Lonely Planet Review

Club sofas, Art-Deco paintings and prints, lamps and mirrors, in fact every tiny detail of this Deco riad (town house) is a paean to 20th-century design. The riad is also still the home of creator Jean Luc Lemée, who first opened his doors in 1995 to provide stylish accommodation to intrepid travellers.

No doubt about it, Riad Malika is cool in a raffish sort of way. The central garden is overgrown, the Deco antiques are a little faded and the creative owner is suitably temperamental. What this all adds up to is bucket-loads of character, but don't come here expecting to have your hand held. Riad Malika is a private home and operates as such, but for those who aren't Marrakesh virgins this is a stylish medina riad; the self-conscious Deco design offset by the creative interpretation of traditional techniques. Check out the jewel-bright bathrooms where the usually bland beige tadelakt (plaster) is given an overhaul in eye-watering emerald greens or azure blues. The square pool with its '60s-style pool bar is ultra cool and tucking into evening dinner while slumped in chunky leather chairs in front of a roaring fire, is utterly unforgettable.