Our very first night in Marrakech happened to be New Year’s Eve. We had booked a riad in the northern medina, a few minutes’ walk from the Ben Youssef Madrasa, and stepped straight from the crowded souks into a silent courtyard. That switch from chaos outside to calm behind the front door is exactly why you want to sleep in a riad in Marrakech.
On our second visit the kids came along. That time we slept just outside the city, plus one night among the bare hills of the Agafay Desert. Still, for us the medina is where you want to be. You come to Marrakech for the buzz of the souks and the Jemaa el-Fna square, and in the evening you want to be able to simply walk home.
So where to stay in Marrakech? In this guide we walk you through the areas, from the alleys around Ben Youssef to the garden hotels of the Palmeraie and the desert camps of Agafay. For each area we pick the best riads and hotels, plus practical tips on how to actually find your riad in that maze of lanes.
Where to stay in Marrakech at a glance
- Best for a classic riad among the souks: northern medina (our pick: Riad El Youssoufi)
- Best for sleeping right in the action: around Jemaa el-Fna (our pick: Riad Palais Sebban)
- Best for families in the medina: southern medina (our pick: Riad Touhfa Kasbah)
- Best for taxis to the door and good restaurants: Gueliz and Hivernage (our pick: 2Ciels Boutique Hôtel)
- Best for pools and space: Palmeraie (our pick: Les Deux Tours)
- Best for a night outside the city: Agafay (our pick: Inara Camp)
Medina or new town: which is better?
Marrakech is really two cities in one. Inside the red city walls lies the medina, the old town that has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1985. This is where you’ll find the souks, the palaces, most of the sights and almost all the riads. Outside the walls are Gueliz and Hivernage, the new town laid out by the French, with wide avenues, modern hotels and restaurants where your taxi pulls up right at the door.
For a first visit or a short city break, we would always stay in the medina. Everything you came for is within walking distance, and breakfast on your riad’s roof terrace is something the new town can’t offer. Staying longer, travelling with a pushchair or mainly after pool time? Then Gueliz, Hivernage or the Palmeraie are worth a look. The Agafay Desert works better as an extra night than as a base.
→ Discover the 20 best things to see in Marrakech
What is a riad?
A riad is a traditional Moroccan house built around an inner courtyard. From the outside you often see nothing more than a blank wall and a heavy wooden door in an alley. Step inside, though, and you’re standing in a tiled patio with plants and often a fountain or small pool, with the rooms arranged around it over two or three floors.
The word riad actually means garden, and many of these houses once belonged to wealthy families. Today they are small guesthouses with a handful of rooms, a roof terrace and a host who welcomes you with mint tea. That small scale makes them personal, but it also means rooms can differ a lot. One looks out over the patio, another has a window onto the alley or its own terrace on the roof.
How do you get to your riad in the medina?
This is the part a lot of people dread, and we get it. Most lanes in the medina are too narrow for cars, so a taxi will usually drop you at a city gate, a square or the nearest wider street. You walk the last stretch, sometimes several minutes through a maze where Google Maps occasionally gives up.
The easiest option is to book a transfer through your riad. Someone will often be waiting at the drop-off point to carry your bags and show you the way. It saves a lot of searching with a suitcase, and you learn the route you’ll be walking yourself for the next few days. People who offer to show you the way in the street usually expect a tip for it.
→ Discover 15 things to know before going to Morocco
Staying in a Marrakech riad with kids
On our second visit to Marrakech we had the kids with us, and that changes how you look at a riad. Not every riad suits young children. Some are adults only, in others the plunge pool sits wide open in the middle of the patio or the roof terrace has a low wall. Family rooms aren’t a given either, and a room for three is often the maximum.
For the riads below we mention it when they work especially well for families. Travelling with a pushchair? The new town and the Palmeraie are a lot easier. In the medina a baby carrier is far more practical, as the lanes are narrow, bumpy and busy with scooters.
How many nights do you need in Marrakech?
For the city’s highlights, such as the souks, Jemaa el-Fna, Bahia Palace and Jardin Majorelle, you need two to three full days. If you also want a day trip to the Atlas Mountains, the Ourika Valley or Essaouira, plan on four or five nights.
