Introduction Royal Mansour is among the favorite (and best) hotels we’ve ever visited.Certainly in our top 10, even top 5.Our stay was not 100% flawless.But Royal Mansour as a whole seems to be soooo tantalizingly close to the perfect iteration of what it aims to be, what it (quietly) purports itself to be, we feel that it deserves no fewer than a full-on "GO" recommendation.First some overall notes - overwhelmingly positive, even at pricepoint - and then a minor blemish or two.OVERALL NOTESIf you’re even considering Royal Mansour, you likely already know much about what it aims to be, who built it, who owns it, and that it is easily the priciest base-rate in Morocco (and perhaps all of Africa, barring luxury safari camps and similar exclusive-use).You also know it's won many hotel-of-the-year awards and multiple times.In short, It has achieved the kind of renown very few ’newer’ hotels (i.e. younger than 30-40 years old) could ever hope to.A feat still more impressive when one considers there’s an obvious class/pricepoint rival - century-old classic La Mamounia - mere steps from Mansour’s jaw-flooring, gargantuan gates.Press is press, of course, and it's not always easy to trust. But this hotel has had plenty of it, largely positive.The comparison between Mansour and Mamounia is certainly a common one - in researching this trip, we found many multiple webpages devoted to just such a side-by-side of the two.I think the comparison is an instructive one, at least to a certain point.We decided between those two, in fact, and our final decision came down to how much snappier/responsive Mansour was via email when even inquiring about the hotel (a full eight months before travel) and how centralized their responses were.Even after originally booking us into Mamounia, their responses took much longer and came from a dizzying array of different email addresses.This kind of pre-arrival service (really, pre-BOOKING service) simply inspired a much higher confidence level for such an important trip. So we switched to the Mansour.And the 'pre-booking' attention was emblematic of what would be borne out at arrival and at every moment during our stay, continuing on through our departure at RAK.The service here is awfully good.(I should also note that we visited La Mamounia for dinner one evening, and that property seems equally luxurious - if a distinctly different flavor than Mansour: a touch more ‘hyped’ in the fashion/tech sense, but not obnoxiously so. Dress codes are much tighter. Staff a bit snootier. Despite its French provenance and gorgeous Moroccan architecture, Mamounia struck us as a slightly more ‘Monte Carlo’ type of hotel in its form of elegance. At least in terms of vibe/energy/tone/clientele. We did not see any guest rooms or riads, but the property and facilities are just gorgeous. The gardens in particular are gobsmackingly beautiful, it's the one area where i think Mamounia have a fairly commanding edge over Mansour's gardens.)In addition to all the accolades, everyone speaks of the countless man-hours of painstaking artistry and hand-craft that went into Royal Mansour's creation.Or have seen a bunch of pictures. We certainly did.But believe me here:Not unlike the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon or a live Prince performance, it’s just DIFFERENT when you get your own senses on it.Seeing.But also smelling. Hearing. Tasting.Absolute beauty.OVER THE TOP?Quite a few people - from FT, TA and similar UG content to vetted travel magazine reviews - have characterized this hotel as ‘over the top’, and not always in a flattering way.No arguments from me, there, at least not with the bare-simple characterization.Much of Royal Mansour is exceedingly 'over the top'.It is opulent.But in this case, one MUST add a bit of nuance to ‘over-the-top’ (or any other simplified description).Not one inch of Royal Mansour is even one iota ‘over-the-top’ in the way that the priciest hotels in Macau are. Or any Phillipe Starck designed hotel is.I haven’t yet seen the Burj-al-Arab in person, nor been inside the Faena in Miami, but i’m guessing those hotels are ‘over the top’ in a way that’s so utterly disparate from Royal Mansour's version of over-the-top as to render the entire characterization largely meaningless.No, Royal Manour meets the description of “over the top’ only when one considers pure beauty, craftsmanship, art or a specifically genuine sense-of-place.It’s over the top like Versailles or Sagrada Familia or Mahler’s Ninth are over the top.Only far less…. gaudy - sorry for the pun - or ‘arresting’ or extreme-in-execution than any of those.