Marrakech Riad Spa Day

This five-hour spa day is the ultimate indulgence for travellers who want to experience the full spectrum of Moroccan beauty rituals in a single, seamlessly orchestrated day of complete pampering and relaxation. The setting is a magnificent riad spa hidden behind an unassuming door in the medina -- step through and you enter a world of hand-carved plaster, zellige fountains, rose-petal-strewn corridors, and a central courtyard where a heated plunge pool is surrounded by orange trees and trailing jasmine. Your spa day begins with the traditional hammam ritual: sixty minutes of black soap application, steam bathing, vigorous kessa exfoliation, and a ghassoul clay body mask that strips away every trace of fatigue and travel grime, leaving your skin baby-soft and glowing. After a refreshing rinse, you move to a private treatment room for a sixty-minute massage -- choose from relaxing argan oil, deep tissue, or hot stone -- where skilled therapists work out knots and tension with techniques refined over generations. A thirty-minute facial follows, using a protocol of Moroccan natural products: prickly pear seed oil serum, rose water toner, argan oil moisturiser, and a cooling cucumber eye treatment. While the facial products absorb, your hands are treated to a Moroccan manicure using henna-based nail strengthener and argan cuticle oil. Between treatments, you are invited to the poolside lounge where a gourmet three-course lunch is served: seasonal Moroccan salads, a beautifully presented tagine, and a dessert of orange blossom custard with pistachio and rose petal. Fresh juices, herbal infusions, and water with cucumber and mint are available throughout the day. The final hour is yours to spend as you wish -- floating in the plunge pool, resting on a sun lounger, or simply sitting in the courtyard listening to the fountain and absorbing the deep peace that settles over you after hours of attentive care.