saint Laurent's villa in Tangier into an exquisite hotel - the last chic outpost in a city that has returned to its heyday

Glenys Roberts moves to Villa Mabrouka, on the northwest coast of Morocco. “There’s no better place to treat yourself than here,” she says of the Tangier hotel. READ MORE: MailOnline's mystery shop compares BA, Ryanair and easyJet
By Glenys Roberts for the Sunday Mail
Published: 12:33 BST, October 16, 2023 | Updated: 12:33 BST, 16 October 2023

There can be few pleasures that rival waking up in the bedroom of the great designer Yves Saint Laurent in Tangier, Morocco. , and breathe in the scent of the sea and the end of summer.
I'm staying at Jasper Conran's fabulous new hotel, Villa Mabrouka. It means good fortune in Arabic – and all the fortune is mine.
The room overlooks a two-acre garden and a meeting point with the 'Atlantic. the Mediterranean. A fleet of small fishing boats skirts the ghostly contours of Spain. On a clear day you can see Trafalgar.
While I enjoy smoked salmon and fresh peaches in the privacy of my colonial-style terrace, in Below me, other guests are having breakfast under green and white parasols. I don't hear them and I can barely see them because of the falling passion flowers and wisteria.
With its billowing muslin curtains, I could be in Italy, the Caribbean or even the south of France – back when Somerset Maugham called it "a sunny place for shady people". And that, Jasper would tell me later, is exactly the atmosphere he wanted to create.

Travel Oct 17, 2023 0 42 Add to Reading List

Morocco by design: Jasper Conran transformed Yves Saint Laurent's villa in Tangier into an exquisite hotel - the last chic outpost in a city that has returned to its heyday

Glenys Roberts moves to Villa Mabrouka, on the northwest coast of Morocco. “There’s no better place to treat yourself than here,” she says of the Tangier hotel. READ MORE: MailOnline's mystery shop compares BA, Ryanair and easyJet

By Glenys Roberts for the Sunday Mail

Published: 12:33 BST, October 16, 2023 | Updated: 12:33 BST, 16 October 2023

There can be few pleasures that rival waking up in the bedroom of the great designer Yves Saint Laurent in Tangier, Morocco. , and breathe in the scent of the sea and the end of summer.

I'm staying at Jasper Conran's fabulous new hotel, Villa Mabrouka. It means good fortune in Arabic – and all the fortune is mine.

The room overlooks a two-acre garden and a meeting point with the 'Atlantic. the Mediterranean. A fleet of small fishing boats skirts the ghostly contours of Spain. On a clear day you can see Trafalgar.

While I enjoy smoked salmon and fresh peaches in the privacy of my colonial-style terrace, in Below me, other guests are having breakfast under green and white parasols. I don't hear them and I can barely see them because of the falling passion flowers and wisteria.

With its billowing muslin curtains, I could be in Italy, the Caribbean or even the south of France – back when Somerset Maugham called it "a sunny place for shady people". And that, Jasper would tell me later, is exactly the atmosphere he wanted to create.