Manzil La Tortue - Pool

Manzil La Tortue sits on two hectares of olive grove and garden along the Route de Ouarzazate, about fifteen kilometres south of Marrakech. The property operates as countryside guesthouse, day-pool destination, and restaurant, but the pool is what organises everything around it: forty metres long, ten metres wide, four hundred square metres of water set in open ground with the Atlas Mountains directly ahead. It is one of the larger pools in the Marrakech area, heated through the cooler months, and the scale registers immediately. Loungers and shaded seating line both sides under olive and palm trees, towels are provided, and the poolside atmosphere runs quiet and unhurried. By midday the sun sits high over the garden and the surface catches light across its full length. The countryside location means no city noise reaches the water, only birdsong and conversation. Day passes run from 11h30 to 18h30 and include a sunbed, towel, and lunch. The kitchen serves a Moroccan set menu or plates from an international carte built around seasonal produce and the property's own garden. The Moroccan cooking draws consistent praise: tagines, tanjia, couscous, and starters like lightly spiced cauliflower that regulars mention by name. Dinner operates as a table d'hôtes, served either on the terrace facing the pool or inside the dome room with its wine cellar and fireplace on cooler evenings. Sixteen rooms and caïdal tents spread through the garden for overnight guests, each with private bathroom and patio, walls inlaid with real fossils, decorated in a mix of Moroccan craft and contemporary restraint. A jacuzzi sits near the pool area, and a masseuse offers treatments daily. Pétanque and mini golf fill the gaps between swims. The property accepts adults and children over twelve only, which keeps the poolside atmosphere calm by design. Manzil La Tortue works as a full countryside day out from Marrakech: the twenty-minute drive earns a pool large enough to swim properly, a kitchen that takes lunch seriously, and a garden where the Atlas fills the view and the city stays comfortably out of reach.