TOTALLY TANGIER

With the debut of an impeccable seaside villa turned hotel, Morocco's bohemian enclave is suddenly back on the map.

- Chris Wallace

IN THE APERITIF HOUR in Tangier, visitors gather on the rooftops of hotels in the medina to watch the sun set over the Strait of Gibraltar. Turtle doves swoop and swerve in the lilac dusk. The lights of the port come up and reflect on the bay, where a grand old sailboat is putting to sea. To the east, the hunched backs of the Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa, the Pillars of Hercules, loom in the distance, purple in the falling light.

Just after 6 p.m., a hollow crackling comes over a loudspeaker, followed by a hoarse chanting, which is joined by another voice, and then another. A song in the round from several sources, at various decibel levels: the Maghrib adhan, or the evening call to prayer.

In the sitting room at Villa Mabrouka, a fire cuts the November chill. Visitors, expats, and locals talk about the newest wave of changes to affect the city, and the expectations they bring. One of the central shifts in the hospitality landscape is Villa Mabrouka itself, a 12-suite hotel in what was once Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé's holiday home, which the British designer Jasper Conran purchased in 2019. Conran set about renovating and reappointing the hotel with an eclectic, playful maximalism-his signature spin on Tangerine style-before it opened last June. With manicured lawns that slope toward the sea and groves of old-growth palms, the property feels private, a bit like a North African Chateau Marmont-despite being conveniently located on the western edge of the casbah.

There was considerable buzz around the hotel's opening, along with the hope that Villa Mabrouka, which means "house of luck" in Arabic, might finally make Tangier the kind of international destination that travel insiders have been predicting for the past 20 years-one capable of crossing over from a place that attracts mainly European travelers to a broader global market.