Page WILL BE tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes. There were two "unknown attributes" in Google+ button code. Sigh.This is a subsidiary page. My Morocco pictures site has a main page which gives you the links you need for more.
(The trip was in 2013) All of the hotels took good care of us, in general. As this page grows, it may seem that I'm damning one or another with faint praise. You are adding 2+2 and getting 5, if you infer that.
Excellent location... the Kasbah itself was an easy... when the wadi is dry... stroll from the hotel. (And there's a bridge not far upstream for wet times.)
The welcome here was extremely warm. A husband and wife team have been working hard, building a special experience for their guests.
The room wasn't a lurid as the photo! (The white balance challenge was intense.)
Sadly, I ohnly have the room to show you... the warm welcome from the owners was the big feature here... bigger than the splendid room, and even more marvelous rooftop patio. I used the pool... but have become old and feek and weeble, and Cape Cod temperatures are no longer so easily dismissed! "Refreashing", certainly. (60° F.)
At the Café du sud Merzouga, "normal" rooms were an option, and we still had the use of showers, western toilets, etc... but, for those who enjoyed the option, "bed" was a modern mattress... the best I had in Morocco, in fact... on an Oriental carpet in a desert dweller's tent, in a small enclave of the same, under the stars, a few hundred yards from the main hotel. As Frank so aptly put it: Like camping in the back yard... but WHAT a "back yard!"
(The short arrow indicates the tents. The long arrow points the way to Timbuktu, in Mali (The French spell it Tombouctou, by the way!)... but there are 980 miles of not much else than hills and sand in between.)
Riad Yacout. (Their website, which the link takes you to, is worth a visit. My photos don't do it justice.) This was, it must be said, something of a stunning "grand finale". It wins the "most interesting building and contents" prize, hands down. My backpack (foot of bed): 40cm across. The table: Belonged in museum.
We stayed in a wonderful riad (guest-house, private hotel, former private residence) in Fes... we had many wonderful lodgings, by the way, this is just the first I've got around to writing up.
From the outside, very non-descript, unremarkable. (The photo below is outside, the yellow arrow indicating the route to the little alley leading to the riad's door.) Inside? The riad encircled a three story central atrium. Sumptuous. With fittings and furniture to match.
Above: The light fixture in the center of my room. (Seen in mirror on wall in left hand image.) The rose is not mosaic or merely painted... it is the beautiful deeply carved special plaster which is often used in sumptuous decoration of buildings. And then painted in discrete muted colors. (Yes, I know, I should pick one or the other, and discard the second best...)
Below, you see tghe landing outside my room. Yes, the four windows and the door were all part of my "room". It was on the third floor. The light is streaming in from the covered atrium at the heart of the riad.
The title of the right hand image is "Hellooo down there..." It was taken leaning out into the atrium, from the landing shown in the other picture. The circular table, one of the four in the corners of the atrium, was where we had our meals. In a moment, I will show you the gorgeous embriodery on the table cloth, which you can make out roughly in the "Hellooo down there" photo.
With three exceptions, these were all excellent, modern, fine places to stay, though none were like your friendly neighborhood Marriot... thank heavens... I didn't go to Morocco to stay in a hotel that could be in Des Moines of Delhi, and only distinguishable by looking out the window!
I've already explained (above) how things were a little out of the ordinary... in a good way!... at the Café du sud Merzouga.
The exceptions were not "bad"... but I have to qualify my global description for them.
The Kasbah Benhaddou, Ait Ben Haddou, was very nice, with excellent staff... but in fairness to people using these pages to plan a trip, I should add that it is a bit out in the country, and not as "luxurious" or as "modern" as some of the other hotels we stayed at. Would I stay there again? Absolutely!
The Golden Tulip, Casablanca, gave me, personally, some perfectly reasonable rooms. (I stayed there going in and going out.) But others in our group had less satisfactory experiences. (A soggy carpet, for instance.) They seemed a bit "schizophrenic" a good, "modern" interior design consultant had obviously been through, brought the hotel up to a high standard. But execution slipped up more than once... of the 14 French wines on the dining room wine list not one was available. The internet connection in the business center not working several times. A pity... very good, in parts. Of course, Casablanca is a major entry/ exit point, and hotel rooms there probably attract a premium. I would even stay here again... but if the price were right, in this case.
Sorry to be "negative"... as I say, future travellers may look at this page... To any such: Remember that my experiences were in November 2013.
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Page WILL BE tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes. There were two "unknown attributes" in Google+ button code. Sigh.
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