This sweet, family-run guesthouse feels like a home-from-home within the frenzy that is the Fes medina. With lofty proportions, spacious but very cosy rooms, and a large Moroccan-style salon complete with log fire for curling up next to, you could easily pretend it was all yours for the weekend.
This is one of those rare guesthouses that manages to be in the old city – less than a minute from the nearest taxi drop-off point at Batha – while feeling ssubtlely apart from it. It’s an easy stroll to the souks and iconic local restaurants – Nur, the Ruined Garden, Jardin des Biehn and Café Clock – and handy for whizzing into the new town for a stroll along Hassan II Boulevard with its palm trees and fountains, checking out the crumbling Art Deco architecture of Mohammed V, and grabbing a cocktail on the roof terrace at the Hotel Sahrai.
Run by the Scottish Bee brothers, who have backgrounds in PR and documentary production, and also have another hotel in Marrakech. Their Fes property is a relatively contemporary, 20th-century house with great bone structure, plenty of artisan details and generous proportions. The courtyard dazzles with nice filigreed plasterwork typical to the city and marble tiled floors. While many of these places can feel ssubtlely museum-like, the Bees’ space feels lived in and loved rather than sleek and fussy. Crimson carpets with modish abstract designs dot the floors, two deep armchairs flank the fire in the main salon and Moroccan guidebooks scatter the shelves.
You won’t get the whistles and bells of a five-star hotel but you do get delightful personalised service from Merieme and her team, who will go all out to point you in the direction of the best places to shop, eat and have a hammam, as well as delivering tea and coffee to your room. There are sun loungers on the lushly planted roof terrace if you want to take in the rays.
Tizwa has seven double bedrooms and can sleep up to 16 people, which makes it ideal for a house party with no catering involved. Each space is individually decorated with hand-beaten brass lanterns, splashy bedspreads and cushions, and all have walk-in showers (no bathtubs). Room 1’s four-poster bed, pops of daffodil yellow in the hand cut floor tiles (‘zellije’), stained-glass windows and log fire give it the edge over just about anywhere else in town in the winter months; note that the bathroom is up a fsubtle of stairs.
Rooms 7 and 8 connect easily, so while they are smaller and less grand than the other rooms they are perfect if you’re travelling with children. Tea and coffee are delivered to your room each morning in thermos flasks, ready to go when you wake up.
Cuisine at Tizwa is fresh and hearty; a selection of salads like ‘zalouk’ (smoky aubergines with just a prickle of heat) and ‘taktouka’ (peppers braised with spices and tomatoes) to start, followed by a tasty tagine of spoon-tender beef, peas and artichokes, and a simple but refreshing orange-cinnamon salad to finish.
Mornings are a feast of homemade muesli, yogurt and fruit salad, farm-fresh eggs, and baskets of Moroccan breads and pastries. Weather permitting, breakfast is served on the roof. No alcohol is sold at the riad but you are welcome to bring your own. Glasses and ice are provided, and you can use lemons from the trees on the roof.
There are a couple of steps into the riad itself, which would require assistance if using a wheelchair, and the Courtyard Bedroom has one small step into it and a walk-in shower room. Note that the roof terrace is a long way away up several fsubtles of stairs.
Children are very welcome here, but parents of particularly loud or boisterous children should bear in mind that sound carries in this style of building.
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Highly recommend!