Villa Maroc

What is behind the door

Villa Maroc is a 21-room hotel over four courtyard houses, which the hotel dates to the 18th century. There are five categories. The small double has a 140 cm bed and looks onto the town or a courtyard. The double has a 160 cm bed and faces the town or a courtyard. The suite and the sea-view suite have a 160 cm bed, or a queen or king depending on the size of the suite: the hotel’s own pages disagree. The suites add a sitting corner or a separate sitting room, facing a courtyard or the bay. Wi-Fi is free in every room.

The spa takes up the central courtyard: a hammam and three treatment rooms, open 09:00–12:00 and 15:00–20:00. Its menu, published without prices, lists hammams of 30 to 45 minutes and massages of 20 or 50 minutes. Breakfast is served from 08:00 to 10:30 on the roof terrace. In the evening the bar opens from 17:00 to 23:00 and dinner starts at 19:30 in the first-floor salons, on a menu that changes daily.

This is not a new house. In October 1997 the Evening Standard credited it to an Englishman, James Whaley, who had joined two neighbouring courtyard houses and then sold the hotel in 1996. The year it opened is not known.

Where exactly, and how to get there

The hotel is on rue Abdellah Ben Yassine, a pedestrian street between the clock gate and place Moulay Hassan. The hotel is 60 m from the gate, a minute on foot, and 200 m from the square, three minutes. Bab Sbaa is 185 m away, the cannons of the Skala de la Ville 420 m or six minutes, and the port 580 m or eight minutes. Our kasbah page walks the quarter street by street.

No car reaches the door: the street is pedestrian. A taxi rank is 230 m away, three minutes on foot, and a paid car park lies south of place Moulay Hassan, 260 m or four minutes away. If you are driving, it is the nearest we found, but its rates are not known. Check-in is from 15:00 and check-out by 12:00. Our advice: tell the hotel your arrival time before you set off.

Who it suits, and what to know before booking

If you are staying several nights as a couple, the sitting room or sitting corner of a suite gives you space beyond the bed. Families have the family suite: two bedrooms, one 160 cm bed and two 90 cm beds, and a shared bathroom with a walk-in shower. It sleeps four, with at most three children. In some doubles and suites, an extra bed for a child can be requested when you book. With its 140 cm bed, the small double is tight for two.

Without dates, no nightly price shows. Three packages are on sale. Three nights for two in a sea-view suite start at 9,800 MAD, with a dinner, a 90-minute hammam and massage for two, and a camel ride. Five nights for two in a double start at 13,300 MAD (the cooking package) or 15,250 MAD (the activity package), rates checked on 25 October 2026. Nothing says whether breakfast is included in the room rate or whether rooms are heated. Our advice: ask both questions in writing before you pay, especially from November to February.

The hotel’s website carries no recent date, but online booking was working on 25 October 2026. To compare, see Essaouira’s other hotels, among them Heure Bleue Palais, a hotel in an old medina palace. For a house of a few rooms, Ryad Watier is a medina riad, and all our riads have their own section.