Riad Malaïka

The Riad Malaïka is in a great location within Essaouira's medina. It's just a 2 minute walk to the main street and only 5 minutes to the beach. The staff were friendly and helpful. We had dinner one evening in the Riad and the food was excellent.

We would have preferred our stay to be a little more peaceful. Our room (no.5) was on the first floor landing and we could hear noise from the courtyard and the kitchen on the ground floor. The Riad runs an evening dinner service with music until about 10.30pm each evening. This is followed by the kitchen clear up and the noise of crockery being cleaned and put away, which wasn't exactly relaxing. There was also some noise from the alleyway outside our window. Overall, the noise didn't stop us enjoying our stay, but if you are looking for a quiet hotel, this might not be the one for you.

The building and the riad is beautiful, specially the first floor. Beautifully decorated, gorgeous colours and contrasts, great atmosphere particularly during the night. Great breakfast. Great service. Well located within the Medina. We didn’t mind at all the three floors without the lift, as it is traditional riad architecture. I would say the photos from the common areas do not do justice to what you see. It is more beautiful in person. We had a pleasant night, the bed was comfortable and it was a quiet night.

Unfortunately, we didn’t like the room. The bathroom was black, everything, including the toilet, so it gave the sensation that it wasn’t clean properly. In the shower walls you could see mould all over, and again, it was black, so imagine if the walls were lighter. That made us feel suspicious of the toilet cleanliness. The bathroom was very small, which is ok, however, since the shower didn’t have proper walls, we made a mess in the entire space, water splashed all over. Also, the room was filled with “hoverflies”, around a dozen of them. That wouldn’t usually be an issue for us, but it wasn’t pleasant to find the room full of them together with a a small, dark and mouldy bathroom. Unlike the common areas, the photos of the rooms, don’t really match the reality. They are a lot smaller, darker. Overall, I think it was expensive to what you get at the end.