Ksar Anika

The Ksar Anika settles right away the question every medina riad faces: space. Where most houses fit in a court and a few rooms, this one stretches across two patios and eighteen rooms, which changes the whole feel. The first patio, topped with a glass roof, holds the pool, lined with sun loungers and colourful armchairs, under two-level arcaded galleries. The second, more intimate, plays green zellige and the fountain. You move, you find a corner to sit apart, you do not walk on each other: it is the quiet luxury of a large house, rare inside the walls.

The house owns its boutique-hotel status rather than a plain guesthouse, and the kit follows. There is a pool sheltered by the glass roof, useful off-season, a spa with hammam and massages, a sunny terrace, a restaurant and a bar, a concierge service and an airport shuttle. Continental breakfast is included, and service, like cleanliness, comes top of the comments across a meaningful review volume. This is the logic of a full hotel, where you can spend the day on site as easily as ranging out into town.

The location calls for a caveat. The Mellah, the old Jewish quarter, is in full renovation: quieter and less busy than the medina’s tourist core, it places the Bahia palace minutes on foot and Jemaa el-Fna a fifteen-minute walk, but you do not have the great souks under your window. Another point to know, common to old houses: floors are reached by stairs, no lift, which the house flags itself - worth weighing if you travel with mobility issues or heavy luggage.

The Ksar Anika holds a place apart in the Mellah: that of a real character hotel, roomy and complete, at an entry rate that stays contained for a 5-star. You just have to accept a quarter slightly off the souks and a stairs-only house. On those terms, this is one of the most comfortable addresses in this corner of the medina.