Villa Al Assala Palmeraie

“Gem of a find within a stones throw of the city”

Stayed for 4 nights in February, booked through a booking agent but you can book directly. As we arrived the experience began. Staff are so helpful and happy to do anything for you. Met with mint tea and sat to relax by the pool as they delivered our case to our room. Only a small amount of rooms … more

Stayed for 4 nights in February, booked through a booking agent but you can book directly. As we arrived the experience began. Staff are so helpful and happy to do anything for you. Met with mint tea and sat to relax by the pool as they delivered our case to our room. Only a small amount of rooms here so very exclusive, is very quiet and relaxing being slightly outside the main city. No noise of cars, roads etc, very quiet and serene which is exactly what we wanted for a couples retreat. Rooms were all en suite and roomy, large comfortable beds and air con. Our was upstairs so had a south facing balcony but ground floor rooms had private terraces. The accomodation building is round so there is no being overlooked by your neighbour, feels very private. Indeed we only saw a handful of travellers for or whole stay. Breakfast serve between 8 and 10 consisted of breads, cakes, jams and honey, eggs served as scrambled, boiled or omelette. A fruit salad, yoghurt and tea or coffee. Absolutely plenty to fill you for the morning. The in house restaurant also serves lunch from a menu and takes bookings for dinner. Food can be served inside the dining room or on the terrace - seems to depend on the weather and temperature. Good food and well prepared from the French owners kitchen. For dinner they like to take your order when you book so they can prepare for your arrival. A good selection of wines available from the menu too. Hotel has a bar too which is accessible all day. Nice to have afternoon mint tea by the pool. Tea is always served with some mini cakes. The pool is heated and located right outside the main villa dining room/bar/reception building. There are day beds and sun loungers as well as coffee table areas that surround the pool for your comfort. There is a covered dining terrace at one end that we had lunch under. The grounds and gardens are fairly large, plenty enough for the guests staying and we were able to move sun loungers onto the grassed areas in the grounds for sun positioning and further privacy. There is also boules/petanque area available to guests at no cost. There are some delightful art sculptures dotted around the grounds which add a little je ne sais quai. Being out of town it is quiet but if you wish to venture in, the hotel will order you a taxi to take you into the medina (or anywhere else) and arrange for them to bring you back later. This is a private firm so no haggling with yellow cab drivers on prices. You probably pay a little more for a round trip (maybe £25) but it’s all convenient as it’s billed to your room with no need to deal in cash. A cab to the medina is around 10 minutes though the traffic. Almost everything supplied or provided is billed directly to your room so convenient to deal with one itemised bill at the end of the week. The hotel offers arranged tours at the reception desk ranging from food tours, Atlas Mountains and hot air balloon trips. They also have a partner that offers massage and spa treatments - body, head massages, scrubs, manicure pedicure etc. All reasonably priced and the masseurs come to your room to perform the treatments, no need to go anywhere. Again, all billed directly to your room. No hammam offered though as no facilities for steam/sauna or wash room. In all we had an absolutely fantastic and relaxing time here. Ordered what we wanted when we wanted it and no noise or staff bothering you for any upsell during the day. Able to relax, soak up the sun, read a book in perfect surroundings with very little other people around. If you want a serene, peaceful break then this is worth booking. Don’t expect pool bars, karaoke and organised kids clubs. The staff were absolutely great and assured to make this a lovely trip. If I had to offer anything as an upgrade to this villa, there were no robes in the rooms or blankets for sitting out on a cooler evening. Other than that, we could not fault Villa Al Assala for giving us a memorable and enjoyable break in Marrakech.

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