(None of those things were purpose-built to be hotels, naturally.)Royal Mansour was famously built with two (royal) directives.Everyone knows the first: built to be ‘the finest hotel in the world’.Even if such an objective were empirically achievable, I’m not sure it met this designation in my own mind, fantastic as it was to stay there.But an equally weighted directive was the second: built to be ’the finest [modern-era] example of handcrafted Moroccan/Moorish/Berber architecture/furnishings anywhere in the world”.It may very well achieve that much, I'm tellin ya.Everywhere you set your senses is beguilingly beautiful.The style is of course extremely intricate, bespoke, and often very complexly-detailed, for sure.Such is the millenia-old tradition it honors through representation.And it’s pretty obvious that only the world’s finest base materials were chosen.But one other thing is clear:None of it seems at all built simply to look like the ‘most expensive hotel in the world'.Only the most gorgeous, the finest, and most Moroccan.Besides, there are common spaces that don’t feel as bespoke and bejeweled, plenty of them.As such, those several and large spaces may feel more calm (i guess?) or relaxing to some who don’t like being surrounded by…..ornate rococo or berber or any other kind of complex detail-work…?OTHER SPACESThe main pool, as an example, is an extremely chill, sexy affair.Huge, gorgeous (simple! contemporary!) lines. Some of the few right-angles I noticed on property, in fact! Great music and f&b service.Totally luxurious, discreet, and it still feels ‘of place’, but maybe not as….. fussy, as intricately designed.Laying on one of the ultra-comfy (modern!) loungers, listening to the quiet midtempo soul/lounge/reggae music while sipping a delicious margarita, one imagines they might also be resort-pooslide in Majorca, or Palm Springs, or Haifa. Albeit at a VERY fine resort.Ditto Le Jardin, the outdoor poolside restaurantIt is a delightful setting, really spellbinding in its own simple way.A magical garden, as it were, with ultra-comfortable contemporary furniture.That large space (and its handsome outdoor bar) would never read as over-designed, or particularly opulent in the eye-popping sense.With different foliage, it could be in Provence. Or Ubud.The food, there, and everywhere else onsite, is top notch.Incredibly tasty.F&BIf you know my other reviews, you'll know that my wife and I enjoy fine food, but we're not foodies. One michelin star is usually plenty for us.That beign said, F&B was, across the board, both our favorite on the this trip and among our favorite hotel F&B ever experienced.We ate at Le Jardin (twice), La Table and Sesamo.These eateries (and bars/lounges) are each one more stunningly beautiful than the next, and each seem to ‘helmed’ - nominally at least - by star chefs that are each also simultaneously 'helming' several Michelin-starred temples of haute cuisine in Europe.I don’t really pay much attention to this starry superchef landscape, but if that’s a huge plus for you, chalk up another huge win for the Mansour. Three of them, i suppose.What i CAN tell you is that every bite of food we ate at this hotel was phenomenal.Sesamo, in particular, offered up one of the most sublime dinners we’ve ever experienced.I can also tell you that if you do, in fact, follow the superchef bus n truck tour, you will likely be hearing more very soon about the young chef actually preparing the food at Sesamo.Her name is Vania Ghedini.I took note to type her name into my phone - not sure i’ve ever done that before - to tell a couple of foodie friends about this meal. And now, you food-obsesses FLyerTalk faithful.Vania Ghedini.She is clearly a talent of exceptional precociousness, even to my slightly less-refined palate. No matter where you stay in Marrakech, you should try to book a dinner while she is still here and running ‘just’ one kitchen.RIADSWe were in a 1br ‘premier’ riad - second lowest from the ‘bottom’ class - and it was just as astounding as the rest of the hotel.It is truly like staying in the fabulous guest quarters of an imperial palace.Anything anyone might want in a ‘hotel room’ is provided.Anything else you could possibly think of can and will be provided, should you ask for it.The bathroom is particularly grand and gluttonous.Unlike our previous hotel, the lighting/air system was completely idiot-proof - consistent across rooms and smartly designed - and there was a veritable treasure-trove of entertainment options on their TV’s.In general, no hangups for us w the riad.I will say that while we COMPETELY loved its style, and would not want it changed one bit for all the world, these rooms are darkThey are rich, handsome, comfortable, luxuriant and totally inviting, they are simply dark.That is to say, most of the indoor rooms get no considerable amount of natural light.As such, it wouldn’t be