Highlights
- Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, sleeps six
- Shallow pool end, roughly half a metre
- Orchard of orange, fig and pomegranate
- Children's rooms beside the main bedroom
- Level lawn, usually without steps or drops
How the rooms sit
All three bedrooms sit on one level, with the two smaller ones opening off a shared hall beside the main bedroom. Parents can hear a child from bed, which is a small thing until it is three in the morning. Either small room can be made up as twins or a double. Three bedrooms and three bathrooms means no queue in the morning, and six people can spend a week here without living on top of each other.
Outside
The orchard came first and the house was put in it — orange, fig, pomegranate, old olives along the boundary. Ground on a plot like this is usually flat and fenced, without the drops and level changes that make some villas near the city hard work with small children, though it is worth checking for any particular house. The pool steps in gradually, holding about half a metre for the first few metres before it drops away, and is normally fenced.
Practicalities
The kitchen is built for cooking every day: a big fridge, worktop on two sides, and room for a child at the end of the table. Someone can normally be brought in to cook for some nights or all of them. Cots, high chairs and stair gates are usually arranged in advance.
Amenities
- Pool with a graded shallow end, normally fenced
- Lawn and orchard, normally enclosed
- Family kitchen with a full-size fridge and freezer
- Covered veranda with a table for six
- Air conditioning in all three bedrooms
- Wi-fi and a television in the living room
Ideal for
Available on request
- Babysitting, usually arranged in advance
- Cots, high chairs and stair gates
- Family cook for the week
- Car and driver for day trips
- Riding for beginners nearby
Charged separately from the stay and confirmed case by case.
Gallery
The area
Route de l'Ourika is the quiet side of Marrakech: farm tracks, irrigation channels, donkeys on the verge and the mountains ahead the whole way. For families it works because there is somewhere to walk out of the gate, which is not true of every address near the city. The medina is a half-hour drive, so a day in town needs planning.
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
How shallow is the shallow end?
It runs at roughly half a metre for the first few metres, sloping gradually with no step down, so a small child can stand. It deepens to about a metre and a half at the far end. A fence is normally in place.
Are cots and high chairs provided?
Equipment of that sort is usually brought in for a stay, not kept in the house year-round, so it helps to say what is needed and the ages involved early. Cots, high chairs, stair gates and a bath seat are all normally straightforward.
Does the house work for six adults?
Six adults fit perfectly well. The two smaller bedrooms are proper doubles, not box rooms, and each has its own bathroom. The layout simply favours people who want to be near each other, which suits some groups of adults and irritates others.
Is there anything for children beyond the pool?
The orchard is the main thing — picking fruit in season, room to run, shade under the olives. Beyond the gate, the valley has short walks along the river, and there are stables on this road that take beginners. A trampoline and bikes are sometimes on site.
Request this stay
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. A person reads it and answers.