Riad Laaroussa

Riad Laaroussa is at 3 Derb Bechara in Fes El Bali, behind a plain door that gives away nothing about what is inside. The house is a seventeenth century palace, and the rooms open onto a courtyard planted with orange trees around a fountain, which is the traditional plan and still the reason these houses stay cool in July. Rooms and suites have painted wooden ceilings and handmade furniture, several with a brick fireplace and a traditional plastered bathroom, some with a mezzanine. There is a terrace, a garden and a pool. The hammam is candlelit and lined in Carrara marble, worked with ghassoul clay from the Atlas, black olive soap and argan oil. Bistro Laaroussa serves Moroccan and Mediterranean cooking with the medina and the Merinid tombs in view, and the riad runs cooking classes that begin at the market. The Zaouia of Moulay Idriss II is about six minutes on foot, and the Medersa Bou Inania and the Blue Gate are also walkable.