This was my first trip to Marrakesh but I hope not my last. First I must praise the staff at Riad El Faran. They were all fantastic. Nothing was too much bother for them. The bedrooms were large and comfortable and very clean. The roof terrace is lovely. The atrium is where we hung out a lot as well as the upstairs living room when it was a bit chilly.
It is defiantly worth eating at the Riad as we had the best Couscous of the week here. The breakfasts were a bit limited But the crumpets and honey bread were home made. I know because we had a go making them! But if you ask for what you want, the staff will provide it.
There were a couple of gripes. It would have been nice to have a safe in the room and the upstairs rooms suffer a bit from noise from downstairs. some more soft furnishings may help with this.
The manager speaks limited English, but we managed with pigeon French and the young men who staff the riad speak good English.
As we took over the whole riad it very much felt like our own home and we were encouraged to treat it as such. Coffee and mint tea were always available. Once we got a hang of the geography, with help from the staff, it was easy to find our way to the main square. The locals were friendly, particularly the lovely old lady who ran a local shop. It was all I could have wished or imagined for a trip to Marrakesh. A visit to a tourist Hamman is a must.

The hallmark of this riad seems to be hospitality. They sent someone to meet us when we were dropped off at the edge of the medina, and each time we went in or out they would send someone to guide us back to the riad. We were greeted with tea and Moroccan cookies and assisted with our sightseeing plans. The center atrium and the rooms were beautiful. The only drawback was the noise, both late and early, from the atrium, which serves as a gathering place. This was my first stay in a riad, and I imagine this issue is common to them, given their layouts. The breakfast was pleasantly simple and tasty.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Riad el Faran. The room was comfortable, clean and spacious. The staff were friendly and welcoming (we were met at the airport in Marrakech even though we arrived quite late at night around 11pm, and were offered mint tea once we arrived at the Riad). The staff were also very helpful in terms of organising our visit (for example they went to the bus station to purchase our bus tickets for the next leg of our journey in Morocco). The breakfast on the rooftop terrace was a delight. The Riad is in a great location in the Medina of Marrakech, on a quiet side street. All in all, a really wonderful stay.

Compared to other Riads in Marrakesh it looks OK at first glance, but when you look a bit closer it is not clean!! There were pieces of rubbish in our bathroom and lots of small ANTS everywhere in the bathroom... no wonder! Spiderweb and dust everywhere too. Found this riad very expensive for what it was. The air condition was quite old fashoned and noisy. When other guests came back late, they were not encouraged to keep their voices down not to disturb other guests who might wanted to sleep. Next door was the most gorgeous riad to a better price, we discovered too late unfortunately.