Riad Laaroussa

From a palace annexe to a guesthouse

Riad Laaroussa is a 17th-century house in the heart of Fes el-Bali, between Bab Boujloud and the Quaraouiyine mosque. The building has had several lives: it was the private quarters of the annexe of the Mnebhi palace, then became a Koranic school, then belonged to a Larussa family from Italy, before being abandoned. Two French partners restored it with the city's craftsmen; today Fred Sola and his family run the house and are there day to day.

You come in through a narrow alley, an old wooden door and a covered passage before emerging into the patio: rising several storeys, planted with orange trees, with its fountain, columns and horseshoe arches. The Michelin Guide, which has awarded the riad one Key, highlights this contrast between the alleys and the calm of the courtyard.

A house designed for families

This is what sets Laaroussa apart from the other medina riads: the house gladly welcomes children, with cots, extra beds, children's meals and babysitting on request. Several rooms are grouped around a shared lounge, so a family can book what amounts to a small apartment.

• Blue, Yellow and Brown open onto the same private lounge. Brown is the smallest and lacks natural light.
• Ghizlane, Nadim and Hilal, in a renovated annexe around a flower-filled courtyard, share a library lounge with sofa and fireplace.
• The Orange and Cream suites have an extra bed on a mezzanine. In the Cream suite, the mezzanine is reached by a steep metal ladder, best avoided with young children.
• The Green and Orange suites, on the ground floor, with very high ceilings, sleep three or four. With Gaetan's room, they are the only ground-floor rooms.

Each room has its own colour and almost all look onto the patio, many keeping their original zellige floors and cedar ceilings and doors. Every suite has a fireplace. For a couple, the Red Room, with a king-size bed and open-plan bathroom, and the Terrace Suite on the top floor, with its black bathroom and sunny private patio, are the two most sought after.

The patio, the heated pool and the rooftop

The heated open-air pool in the patio and the stone hammam, in Carrara marble and tadelakt (smooth, waterproof lime plaster), are on the ground floor. Guests come down after a day in the souks for a black-soap scrub followed by an essential-oil massage.

The restaurant and bar are for guests only. The kitchen offers a mostly Mediterranean set menu with a few Moroccan classics, at lunch and dinner, and wines from the Meknes region. Breakfast is served wherever you like: dining room, patio, bedroom or rooftop. The rooftop terrace, with indoor and outdoor seating and heaters for winter, has a 360-degree view over the medina.

Sabaro's view

For whom: families with children, couples, travellers who like a house run by its owners.

Strengths: only thirteen rooms; rooms grouped around lounges, ideal for families; the heated pool and the hammam; the location between Bab Boujloud and the Quaraouiyine; the Michelin Key.

Good to know: the stairs to the upper floors and the roof are steep; the Brown room is dark; arrival is on foot, with the team meeting guests at one of the medina gates.

Our advice: as a family, book Blue, Yellow and Brown together, or Ghizlane, Nadim and Hilal, to have a lounge to yourselves; as a couple, ask for the Terrace Suite.