World's Best

Travel + Leisure Readers' 5 Favorite City Hotels in North Africa and the Middle East of 2023

Luxury accommodations rose to the top of reader favorites across North Africa and the Middle East in our annual "World’s Best Awards" survey for 2023.

By

Hannah Walhout

Published on July 11, 2023

The wide region that spans North Africa and the Middle East has some of the world’s oldest, and newest, cities. And travelers with a penchant for luxury will agree: these centers of history, culture, and business know how to do high-end hotels. With shiny, sky-scraping towers and sprawling collections of secluded villas, this year’s list of the best hotels in North Africa and the Middle East highlights hotels that are big, bold, and worth the splurge.

How Voting Works

Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, Travel + Leisure asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 165,000 T+L readers completed the 2023 survey, an increase of nearly 25 percent over pre-pandemic voting levels. A total of more than 685,000 votes were cast across over 8,500 unique properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).

Hotels were classified as either resort hotel, city hotel, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities, and they were specifically rated on the criteria below:

Rooms/facilities
Location
Service
Food
Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

A tree-lined view of La Mamounia — Courtesy of La Mamounia

What Readers Loved

Two of the top five hotels can be found in one of the most visited cities in the most visited country in North Africa, and in fact, the continent: Marrakesh, an ancient imperial capital in the foothills of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. This year’s No. 3 property is the Four Seasons Resort Marrakech, an urban resort-style hotel — with 40 acres of gardens and pathways — just a short drive from the medina. “The staff is super nice, genuine, and friendly,” wrote one respondent of their stay at the 139-key retreat. “They went out of their way to take care of me and my family.”

Like last year, Toronto-based Four Seasons is the only brand to appear on the list more than once, reflecting its sustained investment in the MENA region. The company’s other ranking property is Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza, a stately tower on Cairo’s riverside corniche that comes in at No. 5.

But readers’ favorite hotel on the 2023 survey, shooting to the top from No. 7 last year, is the crown jewel of a luxury brand that was born and raised in the Middle East.

The Winner

Burj Al Arab Jumeirah: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A large windowed suite in Burj Al Arab Jumeirah — Courtesy of Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts

A regular presence in the T+L World’s Best Awards, this trend-setting hotel — among the most recognizable in the Gulf, if not the globe — has been an icon on the Dubai skyline for more than 20 years. One of the world’s tallest hotel buildings, the distinctive curved tower opened in 1999 on an artificial island off the coast south of downtown, a location that ensures each of its 199 suites comes with aquamarine sea views. The longtime flagship of the Dubai-based Jumeirah brand remains the gold-standard for luxury hospitality in the Emirates: one reader described it as an “outstanding hotel with everything thought of, by every team, to make your stay memorable.” But in a city where another taller, shinier hotel is always on the horizon, the Burj keeps up with the times — most recently, with a new outpost of St. Tropez club-staurant Verde Beach.