32 places, from £29 to £470 a night.
Six rooms run by Mauro behind a medina door, at Rahba Lakdima, a seven-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. Numa Marrakech is a former house redrawn in a contemporary vein: white lime and tadelakt, a cool patio basin, rooftop terrace, basement hammam. You come here for the calm and the table, not for large-hotel facilities.
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.
Six rooms behind a studded door of a Dabachi derb, two steps from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Dar Al Assad is an old medina house whose patio still holds, rare enough, a real lap pool covered by a glass roof, between two arcaded galleries. Rooftop terrace, quiet hammam, evening table. You come here for the central position and the patio water.
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.
Ten suites in a set of houses joined together, at the end of a derb in the northern medina, two minutes from the Ben Youssef Medersa. Le Farnatchi is a luxury riad run by about twenty staff: a heated 7-metre pool in a patio, a white marble hammam, a spa and a table, Le Trou au Mur. You come here for the service and the calm, at a palace rate.
Eight rooms behind a Mellah door, a patio with white columns and a blue-mosaic fountain, and on the roof a terrace that takes the sundown on the medina tiles. The Riad du Rabbin carries the name of a story it tells itself: that of a rabbi's house, in the old Jewish quarter.
Eight rooms around a patio covered by a glass roof, in the Riad Laarous quarter, north of the medina. The Riad Adika & Spa blends Moroccan decor and modern comfort: a cool basin at the middle of the court, traditional hammam, massage room and terrace for candlelit dinners. You come here for the calm of a small-scale house, on foot from Jemaa el-Fna.
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.
A former home at the end of a derb behind the Bahia palace, a three-minute walk from its gardens. Nine rooms around a large planted patio, a fountain at the middle, a fireplace sitting room covered in zellige, and on the roof a pavilion terrace with a basin for the hot hours. You come here for the age of the place and the calm of the quarter.
A ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna, the Riad l'Oiseau du Paradis takes an old medina house behind a studded door of the derb Cherrata. Fourteen rooms around a patio planted with an orange tree, a basin to dip the feet, a hammam, and a terrace that reveals the Koutoubia. You come here for the calm two steps from the tumult, not for palace volumes.
Five rooms around a patio pool, in a derb of Diour Saboune, north of the medina, an eight-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad du Ciel is an old dwelling, painted cedar ceilings and zellige walls, with a real swim basin in the court and one of the highest terraces of the quarter. You come here for the calm and the position, near the Ben Youssef Medersa.
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.
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.
Five rooms in a derb of Bab Doukkala, a quarter of an hour on foot from Jemaa el-Fna. Dar d'Art is a medina house that doubles as an exhibition space: contemporary canvases cover the sitting-room walls, refreshed as artists rotate through. An indoor pool at the foot of the stairs, a rooftop terrace with a basin, a hammam to close the day.
A red-and-white checker that runs from the court basin to the hammam vault, nine rooms around two patios, in a derb of the Mellah a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. What you keep from the Riad Noos Noos, before the decor itself, has to do with the welcome of a whole house.
Macassar ebony columns, tubular 1930s armchairs, shagreen and parchment: the Villa Makassar is not another Moroccan riad, it is an Art Deco palace, the only one of its kind in the medina. Ten rooms, each dedicated to an artist of the period, in the Kasbah, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna.
About ten rooms in a quiet derb of Sidi Ben Slimane, north of the medina, off the pressure of the souks. Two joined houses around orange-tree patios, a zellige swim basin in each court, a hammam and a terrace for breakfast facing the Atlas. You come here for the calm of the quarter and the care of the decor.
Fifteen rooms spread over two medina houses, at Bab Doukkala, a quarter of an hour on foot from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Olema et Spa has what most riads do not: a real patio pool where you swim a few strokes, doubled with a second basin and a basement spa. On the roof, a terrace facing the Koutoubia. You come here for that rare equipment in the middle of the old town.
Five rooms around a patio basin, at Arset El Houta, a ten-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Smara is a small-scale medina house, repainted by its owners: burgundy zellige, painted ceilings, banana trees in the court, rooftop terrace from which you see the Atlas on clear days. You come here for the calm and the welcome, not for the comfort of a large hotel.
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.
The Palais Calipau stands out first for its size: a dozen rooms around an orange-tree patio where a real pool takes the centre, two tables, a spa. A hundred and fifty metres from the Saadian Tombs, it is one of the busiest houses in the south medina, anything but a pocket address.
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.
Two old patios with zellige fountains, vaulted rooms in tadelakt walls and faded frescoes, a discreet door facing the royal palace ramparts: Dar Les Cigognes is a south medina boutique riad, restored by the architect Charles Boccara and run by the Sanssouci Collection group.
A handful of rooms behind a medina door, in a derb of the Dabachi quarter, three hundred metres from the Bahia palace. The Riad Lamzia is a small-scale house, in ochre pink tones, whose asset is on the roof: a basin terrace to cool off between two walks in the souks. You come here for the position and the welcome, not for the equipment of a large hotel.
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.
Three joined medina houses behind a door of the Ksour quarter, a two-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Al Rimal & Spa plays the comfort card more than the period decor: a heated pool in the patio, a hammam and a spa, a terrace facing the Koutoubia with jacuzzi. You come here for the equipment as much as for the location.
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.
The Riad Douirtna plays against the grain of geography: it is a full riad, patio and terrace included, but planted in Gueliz, the new town, not in the medina. Eight rooms only, a hammam, a Moroccan table, a welcome travellers rate very high, a quarter of an hour on foot from the Jardin Majorelle. The spirit of a guesthouse, without the old-town lanes.
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.
Ten rooms around a patio basin, in the Riad Laarous quarter, an eight-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Lena plays the classic riad card: arcaded galleries, zellige cool basin in the middle of the court, terrace facing the Atlas, hammam in the basement. You come here for the welcome and the location in the old town, knowing the house has picked up a few wrinkles.
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