Many travellers combine a few nights in the medina with a night in the Agafay Desert or a few days by the pool in the Palmeraie. That way you get the buzz first and the calm afterwards. Heading on to the coast? In Essaouira you’ll find a very different kind of riad, with white walls and blue shutters.
→ Discover the 15 best day trips from Marrakech
→ Discover the 10 best riads in Essaouira
The best areas and riads in Marrakech
From the old town outwards, these are the six best areas to stay in Marrakech, each with the riads and hotels we would book there.
#1 Northern medina: riads between the souks and Ben Youssef
This is where we stayed on our first visit. The northern part of the medina, with neighbourhoods like Mouassine, Bab Doukkala and the area around the Ben Youssef Madrasa, feels more like a residential area than the streets around the square. You walk straight into the covered souks, and in between the shops you reach some of the old town’s finest spots.
The Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Musée de Marrakech and Le Jardin Secret are all a few minutes’ walk away. Jemaa el-Fna is ten to fifteen minutes on foot right through the souks, which is one of the best walks in the city. The downside: the lanes here are narrow and partly covered, so finding your riad with a suitcase the first time takes some puzzling.
#1 Riad El Youssoufi is our favourite in this part of town: five rooms around a patio with green tiles, and breakfast up on the roof overlooking the mosque at Bab Doukkala. Children of all ages are welcome and there’s a small plunge pool in the patio.
#2 Riad Dar Nael is the riad where we celebrated New Year ourselves. It sits in a quiet lane a few minutes from the Ben Youssef Madrasa and is a good choice if you’re watching your budget.
#3 Riad Les Yeux Bleus has eleven rooms, each decorated differently, spread over two patios with a little pool each. There’s a library, and a bar on the roof for a quiet end to the day.
#4 Riad Dalia is the most affordable choice of this bunch, with a fountain in the courtyard and Le Jardin Secret around the corner. It has family rooms and Jemaa el-Fna is just over ten minutes away on foot.
→ Discover the 6 best gardens in Marrakech
#2 Around Jemaa el-Fna: right in the action
Want to be as close as possible to the heart of Marrakech? Then stay around Jemaa el-Fna. By day the square is full of juice stalls and henna artists, and as the sun goes down the food stalls, musicians and storytellers appear. With your riad around the corner, you can pop back for a break in the afternoon and be back in the middle of it all within minutes at night.
The flip side is that it stays busy and noisy until late, and on the lanes leading to the square you’ll be approached more often by sellers and self-appointed guides. So pick a riad on a side street and you get the best of both. Taxis drop you at the edge of the square, which makes finding your riad easier here than in the north.
#1 Riad Palais Sebban is a nineteenth-century town palace in the Ksour area, a five-minute walk west of the square. Think Andalusian stucco, tiled patios and a rooftop pool, and with family rooms it’s a great pick with kids too.
#2 Riad Dar Yema is in the Dabachi area, five to ten minutes from the square, at the end of a narrow lane. There’s a small pool in the sheltered patio and sunloungers up on the roof terrace.
#3 Riad Andalla sits on the east side of the square, two minutes away on foot. From the roof terrace you look out over Jemaa el-Fna and the Koutoubia, and prices are friendly for such a location.
#4 Riad Jnane Mogador is a simple, budget riad just seventy metres from the square, with its own hammam and a roof terrace. Ideal if you mainly want a good base and only use the room to sleep.
#3 Southern medina: quiet nights near the palaces
The south of the medina is home to the Kasbah, the old Jewish quarter of Mellah and the area around Riad Zitoun. This is where you’ll find the big sights: Bahia Palace, the ruins of El Badi and the Saadian Tombs. Evenings are calmer here than around the square, yet you’re still on Jemaa el-Fna within ten to fifteen minutes.
With kids, this is the part of the medina we would choose. The palaces are within walking distance, you’re just away from the crowds, and a few riads here have proper family rooms. Here too, taxis usually stop just short of the door and you walk the last bit.
#1 Riad Touhfa Kasbah is our family favourite in the medina. It has rooms with fixed beds for four, a pool in the patio and a roof terrace, a few minutes’ walk from El Badi.
#2 Riad Les Oliviers & Spa is on the street leading to Bahia Palace and has its pool up on the roof, among sunloungers and seating areas. With family rooms and its own spa, it’s a solid all-rounder.
