WHAT could be more perfect? After a leisurely buffet breakfast on the terrace, I was set up to spend a day lounging under an olive tree, drinking chilled local rosé with a book.

Then the music started - piped Euro lift music that went throughout the grounds, so loudly that earplugs wouldn't come close to blocking it out. The sound was loud enough to drive me to distraction when all I wanted was peace and Piers Morgan's diaries.

The idea at the Murano Oriental, which opened last year in Marrakesh, is to create a funky, country-club atmosphere. In part, they succeed - Sunday is brunch day, with a fabulous mezze spread popular with hip Marrakeshis and also guests from other hotels.

Music, they say, is part of the Murano “concept”. Fair enough in some common parts, but must we all be subjected to it wherever we go?

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Music aside, the Murano is a pleasant place to be. Marrakesh has a bewildering array of hotel choices - historic riad or modern hotel? Contemporary or traditional? In the noisy, magical souk or the tranquil palm grove?

The Murano Oriental aims to be the hip new face of contemporary Marrakesh, and in many respects, it is. In the Palmeraie district, a 15-minute drive from the souk, it was a great place to relax in between ticking off the sights.

The rooms, scattered around the grounds, are spacious and stylish, with exquisite details: mine, on the ground floor, had terracotta floors and carved wooden ceilings, with walls buffed to a sheen using a traditional Arabic technique.

There was a huge private terrace with steps to the garden, and a cavernous bathroom with great-smelling products, joss sticks next to the bath and covetable bathrobes with tasselled hoods, based on the local jilbabs. The bed was big enough for a party, but I was on my own so I just jumped up and down on it like a child.

Perhaps if the mysterious, anonymous French owner had given it a whirl, he might have noticed that the lighting is set unalterably to very dim, even in the bathroom - too dark for a man to shave and impossible to read by; that the flashy coffee machine broke after one use; that they forgot to restock the minibar with water and that there is no stereo or iPod dock. All irritating, but easily solved.

On the plus side, as well as the main hotel pool - with its statement red tiles - each cluster of rooms has its own pool, so there's never an unseemly scrum. With luxury like this, you can understand why many guests at the Murano Oriental don't bother leaving the grounds, even with the lure of camel riding, quad-biking, or a drive into the Atlas Mountains.

If only they would turn off that damn music....

Need to know

Murano Oriental Resort (00 212 24 32 70 00, www.muranoresort.com) has room-only doubles from £266.

Getting there Easyjet.com (www.easyjet.com) flies from Gatwick from £89 return.

Reading Marrakesh (Eyewitness Top Ten Travel Guides, £6.99); Rough Guide to Morocco (Rough Guides, £15.99)

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