Riad El Youssoufi

The Riad El Youssoufi holds in five rooms behind a studded door, in a derb of Bab Doukkala, at the north-west corner of the medina. The Bab Doukkala quarter, long residential, is set around its mosque and the Dar el Glaoui palace, the former home of the pasha who ruled Marrakech until independence. You are off the commercial pressure of the souks, but within reach of everything: a quarter of an hour on foot to Jemaa el-Fna, the same to reach the Jardin Majorelle on the other side of the ramparts.

At the middle, a cool basin in green zellige under a plaster arch, chased-metal lanterns, banana trees and an orange tree rising towards the open sky. The sound of the fountain covers that of the lane, and the court stays in the shade a good part of the day: that is where you take refuge when the medina bakes outside, at the asr hour. The five rooms open onto this court or on the terrace, each in a different register - yellow, ochre pink or white lime walls, hand-rubbed tadelakt, zellige on the floors, low sitting rooms and beds framed by keyhole arches. Bathrooms are private, air conditioning is standard, Wi-Fi included.

In the morning, continental breakfast is taken on the terrace, an open-air sitting room from which you look over the medina terraces, the Koutoubia standing out in the distance. You go back up gladly at sundown, when the light turns ochre and the city lights. A Moroccan table books ahead, served in the court or on the roof, and you can book a massage on request. The house puts the accent on the welcome more than on equipment: you are picked up at the medina gate, bags are carried in the derb, help is at hand to arrange a cookery class, a guided visit or a taxi. Travellers give it 9.6 on Booking on over a thousand reviews, and 9.9 to the host, which says where the stay plays. For anyone after the same register, the quarter has no shortage of addresses run in this spirit: see the other charm riads of the medina.

That leaves who it fits. The caveat is the same as any riad of this calibre: the patio basin is a cool point, not a pool where you swim, access goes on foot through lanes sometimes crowded with carts and mopeds, and there is no spa or hammam on site - treatments come to you. The house rents only five rooms: at this scale, you share the terrace and the sitting room with the other guests, which makes the address’s charm but little intimacy on a full night. For a couple or two friends wanting a real medina house, calm, a terrace and a careful welcome from around £68 a night, this is a right address. For anyone travelling in a large family, expecting a lap pool or hotel services, better look elsewhere, at the big garden houses of the Palmeraie. Here, you pay first for a human scale and a spot in the old town.