Marrakech may not have a huge nightlife scene, but in recent years there's been a (small) flurry of trendy bar openings in the Ville Nouvelle. Highlights include an industrial-chic wine bar, a buzzing roof terrace with live jazz, and a slick spot for sophisticated cocktails. The medina only has a handful of restaurants and bars licensed to serve alcohol, although many riads sell beer and wine to guests in the privacy of their inner courtyards.

Read on for our expert's top tips, while for further inspiration, here are our guides to Marrakech's best restaurants, attractions, shopping and hotels, plus how to spend a weekend in the city.

Medina

Café Arabe

Tucked away in upmarket Mouassine, Café Arabe’s rooftop terrace is the best place for Medina drinks. Downstairs, tables sit snugly in an open-air zellij (mosaic) tiled courtyard, while upstairs curvaceous beige sofas sprawl across the shaded terrace, which is magically lit by candlelight at night. It attracts a fashion-forward crowd of designers and artists, who come here for well-priced bottles of peppery Siroua S., glasses of rosé and passable cocktails. There's a Moroccan-Italian dinner menu on offer, although the food is a tad bland. It's best to come here for an aperitif and then head on to dinner elsewhere.

Contact: cafearabe.com
Prices: £

Ville Nouvelle (Gueliz)

Le Palace

This clubby downstairs lounge at Le Palace restaurant is redolent of a 1920s speakeasy. The dim lighting, lavish, inlaid mahogany walls and chandeliers set the scene for grown-up drinks and after-dinner tristes. Most clients start the evening in the fine-dining French restaurant and make their way through plates of tiger prawns and foie gras before descending for nightcaps and cigars accompanied by a laid-back soundtrack of international DJ tracks or a softly crooning lounge singer. The wine menu showcases some excellent Moroccan wines, and the crowd is elegantly turned-out.

Contact: 00 212 524 458 901;
Prices: £££

The Royal Mansour Bar

For a healthy dose of glamour and a rather fine cocktail, head to the beautiful bar in Royal Mansour. The huge marble bar sits centre stage framed by mirrored walls delicately engraved in pink gold leaf, while overhead a handcrafted silver ceiling glitters in the low lighting. It’s rather dazzling and the drinks that accompany it are just as good: there's a wine list that's fit for the Moroccan king (his guests regularly stay here) and expertly mixed cocktails, including a rather smooth Manhattan. For truants seeking a more cosy atmosphere, slink across the courtyard to Chimney Lounge where you can sink into the shadows of a cedar-paneled room and listen to the resident pianist.  

Contact: royalmansour.com
Prices: £££

Le Grand Café de la Poste

This colonial Art Deco bistro has a storied history as the favourite café of the dread Pasha Glaoui, and still attracts the city's movers and shakers to its shady terrace and palm-filled, 1930s interiors. While the food is a fine blend of French-Moroccan dishes, it's the 6pm-8pm happy hour that really draws the crowds. That's when you pair your chilled rosé or peppery S de Siroua wine with a parade of savoury appetisers and spiced olives, and eavesdrop on latest Marrakshi goings-on. Smokers congregate on the terrace so if you want to avoid this take a window table inside.

Contact: grandcafedelaposte.restaurant 
Prices: £££

Baromètre Marrakech

Baromètre – somewhere between an underground prohibition bar and mad professor's lab with its pipework and crystal apothecary jars – is Marrakech's first attempt at a serious cocktail bar. The atmosphere is sexy and sophisticated and the bar staff are friendly and passionate about mixology. Cocktails (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) come with unique homemade macerations and bitters and can be customised to taste, so don't be afraid to discuss your preferences with the bartender. The Jimi Hendrix is a summer-soothing blend of gin and cucumber, which you can sip beside fusion tapas plates.

Contact: 00 212 524 379 012;
Prices: ££

Lila Bar & Restaurant

Those in the know take the lift up to the first-floor lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel, where the chic, architect-designed lounge-bar is found, furnished with a large, brass-trimmed bar and soft, velveteen sofas. Even better, behind the bar there's a huge open-air patio landscaped with sculptural plants and intimate, cream-cushioned seating areas where city slickers from Casablanca and Rabat sip mocktails and graze on Josper-grilled steaks in the throws of deep conversation. While the alcoholic cocktails are tooth-achingly sweet, the wine list is excellent. At weekends a DJ spins tracks in the bar.

Contact: radissonblu.com
Prices: ££

Pointbar

Located off the main drag, Pointbar offers a more relaxed atmosphere than most Marrakshi bars. The unassuming slate-grey entrance and long narrow bar, screened by bamboo, precede a large interior patio furnished with a hot-red carpet and low-level sofas and pouffs. In summer, the retractable roof is drawn back for starlit summer drinking. Although primarily a wine bar, beer and cocktails are served, along with a Mediterranean menu. The place fills up at weekends when DJs spin tracks and during major sports events and football matches, which are broadcast live on giant screens in the bar.

Contact: 00 212 600 015 010;
Prices: ££

L'Envers

Watch up-and-coming Moroccan DJs spin electronic tracks on the mezzanine level of L'Envers, a new narrow bar with a hipster vibe, strung with filament bulbs. Bare walls are hung with local street art and artfully graffitied Arabic calligraphy and the competitively priced drinks menu runs long with Moroccan and European wines, draft beers and champagne-based cocktails. Dedicated to underground culture, the bar hosts DJs at least four nights a week – you can expect some impressive talent here – and despite the narrow confines of the bar, dancers throw some serious shapes.

Contact: 00 212 662 552 478;
Prices: £

Café du Livre

This restaurant, bar and bookshop is a laid-back place to start or end the night. Lined with shelves selling second-hand books it feels like someone's living room, and with a menu featuring buffalo wings and burgers, and draft beers starting at MAD 25 (£2), it's immensely popular with a young international crowd. On Mondays you can catch a trivia quiz night, while on Fridays and Saturdays they often host live music performances. During the week, between 6pm and 8pm, there's a popular happy hour when the place packs out with an after-work crowd.

Contact: 00 212 524 446 921;
Prices: £

Bab Doukkala

Kabana

A tropical beach bar on a rooftop, Marrakech really does have it all. Kabana is the brainchild of music entrepreneur Kudo Fahkredine, while the manager, Diego, is the founder of Rak Electronik. Although there’s food aplenty – a sushi bar and creative tapas courtesy of Ibizan chef Luisma – the scene here really revolves around the music and bar. There are DJ’s and live bands on the weekends, and dedicated nights of jazz, soul, disco and salsa (follow their social media for updates). The fabulous roof terrace, decked out in tropical prints and large potted plants, feels like it could be at home in L.A. It attracts a cosmopolitan crowd who sip on travel-inspired cocktails such as the CopaKabana Saffron, which combines cachaça (infused with saffron from Talouine) with green lemon and cane sugar.  

Contact: kabana-marrakech.com
Prices: ££

• 9Telegraph expert rating

  Redefining luxury in the medina, elegant Riad Mena is one of the finest examples of its kind in M...Read expert reviewFrom£209

• 9Telegraph expert rating

  Morocco's most storied hotel celebrated its centenary in 2023, and it’s never looked better. That...Read expert review

• 9Telegraph expert rating

  Crafted with care by Italian art director and designer, Umberto Branchini, Riad Joya provides a h...Read expert review