Dar Houda

The property was cosy and decorated authentically. It was in the middle of the old medina not far from the ruined gardens. It was a refreshing escape from the outside

There wasn’t anything I didn’t like. Just the stairs to the roof terrace were a little steep

Tolles Riad in einer Seitengasse der Medina. Nachts sehr ruhig, Zimmer sauber, freundlicher Gastgeber.

Everything as advertised

Nothing

Plenty of space; traditional Moroccan vibe; close to Blue Gate and Bab Ziat at the heart of the Medina; good restaurants nearby; well decorated, seems like it has been recently refurbished. A lot of kitchen equipment and a private roof terrace.

We stayed in the two bed house. Before booking, we asked if it was within the same building as the Riad (Dar Houda) wanting to enjoy breakfast and dinner on the nice terrace that others mentioned in their reviews. We were told it was the same but it actually isn’t. It’s a separate basement house around the corner. We missed being able to have breakfast and dinner in the Riad and the street the house was on was full of noisy kids playing. We weren’t offered the chance of buying dinner at the Riad. We had some problems (washing machine didn’t work, cooker ran out of gas, wifi router missing so we couldn’t get one of the TVs to work) and they weren’t attended to which was disappointing. The house is old and in the medina so expect a slight sewage smell in kitchen/bathroom and in the main bedroom a damp smell. It’s also slightly below street level with little natural light or air. Be aware that being separate from the Riad means you can’t have the breakfast there. Instead the hostess comes with a tray of basic breakfast goods (pancakes, eggs, syrup, biscuits) with a view to cooking for you in the house. This time is fixed at 08.15. We didn’t feel comfortable being cooked for by a stranger and asked for the breakfast to be left for us to cook ourselves but obviously this isn’t ideal, especially when the cooker ran out of gas. There were issues with us asking for a later breakfast time (09.00) and this not being adhered to meaning that at 08.15, we were all woken by the hostess banging on the door and trying to get in with her own key. Not ideal when you’re on holiday. On other days, we asked for 08.15 and the breakfast came later. It was hard to plan. We’re experienced travellers and we have visited many places in Morocco and this was an odd experience. We could have rented a flat if we had wanted to be completely private and cook for ourselves. But we didn’t. We thought we were in the main riad and would have meals there.