La Maison Arabe

Home to one of Marrakech’s most acclaimed restaurants, La Maison Arabe is a great choice for travelers looking for an authentic guest house in the medina.

• The Noor suite in the old wing has a private balcony and lovely old-fashioned Moroccan décor
• The access to a larger pool in the country annex just beyond the city walls
• Les Trois Saveurs restaurant
• The cooking school with its wonderful, warm chef

A favorite of such locals as jewelry designer Gogo Ferguson, this beautiful small hotel in the medina also has an annex just outside the city for poolside lounging, so guests have the best of both worlds. The medina maisonhas housed one of the top Moroccan restaurants since the 1940s (it was originally opened by two European women who created the first Moroccan restaurant in the medina near the Bab Doukkala Mosque). Over the years, a number of guest rooms were added (including five in 2021), as well as a small pool and a wonderful second restaurant, Les Trois Saveurs. Like all riad hotels, the 37 rooms are on the small side but many of them come with fireplaces, pool views and balconies (note that the four standard rooms do not have baths). Overall, the in-room décor is more sleek than that of the main Arab-Andalusian public spaces. Traditional crafts such as carved plasterwork, tadelaktwall painting and cedar ceilings are used in a refreshing contemporary way.

Other notable charms of the hotel: a gorgeous hammam and a very well regarded cooking school. Many of the ingredients come from the kitchen garden and the teacher is a famous dada, or traditional Moroccan chef.

One of the great pluses of La Maison Arabe is that it offers a town-and-country experience for its guests thanks to its garden-framed annex just outside the city. This outpost has a large pool area surrounded by gardens, so guests can stay in the medina but escape daily to the more relaxed outskirts. The pool feels like a secret walled garden, and hotel guests can enjoy lunch or dinner there under a fig tree or in a caidale tent.

Independent travelers looking for a well-located, authentic Marrakech base.