Lovely house in a great location

It was a trip organized by me for my mother and her friends. They loved their stay in this beautiful city and this great house. The house is very comfortable and clean. It is spacious. The three of the visitor were given each a separate room with the bathroom. Dar Doughri is very close to the beach and Medina. My mother and her friends were met at the airport upon arrival and taken to the airport upon departure and it was organized by Fiona. Thank you very much, Fiona! Everything went very smooth, in spite of the fact that neither my mother nor her friends speak English or any other foreign language. Food was fantastic. Karima is an angel. I am planning to visit Essouria myself next year.

The Dar Doughri was a real treat. We never imagined it to be that huge! It's well maintained, well equipped and very homely. Furthermore the location is perfect, just a short walk to the Medina. It's nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of the Medina especially after spending the whole day there and come back to
a very peaceful Dar Doughri. We especially love the rooftop terrace,
so much privacy as there are no other buildings over looking it. We
had all out breakfast prepared by Karima up there. We absolutely love the Dar Doughri and have recommended it to all our friends. Karima was very pleasant to have around and we thoroughly enjoyed her cooking. Though a little shy, she is ever so polite and cheerful. Foaud was very helpful too and often offered a brief history and cultural information about Morocco whenever he pops by. Excellent value for money and we would not hesitate to stay there again should we find ourselves heading that way.

I had visited Essaouira 7 years ago and was looking forward to returning for the World Music Festival.

Dar Doughri did not disappoint. It's a great house, comfortable,clean and well-equipped. Stairs (4 flights to the roof terrace) might be challenging for elderly or disabled visitors.
The Staff were great; helped to organise excursions and the (optional) breakfasts and evening meals were a real bargain.

So much for the good news....

I appreciate that this is supposed to be a review of the Dar, but for me, it's not possible to separate my experiences there from my experiences in the town during the Festival. I have no wish to be negative or put anyone off, but feel compelled to offer some observations on the effect the Festival has on the town.

Essaouira has a population of 80,000. This apparently expanded to over 200,000 for the Festival period. Not everyone was there for the music. I had my pocket picked on the first night and nearly suffered the same fate a couple of days later.

The Festival itself was professional in terms of staging, lighting & sound but policing and crowd control were totally inadequate.

At several of the concerts, the atmosphere was just not conducive to enjoying the music. Groups of young boys were constantly passing through the crowd in 'conga lines' and clearly had no interest in anything happening on the stage. There were outbreaks of trouble in the crowd at another concert and the atmosphere became quite intimidating - and I speak as a veteran of such events.

In these circumstances, Dar Doughri became a bit of a refuge. This was good, but if I'd just wanted to sit on a roof terrace in the sun, I could have gone to Torremolinos.

It's a shame that the atmosphere at the concerts was not more relaxed because it has the potential to be a great Festival.

To sum up, Dar Doughri is a great house and the Staff could not have been more helpful. Essaouira is still a beautiful and atmospheric place, but there are logistical problems with the Festival which need to be resolved - largely in terms of crowd control and policing. I would happily visit Dar Doughri and Essaouira again - just not while the Festival is on.

I was part of a group stying during the above period
The property was clean, well maintained and the descriptions accurate. Despite arriving late at night after delays on our journey from Marrakesh the guardian of the prpperty and the housekeeper were waiting for us with a hot meal on our arrival. The guardian coped well with our questions about the locality and trips out, whilst the housekeeper provided excelent breakfasts every day and quite a few evenings at our request, overall we were delighted with the property
Our only concerns were with the music festival we had come to see. It was experience was very varied. On occasion the music and ambience was excellent and all we expected but on occasion the event was over attended. The organisers observations of basic safety and crowd control were non existent, pick pockets were rife and there was a young element causing trouble within the crowds, principally but not exclusively after dark. On one occasion we almost had to fight our way out of the crowd to a place of safety. This did not in any way affect our enjoyment of the property and in general the holiday was amongst the best we've had

I (along with 7 friends) have just spend a fabulous week in Dar Goughri, Essaouira. The riad is situated within easy walking distance of the sea, harbour and medina. All the rooms were great and everything worked. It was such a pleasure to stay in that we even watched a few matches from Wimbldedon on the TV ..or was it the Internet? !
would also recommend the services of Karima and Nuredine. Nuredine was so helpful with arranging tours etc and Karima made us a delicious breakfast every day which we ate on the roof terrace. She also cooked us an evening meal on request which was better than any meal we ate out. I can wholeheartedly recommend both the riad and Essaouira,

Lovely house, well cared for, comfortable. Good bathrooms, good size bedrooms, good storage. Great terrace.
Get Karima to cook for you in the evening and wonderful breakfast.Reliable but unobtrusive Staff on hand to organise anything you want, very well organised. Spent my 60th birthday with friends and family here and it was all I hoped it would be. Stroll to souk, beach and the best hamman ever. Brilliant evening at Dar Loubane, didnt have a bad meal anywhere and some of the best coffee ever!
Would I go back - definately.
Good value for money

The dar is clean and spacious with plenty of bathrooms and a lovely sheltered roof terrace for sun bathing and relaxing. The kitchen is extremely well equipped too. There's much hilarity to be had with Karima, who speaks no English and only a little French, if you take a Moroccan Arabic phrase book, and engage her in conversation as she prepares a delicious meal. Foad was fantastically helpful when one of our children was ill - the hospital is just round the corner and the service would knock the average NHS A and E wait into a cocked hat! Lots of restaurants in the town too - and if you're travelling around, Essaouira is the place to buy wooden boxes etc. We didn't, and regretted it. Camel riding was a highlight for the children, as was simply buying a basketball and taking on some of the local children at the courts by the beach.

David and I thoroughly enjoyed our days in DD. The house had a welcoming feel to it from the moment we arrived. Having the service of Fuad to arrange our daily schedule and iron out any language difficulties was invaluable. Charima the maid organised the breakfast daily which we had on the lovely roof top terrace. The facilities of the house were perfect for the 8 of us .The open plan kitchen come sitting area made for a friendly informal atmosphere.
We walked across to the medina ( the old town) which bustled with excitement and activity. The shopping involved some bargaining a skill which we developed quite quickly.From there we walked onto the seafront and admired the sandy beach.
We made the best of the activities available riding camels on the beach and Quad biking for 30 kms on the sand dunes.There is alot to do!
We very particularly enjoyed our evening meals at Le Chalet de la Plage, and Riad Al Madina though the choice of restaurants is plentiful.
Finally we would certainly recommend Dar Doughri to our friends for an alround wonderful holiday.