5 affordable riads in Marrakech

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Marrakech riads look like right out of the One Thousand and One Nights stories.
Think about small palaces with exotic architecture, colorful tiles covering floors and walls, a hint of brass and golden details.
Who wouldn’t love to stay in one to experience Arabic nights!

But then it sneaks into your shoestring-budget traveler’s mind, how can I afford to stay in one..?
The good news is that there are really beautiful and affordable riads in Marrakech to stay!

What riad actually mean?

Riad, a building that boosts your imagination to flow.
What has happened behind these strong stone walls and big wooden doors?
Secrets are kept inside.

Riads – or actually ryads or riyads – are private homes or palaces that are built to keep the world and curious gazes outside.
Thick walls without windows also protect from the harsh weather, both heat and cold winter days.

While the front door is thick and strictly closed, your private room might not be locked at all.
You are now on private property, at someone’s home actually.

Inside there is an atrium garden, often a sky-lit courtyard.
This is where riads got their name from. The Arabic word riyad literally translates as a garden.
The garden often has a fountain in the middle and is surrounded by a gallery.
The atrium garden was a semi-public place where guests were invited to sit below orange or lemon trees.

Many of these mansions have recently been restored to accommodate tourists.
Using the word guesthouse would be too lame for describing these beautiful old buildings.
Riads carry a long proud history of the Moroccan, Middle-Eastern, and Mediterranean cultures.
Staying in a riad you’ll get a good glimpse on how the wealthy locals, such as merchants, lived back in time.

Arriving in Marrakech after the longest flight ever

We’d been touring the world and booked our first riad before landing to Morocco from New Zealand.
It was our first time in Marrakech and in Morocco.
We took a back then longest flight in the world, 19,5 hours from Auckland, NZ to Doha, Qatar just to continue to Marrakech via Casablanca.

You can imagine how exhausted and lightheaded we felt when we stepped out of the Marrakech airport. We crawled to a taxi stand waiting to get ripped off as we couldn’t think clearly and also clearly looked like people who would pay anything to get a fast ride to a hotel to get some sleep.

But nope, we paid a reasonable couple of dollars for the driver to drive us quickly to Jemaa el-Fna – the famous square in the middle of the Marrakech old town.
He couldn’t drive us to the front door of our riad as this part of the city, the old town of Medina, is a pedestrian zone.

How to find your way to a riad

As many of these mansions are well hidden behind small alleys, it might be hard to find your way there. Google Maps might help. Often not. They’ll show you the location, but not the entrance which might be around the whole quarter.

Then ask locals by the name of your place. They will lead you to the front door, though many of your guides expect some money.
A thumb rule is that if someone asks to help you, he expects to get paid, but if you ask for a way you’ll get a lazily raised thumb – walk that way.

When you finally get there, you’ll knock on the door to wait for someone to let you in.
Then, most commonly you’ll be invited to have a cup of tea and a few cookies while waiting to be led to your room.

How did we find our beds?

We got out of the taxi only thinking of comfy beds to get a nap. We weren’t too interested in wandering around looking for a riad we had booked in advance.
We let some oldish man lead us to our accommodation.

As we hadn’t yet done the currency exchange we couldn’t pay this man for his services. As he’d clearly seen his chance to earn a few bucks and been quite forceful with his services we weren’t too willing to pay anyway.

So many tourist frauds you see happening around traveling full-time gets you a bit aware of these things.
Sometimes maybe a bit too much.

We later talked with our hotel receptionist and she said this guy has had quite a big troubles in his life and is really in need. We settled an agreement to go to exchange some money and set the time for this man to come to pick up his salary.

There are guys that are looking for easy money, but there are also those ones that are really trying to make ends meet.
Do your own figurations person by person. Be aware but be kind and fair to other human beings.

How to find an affordable riad in Marrakech

I once read a post on a travelers’ group on Facebook, where one girl was wondering if she should spend 200 $ a night for staying in a riad in Marrakech. That’s what she had been offered on a package she was about to book in the US.
Absolutely not!

