Couple questions: Romantic places
Should we stay in a riad or a hotel on our honeymoon?
For a city stay of a few nights, a riad is usually the more romantic choice: a restored house around a private courtyard, a handful of suites, a roof terrace and a small team who look after you as houseguests. A palace or five-star hotel is better when you want a full pool, a spa and space. Many honeymoons use both.
Answered by the Morocco Honeymoons team. Checked October 2026.
The short answer
For a city stay of a few nights, a riad is usually the more romantic choice: a restored house around a private courtyard, a handful of suites, a roof terrace and a small team who look after you as houseguests. A palace or five-star hotel is better when you want a full pool, a spa and space. Many honeymoons use both.
In more detail
A riad faces inward. The rooms open onto a courtyard rather than the street, which keeps them cool, quiet and private, and the best have a plunge pool, a small hammam and a rooftop where dinner can be laid for two. They are mostly inside the medina, so you wake in the old town and walk to the souks.
A five-star or palace hotel gives you a different kind of luxury: a proper swimming pool, a full spa, gardens, several restaurants and an easy car arrival. Our comparison notes say riads usually have plunge pools for cooling off rather than for swimming lengths, so if a real pool matters, a hotel is the safer choice.
The pattern we suggest most often is to combine them: a riad for the medina nights in Marrakech or Fes, and a resort or palace hotel for the slower days, the palm groves or the coast.
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