Dar Darma
Marrakech, Morocco[view map]
Reviewed by Mr & Mrs Smith.
Mr & Mrs Smith have an anonymous review trip to this Marrakech boutique hotel in the diary, and just as soon as they've unpacked their djellabas and Moroccan slippers, a full account of their stay in this unique Medina riad will be with you. In the meantime, just to whet your wanderlust, here's a snapshot from their first peek inside Dar Darma…
A private, staffed residence with lots of personality, in a quiet area of the Medina, Dar Darma evokes a hard-to-pinpoint time gone by. The holiday home of an Italian designer, this exotic riad has been restored and theatrically filled with a quirky array of vintage and modern pieces, lending it the air of an artistic Orientalist’s treasure chest.
Bright sunshine splinters into dark rooms and sneaks along tiled walls; it silhouettes ornate doorways and casts dense shadows around immense vases and into unexpected doorways like an enchanted inside-out version of the souk outside. Whilst it’s quite unlike anything you’ll have seen before, there’s something familiar about Dar Darma. If Vermeer were still alive, he’d be whipping out his easel to capture the chiaroscuro light, faded Oriental carpets, metallic paint finishes, leopardskin rugs and 18th-century period details before you could say ‘Dutch master’.
Once he’d packed away his brushes (perhaps pausing to study a few of the riad’s more idiosyncratic flourishes and bold modern wall treatments), he’d no doubt unwind in the hammam, ease his aching shoulders with a massage, pick out a sun-bleached cushion on the roof terrace or gilded chair in the courtyard lounge for an aperitif, and enjoy a delicious meal put together by Dar Darma’s capable staff. Delicious, dramatic, and ever so Moorish.