The catch at La Villa des Orangers

The Deluxe Room, about 20 m², is on the ground floor and opens directly onto a courtyard, with a bath and a shower. It is a handsome room, but the courtyard is the view and the only outside space. A private terrace starts one rung up, with the Room with Terrace, which is the same 20 m² on the first floor with a queen bed and an interior staircase to a terrace above the bedroom. More floor space inside starts with the Junior Suite, about 28 m², and a living room with the Small Suite with Terrace, about 35 m². With 33 rooms and suites set around courtyards and patios, no two are alike.

This is a converted 1930s house, and it keeps the stairs of one. The hotel's room pages say plainly that the first-floor rooms have no lift, and every terrace room and terrace suite reaches its own terrace by an interior staircase from the bedroom. The rooftop, with its bar facing the Koutoubia and the plunge pool, is another climb. The Junior Duplex Suite is on two levels and is described by the hotel as not suitable for guests with reduced mobility. The ground floor holds the Deluxe Rooms, some Junior Suites and the courtyards.

Rates are set in dirhams and change by the month. Early December and mid-June to early September are cheapest, from about €370 a night for two with breakfast. From mid-February to early June most nights run from about €615 to €910, and for check-in on Tuesday 16 March 2027 the hotel's lowest rate was €825 a night, on a minimum stay of three nights, though the hotel does not say which room it buys. These figures include the city tourist tax, which is charged per person per night.

The hotel stands on the south-western edge of the Medina, between the Koutoubia and the Royal Palace, and a taxi stops at the door on Rue Sidi Mimoun. That puts the Koutoubia 8 minutes away on foot, the Saadian Tombs 10, Jemaa el-Fna 11, El Badi Palace 14 and the Bahia Palace 15. The souks and the northern sights are further: Le Jardin Secret is 20 minutes on foot and the Ben Youssef Madrasa 22, through busy lanes. Guéliz and the Jardin Majorelle are about 6 minutes by car with the roads clear.

There is no kids' club, and Relais & Châteaux, of which the hotel has been a member since 2001, lists children as accepted but not recommended. The house is calm, the pools are in courtyards and on the roof, the terraces are reached by stairs, and the rooms are mostly sized for two. The one exception is the Family Suite, about 50 m² one flight up, which joins a 35 m² junior suite to a 15 m² children's room, with a private entrance patio and a fireplace lounge, and sleeps up to four. The Private Riad, about 185 m² with two suites and its own pool, sleeps up to five.