Hotels + Resorts You Can Stay in Yves Saint Laurent’s Former Home at This Boutique Hotel in Tangier With the debut of an impeccable seaside villa turned hotel, Morocco’s bohemian enclave is suddenly back on the map. By Chris Wallace Chris Wallace Chris Wallace is a New York-based writer and photographer. He recently published his first book, "Twentieth-Century Man," about the late artist Peter Beard. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, and other publications. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines Published on April 26, 2024 Trending Videos Close this video player Villa Mabrouka, Yves Saint Laurent's onetime home in Tangier. Photo: Chris Wallace In the aperitif hour in Tangier, visitors gather on the rooftops of hotels in the medina to watch the sun set over the Strait of Gibraltar. Turtle doves swoop and swerve in the lilac dusk. The lights of the port come up and reflect on the bay, where a grand old sailboat is putting to sea. To the east, the hunched backs of the Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa, the Pillars of Hercules, loom in the distance, purple in the falling light. Just after 6 p.m., a hollow crackling comes over a loudspeaker, followed by a hoarse chanting, which is joined by another voice, and then another. A song in the round from several sources, at various decibel levels: the Maghrib adhan, or the evening call to prayer. An archway in Tangier's medina; the serene pool at Villa Mabrouka. Chris Wallace In the sitting room at Villa Mabrouka, a fire cuts the November chill. Visitors, expats, and locals talk about the newest wave of changes to affect the city, and the expectations they bring. One of the central shifts in the hospitality landscape is Villa Mabrouka itself, a 12-suite hotel in what was once Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s holiday home, which the British designer Jasper Conran purchased in 2019. Conran set about renovating and reappointing the hotel with an eclectic, playful maximalism — his signature spin on Tangerine style — before it opened last June. With manicured lawns that slope toward the sea and groves of old-growth palms, the property feels private, a bit like a North African Chateau Marmont — despite being conveniently located on the western edge of the casbah. There was considerable buzz around the hotel’s opening, along with the hope that Villa Mabrouka, which means “house of luck” in Arabic, might finally make Tangier the kind of international destination that travel insiders have been predicting for the past 20 years — one capable of crossing over from a place that attracts mainly European travelers to a broader global market. In the medina, eavesdropping on the odd conversations in Arabic, Turkish, German, French, Italian, English, I felt a part of something. I felt immediate and alive, not a faded ghost wandering through nostalgia or memory, but something vivid and new, woven into a story still in the process of being written. It’s not for lack of trying. Efforts to make Tangier a hub for tourism and investment have been in full swing since 1999, after a mandate by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI to revitalize this ancient port city, which also happens to be the location of his summer residence. Cranes have crowded the corniche for years. The gleaming new roads leading into the city center pass a parade of new stucco buildings — new neighborhoods, even. A new Waldorf-Astoria hotel is in the works that will have 115 rooms and suites. During my recent visit I heard the word “gentrification” more than once. From left: Cinema Rif, overlooking the Grand Socco, is home to the Cinémathèque de Tanger; a dried fruit stand inside Tangier's medina. Chris Wallace But optimism isn’t confined only to newness. Downtown, I stumbled into one of the best bookstores I’d ever seen, the Librairie des Colonnes, where stacks of rare art titles, including a David Hammons monograph, sat beside sociological texts in five different languages. The recently renovated Cinémathèque de Tanger, with its gorgeous Art Deco façade, art-house programming, and indoor-outdoor cafe, feels as vibrant and vital as I imagine the Left Bank of Paris was in the 1960s. The spirit of ’68 was also strong at Kiosk Think Tanger, just off Boulevard Pasteur, near the old Grand Cafe. At this former chess hall, the art collective and cultural nonprofit Think Tanger hosts events and sells works by local artists. In fact, according to cofounder Hicham Bouzid, the art and commerce on offer at the storefront is just one piece of the puzzle. “Kiosk is a social hub — a cafe, a place where you can buy books and prints,” Bouzid said. “But mainly it is a place of gathering. We also have a magazine called Makan, which means ‘space’ in Arabic, about architecture, urbanism, and social life in Tangier and beyond.” From left: Rugs at Boutique Majid; a scooter, a common mode of transportation in Tangier, parked in the medina. Chris Wallace Perhaps inevitably, all these developments have the unintended consequence of drawing attention to what Tangier does not have. For example, why