Highlights
- Five bedrooms in the main house, three in the annexe
- Pool roughly twenty by five metres
- Covered dining for all sixteen
- Two sitting rooms, so the group can split up
- Walled plot under mature palms
The main house and the annexe
Five bedrooms sit in the main house, on one or two levels around the sitting rooms, and three more in a separate building across the garden. That division is the reason a house like this works at sixteen: the annexe takes the people who go to bed late or get up early, and the main house stops being a corridor at midnight. It is also the first thing to check rather than assume, because the walk between the two buildings in the dark, with a child or a bad knee, is a real consideration and the distance varies a great deal from property to property.
The garden, the pool and one long table
The pool runs to about twenty metres by five, which is long enough for someone to swim properly while other people are sitting in it. Around it there is terrace, and under cover there is a table that takes the whole group at once. Sixteen people eating in two sittings is a different holiday from sixteen people eating together, and the covered table is what decides which one you get — in July because of the sun, in December because of the cold.
Getting sixteen people in and out
A group this size does not fit in one car and rarely arrives on one flight. Villas in the grove are normally set up for that: parking inside the gate, a guardian who can let late arrivals in, and a driver or minibus arranged for the stay rather than called when needed. Decide the transport before anyone books flights, because the alternative is twenty-five minutes of road between you and every restaurant in the city.
What to establish before you commit
At this size, on the house that actually gets proposed, the questions that matter are not about decoration. How many of the eight bedrooms are genuine doubles and how many are twins, and which of them are in the annexe. What the staff hours actually are, and which meals are included rather than billed. How much notice the pool heating needs, and what it costs. And, if you have anything in mind beyond a family dinner, what the property permits — which is a question with a different answer at every house, and one that belongs in writing before a deposit, not after.
Amenities
- Private pool in a stone terrace
- Air conditioning in all eight bedrooms
- Covered outdoor dining for the whole group
- Two sitting rooms and a separate dining room
- Housekeeping, normally part of a house this size
- Guardian living on the property
- Wi-Fi in the house and in the annexe
- Parking inside the gate for several cars
Ideal for
Available on request
- Cook for some or all meals
- Pool heating, where the property has it
- Minibus transfers for the whole group
- Cars and drivers by the day
- Additional staff for the stay
Charged separately from the stay and confirmed case by case.
Gallery
The area
The Palmeraie is the palm grove north-east of the medina, divided into large walled plots along unmarked tracks. For a group its advantage is space: a plot big enough to hold two buildings, a pool and a garden without any of it touching a neighbour. Its cost is distance. Nothing is walkable, taxis do not come out to a track reliably, and sixteen people moving into the city means two cars or a minibus, arranged before you arrive rather than on the morning you want to leave.
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 do eight bedrooms divide between the two buildings?
In a house of this kind, commonly five in the main house and three in a garden annexe. How many are en suite is one of the things to check: at this size two bedrooms sharing a bathroom is common. The other useful questions are how many are genuine doubles rather than twins, and how far the annexe is from the main house in the dark. All of it varies from property to property, so ask for a floor plan rather than a bedroom count.
Can sixteen people eat together at a Palmeraie villa?
Usually yes. A house of this kind has one covered table that takes the whole group, and that is the thing to confirm on whichever property we propose: plenty of large villas seat sixteen outdoors in April and nowhere under cover in July or December, which turns every meal into two sittings.
Can we hold a party or a wedding at a villa like this?
Size does not imply permission. Many large properties around Marrakech do not allow amplified music, outside caterers or guests who are not staying, and some have curfews. Whatever you are planning beyond a family dinner, establish in writing what is permitted, until what time, and whether the caterer is fixed, before any money moves.
How does a group of sixteen get around from the Palmeraie?
With transport arranged in advance. Ride-hailing coverage out in the grove is unreliable and a taxi will not routinely come to an unmarked track, so groups normally take a minibus for airport runs and one or two cars with drivers for the days. Price it in from the start; it is the single thing that decides whether a stay out here works.
Request this stay
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. A person reads it and answers.