The place was a little difficult to find at first, but immediately after that I was very grateful to have a place tucked away behind the madness of the souqs to escape to. The Riad is in the north end of town, just off the main street called Riad Laarouss (which everyone knows and can direct you to when you get lost in the souq), but enough out of the center where some of the market stalls in the immediate vicinity are not for the tourists, but are clearly used by the Marrachis living in the area. This gives the Riad a bit more of a homey feel rather than a touristy one. During our stay there, we could feel a little bit a part of the neighborhood, as we kept seeing the same kids playing in the streets in the afternoon and saying hello to the same older families.

The Riad itself is beautiful and comfortable. There are multiple places to relax, from the shaded courtyard, a covered area with sofas, tables and chairs upstairs, and an open rooftop terrace. Our room was the Burbur suite, which was decked out in very nice traditionally carved wooden furniture and had a very spacious bathroom.

Bahija was extremely kind. Her breakfasts in the morning were very well done. They included different types of Moroccan crepes, coffee, mint tea, and different kinds of jam and honey. She also made us a wonderful tagine dinner of lamb with almonds and prunes. Bahija even gave us tips on how to buy our own tagine - go for the ones that are heavy and sound dull when you knock on them.

Siad was also very helpful. He often gave us travel tips, helped us linguistically, let us know how much was a reasonable price for certain goods in the market, and how much we could expect to pay for taxis to certain places. He also tried to help us set up a day trip out to Seti Fatima, but at 25 Euros per person, we found that quite steep. We stuck to public transport and paid about 5 Euros round trip per person.

During our 5 day stay, I only had two complaints. First, the bed in the room we stayed was not so comfortable. It was quite hard and lumpy, like it wasn't a mattress at all. There was no spring and no give. This made for a difficult night sleep on more than one occasion.

Second, even after Said's discount, the place still seemed a bit pricey to us, and it was necessary to pay in cash.

Both of these were not dealbreakers by any means, but things to consider for future travellers