How do I plan a luxury splurge trip to Morocco?

A real luxury Morocco trip is not about spending on everything; it is about spending decisively on a few things that transform the experience. I usually anchor a splurge around three extraordinary places to stay and let everything flow between them. In Marrakech that might be a palatial riad with a private plunge pool and a butler who learns your coffee order; in the desert, one of the handful of genuine luxury camps where you have an en-suite tent, a private fire and a dedicated guide; on the coast, a design hotel above the ramparts at Essaouira. Three nights in places like these beats a week of merely nice ones.

The thread that ties a luxury trip together is a private driver-guide in a top-spec vehicle, ideally the same person for the whole journey so they become part of the experience. The difference is enormous: you stop where the light is best, you skip the queues, and your guide opens doors that are invisible from the outside — a tea with a master craftsman, a kitchen visit, a quiet entrance to a monument before the crowds. For the longest hops, I fold in an internal flight (Marrakech to Fes, say) to swap a six-hour drive for a relaxed hour in the air, then resume with the car at the other end.

Then I layer in the access experiences that are the true luxury here — the things you cannot simply buy at the door. A hot-air balloon at dawn over the palm groves outside Marrakech. A private hammam and gommage followed by an oil massage in your riad. A chef's-table dinner cooked in a private dar, or a long lunch at Sir Richard Branson's Kasbah Tamadot in the Atlas foothills. A styled photographer for an afternoon. Sunset cocktails set up on a private dune with a string of lanterns. These are the moments people talk about for years.

My one piece of advice to splurge clients is to resist the instinct to also see more. Luxury in Morocco is time, not territory. Two unhurried nights in each base, a free morning to do nothing on a rooftop, a lunch that runs to three hours — that spaciousness is what your money is really buying. Let a designer assemble the moving parts so you never touch a logistics detail, then simply arrive everywhere relaxed. The most expensive thing you can give yourself here is the feeling that you have all the time in the world.