Palm Plaza Marrakech Hotel & Spa

“Pure Moroccan Hospitality”

My wife and I have just returned from an amazing stay away at this hotel. It is truly a 5* venue. The care and attention to detail is extraordinary. By this I mean the effort and welcoming experience you get when you first arrive but the doormen and reception staff is nothing short what we learned… more

My wife and I have just returned from an amazing stay away at this hotel. It is truly a 5* venue. The care and attention to detail is extraordinary. By this I mean the effort and welcoming experience you get when you first arrive but the doormen and reception staff is nothing short what we learned to expect from Moroccan hospitality. The effort the gardeners and cleaning staff must go to to maintain such a high standard is outstanding. We met Abdul who I can only really describe as a hotel “rep” - he gave us some amazing information on places to go as well as local “tips” when visiting places such as the medina or just getting a taxi. - he did offer the services of a very reliable and friendly local who was excellent. The hotel room was amazing with all the luxuries you would expect from a venue of this calibre. At first we thought the balcony view facing the road was a downside but actually spending the mornings before breakfast and the late evening watching the hustle and bustle was quite enjoyable. The hotel is below the flight path (as are all the hotels in that area) BUT once inside the room with doors shut you can’t hear anything. Breakfast is a VAST selection and deserves a massive congratulations to the catering team for what must be such a mammoth task to cook such exquisite food day in and day out. My only criticism is I was never quick enough to get to try all the pastries as the other hotel guest got there first. For the British reading this - expect to find some bizarre breakfast choices but I must insist to try it all - embrace the culture The pool although at times seemed busy it never had any of the distaste you expect with this. There is great entertainment if you like a good selection of party anthems and classic songs from the DJ and if you have the urge try some aqua aerobics or water Zumba it was great fun, I highly recommend getting involved. The Bar pool does get busy so don’t expect immediate service BUT the staff go out of their way to be as friendly, helpful and facilitated any requests we had with smiles on their faces…. The food and drinks are 100% worth the wait. Evening meals were an interesting selection of Moroccan, French, Italian…. I assume this is to cater for the clientele and I would have preferred to see a lot more Moroccan food for the evening meal but I am only once guest. and again as with breakfast the standard was always amazing and the taste especially of the tagines each night were SUPERB! And let’s not forgot the desserts. yum is the only word I can use to describe them. I really want to make special mention of ISMAIL who during our evening meal was so accommodating and funny and kept us entertained. We typically went for the same table each night and he was always very helpful and by the end of the week had set a personal table in our spot for us… such a great guy. Thank you. The evenings when not down at the roof top bars can be happily spent in the bar listening to the beautiful Melodies of the couple who performed there each and every night…. Sadly to a very small audience but that did not dampen their talent or enthusiasm. I firmly believe the bar staff made our evening experiences even more enjoyable. The effort they put into making beautiful cocktails and the standard of their service is impeccable. It was nice but at the same time disappointing to see the bar so quiet in the evenings but understandably that is when Marrakech itself is even more lively so maybe the draw of the nightlife in the city was too much for some. TABARAKA - We want you to know personally you made our holiday so much more enjoyable with your friendly smile and outstanding service. And the pictures you took for us are a great memory. Thank you ever so much. Overall when comparing this hotel to other 5* hotels around the world we have stayed at then yes you can find room for improvement but one thing you can never fault is Moroccan hospitality, hard work and their talents for great food, great company and greater smiles and this hotel offers this in abundance. If you are visiting Morocco I will 100% recommend this hotel - make sure you speak to Abdul for the best advice, let Ismail make you laugh after a long day in the medina and relax in the bar with one of Tabaraka’s amazing cocktails. THANKYOU TO ALL THE STAFF FOR AN AMAZING AND VERY VERY MEMORABLE HOLIDAY.

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“Brilliant”

We read the reviews and were worried but wow it’s a beautiful hotel with great staff a great pool and a great buffet style restaurant loved every minute of our 7 days there would highly recommend it I will definitely stay there again anytime xx

“So close to being brilliant...”

