15 places, from £32 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.
The Riad El Hara holds in six rooms, a cream tadelakt patio and a welcome - Karima and the owner - that travellers cite ahead of the rest. You are at Bab Doukkala, off the bustle, with a heated pool and a hammam on the roof. A small house that receives you like at home, and it comes through in every comment.
Nine rooms around two patios, in a derb of Riad Zitoune Jdid, a five-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad le Clos des Arts is a medina house brought up to date: green zellige in the court, chiselled plaster ceilings, solar-heated hammam and a cool basin on the roof. You come here for the decor and the location, two steps from the Bahia palace.
Eight rooms around a columned patio, in a Kaa El Houma derb behind the Bahia palace, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Houma is a medina house with contemporary decor: tadelakt and dark wood, sitting room open onto the court, and on the roof a basin terrace facing the palm trees. You come here for the calm and the table, not for the equipment of a large hotel.
Eight rooms in an 18th-century dwelling, behind a medina door at Bab Doukkala, run by a Swiss owner on site. The Riad Clementine keeps its orange-tree patio and has set its pool a floor up, on the terrace: a real heated pool where you swim, rare for an old-town riad. You come here for that swim and the calm, not for a spa.
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.
Nine rooms in a medina dwelling, at the end of the derb El Cadi, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The riad has kept its large fountain patio and its cedar galleries, and has set on the roof a real pool, wide enough to swim, ringed with sun loungers and parasols. You come here for that open-sky swim and the calm of the quarter, not for palace luxury.
Six rooms behind a medina door, in the Derb Fhal Zefriti, a four-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad BB Marrakech keeps its fountain patio cool below and has set its pool a floor up, on the terrace, with pergola and rooftop view. You come here for that sundown swim and the central position, not for a spa: there is none.
An 18th-century dwelling behind a medina door, a five-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna, with a pool set on the roof, facing the Koutoubia and the Atlas summits. The Riad Catalina keeps its fountain patio and its orange trees below, and reserves the swim and the view for the terraces. You come here for that roof pool and the position, not for a spa.
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.
Eight rooms behind a medina door, at Riad Zitoun Jdid, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Swaka has kept its patio basin and set a second pool on the roof, in the middle of a terrace planted with cacti and bougainvillea. You come here for that open-sky bath on the rooftops, the hammam and the calm of the quarter, not for lengths.
A long turquoise pool at the back of the patio, between mashrabiya galleries, and a second on the roof: the Alrashid is one of the rare Mellah riads where the pool is not decorative but built to dip into. Eleven rooms, family-run, a quarter of an hour on foot from Jemaa el-Fna.
The Riad Dihya is a small no-frills house of the Dabachi quarter, an eight-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna: seven rooms around a zellige-medallion patio, a dipping basin on the roof and a careful breakfast. Good value for money, not a luxury address despite the label.
The Riad Louhou has chosen white where the Kasbah plays zellige: pristine patio, mashrabiya, driftwood, linen and rattan. Five suites only, a hammam, a basin on the roof and a real table, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna.
Six rooms behind a medina door, in the kasbah quarter, two minutes from the Saadian Tombs. The Riad Awa has set its pool on the roof, at the foot of the kasbah mosque minaret, and keeps on the ground floor a big white patio and a hammam. You come here for the terrace and the address, not for the rooms, which stay modest.
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