26 places, from £43 to £470 a night.
Five rooms around a patio basin, in a derb of Bab Doukkala, a quarter of an hour on foot from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad El Youssoufi is a small-scale medina house: hand-set green zellige, a cool basin in the court, rooftop terrace for breakfast. You come for the calm and the welcome, not for the equipment of a large hotel.
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.
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.
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 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.
Seven rooms around a patio basin, in a derb of Bab Doukkala, a quarter of an hour on foot from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad la Parenthese by Sashema is a medina house closely run by its host: pink zellige on the headboards, black tadelakt in the bathrooms, planted terrace on the rooftops. You come here for the calm and the welcome, not for the services of a large hotel.
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.
Seven rooms around a patio pool, in a derb of the Dabachi quarter, a five-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad 117 is a medina house brought up to date: pale lime and tadelakt, a small swim basin in the middle of the court, a rooftop terrace for breakfast. You come here for the location and the welcome, not for the services of a large hotel.
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.
Nine rooms around a columned patio, at Derb Dabachi, two minutes from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Itrane is a medina house of the old kind: zellige and ochre pink tadelakt, a real pool in the court with counter-current, terraces where you glimpse the Koutoubia and the Atlas. You come here for the location and the calm of the derb, not for the services of a large hotel.
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.
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.
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.
About a dozen rooms around a patio pool, in a derb of Bab Doukkala, a quarter of an hour on foot from Jemaa el-Fna. The Riad Salman is a medina house over two levels, with a real zellige pool at the middle of the court and a rooftop terrace facing the minaret. You come here for the freshness of the patio and the calm of the quarter.
At two hundred and fifty metres from the Saadian Tombs, the Riad Merzouga is a family Kasbah house: seven rooms in frank colours around a patio basin, a rooftop terrace. Its name says its other calling, because from here depart the tours to the desert dunes.
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.
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.
Six rooms around a patio covered by a glass roof, in the north medina, near the Mouassine museum. The Riad Dreams stands out for its cool basin in the middle of the court, under the arcaded galleries, and for its rooftop terrace. A house run by its owner, chosen for the court and the calm more than for the services of a large hotel.
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