My partner and I booked a week long stay in Marrakech in February of 2024 with LoveHolidays. We spoke to a wonderful liaison at the hotel in preparation for our arrival who throughout planning our trip and our time there was fantastic. Huge shoutout to Nadine! I want to be honest because I think … more

My partner and I booked a week long stay in Marrakech in February of 2024 with LoveHolidays. We spoke to a wonderful liaison at the hotel in preparation for our arrival who throughout planning our trip and our time there was fantastic. Huge shoutout to Nadine! I want to be honest because I think Palm Plaza is on the cusp of being an incredible place to stay, but without honest feedback, it's not possible for hospitality to improve. The reality of our stay that for every good thing about the hotel there was something bad. I'm going to start with the good stuff! POSITIVES: - Warm welcome at reception. We were immediately made to feel welcome, the lobby is absolutely stunning and the staff were so polite and helpful on arrival. Nadine and the kitchen staff had even secretly made me a vegan chocolate ganache for my birthday and put it in our room as we drank our mint tea. - The room itself was big, had good air-conditioning (once we worked it out!) and a pool facing balcony that was amazing to wake up to each morning. The curtains were blackout, the bed was really comfortable and the shower was good in terms of pressure and temperature. There was also a mini-fridge that actually stayed cold! - The swimming pool was excellent, especially in temperatures of 30-40 degrees celsius. The loungers were all available until mid-morning so if you want to be round the pool all day, you can easily make that happen. The poolside entertainment guys were all brilliant, they were really inclusive and you could tell that they really enjoy their job. - The hotel is a 5 minute walk to a shopping mall, which has a large supermarket (Carrafour) inside - we honestly could have left our luggage at home and been able to buy everything we needed for our trip. - On our last full day, we paid for the inside swimming pool/jacuzzi and a massage and it was genuinely one of the highlights of the trip. It was amazing value for money and we felt so relaxed after, it was a wonderful experience and I'm really glad we checked it out. - There are 2 ATMs in the hotel foyer, they didn't work when we arrived but they were working very quickly after that. There's also an exchange desk at reception, really convenient for breaking larger notes into smaller notes at short notice. - There was a huge range of food for the inclusive breakfast; cereals, fruit, pastries, cooked meats, fresh omelettes and fresh pancakes. I was impressed with the variety of the food at breakfast. - The airport was only a 15 minute taxi ride away, we paid for private transfer and the drivers were incredibly friendly and recommended loads to us. The reception team printed our boarding passes for us upon request (make sure you do this, Marrakech airport does not accept digital boarding passes) CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM - I hope this is taken in the right spirit, I don't intend to upset or offend anybody at Palm Plaza who tried to make our stay as amazing as possible. - The reception desk was a little chaotic at times, with only some members of staff seemingly trained in certain areas. We arranged an excursion from the front desk to do a Hot Air Balloon ride, but we were immediately pushed into paying the full amount in cash on demand. We tried to take out cash but the ATMs wouldn't work. We were called later in the day to be wished a happy birthday and... asked if we could pay for the experience yet. It wasn't comfortable being pushed into paying nearly £200 for something. When we did pay, we weren't given confirmation of any kind until the night before at 9pm when the excursion began at 4am the next morning. - The bedroom, despite being large with a nice view, had serious flaws. The lock fell off the bathroom door the first time we opened the door, the television was small and really far away from the bed with limited options of things to watch. There were ants on the floor by the door and on the day we left we found an ant in our bed. IMPORTANT: I have emailed the hotel directly about my concerns regarding the wifi. We logged into Netflix in the hotel and made sure to log out, however since coming back, the details used for that Netflix account were compromised, which meant somebody gained access to all of the social media associated with that account and was a hugely stressful few days that I believe can be directly attributed to the very poor wifi service cutting out and therefore trying to use an unprotected "5G" version of the wifi on the television. The oversheets and pillows had stains on them. Gross. - The pool plays absolutely miserable music in the morning. I don't know if it's something lost in translation, but no English speaking tourist wants to listen to Adele at 10:30am while they're sat around a pool. The poolside service was inconsistent to poor - we were shortchanged a few times and at one point we paid for our beers, given change, the bar manager came over and informed us that we had been given too much change, took all of the change, and then gave us 10MAD change when the receipt said 15MAD. We got tired to constantly having to chase change that by the end of the holiday, we simply stopped buying things from the poolside bar. There was also a really limited snack option at the pool, you either had a full lunch or dinner or you had nothing. - The bar had no life. A guy and a girl got up on stage to perform a low-energy performance of 3 or 4 English/French pop songs to a backing track and then sat down to smoke and drink for 30 minutes before playing again. A lady called Suzie who worked in the bar was so lovely and was really attentive to us when we were there, but she seemed let down by the restrictions of the hotel. For example; to pay on card you have to spend 100MAD or more, but the card machine didn't work in the evenings, so