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Le Diamant Noir, Av Mohammed V. On a side street on your left as you head down from Rond-point Abd el Moumen. Entry 80dh (week- nights) and 100dh at the weekend. A Marrakech favourite, popular with visitors and locals alike. All varieties of funsters and predators shake their booty here to house hits and Oriental. Here are rich kids, foreigners on a business trips and girls with a commercial laugh, Casa-gays (at weekends) and nice girls, expats and local lads on the make. Its handy features include balconies to observe the dance floor and the pizzeria just next to the entrance. Close to Guéliz hotels. Best if you’re in a small group, the club follows the French ‘buy a bottle, get a table’ model. Paradise, the nightclub of the Hotel Kempinski Mansour Eddahbi, entrance to left of main entrance of the hotel, just off Av de France. Entry 150dh, drinks at 80dh. The city club for the local jeunesse dorée and visitors looking to fling a hoof. Musical mix includes R’n’B and electro, plus Raï and Oriental pop. Much less trade than elsewhere. Le VIP, the former Stars’ House, down the street from Le Diamant Noir, and just off the Place de la Liberté roundabout. Had a reputation for boozy punch-ups and sex-workers. Now under new management. A challenger to Le Diamant Noir as queen of the Red City’s night. Al’anbar, on the street behind the Préfecture and Town Hall, T 044-380763. Marrakech’s latest glitzy offering in the sub-Buddha bar mode. The premises are cavernous, the music deafening, the decor over the top and beyond. Same management as Chez Ali, the gaudy fantasia people. No alcohol (yet). You have been warned. New Feeling, Palmeraie Golf Palace. Entry at 150dh, things get going around midnight. Access in own car or by grand taxi (can be costly). Spacious and rather smoother than the handful of clubs in the city. Mixed crowd of Moroccans down from Casa, foreign residents and visitors. Lacks the manic feel of the Diamant Noir, but worth a night out nevertheless. Le Km 9, (pronounced ‘kilomètre neuf’) on the Ourika road, T 044- 376373. Wed-Mon 1930-0100. Tapas and drinks in loungeish atmosphere with palms. Restaurant serves salmon ravioli and gratin d’aubergine, and is therefore popular with visitors tired of tajine. Dance floor gets lively at weekends. However, without your own car, you’ll have to hire a grand taxi and get the driver to wait – a potentially costly exercise, given that the ride there and back will be at least 200dh.
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