Dar Darma
Style World of interiors
Setting Funky old Medina
A quirky private residence in the heart of the Marrakech Medina, Dar Darma boldly partners 300-year-old zouak ceilings and faded antique textiles with Versace-esque velvet settles, distressed metallic stripes and leopardskin rugs. An Italian Orientalist's fantasy holiday home, this fully staffed Moroccan boutique stay offers its own homely hammam, mountain-view roof terrace, and a very private, ever so Moorish retreat from the nearby souks.
Need to know
- Rooms Five suites, including two apartments, each with two separate doubles.
- Rates Double rooms from $273.20 (€207), excluding tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €2.50 per person per night on checkout.
- More details Rates include breakfast and return airport transfers. Whole riad, on request (excludes Christmas/New Year), including dinner on first night, breakfast and transfers. Rates exclude local tax.
- Facilities Courtyard, roof terrace with plunge pool, hammam, massages, library, WiFi in rooms. Suites have showers and large baths, TVs and DVD players.
- Poolside There's is a little tadelakt plunge pool on the roof terrace, where there are recliners and daybeds for sunbathing, and distant mountain views.
- Check-out By arrangement, depending on subsequent bookings.
- Children Welcome (€30 a day for under-14s; €50 for older kids), but large internal windows, an unsupervised courtyard pool and lots of antiques mean it’s not ideal for little ones. Babysitting can be arranged with a few hours’ notice; cots can be provided. More...
- Also Minimum stays of four nights over Christmas/New Year and over the Easter and May Bank Holiday weekends apply.
Food and drink at Dar Darma
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Hotel restaurant
Dar Darma’s housekeeper Maria is also a talented cook, creating French and Moroccan dishes for lunch or dinner, from tagines to tarte tatin. You may be joined by gnaoua musicians in the dining room. -
Dress code
Entirely up to you, but interesting vintage pieces and chunky tribal jewellery will feel just right. -
Top table
Choose your own adventure: if you don’t fancy the decadent dining room, staff can set up private tables in the courtyard, on the roof, in the mirrored ground-floor salon or in your rooms. -
Last orders
You’ll have to give a few hours’ notice if you want dinner, but otherwise there are no rules, within reason. -
Room service
24 hours. -
Hotel bar
Drinks can be brought to you anywhere in the riad.
Dar Darma 11/12, Trik Sidi Bohuarba, Medina, Marrakech, 40000
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Smith extra at Dar Darma
Choose between a Moroccan dinner for two on arrival (excluding drinks) or a half-day guided city tour
Current offers at Dar Darma
- 30% off - February 2012 - Valid from 2 February 2012 to 28 February 2...
In the know
Our favourite rooms
The first-floor Red Apartment is the largest and quietest suite, and the one the owner chooses to stay in when he’s visiting; it’s more like an antique-strewn private flat. As well as 18th-century period details such as original doors, hand-painted ceilings and carved plasterwork, it has two generously sized double bedrooms and bathrooms, both with twin sinks, showers and big baths. The Blue Apartment’s cupola-lit, fire-warmed dining and sitting room is flanked by two double rooms, one featuring a four-poster in a wood-panelled recess and a red-walled bathroom; the other (also with a four-poster) has a huge round bath. The smaller, split-level Orange Suite has a handsome black and white sitting room with stairs leading up to an orange and gold-themed bedroom with ensuite bathroom.
Packing tips
Sketchbook, camera or travel journal, depending on your creative bent. Some good books or DVDs. A long kaftan or djellabah for lounging around in.
Also
The riad has its own hammam; give staff a few hours’ warning if you’d like a treatment, so it can be brought to the correct temperature. Staff are very accommodating, so if you’d like to be serenaded at dinner or massaged on the terrace, just ask.
