How do I read Moroccan addresses and find a riad in the medina?

Reading a Moroccan address, especially in a medina, is an exercise in managing expectations. You'll typically get something like a derb (a small alley or cul-de-sac) name plus a number — "Derb Something, No. 12" — within a named quarter of the old city. The trouble is the medina is a dense, ancient warren of unmarked, twisting lanes with no street signs in the way you're used to, numbers that don't run in any logical order, and no cars allowed in most of it. So the address is real, but it's nothing like a satnav-friendly Western one, and typing it into a maps app often lands you somewhere unhelpfully approximate.

Because of that, the address alone is the worst way to find your riad. What actually works is geography you can act on: before you arrive, ask your riad for precise GPS coordinates or a shared map pin (most good riads send these as a matter of course), and save them offline. A car or taxi can only take you to the nearest vehicle-accessible point — usually a gate (bab) or a small square on the medina's edge — not to the door itself, so knowing which gate is closest to your riad is far more useful than the postal address. From that gate it's a walk on foot through the lanes.

The single best move is to let the riad guide you in. When you book, tell them your arrival time and ask them to meet you — riads are completely used to this and will either send someone to the nearest gate or taxi drop-point to walk you the last few minutes, or give you crystal-clear "from this gate, turn left at the fountain" directions. Arriving for the first time, especially after dark or with luggage, this is worth its weight in gold; it neatly removes the one genuinely awkward part and sidesteps the faux-guides who prey on lost new arrivals dragging suitcases.

A few habits make it foolproof. Save the riad's phone number and a WhatsApp contact, plus a screenshot of their map pin and any photo of the doorway they send, so you can show a shopkeeper or call for help if you're turned around. When you tell a petit-taxi driver where you're going, name the gate or landmark, not the derb, since that's what he'll recognise. Carry the riad's business card (they'll give you one) for the return journey. Do all that and the medina maze stops being intimidating — you're navigating to a gate and being met, not hunting a house number in a labyrinth.