7 places, from £65 to £470 a night.
Six rooms around a fountain patio, in an Azbeth derb ten minutes on foot from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Hizad is a medina house whose asset sits on the roof: a real heated pool, set in a terrace garden, with dinner tables and Berber tent. You come here for that rooftop and for the house you can rent whole, not for the services of a large hotel.
Six rooms behind a studded door of a Dabachi derb, two steps from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Dar Al Assad is an old medina house whose patio still holds, rare enough, a real lap pool covered by a glass roof, between two arcaded galleries. Rooftop terrace, quiet hammam, evening table. You come here for the central position and the patio water.
Ten suites in a set of houses joined together, at the end of a derb in the northern medina, two minutes from the Ben Youssef Medersa. Le Farnatchi is a luxury riad run by about twenty staff: a heated 7-metre pool in a patio, a white marble hammam, a spa and a table, Le Trou au Mur. You come here for the service and the calm, at a palace rate.
A former home at the end of a derb behind the Bahia palace, a three-minute walk from its gardens. Nine rooms around a large planted patio, a fountain at the middle, a fireplace sitting room covered in zellige, and on the roof a pavilion terrace with a basin for the hot hours. You come here for the age of the place and the calm of the quarter.
The Palais Tara & Spa is one of the rare medina riads classified 5-star, and it shows from the entrance: painted cedar ceilings, stained-glass sitting rooms, marble and zellige. A heated pool on the roof, an indoor pool, a real spa with hammam and sauna, a five-minute walk from Le Jardin Secret.
About ten rooms in a quiet derb of Sidi Ben Slimane, north of the medina, off the pressure of the souks. Two joined houses around orange-tree patios, a zellige swim basin in each court, a hammam and a terrace for breakfast facing the Atlas. You come here for the calm of the quarter and the care of the decor.
A Relais & Châteaux set in a former palace, at the foot of the Koutoubia, between the Royal Palace and Jemaa el-Fna. Thirty-two rooms and suites spread over two levels around three patios planted with orange trees, each with its water point, including a real 16-metre swim basin in the garden. Spa, hammam, restaurant and household service, at the rate of a medina palace.
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