I'm reluctant to write thus review as I feel like I'm inviting people to go and stay in my home, that's how I felt when I left, but it would be wrong not to give this place the praise it deserves. We hired this place exclusively as we were a group of 15 celebrating a 30th birthday, and from start to finish the process was smooth. We booked though authentic luxury travel and our drivers (they brought two 8 seater vehicles) were there when we arrived at the airport with clear signs so we knew who they were. Hicham was so calming and charming and he was there to meet us also. Upon our arrival Ilham was there to meet us with Omar and gave us a tour of the property and a map of the local area, showing us where was good to visit. Between Ilham and Hicham we arranged and excursion to the mountains for our entire group, and she even arranged a spa visit for a few of us, which Omar escorted us to.
We were there for 3 nights and on the final night we had a party in the riad. Ilham arranged the entertainment, food and cake for us, all of which was fantastic!! We had a belly dancer, dakka and 2 more musicians throughout the night. The food was the best I had eaten since my arrival!
Abdul, who was with us all night every night was AMAZING. He went above and beyond the call of duty, going out to get us food late at night and making us mint tea at midnight.
The rooms were each individually decorated to a pretty high standard, the roof terrace was perfect for relaxing both day and night, the salon was spacious yet cosy (we had a log fire on every night) and the pool, although small, was enough to be a valued feature. I'm sure in the summer it would be enough to cool of. I truly consider the staff as friends now and would recommend to anyone.

Barely two minutes' walk from the hustle and bustle of Djama El Fna, the main square in the old part of Marrakesh with all its noise, but what a lovely little riad with lots of unusual touches and great staff. All the house walls down these little alleys are very high and you haven't a clue what you're going to find till you're inside the big thick door.

Inside, we found a very clean guesthouse and the staff are extremely welcoming and friendly. Apart from their own Moroccan dialect, they speak English, French, Spanish, Italian - I think they've picked up a lot of languages over the years from their guests.

it is also very quiet inside, even though the central atrium of the hotel is open to the elements. You can't hear any noise from Djama El Fna - although, as always, you can hear the muezzin at 4am if you're a light sleeper like me!! Didn't bother me though, it all adds to the atmosphere of your holiday in a Muslim country.

The rooms have very high ceilings, windows with shutters and everything inside is built in stone - even the bed base is stone with a very firm mattress on top, excellent for those sore backs. The standards of cleanliness are very high and I can hardly even begin to say how good the cooking is. It's really home cooking as there is one lady, Hayat, who makes dinner and you have to book this in the morning before you go out for the day. But the smells of spices cooking permeates the air during the day and your tastebuds are left tingling till dinner time comes along!

Breakfast and dinner can be taken on the roof terrace in the sunshine and are very hearty. We loved the lemon chicken, the salad starters with peppers and aubergines, the beef tagine - we really can't praise the cooking here highly enough. And, if you so wish, Hayat will give you a cooking lesson and tell you the best blends of spices to use.

Our only disappointment with this riad was that the swimming pool is more like a deep paddling pool and we weren't really able to splash around in it - we never went any further than to sit on the edge after a day slogging around the sights and soak our tired feet! It's right on the ground floor, so even doing that is a wee bit embarrassing!

We were amazed at the number of TV channels available too (I caught a cold and was laid up for a day watching telly!). There are literally hundreds, but very few that you'd ever want to watch! The best were Al Jazeera, the English-language news channel and BBC News, but most of the other channels were in Italian, German or Spanish - surprisingly few in French. Many of the stations pump out religious material hour after hour, day after day, but amazingly for a Muslim country, there is no TV censorship so they even have freely available adult channels!

Ilham and Abdul at Riad La Croix Berbere were extremely helpful, Omar too (but he's very shy!) and Ilham was happy to organise excursions for us and help in any way he could. As with a lot of tourism industry staff, these guys are highly educated but can't find work in their own fields (for example, Abdul is a History graduate) and they turn to the hotel trade for work. They are a delight to talk to and told us lots of stories about Morocco, the Berber people and so on.

If it weren't for the fact that we probably wouldn't want to return to Marrakesh, we would definitely want to return to this hotel.

This little riad was perfect, we arrived two hours later than expected due to a flight delay, but sure enough, the taxi driver arranged through the hotel, was waiting for us. He took us through dark alley ways right to the riad door. The door in the wall opened up and Omar 's lovely happy face greeted us.Into a beautiful little courtyard.and straight to bed as it was after midnight. Breakfast and dinner can be taken in the courtyard, salon or roof terrace and is served by polite, friendly staff, wine is available at a reasonable cost and is very good quality. The walk to the infamous square takes approx 3-4 minutes so it is a perfect location and after the hustle and bustle of the souks it's a little haven of peace and tranquility. Ilham, Omar and the rest of the team here are great, always smiling and ready to help with any questions or needs. Staff are always cleaning and the bedrooms are beautiful, we stayed in three different ones, i loved the tadelakt plaster that covered most of the walls. Absolutely brilliant and we will stay there next time we visit Marrakech.