Riad Dar Alif
The pool and its jacuzzi, at the middle of the patio · © Riad Dar Alif 
A small pool with jacuzzi at the back of a banana-planted patio, six rooms, and a French couple who host and dine with their guests: the Riad Dar Alif is an intimate Mellah house, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna, where you are at someone's home rather than in a hotel.
Our verdict
What you keep first from Dar Alif is its hosts. The house is run by Philippe and Isabelle, a French couple who spent about thirty years in hospitality before settling in the Mellah. They welcome, they advise, they dine with the travellers who want to, and that is what the comments cite before all the rest. You are not booking a room in a structure here, you are inviting yourself for a few nights at someone’s home who receives properly.
The house is in their image, intimate. Two hundred and fifty square metres over two levels, six units only, four rooms and two suites, set around a patio planted with banana and palm trees, white curtains between the columns. At the middle, a small pool extended by a jacuzzi: it does not do lengths, but it cools on the return from the souks, which most quarter riads, with their ornamental basin, do not allow. The rooms play a frank colour, aubergine, saffron, under old ceilings, with wooden shutters and striped hangings.
The rest is a guesthouse that works, and has the courtesy to list its prices. The hammam and massages are à la carte, known in advance: hammam with rhassoul wrap around £24, the full package with hour-long massage around £43, the massage alone around £31. The evening table, Moroccan, is taken around £17, often in common. Breakfast is included, and the owners arrange transfers and outings. On a road where almost everyone answers “please enquire”, this transparency is worth flagging.
The caveat is the same as for its neighbours, and it has to do with the quarter. The location is the lowest score travellers leave: the Mellah is calmer and less touristy than the middle of the medina, but you reach it through a lane, a little set back, and you have to like walking to reach the bustle. Nothing on noise or upkeep comes up in recent reviews, which stay very largely good, with a few cooler voices lost in a warm whole.
For two travellers looking for a small-scale house, present hosts, a basin to cool off and an evening table, at a price that starts low for the medina, Dar Alif is a solid choice in the Mellah. For anyone wanting the anonymity of a hotel, where you pass without exchanging three words, the spirit of the house, wholly turned to welcome, will not fit.
What sets it apart
- Philippe and Isabelle A French couple with thirty years in hospitality who welcome, advise and share the evening table. That is what makes the house's rating: you are not received by a front desk, you are received by someone.
- The patio pool with jacuzzi Small but real, with a jacuzzi alongside, in the middle of a patio of banana and palm trees. Enough to dip in the shade of the bananas, which the plain ornamental basin of the neighbours does not allow.
- A hammam with listed rates Hammam, rhassoul wrap, massage: each treatment is priced on the house menu, twenty to fifty pounds. Prices known in advance, which is rare in the sector.
- The evening table Moroccan dinner around £17, taken in common or at your table, with the owners on hand. Ten minutes from the square's restaurants, many guests choose to stay and dine here.
Worth knowing
17 Derb El Kheir, in the Mellah, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The address sits in a derb, public parking nearby. Six units, four rooms and two suites, in a 250 m² house. Small pool with jacuzzi in the patio, hammam and massages on booking. Breakfast included, evening table d'hôtes. No official star rating. Its lowest score is the location, a little off the tourist medina.
- Double room (from)
- ≈ £53
- Suite 3-4 pers. (from)
- ≈ £72
- Dinner, table d'hôtes
- £17
- Hammam + rhassoul wrap
- ≈ £24
- Hammam + wrap + massage (1 h)
- ≈ £43
- Relaxing massage (1 h)
- ≈ £31
- Airport transfer (2 pers.)
- £15
Facilities & services
Location
Practical info
Details checked and cross-referenced by the editors - June 2026.
