Riad Olema et Spa

The Riad Olema et Spa joins two neighbouring houses behind a medina door, in a derb of Bab Doukkala, at the north-west corner of the old town. 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.

The house has the trick of being two, since it takes over two joined dwellings: a contemporary side in pale lime, a beldi side with ochre pink walls, each with its planted court and water point. In the main patio, a long pool in blue zellige runs between the arches veiled with white curtains and the low benches. In the other court, a square basin in green zellige, in the shade of potted palms. That is where the address’s interest plays: a real pool where you swim a few strokes, and not the plain cool point most medina riads offer. The fifteen rooms and suites are spread around the courts and on the floors, from single to family suite, each in a different register - hand-rubbed grey tadelakt, fireplace, green shutters, private bathrooms. Air conditioning and heating are standard, Wi-Fi included.

The stay extends at the spa and on the roof. In the basement, a tadelakt spa with lit niches offers hammam, scrub and essential-oil massages, off the noise outside: this is the “Spa” part of the name, and it keeps its promises. On the roof, a parasol terrace and sun beds unfold a hot tub from which the Koutoubia stands out in the distance. You take the continental breakfast here in the morning, and the Moroccan table books ahead. Travellers give the house 9.2 on Booking on nearly a thousand reviews, with a 9.7 mention for the staff and 9.6 for couples’ stays, which says the address’s profile. For anyone after that equipment first, the quarter has other houses run in the same spirit: see the other medina riads with pool.

That leaves who it fits. The first caveat is that of all old-town riads: access goes on foot through lanes sometimes crowded with carts and mopeds, there is no private parking, and you go up by stairs from one house to another, which complicates arrival with big cases. The patio pool is open to the sky: pleasant from March to October, cool the rest of the year, even if billed as heated. And at fifteen rooms over two houses, you are closer to a small guesthouse than to an intimate host home: the welcome stays careful, but you do not always cross the same faces. For a couple or a family wanting a real pool, an on-site spa and a quiet position a quarter of an hour from Jemaa el-Fna, from around £64 a night, the address lands right and is well placed. For anyone looking for the intimacy of a five-key house or the services of a hotel with lift and parking, better look elsewhere. Here, you pay first for rare equipment in the middle of the medina.