Private pool

Of the 12 hotels gathered on this page, three have water I could confirm is reserved for one villa, riad or suite, and all three are in Marrakech: Mandarin Oriental, Royal Mansour and Les Deux Tours. A pool of your own matters most there in July, when average highs reach about 38 °C and a shared pool is busiest in the hottest hours. Outside this selection, the clear answer in the north is Banyan Tree Tamouda Bay near Fnideq, where each of its 92 villas has its own pool. Mandarin Oriental sits on 20 hectares of gardens and olive groves outside the city walls, with the Atlas behind. Each villa has a walled garden and its own pool, and the suites have a rooftop plunge pool instead. This is where I would go for real privacy and room to swim, with one drawback: the medina is a drive away, not a stroll, so it suits a stay built around the hotel more than days spent in the souks. Royal Mansour takes the opposite approach: 53 riads of three storeys, each a small house, and the official descriptions list a plunge pool on the roof terrace from the Superior riad upwards. The choice there is about size, not about having water of your own. Les Deux Tours, in the Palmeraie and rated 9.3 over 794 reviews, has pool suites, one of them named after Charles Boccara, the architect who built the property. The other nine hotels have shared pools or none I could confirm as private. In Fès, Menzeh Zalagh 2 has a shared outdoor pool and Riad Citronnier & Spa a shared indoor one, and Hotel Idou Tiznit in Tiznit a shared outdoor pool. No room with its own pool turned up in my research at Tiznit Hotel, casa malek in Chefchaouen, Hotel Azur in Casablanca, L'escale Suites in Mohammedia, ABM house in Tangier or Riad Sumud in Marrakech, whose pool is on the roof. For a pool to yourself, I would book Marrakech or Tamuda Bay. Who a private pool suits: couples in summer and anyone who wants to swim without an audience. Who can skip it: winter visitors, since Marrakech averages about 12 °C in January and an unheated plunge pool goes unused, and travellers who want to walk out of the door into the souks. Between the three, I would give Mandarin Oriental to a family who needs space, since every villa has a garden as well as the pool, and Royal Mansour, rated 9.6 over 75 reviews, to a couple who want a whole house with the water on the roof.