What are the hidden gems in Marrakech?

Everyone does Jemaa el-Fna and the Majorelle garden, and they should — but the Marrakech I love most lives in the smaller, quieter places. Top of my list is Le Jardin Secret, a restored 19th-century palace garden tucked right in the busiest part of the medina, behind an unremarkable door on the Mouassine street. Step inside and the noise just drops away into Islamic-style parterres, a working water system and a tower you can climb for rooftops over the souks. Most people walk straight past it; I make sure my guests don't.

My other quiet favourite is the Maison de la Photographie, a small museum of vintage Moroccan photographs in an old fondouk near the Ben Youssef Madrasa. The pictures are wonderful, but the secret is the rooftop terrace café — one of the best, calmest spots in the medina for a mint tea with views across the rooftops to the Atlas on a clear day, and barely a queue. Pair it with an early-morning visit to the Ben Youssef quarter before the crowds, when the lanes are still being swept and the light is soft and golden.

For atmosphere with locals, I steer people to the Mellah's spice and dried-fruit market, which feels far more workaday and real than the main souk, and to the rahba kedima square with its apothecary stalls. And if you want the genuine ritual rather than a hotel spa, ask your riad for a neighbourhood hammam — a proper steam-and-scrub among Marrakchis, not a polished tourist version. It's humble, a little startling the first time, and one of the most authentic hours you'll spend in the city.

Last tip, and it's a good one for design lovers: hop a taxi out to Sidi Ghanem, the industrial quarter turned design district on the edge of town. It's where the city's makers have their showrooms — ceramics, textiles, lighting, concept stores and a few excellent cafés — with none of the souk haggle and far better prices on serious pieces. It's not pretty in the postcard sense, but it's where Marrakech's creative present lives, and almost no first-timer thinks to go.