There are two ways you can stay in Marrakesh; in the Medina, in the midst of all the action or outside the city. If you prefer to relax away from the craziness, Dar Kantzaro is the place to be. Our very unique stay started with an upgrade to an giant suite (it was our 10-year anniversary) beautifully decorated with terrace overlooking the huge garden and pool. The place feels so removed from the city (yet not that far) and the only thing you will ever hear are the birds chirping. Service is outstanding and each meal was a delight. They even cooked a delicious pastilla just for us. The place feels more like a luxurious private residence than a b&b and so our whole stay felt like we were visiting rich friends. Highly recommended.

The service was discreet and exemplary - nothing was too much trouble. Our room was very pleasant - well furnished with a bowl of fresh fruit was always supplied. The riad is situated 10 km south of Marrakesh and is very small and quiet; it has peaceful gardens and a lovely swimming pool with comfortable sunbeds, umbrellas, fresh towels and hats available. Breakfast (sreved outside) was excellent - no need for anything more than fruit for lunch - and dinner typically Moroccan. Tea (mint or English) was always available at no extra charge and the mint tea was accompanied by small Moroccan cakes.

We have just returned from staying at the Dar Kantzaro, just outside Marrakech - we were lucky enough to be the ony guests for our entire week there! It is a perfect hotel/guesthouse if you want somewhere relaxing and quiet rather than being in the hustle and bustle of Marrakech itself. Although the owner has arranged special rates with a travel firm if you do want to go out and about - we did this on one day and foundt he driver to have good English and the Mercedes was clean and seemed in very good condition compared to many of the cars we had seen out and about!

We had all our meals in the hotel, which were a delight - we chose to have no say in what we had, instead letting the cook decide for us, and we had something different for every meal (lunch and dinner). Although by the end of the week we were finding 3 good meals a day a bit too much for us! We had everything from chicken, beef, lamb, kidneys, liver (although the owner checked with us before the cook did any offal), in a variety of forms, with many excellent salads/side dishes to go with the meat. We had tagines, couscous and pastillas throughout the week for evenings meals. All the soft drinks were free throughout the day, although it would have been helpful to have a list of what was on offer. The freshly squuezed orange juice was very nice!

The staff were really friendly and helpful, the only downside was our lack of good French as Ibrahim's English wasn't that good and the cook spoke no English at all. The owner did have good English though and he (or his wife) visited every day to check that we were OK. The staff tended to keep out of your way unless you wanted them or they thought it was time you had a drink in the day!

The hotel looks out onto the Atlas Mountains in the distance and is located in an olive grove, with lovely flowers and plants as well, a gardener seemed to spend his whole time watering flower beds and the lawn.

We made use of the Scrabble set and playing cards provided in the lounge area. I would recommend perhaps taking a couple of CDs to vary the selection that they had playing.

The room was very nice and spacious, with a nice en-suite bathroom - we were taken on a tour of the entire place the first night and could see that all the rooms were different but equally nice. I personally was glad we didn't pay extra for a suite as the shared areas (although we were there alone) were sufficient for our needs.

The pool is unheated and as a result was too cold to really use during our time as the week before hadn't been that warm and it needs a good few weeks of hot weather to warm it up - after about 4 days the top inch of the pool was an OK temperature, but the rest can't have been more than about 10 degrees. I would imagine if you go more into April/May etc the pool would get hotter.

The hotel only accepts Morrocan Dirhams (which can't be obtained outside of Morrocco) or credit cards. They do not exchange travellers cheques or sterling for local currency. There are 2 money exchanges at the airport, and if like us you hadn't done this the driver when we took our trip into the Medina only needed paying after we had got backt ot he hotel so we could change our travellers cheques in the medina.

We would certainly return again if we wanted somewhere relaxing and quiet.

Spent a wonderful 3 days at Dar Kantzaro. We were greeted by the owner and his staff who made us feel very welcome. The room was beautifully furnished and extremely clean. Bottled water and fresh fruit were provided daily and soft drinks available throughout the day. The food was of an extremely high standard, breakfast was freshly cooked and varied each morning, we had lunch on our first day which was superb, and also a delicious evening meal on our last night.

Nothing seemed too much trouble for the staff and we were always greeted with a smile. Although it is out of town it was not a problem, taxis to the centre were organised by Brahim and were very efficient.

The gardens and swimming pool were immaculate as was the rest of the house, all in all this is a very special place with an excellent team of staff.