Where should I stay in Chefchaouen?

Chefchaouen is small, so the decision is really medina versus new town, and for me it is the medina almost every time. The whole magic of this place is waking up inside the blue, stepping out before breakfast when the lanes are empty and the light is soft, and wandering with nobody around but a few cats and a man hosing down his doorstep. If you stay in the modern town below, you trade that away — you arrive into the medina at the same time as the coach groups and never get the version of Chefchaouen that lives on people's mood boards.

Within the medina I steer clients toward the upper half, on the slopes that climb from Plaza Uta el-Hammam (the main square, with the kasbah and the grand mosque) up toward the eastern gate and the trailhead for the Spanish Mosque. The streets here are the most photogenic — staircases of indigo, pots of geraniums, the bluest of the blue — and being above the square means a short uphill stroll home rather than threading the busiest commercial lanes. The flip side is that Chefchaouen is built on a hill, so wherever you stay, expect steps and slopes; pack light and wear proper shoes, because porters and bags do not mix well with these alleys.

For the property itself, choose a traditional dar or riad over a generic hotel — somewhere like the cluster of small blue-painted guesthouses around the medina with a rooftop terrace looking over the cascade of blue rooftops to the Rif mountains behind. That rooftop is non-negotiable in my book: sunset mint tea up there, with the call to prayer rolling across the valley and the mountains turning gold, is one of the quiet highlights of any northern trip. Rooms here are simple and characterful rather than five-star slick, which suits the town's gentle, low-key personality perfectly.

A couple of honest practicalities. Cars cannot enter the medina, so you will park at one of the lots near the edge (Bab el-Ain or by the kasbah) and walk in — tell your riad in advance and they will often send someone to help carry bags up the lanes. And because Chefchaouen draws a lot of day-trippers from Tangier, Fes and Tetouan, staying overnight is the single best thing you can do: you get the golden hours at either end of the day to yourself, and you understand why people fall for this town rather than just photographing it and leaving.