Nearly 800,000 votes later, one thing is clear: travellers can't get enough of Morocco's palace hotels. Condé Nast Traveler has published the Morocco edition of its 39th Readers' Choice Awards for 2026, with readers naming their ten favourite places to stay in the country — and the standouts skew firmly toward converted riads and restored royal-style properties rather than standard international chains.
The annual poll, one of the longest-running reader-voted awards in travel publishing, drew a huge 798,867 votes this year across all categories, from hotels and resorts to cruises, spas and islands. For Morocco, the pattern among the winners was a fondness for atmosphere over anonymity: properties that trade in carved courtyards, tiled hammams, rooftop terraces and the kind of service that feels borrowed from a bygone era of grand travel.
While the full ranked list is worth browsing on Condé Nast Traveler's site, the broader takeaway matters more than the exact order. Morocco has become one of the few destinations where the top-rated stays are overwhelmingly independent and locally rooted — think Marrakech's medina riads, desert-adjacent kasbahs and seaside addresses in the coastal cities. That's good news for travellers who want character and a sense of place rather than a lobby you could find anywhere.
It also signals where to book early. Reader-awarded hotels in Morocco, especially the small ones, tend to have limited room counts and sell out well ahead of the October-to-April high season. If a palace-style stay is on your list for 2026, the practical move is to pick a few names from the winners list and get deposits down before the winter rush.
For anyone weighing Morocco against other North African or Mediterranean options, the award results are a nudge: this is a destination currently excelling at exactly the kind of hotel experience people travel for. Whether you're planning a Marrakech city break, a Fes cultural trip or a longer route that adds the Atlas Mountains or the coast, the top-rated properties cluster conveniently around the classic traveller circuit.
