Illustrative photo of the region — the property's own gallery is on the booking page.

Colonial-era elegance inside the ramparts — billiard room, cinema, and the town's only rooftop pool.

Heure Bleue Palais is Essaouira's grande dame: a courtyard palace at Bab Marrakech whose clubby lounges — billiards, library, a small cinema — feel closer to a colonial-era gentlemen's club than a beach-town hotel. The rooftop holds the town's only pool, with the Atlantic wind kept politely at bay.

Essaouira is a place of simple pleasures — the port, the ramparts, grilled sardines, windsurfing watched from a safe distance — and Heure Bleue is the most comfortable possible base for them. When the evening fog rolls in off the ocean, the fireplaces earn their keep.

Why we picked it

• Essaouira's only rooftop pool, looking over the medina walls
• Billiard room, cinema and clubby colonial-era lounges
• Right at Bab Marrakech, inside the ramparts