Fleewinter

The house has been restored into a comfortable boutique hotel, while retaining traditional features and the dry stonewall exterior characteristic of the architecture in this isolated part of the country. The hotel is one of the small boutique properties on Dar Ahlam’s Memory Road route.

Perhaps the hotel’s best feature is the sweeping panoramic views it provides of the mountains of the Awju Valley, which loom over the landscape in all directions. The hotel sits in a women’s village near an ancient hot water spring.

Rooms at La Maison Rouge
The rooms at La Maison Rouge are very comfortable and blend traditional Moroccan features with modern design touches. The ceilings and walls are decorated with intricate wickerwork and incorporate robust wooden beams, and the walls are decorated with black and white photographs of local people and communities. Furnishings, such as heavy chests made of rich leather and dark wood, lend the place an Old World, colonial air.

As with all Dar Ahlam’s properties, the food at Maison Rouge is delicious and authentic, utilising regional produce to serve traditional dishes. Local products which go into the food include alfalfa bakoula, pomegranate vinegar and date caramel, and ingredients are often bought fresh from the local souk. Vegetables are grown onsite wherever possible.

As with the other remote properties on the Dar Ahlam routes, extra facilities are a little lacking at Maison Rouge; you won’t find a spa, for instance. However, the accommodation is very comfortable and bathrooms feature showers and running water.

Maison Rouge is a part of Dar Ahlam’s Route du Sud, which takes in the beautiful remote desert landscapes of southern Morocco in style. You’ll spend some time travelling in a comfortable car, but will also have the opportunity to take long walks and treks, and take mule and camel rides to quiet villages, where you’ll meet local people, try their cuisine, and get a feel for desert life as it has existed for centuries.