Marrakech City Guide - Nightlife

Although Morocco is an Islamic country, there is a laid-back attitude towards alcohol, which is widely available, with bars in most tourist areas staying open late. Locally produced wines, beers and mineral waters are both excellent and good value, but imported drinks tend to be expensive. In the medina, law and etiquette dictate that alcohol should be not be consumed openly within view of a mosque, so drink discreetly indoors or on roof terraces.

Marrakech has something of a reputation for its nightlife, which covers groovy Ibiza-style discos to belly-dancing. The medina provides traditional evening entertainment in the form of cafes, food stalls and street entertainment, with everything revolving around Jemaa el Fna. Several hotels have rooftop cafes overlooking the square, while a number of riads have been converted into upmarket restaurants offering the full Moroccan experience, including a vast feast, music and entertainment.

For happening bars and clubs, head for Guéliz and Hivernage. Clustered along Avenue Mohammed V, particularly around place Abdel Moumen ben Ali, are most of the city's bars, as well as a wide variety of restaurants, bistros and sidewalk cafes. The city's best nightclubs and discos are located in Hivernage hotels or in venues just outside town, where the neighbours won't be disturbed. Although hotel bars can be very insular they are often preferable to those outside, which tend to be a male preserve and occasionally intimidating. Clubs and bars stay open until late and the dress code is casual. Expect to pay a hefty admission fee at nightclubs at weekends. During the week and especially before 2200, you may be lured with free admission and happy hour specials to nearly empty venues.

Bars: In the medina, the choice is somewhat limited. The Hôtel Tazi, on the corner of Rue Bab Agnaou and Avenue Houman el Fetouaki, is more of a TV lounge and fairly unatmospheric, but it does have a good selection of imported and local beers. The piano bar at the Hotel Jardins de la Koutoubia, 26 Rue de la Koutoubia, has the requisite pianist who gamely plays requests, and provides the perfect place to sip cocktails by the pool. Guéliz has a much greater range of bars, though there's a fine line between characterful and outright seedy. Chesterfield Pub, in the Hotel Nassil, 115 Avenue Mohammed V, pulls a respectable pint and offers bar snacks including olives and popcorn. The Café-Bar de l'Escale, Rue Mauretania, off Avenue Mohammed V, is the rare relaxed place where beers can be taken out to the pavement tables, and Gali Galou, off Mohammed V at Rue Oum Errabia (near the Diamant Noir Hotel), offers a happy hour that extends until 2300.

The Palais des Congrès, Avenue de France, is a huge ritzy complex that boasts four cafe-bars. All the big hotels also have bars. The most glamorous in the city is undoubtedly Le Churchill, the bar of the Hôtel La Mamounia (see Hotels), Avenue Bab Jedid, which has a sumptuous Moorish and art deco interior, and a strict dress code, turning away shorts, back-packs and trainers, depending who is on the door. Trendy Le Comptoir (see Restaurants) on Avenue Echouada, Hivernage, doubles as a cocktail bar and gourmet restaurant, and around the corner is Palais Jad Mahal, another restaurant/ bar that gets going around 2400. Visitors are welcome to drink alongside the mostly French residents in the interior and rooftop bar of Hôtel le Marrakech, Place de la Liberté, Guéliz.

Clubs: Although Marrakech has a reputation within Morocco for nightlife, clubs are an expensive extravagance where behaviour doesn't conform to strictest Moroccan codes of propriety. Going under the name of discothèques, music tends to be a mixture of Western pop music, Moroccan hits, and funky DJ mashups. Some of the local girls working the room do it professionally, so tread carefully before you end up paying for your date.

Pacha Marrakech, Boulevard Mohammed VI (website: www.pachamarrakech.com), is the nightclub with the magnetic pull to attract DJs away from New York and Amsterdam and playboys and partiers from Casablanca and Ibiza, so on the right night you won't begrudge the taxi ride from town. The place has a capacity for thousands but during the week it echoes. At weekends you'll be lucky to squeeze in, even in your best club attire. Téatrô, in the grounds of Hotel es-Saadi, Avenue Qadissia, Hivernage (website: www.theatromarrakech.com), packs in the crowds for its famous 'white night' Saturdays, where the clothes may be cool and monochromatic but the scene stays hot and colourful until dawn. The slightly camp Diamant Noir, inside Hôtel le Marrakech, Place de la Liberté, along Avenue Mohammed V, has an easy-going party atmosphere and a dance floor where straight and gay mix easily.

Live Music: For all types of live music, the place to go is Jemaa el Fna. Sometimes you may also find a group playing in the grounds behind the Koutoubia Mosque on Avenue Mohammed V. The National Festival of Popular Arts (see Special Events) held over a week in July in open-air locations throughout the city offers the chance to listen to a variety of Berber tribal music.