Illustrative photo of the region — the property's own gallery is on the booking page.

Essaouira's original riad hotel: whitewashed rooms, blue shutters, ocean air, and open fires in winter.

Villa Maroc more or less invented the Essaouira riad hotel, converting a cluster of 18th-century merchant houses inside the ramparts decades ago and setting the town's aesthetic in the process: whitewash, blue shutters, thuya wood and wind-bent light. It still feels like the real thing rather than a copy.

Rooms twist around staircases and small terraces — no two remotely alike — and in winter, open fires and blankets turn the sea fog into an asset. The port, the fish market and the beach are all a few minutes' walk.

Why we picked it

• The town's original riad hotel, joined from old merchant houses
• Whitewashed rooms with blue shutters and ocean air
• Open fires and mint tea when the Atlantic weather turns