Dar Sabra (Hotel) - Marrakech

The first time I went to Marrakech, I knew I needed to return soon. Why? Because during our trip I discovered that perfect summer time weather was constantly in Marrakech, and it was only three and a half hours away. Six week later I was back, The Boyfriend in tow with the aim of doing very little except enjoying the sunshine and catching up on some reading.

For this reason we choose to stay outside of the Marrakech proper, in Palmarie, a short 15-minute taxi ride from the city, but a million miles away in terms of atmosphere. This turned out to be a very good decision. Our hotel, Dar Sabra, was incredibly peaceful with gorgeous grounds and three pools and just what we needed. 

The Hotel itself is really quite beautiful. It’s a design hotel, modern lots of straight lines and a smattering of modern art and sculptures. Everything works, it is modern without being too minimalist and harsh. Moroccan antique doorframes and furniture, perfect the look. It’s beautiful and also very small with around 16 rooms in total.

Our room, The African Suite, was similar to the rest of the hotel - minimal, but without compromising on warmth and coziness. I think this might be my favorite hotel room ever. Everything was perfect, comfy bed, massive bath and shower, high-quality hair dryer, sitting area, private garden and sufficient number of plugs/towels and hangers. The only thing that could have improved the room would be a) a fully stocked mini bar (ours just had three bottles of water) and b) a kettle and tea set (I'm too British to live without a cup of tea in the morning).

The food was generally of a very high standard. Breakfast was complimentary and split into either Moroccan or Continental, both fairly similar offering a variety of juices, hot drinks, fried eggs, pancake like things and breads. It wasn’t particularly interesting or flavorful. We ate lunch at the hotel for all of the three days we were there and the quality was on the whole very high. So high in fact, that I actually asked our waiter for their tagine recipe.  Dinner, which we had one night in the room involved the menu as lunch but this time we added an incredibly satisfying dessert. 

Service was the one place I felt let down. In general the hotel had an air of mis-management about it. Starting with the key that didn't work correctly (i.e. the wrong key), and a new key that snapped in the door to leave us with the last outstanding key available for that room and being told "be careful", rather than "we do apologise, do you mind if we borrow the key at a convenient time for you to make copies?". Ordering taxis was difficult the first day, as they didn't call our room to let us know it had arrived, when we did wander over to reception there was no one there to tell us where to go. After about ten minutes when someone did show up, we ended up sharing a taxi with another couple of lovely people from Norway. Fine, but clearly they had no clue what was going on. Our Spa appointment started 15 minutes late as they had forgotten our appointment and they did not exactly know what treatment we booked the day before, meaning we missed watching the sun go down at the Medina.  When we called to ask about playing tennis on their court, the person who was "in charge or tennis racquets and balls", was unavailable and would be for the next hour so we ended up not playing. Nothing major, just little things.  The final straw came when we asked the hotel to make a booking at a restaurant we wanted to try in town, they called back saying the restaurant was full and that instead they could book us at other restaurants in town. As I didn't trust the staff an inch, I decided to book the restaurant myself through their online booking service and managed to do without a problem. I'm not sure which conclusion to draw from this that either a) they couldn't be bothered to call assuming it would be full or b) the restaurant in question saves space for online reservations only or c) the hotel gets a commission from certain restaurants if they send their guests their and so have an incentive to make sure that their guests end up at those restaurants. Call me a cynic, but I'm leaning towards c). 

All of this was compounded by the fact that the hotel had never really given us any sort of personal service. There was no " Welcome to Dar Sabra, This is where the gym/spa/restaurant is, this is how you get to town, these are some restaurants we recommend, this is the times we serve breakfast, please let us know if we can organize excursions for you, this is what there is to do in the area." Which is a shame, because the waiters and staff were delightful and very informative, if only I could say the same about the management.


I had the same issues with the spa. Not only did we start 15 minutes late, but we were also told we couldn't use the Jacuzzi whilst we waited as someone was having a massage, so we were left in a coldish room reading an eight month old Grazia in French. The treatment (hammam + massage), for both The Boyfriend and I, was fine  if complicated by the fact neither of us spoke spoke French, until I was s left in my treatment room with no explanation or " C'est fini" alone in the dark. 20 minutes later I left, having officially compromising our plans to have a drink and watch the sun go down and wasted my time.

It was frustrating, because it really is a stunning hotel, with charming staff, but let down by shoddy management who have a vague "I don't give a crap" attitude. Overall, I'd still recommend Riad Aguarzame, if it is your first trip to Marrakech. Without the tips we received from the hotel, I don't think I could have survived either time without them.  It’s also a better choice if you're short on time/money as the taxis rides (15 euros each way) do start to add up. Would I return? I'm not sure, service really makes all the difference in hotels and this just didn't come anywhere near to my last experience in Morocco. Suites - 145 Euros a night.