That question actually was a reason to write this article. I want to help people to have a bit of luxury on a tight budget. We ourselves travel on little money. (We as my partner and I.)

During our nomad years, in March 2017, we spent a few weeks in Morocco. We stayed in five different Marrakech riads that cost 30-60 $ a night for a double room.
Yes, that was already five years ago, but prices haven’t gone up too much.

We always book flights and accommodation separately. It’s really simple and most often saves money.
I’ve noticed that travelers from the US are not familiar with many of the platforms and applications we Europeans use for booking trips.
So I’m here to help you out!

One of those platforms is Booking.com which I mostly use for booking hotels, hostels, and nowadays also short-term rental apartments.
Yes, it’s not only Airbnb that you can use for that.
Most of the time *Booking.com is also cheaper as there are no hidden fees for cleaning etc.

As a digital nomad, I prefer staying in apartments, but in some places, hotel kind of accommodation is a must.
Marrakech is definitely one of those.

A few notes about prices

At the time of writing this article, I checked prices for the next month (that being March 2022). The pandemic has done its job and there are now rooms available for prices starting as low as 8 $ for a private double room.
I will give here the prices of the riads we stayed in. I will use a random date of March 17th, 2022.

Marrakech has a city tax which you’ll need to pay in cash at your accommodation. It’s about 2 $ pp/night.

Prices in this article are in USD, roughly converted from the original euro rates using the €/$ exchange rate from Feb. 2022.
For example, the 8 $ mentioned above is originally 7 €, which would be 7,90 $ to be precise.
As prices vary day to day, I think we’ll do just fine with the rough conversion.

So let’s go and see where we stayed!

5 affordable riads in Marrakech we stayed in

• Riad Dabachi
• Ryad Laârouss
• Ta’achchaqa
• Riad Al Nour
• Riad Rose Meryam

Riad Dabachi

*Riad Dabachi is one of those mansions that has a beautiful fountain at the entrance level. It’s actually the first thing you see when you walk in.

This was the place we walked in after traveling for somewhat of 30 hours.
After this travellers are usually quite demanding. At least for getting a bed like right now.
That never happens if you arrive early, but happiness begins when you are treated well while waiting. In Riad Dabachi we got our satisfaction.

– Madame & monsieur your room is not ready yet, but would you like to have some breakfast?
But of course! Tea, bread, and pastries, that’s the way to treat long-haul passengers after a sleepless night.

Finally we were led into our room on the first floor via stairs and a corridor terrace.
I was too tired to notice anything about our room. There was a toilet and a bed, that was everything we needed at the moment.

Later on, I noticed that there was no window outside, just a small peeking hole in the bathroom. It’s actually very typical in these mansions. As they are surrounded by thick stony walls, only scenes from rooms are to the inside garden, sometimes not even that. Your only view of the existing world might be opening your door to the atrium garden.
But this is how it is in all the authentic riads.

In Dabachi we had a window to the atrium garden and a huge bathroom with the tub. That is also very typical in riads. The size of the bathroom here was almost the same as my small studio apartment in Finland.

Rooftop terraces are also typical, Dabachi had one. After a nap, we climbed up there to see the sun setting and the Atlas mountains on the horizon.

Price: 78 $ (March 17^th, 2022)

Ryad Laârouss

Talking about windowless. *Ryad Laârouss was actually the only place in these Marrakech riads where I noticed missing windows. This one didn’t have any window, not even one to the courtyard.

The problem was that there wasn’t much light and without ventilation, humidity had done some damage.
I wouldn’t recommend staying here if you get breathing problems from the moldy air like I do.

The riad itself was a very beautiful building, the staff was very friendly and when you arrive, you’ll be served tea and cookies, of course.
Also here you can climb up to the rooftop to see the views. There is also a fountain surrounded by a seating area on the ground floor.

Price: 24 $

Riad Ta’achchaqa

*Ta’achchaqa is a place I dream of getting back to have my private writing retreat.
One of the places is very hard to find as it’s located in the back alleys, but very worth seeking.

Not only the location is complicated, but the name of this riad. Imagine us wandering in the alleys trying to ask for help from the locals, Ta’achachachaahahaa?
Google Maps leads us only to dead ends, how frustrating.
We knew we were close, but how to get in?

