Riad Kaiss By Anika

The Riad Kaiss By Anika holds in a former home, at the end of a derb of the Riad Zitoune Lakdim quarter, at the south-east corner of the medina. The house is among the old ones of the medina, and the quarter places it three minutes on foot from the Bahia palace and its gardens, five from Jemaa el-Fna, about ten from the Saadian Tombs. You are at the core of the old town, but off the pressure of the souks, in a residential derb where you mostly hear the fountain.

At the middle, a fountain under a carved cedar arch, orange and banana trees rising towards the open sky, the zellige floor in green and ochre where a tortoise sometimes catches the sun. It is a real old-house court, larger and more planted than in most riads, and it is where you take shelter when the medina bakes outside. On the ground floor, a sitting room fully covered in zellige under a painted cedar ceiling, with a ceremonial fireplace where a fire runs in winter. The nine rooms and suites are spread around the court and on the floors, each in a different register - hand-rubbed tadelakt, painted doors, twin-arch windows, private bathrooms in tinted lime walls.

The terrace, on the top level, unfolds an arcaded pavilion, low sitting rooms and sails against the sun. A basin lets you cool off at hot hours, and the view runs across the medina rooftops to the minarets. Continental breakfast is taken here in the morning, the Moroccan table books in advance, and you can end the day at the hammam, with a scrub or a massage on site. The house also arranges cookery classes and guided visits on request. Travellers give it 9.5 on Booking, with a 9.8 mention for couples’ stays, which says the profile of the address. For anyone after the same register, the quarter has no shortage of old houses run in this spirit: see the other medina riads.

That leaves who it fits. The first caveat is the basin: what is called a pool here is a water point on the terrace, good to cool off, not to swim lengths. You need to know before booking an address at this rate. Access goes on foot through lanes sometimes crowded with carts and mopeds, there is no parking, and the house is reached by stairs, no lift: big cases have to be hauled by hand across several levels, which a few travellers flag. Suites and high seasons quickly push the bill past the entry price. For a couple wanting a real old medina house, calm, a terrace with a view and an on-site hammam from around £111 a night, the address lands right and is well placed. For anyone travelling with a large family, expecting a pool to swim lengths in or the services of a hotel with a lift, better look at the large garden houses of the Palmeraie. Here, you pay first for old walls and a spot at the core of the old town.