does this favorite city for both creators and collectors of art not have the kind of blue-chip galleries found in, say, Athens or Mallorca? Marrakesh hosts a series of international conferences. Many of Morocco’s institutions and grand museums are located in the capital, Rabat. It is difficult to consider Tangier without taking into account its reputation as a place of escape for white Westerners of a certain class. According to Bouzid, Tangier’s arts scene has the potential to be far more exciting, dynamic, and independent. One of the goals he and his two cofounders have set for Think Tanger is to recognize and nurture nascent creative ecosystems as they arise. “Tangier will develop its own cultural structures,” he said — and these, he thinks, will be “surprising and alternative” to everywhere else. From left: Visitors enjoying a break outside the Kasbah Museum, a former palace; strolling Rue d'Italie. Chris Wallace Despite all its famed cultural institutions, Tangier still does not have a reputation for destination dining or drinking establishments. Mercifully, one of my favorite cantinas in the world, the unfussy Saveur de Poisson, is still thriving. This family-style restaurant serves a set menu of fish stew and grilled whole fish, just up the stairs from the bustling Marché Central de Poisson. A night out at the El Morocco Club — a nostalgic spin on the 1930s New York City supper club of the same name — is always a good idea. And, sure, I’ve read lots of memoirs in which English expats and visiting members of the Rolling Stones would go to Casa d’Italia from time to time for pizza. But it seems that Tangier’s true social scene is domestic. Like Los Angeles in the age before Instagram, the dinner party is the main way people gather. Route de la Plage Merkala, which runs along the Strait of Gibraltar. Chris Wallace The more I thought about Tangier’s climate, its flora, and the geographical and psychological qualities it shares with my native L.A., the more I understood why I felt so at home. Visiting friends in the hills west of the medina reminded me strongly of Laurel Canyon in the 90s. On a bluff overlooking the strait, the dusty medicinal smell of eucalyptus summoned a powerful sense memory of the fields in the Pacific Palisades, of soccer games when the spring dew was still on the grass. Only the native camels festooned in crimson and gold tassels reminded me that I was closer to the Sahara than the Mojave. Related: Morocco Is a Perfect Family Adventure Even the geography of the city, its feeling of physical remove, is similar — shielded on one side by mountains and desert and by the sea on the other. The city welcomes all comers (“accidentals,” as they are sometimes called), whether they’ve come to escape or to reinvent themselves. Finding that feeling of recognition, discovery, comfort, or delicious bewilderment in a new place is a large part of why I travel. But our reading doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is intertwined with the story we tell ourselves: the cultural narrative a place projects and has projected onto it. And Tangier, for someone of my age and interests, has one of the most singular and powerful narratives in the world. From left: A merchant enjoying a tea break in the medina; the Marrakech Suite, formerly Yves Saint Laurent's bedroom, at Villa Mabrouka. Chris Wallace It is difficult to consider Tangier without taking into account its reputation as a place of escape for white Westerners of a certain class. In 2013, when Anthony Bourdain filmed an episode of Parts Unknown in the city, he centered it around Paul Bowles and the Beat writers. For years, said Bourdain, there was the notion that “everything was permitted, nothing was forbidden”; that if “you liked drugs, the kind of sex that was frowned upon at home, and an affordable lifestyle set against an exotic background, Tangier was for you.” That reputation has informed the character of the Westerners arriving ever since. Right up to the 1990s, when the Algerian-born fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent made a home in the city, a group of English antiquarians and journalists, artists and collectors, aristocrats and ne’er-do-wells of his milieu were still clinging to, and re-creating, the notion of Tangier as a haute bohemian utopia. And maybe we all still are, to some extent. Seafood with harissa, nuts, and pomegranate juice at Saveur de Poisson. Chris Wallace “For years, that was something I was fighting,” Bouzid said of the licentious Tangier of popular imagination. “Now I’m kind of above it, because now we’re creating our own streams. Go to the streets now, in Tangier, and good luck finding some information about the Beats in the upcoming generations,” he said. Related: What a Trip to Morocco After a Devastating Earthquake Taught Me About Visiting a Destination in Recovery Jasper Conran, the fantasy narrative of Tangier is a part of the story, but not all of it. “Tangier can stand alone without those nostalgic notions,” he told me. “But those notions are incredibly charming to arrive at and explore.” Aesthetically, Tangier