Morocco Travel Blog | Riads & La Mamounia - Marrakech
My favorite riad cat, Garfield, we truly loved each other.
Marrakech is where we spent majority of our time and compared to the other cities it is definitely the busiest. Marrakech thrives on tourism and the New Town is there to keep both locals and tourists well entertained at all hours. This city is also pretty South so the weather here was very different from Fes and very hot.
How do you get here? There are many direct flights to Marrakech (usually at a cheaper rate than Fes) from all over the world. You can get cheaper flights coming in from Spain. There's also buses and trains you can take to get here from other cities.
Riads known as the boutique hotels are what we stayed at majority of the time and took advantage by staying at a couple of different ones:
Riad L'Etoile D'Orient: friendly French owner named Franck, cute place and a nice rooftop terrace where you eat breakfast. Location is ideal and easy to find from the souks in the Medina
Riad Rafaele: nice owner but the staff are a lot friendlier, the boy (feel so bad forgot his name) is extremely helpful and he will make sure when you're dealing with other Moroccans they stick to what they say. The rooms are pretty nice and Garfield their cat is probably our favorite part about this riad, he's the friendliest cat you'll ever meet :)
Riad Mansour: in my opinion, one of the most beautiful riad in all of Marrakech. Just take a look at it’s architecture and design, that should be enough.
La Mamounia Hotel used to be the king's old palace and is converted to an extremely extravagant hotel. It's located right outside of the Medina and very close to the New Town. La Mamounia is filled with history as it's been the most popular luxurious hotel since the 1930s! This is the most pampered hotel ever, anything you'll ever need they'll be at your service (within seconds). Also, they assume you're extremely wealthy like everyone else so food, taxis, anything that's chargeable will likely be the same price for luxury in the US or Europe. This was also the only hotel we stayed at that had a huge pool (both indoor and outdoor). The indoor pool was heaven and it leads to another paradise to where the jacuzzi here. We saved the best for last intentionally so that we didn't ruin our expectations at the other riads and I'm glad we did because this was truly paradise.
Tips for stays:
Outlet Converter: very few outlets so bring your essentials (charger, blowdryer, straightner, battery chargers).
Most of the riads rarely have irons--most of the time you'll have to ask the host and even then they might not have one.
It'll be common to find dim lighting in your bathrooms as well, so I wouldn't be trying to film or do anything in there, you can barely put your makeup on. The bathroom space tends to be smaller, so I wouldn't depend on counter space either.
Except for the hotels, you're given a traditional key to your room, which the riad also has a spare as well to clean your room. Most riads are very trustworthy so you don't have to worry too much about your stuff, but I wouldn't bring the most expensive items either just in case.
Sometimes there isn't much to do at night besides the New City and more food--so keep in mind Netflix is banned there, so download as many movies on your laptop if you just want to lay in for a bit.