To stay at the riad is to be sited in the heart of a Moroccan community, surrounded as it is by neighbours' houses, shops, restaurants and even an infants' school. Sensory experiences are from a world lost to developed countries - sit on the terrace or step into the streets of the small pedestrianised medina, and the sounds are not from traffic but of human conversation, a passing donkey cart, itinerant vendors advertising their wares, seagulls from the nearby Atlantic. You smell salty sea breezes and a neighbour cooking a tagine, You see an environmental fabric still constructed by human hand, from tiles bakes in small family kilns, to the traditional ' tadelakt' lime wall plaster perfected in Morocco.

The streets pulse with activity, but return to the house and you understand the function of the arabic interior: calm descends, thanks to thick stone walls. The high facades ensure privacy and seclusion.

Sometimes visitors can at first be overwhelmed by the cultural difference, but the house's owner is happy to answer questions, give directions and recommendations, help with bargaining, advise on itineraries - in fact, whatever it takes to facilitate the mutually rewarding connection between traveller and community.

In these ways, the house becomes a gateway to a town whose charms can otherwise remain partly hidden.