Finally, we got help from some local guys hanging around the gate leading to the quarter where this riad is actually located at. We had walked past this gate several times before.

Get through the gate and keep right, it isn’t as hard as it seems in the beginning.
Knock on the door and you’ll be let into an exotic courtyard with plenty of plants, old collectibles, and even a talking parrot on the corner!

Sit down to sip your tea served by the owner, soon you’ll be led upstairs to your room.
And what kind of a room!

A total black bathroom with some golden details, a room itself getting beam of light through the wooden blinds. Not only a bed but also a couch and a small table.
Something not uncommon for luxury hotels, but we still talk about the places you can get for no more than 50 $ per night.

A rooftop terrace here was the best. We enjoyed our – in-the-room price included – breakfast here as well as one dinner.

Dinner service

The dinner (three courses) may be ordered separately and it costs around 20 $ per person.
Place your order in the morning as the owner will get to the market to pick up all the ingredients and then cook your meal slowly and passionately.
This was one of the best Moroccan dishes we enjoyed during our three weeks in this country, much better than in many local restaurants mentioned in travel articles.

Well, to be honest, even though I write those articles myself, I rarely follow these suggestions myself. Once mentioned in a blog or a big travel site, boom! The place has lost its authenticity.

I do need to get back to Ta’achchaqa to concentrate on my book writing, so please save me one room and don’t book this place full! I’ll meet you there!

Price: 53 $

Riad Al Nour

If you read interior design magazines, you might imagine Morrocan houses are very colorful. It will come as a surprise that most interiors are more black and white with wooden details and beige leather added with brass elements.

But if you love colors, *Riad Al Nour won’t disappoint you. There is a large orange tree growing in the courtyard covered with tiles in many colors. This is something you typically expect from a Moroccan-style home.
Rooms are less colorful, but by opening the window blinds you can get a bird’s eye view of the colorful atrium yard.

Riad Al Nour is also located in a peaceful neighborhood, but is still very close to nice bazaars, small boutiques, and restaurants. Everything in the Marrakech medina is within walking distance anyway.

Price: 57 $

Riad Rose Meryam

*Riad Rose Meryam is also one of those more colorful homes.
And it really felt like staying in someone’s home. It was cozy and there were three generations of the family taking care of us.
They were super friendly and grandma was offering us really yummy homemade pastries and made sure we didn’t run out of tea.

Unlike in the other riads we stayed, here the bedrooms are on the ground floor of the building.
As we climbed on the rooftop terrace which they also have, we noticed some rooms on the first floor too, but I think they are used by the family.
We watched a stork’s nest on the roof and felt like we were in a nest ourselves.

Price: 53 $

Enjoy your own Arabic nights story!

P.S. Longing for a relaxing bath or a swim?

As I wrote, riads typically have a fountain in their courtyards.
Beautiful pools in these quiet surroundings invite you to take a dip, and now I’ll be boring:

Do not do that, not even dream about it.
These are not pools for swimming.

I know, I really wanted to dip into the pool on our riad’s atrium and float there for relaxation after our long flight, but it’s a total no-no.
Better to try that at a local hammam. Public hammams can be found all around Marrakech.
Or simply bathe in a tub in your private room.

If you want to have a luxurious hotel experience with a swimming pool included, be prepared to pay big bucks for a so-called riad, but if you are seeking an authentic experience do not expect to have a swimming pool at the property.

Edit. 09/2023
Please note that Marrakech suffered badly from an earthquake in September 2023.
This is not the time to travel there, but locals will need travelers when the worst situation is over.
I suggest you follow the news to know when traveling is safe again and the infrastructure is reconstructed.
In October 2023 some of the riad owners were already begging for travels to return.
So just check how the conditions are and make your choice based on that.

*

*Booking.com is my affiliate partner.
We have paid for our own accommodation and the riad owners are not aware of us doing these reviews.
Booking your accommodation via my link I might get a small profit.
Big thanks for helping me to produce more content on this blog!

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