Highlights
- Sleeps six across three doubles
- Planted courtyard with mature orange trees
- Pool roughly seven metres by two
- Quiet dead-end lane
- Roof terrace above the neighbouring rooftops
The courtyard
The plan is narrow and deep, which is normal for the Mellah, so the courtyard reads as a long green room rather than a square. Two orange trees have been there long enough to shade half of it. A pool runs down one side, roughly seven metres by two, deep enough to swim a few strokes and cool enough in August to be worth it. Jasmine is trained on wires above the seating, so the smell arrives in the evening rather than the middle of the day.
Three bedrooms
One opens straight onto the courtyard and stays cool; the two above share a landing and a view down into the trees. Each has its own bathroom. Six people fit without anyone taking the small room, because there isn’t one — the three are close in size, which matters when couples travel together.
Above the rooftops
The terrace stands a floor higher than most of what surrounds it, so the view runs flat across tiles and dishes to the minarets beyond. An awning covers the table, and a day bed in the corner catches the sun until late. Most people end up eating dinner up there.
Amenities
- Courtyard pool, roughly seven metres by two
- Awning, dining table and day bed on the roof terrace
- Fireplace in the ground-floor sitting room
- Air conditioning and heating in all three bedrooms
- Wi-Fi normally reaches the whole house, courtyard included
- Breakfast normally served under the orange trees
Ideal for
Available on request
- Dinner cooked at the house
- Early-morning guided walks through the medina
- Treatments booked at a hammam in the quarter
- Flowers and candles set out before arrival
- Car and driver for airport transfers
Charged separately from the stay and confirmed case by case.
Gallery
The area
The Mellah is laid out in blocks rather than knots, so its lanes run straighter than those further north and are easier to learn after a day of getting them wrong. Metal and jewellery are worked in the streets off the main road, which means the noise starts early and is mostly finished by dusk. The palaces at the southern end of the medina are a short walk. Dinner usually means a walk north or a taxi.
What the photos won't tell you
Every listing in the world photographs the pool from its best corner, and no photograph answers the questions that decide a stay. So before you commit, we put the following in writing for your dates:
- How far the car gets, and how many metres and steps remain with the luggage.
- Who the neighbours are, and what you will hear at five in the morning.
- Whether the pool is heated, and in which months that decides whether you swim.
- What “staffed” covers — who is there, at what hours, and who cooks.
- Where the wifi actually reaches, not just where the router is.
- Which of the property’s own photographs were taken with a wide-angle lens, and what a room looks like from the doorway.
Common questions
Is the pool heated?
Riad pools in the medina sit in shade for much of the day, which is welcome in July and cold from November. Heating can usually be arranged in advance for a winter stay, though it takes a day or so to bring the water up.
Will we hear the call to prayer?
Yes, and most clearly from the roof, earliest at dawn. After the first night most people stop noticing it. The ground-floor bedroom is the quietest of the three, with thick walls and shutters, if someone in the group sleeps badly.
Is three bedrooms enough for six adults?
Yes, for three couples, or for a group content to pair up. What limits a house this size is not the bedrooms but the courtyard, since it is the one room everyone shares: six is about the number it holds before the conversation has to split in two.
How does the house feel in winter?
The courtyard is open to the sky, so mornings are cold and afternoons are warm wherever the sun reaches. There is a fireplace in the sitting room and heating in the bedrooms. Winter light comes in low and clear, and the cold has gone out of the courtyard by mid-morning.
Request this stay
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. A person reads it and answers.