has its own heritage, blended with a hodgepodge of influences. “Because of its proximity to Europe, Tangier has that curious mix of Europe and Africa, the 11th-century Islamic culture colliding with 20th-century modernity,” Conran said. From left: Trompe l'oeil murals by Lawrence Mynott at Villa Mabrouka, a hotel in Tangier, Morocco; a candlelit dinner in the restaurant at Villa Mabrouka. Chris Wallace These influences I found apparent in the mélange of pieces in my room at Villa Mabrouka. In what was once Saint Laurent’s bedroom were a pearl-inlaid table from Syria, a Kermit-green cashmere blanket from India, and Moroccan lanterns. A poolside pavilion was designed by American architect Stuart Church, and the refurbished dining gazebo has trompe l’oeil walls painted by the English artist Lawrence Mynott. From left: The turquoise-tiled pool and pavilion at Villa Mabrouka; dusk setting in over rooftops of the casbah. Chris Wallace In 2016, Conran, who had been fascinated with hotels since he read Ludwig Bemelmans’s Hotel Splendide in his teens, opened one of his own: L’Hôtel Marrakech. Though he has been a regular visitor to Tangier for years, he always thought of the city as a “secret enclave,” he said. “It is part of the legend of the city.” He hopes that his “house of luck” will link the nostalgic idea of the city with the contemporary reality of luxury, making visits to Tangier “more possible, more comfortable.” The more I thought about Tangier’s climate, its flora, and the geographical and psychological qualities it shares with my native L.A., the more I understood why I felt so at home. Visiting friends in the hills west of the medina reminded me strongly of Laurel Canyon in the 90s. in The first thing I do whenever I return to town is rewalk the white-walled casbah, the city’s busiest area, as if remapping it, remembering its labyrinthine nooks and crannies, and retracing old passages of thought. On this visit, it was quiet on the northern side of the neighborhood, almost lonesome. Two Swiss women taking selfies were the only visitors at Cafe Baba, where Bowles and the Stones famously smoked their kef. A few solitary men made their way through the labyrinth, wearing wintery djellabas — woolen wizard cloaks with pointy hoods. The Borj en-Naam fort, now a museum to the great 14th-century explorer and native Tangerine Ibn Battuta, was empty. A view of the Strait of Gibraltar from the Marrakech Suite (formerly Yves Saint Laurent's room) at Villa Mabrouka. Chris Wallace But a moment’s walk down to the southern side of the casbah and into the ancient medina, past the great Boutique Majid emporium — maybe the greatest store of lanterns and rugs and all manner of collectibles in the world — turned that feeling of solitude inside out and allowed me to become part of a small community. In the center of this bustling village, where the news and gossip of the day are shared, where the solitary communion with the ambient energy of all these people sipping refreshments at Cafe Tinjis in the medina, eavesdropping on the odd conversations in Arabic, Turkish, German, French, Italian, English, I felt a part of something. I felt immediate and alive, not a faded ghost wandering through nostalgia or memory, but something vivid and new, woven into a story still in the process of being written. Where to Stay Hôtel Nord-Pinus Tanger A beautifully designed riad on the northern edge of the casbah, overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The rooftop, for breakfast or sundowners, is one of the city’s great viewpoints. Villa Mabrouka English designer Jasper Conran’s 12-suite hotel was once Yves Saint Laurent’s home. It has a restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine, lush gardens, and a fabulously overfilled pool. Where to Eat El Morocco Club One of the finer dining establishments in town. The downstairs piano bar is a classic see-and- be-seen nightlife spot. Le Saveur de Poisson A beloved Tangerine institution, this cash-only place serves up delicious fish stew, fresh catches served on sizzling clay plates, like a whole grilled fish with a harissa sauce, and pomegranate juice. What to Do Boutique Majid This magical emporium is a labyrinth of gorgeous rugs piled shoulder-high, immaculate Moroccan tapestries hung on the walls, lanterns, and artifacts of all sorts. The owner regales shoppers with stories of the Rolling Stones, great designers, decorators, and the rest who have come through his doors. Cinémathèque de Tanger Behind the great art deco façade is a cultural gathering place: a movie house showing new and classic films and an indoor-outdoor cafe. Kiosk Think Tanger A bookstore, print store, cafe, and creative hub all in one, the headquarters of the art and urbanism collective and nonprofit Think Tanger is a vital community nexus. Librairie des Colonnes A perfect bookstore, stacked with scholarly works on local issues and people of note, as well as art books, fashion magazines, and local arcana. A version of this story first appeared in the May 2024 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline "Totally Tangier."