Hotel Nord Pinus, Tangier.

Brimming with bohemian style, the Nord Pinus stands head and shoulders above other Moroccan hotels, much like its position at the highest point of Tangier’s kasbah.

The words of the British travel writer, Bruce Chatwin, bounce around my imagination in the weeks, months and in this case years, spent dreaming of travelling to a particular place. According to Chatwin, there are two Timbuktus. There is the actual city in the Sahara and another “altogether more fabulous, a legendary city in a never-never land, the Timbuktu of the mind.” The Moroccan port city of Tangier has, for me, long been one such Timbuktu.

The bar, Nord Pinus Tangier, Morocco.
The entrance to Hotel Nord Pinus in Tangier, Morocco.

Long before I’d ever heard of Bruce Chatwin I lived in Madrid, where I launched a showroom from home. I was riding a wave after my flat had been published in AD, arranging flea-market finds—all for sale—amongst my own things, alongside Moroccan rugs, textiles and ceramics that I sourced in Marrakech.

I bought every issue of AD back then—French, German and Spanish—but remember one spread in particular. It was a small hotel at the top of the kasbah in Tangier, where Jacques Adnet chairs cut devilishly cool profiles against zellige tiles and Moorish arched windows, their sweeping views reaching across the water to Spain. It was Morocco, but not the dusty pink version I knew.

Having read the usual snippets about the characters who made the city their playground in the 20th century—Barbara Hutton, Paul Bowles and Mick Jagger amongst others—and now with this divine bolthole to bed down in—I desperately wanted to go to Tangier. There was just one problem. Having launched the new business, if I was travelling to Morocco it had to be to the more commercially geared Marrakech. Tangier would have to wait.

The ‘divine bolthole’ is the Nord Pinus Tanger, the first Moroccan hotel to have stolen the limelight from Marrakech when it opened in 2007. The hotel’s French owner, Anne Igou, discovered the property in a love-at-first-sight moment, strolling through Tangier’s kasbah. She bought it within days, transforming it into a hotel, “that gives the impression of a treasure chest and acts as a mirror to the cosmopolitan ambience and the exotic bohemian world of Tangier.”

Igou has a predilection for places with creative spirit. The Nord Pinus takes its name from Le Nord-Pinus in Arles—the other half of her hotel portfolio—where Henry James frequented the bar and Cocteau and Picasso are said to have paid for rooms with pictures. The Moroccan city, similarly, drew great painters such as Eugene Delacroix and Henri Matisse, and later writers, from Paul Bowles to Jack Kerouac and William Burrows, who wrote his 1959 Beatnik classic, The Naked Lunch in Tangier. All of whom would have felt right at home in Igou’s bohemian digs.

Vengo guest room, Nord Pinus Tangier.
Bar terrace at Hotel Nord Pinus, Tangier.
Nord Pinus Bar, Tangier.
Espagnol guest room, Hotel Nord Pinus, Tangier.

Built in the 18th century, the riad-like palace was once the home of a high-ranking Pasha. “We renovated the old structure with an incredible team of local artisans and created some of Tangier’s most bespoke terraces, with unique and unobstructed views over the fortress, the city, the mountains, the sea and Spain,” says Igou. “It’s a peaceful haven, with a calm and fresh air surrounded by a creative, vibrant and ever-changing city.”

Ever-changing indeed. The gateway between Europe and Africa, Tangier has long been a nexus for different cultures, from Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine and Arab to Portuguese, Spanish, French and British. Declared an international zone 1923, ambiguous laws made the city a hotbed of tax evasion, sex and espionage. By the time the Rolling Stones arrived in the 1960’s, Tangier was the Sodom of North Africa.

The previous Moroccan king, Hassan II, is said to have despised Tangier, but his son, Mohammed VI, only saw potential. Spearheading projects from the Jean Nouvel designed port, Tanger Med and the Al Boraq high-speed train linking Tangier and Casablanca—the first high-speed rail on the African continent—his attention ignited a renaissance. And not just commercially but creatively too, with all manner of local artists, artisans and entrepreneurs reclaiming Tangier as their own.

Nord Pinus restaurant, Tangier.

The hotel has just had a makeover, most obvious in the restaurant where yellow walls have been made alabaster—all the better for showing off Middle Eastern stained-glass windows and the inlaid Syrian furniture punctuating the space. In the bar, prints by Peter Lindbergh (Igou’s ex) and the Belgian photographer, Harry Gruyaert hang on walls painted in a dirty olive to match the worn leather of the Adnet chairs.

Bar, Nord Pinus Tangier.
Maison de Jean-Luc, Nord Pinus Tanger.

Accommodation comprises one double room and four suites, individually named and singular in style. Jewel-box-like ‘Nilaya’ has a four-poster bronze bed nestled into the corner of the room, hung with Ottoman-looking textiles. L’Espagnol, too, has a four-poster bronze bed, facing a striking pair of Chinoiserie cabinets. Le Chameau s’en Fout—The Camel doesn’t Care—is lighter and more open, with 1950’s bedside lamps and arched windows overlooking the sea. There’s also the adjoining Maison de Jean-Luc, with two bedrooms, hammam-like bathrooms and its own terrace.

This October, I’m hosting a small-group jaunt through Morocco, beginning in Marrakech and finishing at the Nord Pinus in Tangier. Seventeen years after seeing the spread in AD, my “Timbuktu of the mind” becomes a reality—although with the right outlook, myth is never too far away. Still a couple of places left… would love you to join.

The Pursuit Of Morocco takes in Marrakech, the Agafay Desert, Fez and Tangier. Itineraries of 10 or 17 nights, 28 September to 15 October 2024.

Photography: Ana Lui.