What a Public Hammam in Marrakech Really Taught Me

Sometime in 2014 or 2015, in my early days in Marrakech, I did something I’d recommend to anyone who gets the chance to do it the right way: I went to a public hammam. Not one of the ones built for tourists, with the soft lighting and the laminated treatment menu, but a neighbourhood hammam, the kind the women of the Medina actually use. I went with Noura, the cook at my first riad, and that one detail changed everything.

Before I tell the story, it’s worth knowing what sets a public hammam apart from the version most travellers see. Public hammams are for residents: a few dirhams to get in, spare and functional, with men and women kept strictly apart. The spa hammams came later, made for tourists: they sit inside resorts and riads, at completely different prices, for a completely different experience. The tourist version is the comfortable one. The neighbourhood one isn’t, and that’s exactly why it’s worth doing: it’s the ritual as it really is, with nothing smoothed over.

Inside the hammam

Once we’d undressed and gone in, we sat down on the floor. Around me were young girls with their mothers, older women, conversations in Darija overlapping each other. I was the only Western woman in the room. It showed, and I did my best not to let it bother me.

The first thing that struck me sounds like nothing until you’re actually in it: how completely at ease the women were, naked in front of one another. No embarrassment, no sizing each other up. We arrive from the West carrying a kind of modesty that, in that room, just feels out of place.

Noura began with that same ease: warm water poured over me first, then the black soap we’d bought together at the souk. We talked in her rough French, mine no better, but enough to get by. When she’d finished soaping me she asked me to wait a few minutes while she did herself, and I offered to scrub her back, to return the kindness. What I got back was visible discomfort, hard to miss. Outside those walls, we were employer and cook, and she couldn’t quite leave that behind, even there.

The unexpected part

And then came the thing I still tell whenever anyone asks me about the hammam.

An older woman sitting not far from us had been watching. She picked up on Noura’s discomfort and, with the directness of someone who feels she owes no explanations, offered to do Noura’s back herself. The two of them dropped straight into a dense conversation in Arabic, as though they’d known each other for years. Noura laughed, the woman kept asking things, Noura answered. I didn’t catch a word.

It was only once we were back at the riad that I asked what they’d been talking about. The woman, Noura told me, had put her through a proper interrogation: her family, where she came from, her work, and then deeper and deeper still. The conclusion: one of the woman’s sons was unmarried, and looking for a wife.

The hammam as the women’s square

I talked about it later with an Italian friend who has lived in Marrakech for years, and what he said brought it into focus. A public hammam isn’t simply a place to wash. It’s a standing weekly appointment, a place that has always worked as a point of meeting and exchange, where women catch up with friends, trade news, even arrange marriages. For a Muslim woman, it’s the space where she steps outside the walls of the house. What the village square once was for us, the hammam has long been for the women of the Medina.

You don’t need to speak Arabic to feel this. You just have to be there, sitting on the floor with everyone else, not waiting for anything in particular to happen.

What I took back with me

That morning stayed with me for a long time. Not as one more experience ticked off a list, but as the moment I understood what the ritual is actually for: a complete step outside ordinary time, a space where the body is looked after and the conversation finds its own level, with no agenda. When Silvia and I designed the wellness space at Riad Alkemia, that morning was somewhere in the back of my mind.

We wanted a hammam with that same quiet. Low light, warm stone, the smell of black soap and eucalyptus. A space built for one thing, where no one is waiting outside the door and there’s no reason to rush. The riad’s hammam is private: yours and your group’s alone, for as long as the treatments take.

The two core treatments, thirty and sixty minutes, follow the traditional sequence with organic ingredients: black soap, kessa, Ghassoul, plant oils. What changes between them is the depth and the time, not the logic underneath, which Moroccan women have followed for generations. Either can be extended with a massage, for anyone who wants to go a little further.

For those who want more, there are combined rituals. The Moroccan Escape pairs the traditional scrub with a massage; the Sultan Ritual adds a verbena-candle massage to the full sixty-minute sequence; the Body and Face Ritual carries the treatment up to the face. Massages run from a thirty-minute session on two areas of the body to a ninety-minute signature treatment built entirely around the guest. Groups who stay several nights often spread their treatments across different days, and notice, each morning, that the body has carried something over from the day before.

What we offer at the riad isn’t the same as what I found in that public hammam in the Medina, and I’ll say so honestly. The neighbourhood hammam has something you can’t reproduce: the old woman who appears out of nowhere and takes charge, the Arabic you can’t follow but somehow feel, the unselfconscious nakedness of women who have done this every week of their lives. You can’t recreate that inside a riad.

What you can do, and what we try to do, is carry over the same intention: slow care, no rush, with someone who belongs to that world and brings you into it gently. Our therapists work with guests from all over the world every day, and they speak French, often a little English too, enough to break the ice, and sometimes enough for something unexpected to surface, the way it did that morning with Noura.

If you’d like to build a whole day of wellbeing into your stay, talk to Khalid before you arrive. Yoga on the terrace in the morning, hammam and treatments in the afternoon, dinner under the stars in the evening: that kind of day is exactly what the riad was made for. And when you book directly with us rather than through a platform, putting it all together is part of what we do for you, at no extra cost.

Frequently asked questions about the hammam in Marrakech

What’s the difference between a public hammam and a hammam spa in Marrakech?

A public hammam is a neighbourhood place used every day by residents, with an entry fee of a few dirhams and a strict separation between men and women. A hammam spa sits inside riads and hotels: private, curated, designed for a tourist experience. The two are fundamentally different: one is authentic and unpredictable, the other is intimate and controlled. Both are worth experiencing, for different reasons.

What do you wear inside a hammam?

In a public hammam, just your underwear bottoms. Bring a towel, flip-flops and a change of clothes. At Riad Alkemia the hammam is completely private for your group, towels and a robe are included, and underwear bottoms are the norm here too.

Can guests experience the traditional hammam ritual at Riad Alkemia?

Yes. We offer the traditional Moroccan hammam ritual in a private space dedicated exclusively to your group, with organic ingredients: black soap, kessa, Ghassoul and plant oils. Massages and additional treatments are available on request.

How long does a hammam session last?

The two core sequences are thirty and sixty minutes. Both follow the same traditional logic; the difference is depth and time. For groups staying several nights, we often spread the treatments across different days, so the hammam stays what it should be: the best part of the afternoon.

What can you add to the hammam experience?

Either sequence can be extended with a massage, from thirty minutes up to a ninety-minute signature session. Facial treatments and full-body rituals are also available. Everything is built around the size of your group and the length of your stay. Talk to Khalid before you arrive and he’ll put together the right programme for you.

How many people can use the hammam at the same time?

The hammam takes two people at a time, with massages available simultaneously for two or three guests. To confirm availability, let us know at least a week before you arrive.

What are the hours for hammam treatments?

Daily, from 9:00am to 8:30pm. We recommend booking at least a week in advance.

Can hammam and yoga be combined in a single stay?

It’s one of our most requested combinations. Yoga on the terrace in the morning, hammam in the afternoon, dinner in the evening. The riad lends itself perfectly to this kind of day, for private stays and for retreats with outside teachers alike.