Okay, so many of you may already know this, but since I didn’t, I’ll just do a little post on this.
So, first, a “riad” is basically just a Moroccan hotel.
The internet has definitions that differ slightly. Sometimes it says it has to used to have been a fancy home for just one rich person. Sometimes it says it *has* to be in a medina, but while I was there, I stayed in some places labeled riads that weren’t in medinas.
So, I just think of it as a cute Moroccan homey hotel, basically.
(Every one I’ve seen provides breakfast. They basically all have restaurants where you can get dinner and such as well. So, they’re just this fancy, gorgeous, homey, hotel-like place.)
And medinas!
So, whenever I read about medinas online, I was like, “oh yeah, so like a hub where’s there’s shopping and such.” I thought it was gonna be like a chill city center (like The Grove in LA).
But no. It’s like a place where everything is super close to everything else, and you have to snake your way through a maze of people… It’s definitely more like New York than LA. But I can’t even think of a place that crowded in New York. So, maybe I can’t compare it to the states? I dunno.
So, yeah, a crowded place where people live, where there are stands selling food and things, where there are hotels, etc.
Personally, I actually like staying outside of the medinas. It’s nice to have everything at your fingertips, but in my opinion, it’s nicer to be able to walk around in a chill, expansive area outside of a medina.
But to each their own!
But yeah Riad = hotel. Medina = crowded place that’s the tiny inner city of any city/suburb area. (Or at least that’s my understanding of those places!)