Hotel Riad Al Madina by Lucretia Stewart

Across the bottom of the price list for the Hotel Riad Al Madina in Essaouira is written, in a flowing italic script, 'Vivre au 18eme Siècle' - live in the eighteenth century. The hotel (originally a private house) was actually built in 1871 so, at best, it would be the nineteenth century in which you were being invited to live. However, the service there does suggest a time when things were done properly and it seems churlish to quibble.

In a former incarnation, it was called the Hôtel du Pacha when, the brochure claims, it was much favoured by such dubious celebrities as Cat Stevens, Frank Zappa, Paula Abdul and the Jefferson Airplane. Tennessee Williams, Jimi Hendrix and Leonard Cohen also stayed there. There is no mention of it in my 1965 guidebook.

Essaouira is a ravishing small town with a splendid beach on southern Morocco's Atlantic coast, about two hours by car from Marrakesh. For about ten years now, the best hotel there has been the Villa Maroc on which the Riad Al Madina was clearly modelled on. Both are conversions of old houses. While I think that the Villa Maroc has the edge on chic and a more pleasing decor, the Riad Al Madina is the more beautiful building. It's also marginally more central, though there is only about a hundred yards in it. As the former tends to be booked up months in advance, the opening of the Riad Al Madina is a cause for celebration.

‘Riad’ means patio or garden and the hotel rises to four storeys round a central tiled courtyard, containing plants, trees and a couple of fountains filled with rose petals. The Riad is a nice place to have breakfast and, in the cool evenings, there is a series of comfortable sitting rooms with a fireplace. One of these also contains an almost subterranean bar and a television set. At the top of the hotel is a flat roof where you can sit and read or look out to sea. At the time of writing, this had a slight air of a former building site but I imagine they'll fix it up soon enough.

The hotel has 27 rooms, all with tiled bathrooms (apparently there were some baths but all those I saw contained showers), and three suites, which claim to have television and telephone. The rooms vary in size and not all have outside windows (those without have windows onto the inner courtyard which is traditional). For my taste, the rooms are a little over-decorated, though indisputably pretty. Moorish decor is a very subtle thing and it's easy to overdo. There is one flounce or a curtain too many as if the decorator thought he (or she) would do an English country house hotel à la Marocaine. But the friend I was travelling with loved it.

It is possible to stay en demi-pension taking either lunch or dinner in the hotel but, every time I looked at the menu, it did not feature fish. As Essaouira is a port with the most wonderful fresh seafood, it seems mad not to eat fish all the time. Every day I ate lunch down at the port at the Chalet de la Plage where they do magnificent sea-bass baked in gros sel cost. The hotel isn't too expensive either (even if you are alone, you'll need a double - unless you are a child). The service is excellent; the staff charming and helpful; children are welcome (you may feel this is not a plus); the coffee needs to be stronger and hotter.