our first choice to spend the rest of our lives living in as a primary residence (even if we were that lucky!), we’d choose something more light and contemporary.But it is enchanting, gluttonous and probably available nowhere else on earth (not like this, anyway).As others have mentioned, these riads are also extremely v-e-r-t-i-c-a-lIn fact, the second floor in our riad (bedroom/master bath) wasn’t really a second floor.It was a third floor (making the roof garden a fourth floor), as there’s two full sets of stairs to climb from the first floor (living area) to get to that 'second' floorMany of the riads have elevators, so if you have any mobility issues (or despise vertical living), make sure to ask for one. We had one and used it a lot.A FEW DINGSWhile the ‘dress code’ seems considerably more relaxed here than at La Mamounia, we were twice given misinformation. At check-in from the concierge desk and a restaurant host at La Table.I had thought i had remembered there being no dress code on the hotel’s website during trip planning, but i was careful to ask at check in where we were told there that there was no dress code anywhere on property.I asked the La Table host again just 30 minutes after that, at lunch waiting for our room to be available; i did feel underdressed there, in my travel sweat-shorts & sneakers, and the host there said the same. No problems anywhere at Roya Mansour.Yet that night when i showed up to Sesamo for an early dinner reservation wearing shorts, I was sent back to my riad to change into long pants.Never mind that it’s summer in the desert, or that i was wearing a pair of pleated Massimo Alba dress-shorts that cost several hundred dollars, along with Italian leather loafers and a collared dress-shirt.(Not a tank top and sneaks).I dutifully ran back to the riad and changed into some garden-variety, fifty-dollar Levi’s chinos and all was well.Not taking issue with the code (not much), but at a hotel such as this, all forward-facing hotel employees (other than perhaps housekeeping and landscaping) - certainly the check-in agent - should absolutely know exactly what the dress code is for the entire property, if asked.And be careful to make sure any inquiring guest is fully clear on them, should the guest ask.In the riad, while they knocked my pre-requested flower arrangement out of the park, and we found a multi-tiered tray of sweet treats waiting for us upon entrance, no other daily refreshes of complimentary treats or items removed from mini-bar.Wasn’t sure if the original tray of treats was part of my Amex FHR welcome. an extra for our 25th anniversary, or something all guests receive, but it was delicious.We had pre-requested a champagne-welcome bottle included w our room be replaced with fruit juice or beer.We’re not fans of the bubbly.A big bottle of chapagne awaited us in the room anyway.There are wood-burning fireplaces in the riad, one in the first-floor living room, and another on the roof garden. They say they will light them for you upon request.For our last night there, i asked earlier that afternoon at the concierge desk to have the rooftop fireplace lit that evening.“At what time, sir”?Oh, i don’t know, we’re having dinner at 7pm, maybe 8:30? 8:45? 9:00pm latest?“I’d need a specific time, sir.OK then, let’s say 8:45pm.“Excellent, we’ll have it done for you.”We returned that evening at around 9pm and not only was the fire not lit, housekeeping had just begun turn-down.We asked that turn-down be skipped that evening, and someone eventually came to get our fire lit by 9:30pm or so..Didn’t request a lot of pre-planned stuff like this (or, really, request much at all), but they kind of whiffed on this one.These may seem like a lot of dings. At any pricepoint. And they are. But something about this place...... the mishaps somehow really didn’t effect the overall pleasure we took in staying here.And Royal Mansour graciously comp’d our final blowout dinner at Le Jardin, which we found to be an appropriately generous gesture, so that was fantastic.CONCLUSIONWhatever one’s opinion of Royal Mansour, it’s hard to argue that it is quite simply one-of-one.It is an extremely expensive hotel, by just about any measure, but not many similarly-priced hotels end up giving you such a high percentage of 'what you pay for”This is the rare case where i believe the hotel absolutely does.If you can afford to spend even a night or two here, i believe that’s the way you’ll truly experience the entirety of Royal Mansour’s utterly distinctive brand of opulent yet beautiful and refined luxury.But even visiting for a few hours or dining here may get it done as well.We really really loved it and, while we may not ever return, will always remember the soft splendor of Royal Mansour.