Suzie would have to walk you to reception to use their machine. - Carrying on from the bar, there was no noticeable evening entertainment anywhere in the hotel. It was quite surreal that a hotel so busy during the daytime and full of energy simply stops as soon as it gets dark. I don't think we were the only guests perplexed at this complete lack of evening vibe. - Breakfast & dinner - look there's no easy way of putting this. We've been back home for over 10 days and I'm still unwell. I don't know if it was the water or the food, but something has really affected my stomach. The range at breakfast was great, but watching someone make an omelette with 5 or 6 unclean frying pans in front of me, with potential cross contamination was not comforting. Watching somebody without gloves, with a watch on picking up all kind of bacteria, make, mould and cook pancakes also seemed really unhygienic. The buffet diner was 280MAD which is around £22 and honestly wasn't worth half of that. The food was incredibly bland, overcooked and I'm fairly certain that my partner got food poisoning from a room service order which led to vommiting. - As I mentioned briefly, I've been vegan for 7-8 years and the buffet options made my dietary requirements extremely difficult to maintain. We went to Carrafour regularly to get snacks to keep me going and were told that no food from outside the hotel were to be taken into the hotel. Fundamentally, this is a really harsh rule to impose when the hotel does not offer all-inclusive full board. We witnessed one man asked to be searched by door staff to check he had no food or drink. This made us extremely uncomfortable. - There are families who go out to the swimming pool each morning, dump their towels and bags and leave until mid-afternoon. The pool-guys were great at moving things after they were unattended for a long time, but it's worth knowing that the toxic towel culture from Spanish holiday resorts are creeping in here too. - The hotel claims to be an English speaking hotel, but it was very clear that only a few members of staff could understand us unless we used broad gestures and attempted some french alongside. I don't think it's a problem to not having English speaking staff, but I don't think it should be advertised as such. - Very frequent planes overhead, it didn't really bother us, but I can understand people wanting to know that detail. - It might look very close to Marrakech, but it's a 45 minute walk into the centre and a 15 minute taxi ride. Keep reading for some more on that. Overall, I know I've been very critical of Palm Plaza, but I actually loved it here. I think without the hotel, we wouldn't have been as comfortable in Marrakech and for the most part we felt safe in the hotel. OTHER: I want to include some information for holiday-makers who are going to Morocco for the first time. - Taxis are a nightmare. They will not give you a fair price first time around and will harass you until you agree to ride with them. We used an app called InDrive, where you can agree a fee with a driver before they pick you up and you can add a discretionary tip at the end. However InDrive seems to be a grey area and one of our drivers were literally chased away from us by other taxi drivers. My advice is to move away from tourist attractions or waiting taxis and then order. It feels far more secure as a tourist. The taxis argue they aren't monitored and that the drivers are crazy, but the app follows both you and the driver on the journey and has multiple safeguarding measures that the regular taxis don't have. One of our drivers told me that his friend who used InDrive got beaten up for it by Taxi drivers. - Speaking of taxis - the roads are scary. If you stay at Palm Plaza you will need transport to get into the City - but they're on their phone constantly, they don't indicate, there doesn't seem to be any kind of safety measures for anybody on the road. - La Trattoria restaurant, YSL museum, Jardin Majorelle and the Atlas Balloon rides were all incredible experiences that I would recommend to anyone. - Make sure you buy an e-sim before you travel, staying on your network providers ends up being an unnecessarily expensive idea. O2's best deal was £65 for 1GB of data, which is appalling. - If you're vegan, either prepare to compromise your beliefs or starve outside of the City centre because it's just a completely unfamiliar concept in Marrakech. I don't recommend coming here if you're vegan, but it has encouraged me to do much more research in future when it comes to my own dietary requirements. - ARRIVE AT THE AIRPORT 3 HOURS BEFORE YOUR FLIGHT MINIMUM. Marrakech airport is the worst airport I've ever been to for organisation, it took us 3 hours to get from the front door to our gate which was boarding as we arrived. - RYANAIR CUSTOMERS - PRINT YOUR BOARDING PASSES OFF FOR YOUR RETURN FLIGHT OR END UP PAYING £50 - Also, Marrakech airport actually check your bag size unlike any UK or EU airport. I've travelled with RyanAir to/from UK to/from Berlin, Alicante, Almeria, Faro, Belfast and not once been challenged about my carry on luggage. The man at the check-in desk told me that my bag was too big and conveniently couldn't speak English any further in order for me to explain that it isn't an issue anywhere else with RyanAir. Finally, I think this is a cultural difference that at first we were quite accommodating to and understanding of, but having spoke to an elderly muslim lady on the flight home who confirmed that she was shocked at the difference between Morocco and other Islamic countries - I think anyone wanting to travel to Marrakech needs to be fully aware that a lot of women are not viewed equally as men. My partner was laughed at for ordering her own food at a Shawarma place, nearly every meal our waiter would say "thank you sir" but completely disregard my partner. We lost count of occasions where it felt like she had done something wrong by simply being there, despite always dressing modestly as we were encouraged to do.

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