49 years on from the world’s final farewell to Winston Churchill, we step inside one of his favourite hotel rooms, The Churchill Suite at La Mamounia in Marrakech.
Set in royal gardens and Inspired by the Arab-Moorish tradition that infuses so much of Morocco’s heritage, seductive, stately and yet sensuous, La Mamounia is worthy of its Condé Nast Traveler Best Urban Hotel 2013 and a true feast for all the senses.
With a complete a three-year, $176-million makeover with luxury-lifestyle luminaries Jacques Garcia and Olivia Giacobetti at the helm, decades on, La Mamounia still continues enchant the thousands of people who still come in search of luxury, peace and a little bit of magic since its opening in 1923.
It is no surprise that such a unique blend of luxury and tradition has attracted some of the world’s best-known historical figures and celebrities – from the Rolling Stones to Charlie Chaplin, from Princess Caroline of Monaco to Sharon Stone, and of course Winston Churchill.
Britain’s wartime leader once said, “Marrakech is simply the nicest place on Earth to spend an afternoon”, so it is no surprise that he had an opulent hideout in the city he loved so much.
While decadence of bygone decades may be a thing of the past, you can still walk in the shadow of Churchill at the La Mamounia if you book the Churchill Suite, overlooking the wonderful gardens which Winston Churchill loved to paint and which he described as “one of the most beautiful places in the world” in a letter he wrote to the American president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Not surprisingly, the Churchill Suite is a place where English style and Moroccan tradition blend seamlessly and a grand tribute to one of the most famed guests of La Mamounia.
And if you can tear yourself away from the lap of luxury that is La Mamounia, why not chek out our guide to the city, make like Churchill and spend a langurous afternoon in Marrakech.