#3 Dar Anika is a small luxury riad near Place des Ferblantiers, a stone’s throw from the palaces. The roof terrace looks out over the medina rooftops towards the Atlas Mountains, and the suites sleep two adults and one child.
#4 Riad Al Badia is a homely riad with six rooms in the Berrima area, next to the Mellah. You’re well away from the tourist crush here, though the walk to the square takes about fifteen minutes.
#4 Gueliz and Hivernage: space, modern hotels and taxis to the door
Gueliz is the modern centre of Marrakech, with wide avenues, boutiques, coffee bars and restaurants where you’ll see plenty of locals too. Hivernage, between Gueliz and the medina, is the quiet hotel district with villas, big gardens and most of the luxury hotels. In both areas, taxis simply stop at the door.
For a first visit we’d miss the atmosphere of the old town here, but there are good reasons to choose the new town: you’re travelling with a pushchair, you arrive by train or you want some breathing space after a few days in the medina. Jardin Majorelle is on the edge of Gueliz, and Jemaa el-Fna is about fifteen minutes away by taxi.
#1 2Ciels Boutique Hôtel is a boutique hotel in Gueliz with a pool in the garden and another on the roof, where there’s a lively bar in the evening. It has family rooms and you can walk to the shops and restaurants around Marrakech Plaza.
#2 Dar Rhizlane is a villa with an Andalusian garden in Hivernage and a heated saltwater pool. Families can book a two-bedroom suite, and the medina is just under half an hour away on foot.
#3 Longue Vie Hotels is a modern hotel right by the train station, with family rooms and a rooftop pool. Handy if you’re arriving from or heading on to Rabat or Fez by train.
→ Discover our route through Morocco by train
#5 Palmeraie: pools and gardens outside the city
The Palmeraie lies on the northern edge of Marrakech, in a palm oasis where big resorts, villas and golf courses are spread among the trees. You’re far from the city noise here, and a taxi gets you to the medina in twenty minutes to half an hour.
This is the place for a few lazy days by the pool, for example at the end of a tour of Morocco. For sightseeing you’ll always need a taxi, or a shuttle if your hotel offers one, and there are hardly any restaurants within walking distance.
#1 Les Deux Tours is a peaceful hotel among palms and gardens. According to the hotel, the main pool is heated all year, and you can book a family room for four with its own private pool.
#2 Domaine des Remparts Hotel & Spa is spacious, with views towards the Atlas Mountains, a spa and an outdoor pool heated all year round. Great if you want to swim in winter.
#3 Barceló Palmeraie Oasis Resort is the most child-friendly choice of the three, with several pools, a separate kids’ pool and family rooms. It’s a big resort, so less intimate than a riad, but very easy with young children.
#6 Agafay: a night in the stone desert
About forty kilometres from Marrakech lies the Agafay Desert, a bare, rolling landscape of stone and hills with the peaks of the Atlas in the background. It isn’t a sand desert like the one at Merzouga, but you don’t have to travel for days to spend a night under the stars.
We spent a night at Inara Camp with the kids and loved the change of pace after the busy city. Almost all camps arrange a transfer from Marrakech, and you eat dinner at the camp itself, as there’s nothing else for miles around. Pack a warm jumper in winter, because nights out here can get properly chilly.
#1 Inara Camp is where we stayed ourselves: comfortable, stylish tents with views over the hills towards the Atlas. A great first taste of the desert, close to the city.
#2 Oxygen Lodge Agafay is one of the best-rated camps in Agafay, with family tents and a pool overlooking the hills that is open all year.
#3 Alkamar Camp Agafay is small-scale, with family tents, a pool with a view and a restaurant on site. Children are welcome from the age of one.
#4 Les Terrasses d’Agafay is one of the more affordable camps and has a heated outdoor pool, which makes a big difference in the cooler months.
→ Discover our review of Inara Camp in the Agafay Desert
→ Discover the 5 best deserts to visit in Morocco
More tips for your trip to Marrakech
Our pickStill looking? Browse all riads and hotels in Marrakech on Booking.com
Southern Morocco is easiest to explore by car. Rent a car at Marrakech airport with Discover Cars and compare the big rental companies in one go.
Prefer everything arranged? Browse Morocco tours on TourRadar.
No flight yet? Compare flights to Marrakech, the starting point for a road trip through the south.
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