Hotel Ali (Hotels in Marrakesh)

Member Name: EazyDude

Product:	Hotels in Marrakesh
Date:	05/12/02 (5348 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly staff, Shower and toilet

Disadvantages: Potentially dark rooms, Shower and toilet... at the same time!

Good afternoon punters. Been a while since I poked my nose into DooYoo, but having come back from a holiday that I will not forget, the least I thought I could do was share it with some others. :)

Please bear in mind that this will be pitched at the not-so-well off, like myself even though I have started working now.

Choosing a Hotel in Marrakesh
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This is really difficult to do when all you are faced with nothing but a Rough Guide to Morocco. They are all subdivided into price categories of Cheap / Moderate / Expensive. With Morocco being a country in the African subcontinent, I thought that we had better be careful with trying to book a cheap hotel.

I telephoned from the UK to Hotel Ali and asked to book a room. They seemed ever so casual abour it ans said "No problem". Didn't even attempt to take my name or anything. This was a bit disturbing so tried faxing them, but for soe reason the fax would not go.

With the hotel chosen, flights booked. Nothing to do but go see what happened on the night.


Hotel Ali
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1) Pricing
These are pretty basic actually. With two of us travelling, asking for a double was no good as they only had what was the equivalent of twins. In fact all their bedrooms had three beds in them, but you still pay the same price. 150Dh per room. This works out to be about £9 a room.

2) Beds
Are basic, but suffice for the function of sleeping. Clean sheets are supplied and fitted on a daily basis. We changed rooms once as we went on excursion, and it seems that the beds can vary a bit, but on the whole are pretty firm and can be either of a flimsy metal frame theat squeaks every time you move on it (don't even GO there!) or you can have a mobile sort of bed. One of these disappeared once, but I guess that it disappeared into another room.

3) The room
Room sizes are pretty good. Don't expect
a settee, a chair, a desk complete with writing pad. There's enough room to swing a cat in, put your suitcase and throw a bit of rubbish on the floor (seeing as there's no bin to be seen apart from in the the bathroom).
The rooms have a potential of being dark and dhingy so if you can, ask for a room on the roof. 301 to 303 I think they are. Nice open rooms with their own balconies opening up with a view over the local square.

4) The bathroom
Fully operational showering facilities, complete without shower curtain. Then again the whole bathroom is tiled so it doesn't matter where you splash water. Still, would have been nice to have a bath mat of some sort rather than make the whole room wet. How many other bathrooms in the world can you have both a shower and be on the toilet at the same time? Unique I must admit.
You get bog standard toilet roll supplied (2 rolls/day) but it is as about as bad as receylced stuff. I mean this stuff is pink and has corrugations on it and where the heck are the perforations?

5) Location
You couldn't be better based, but then again Marrakech ain't that big. You're right next to the local square so you can join the festivities of the day or night without having to worry about a cab back. The souks and things are nearby as well. There were only one or two things that we ended up catching a cab for. Word of warning. Expect to go to sleep listening to the antics of the night if you've got one of the rooftop rooms.

6) Other bits
- Breakfast - Basic with an egg of some description always served with bread, butter and jam. Tea, coffee, and limited supplies of orange juice always available as well.
- Resteraunt - Offering lunch and dinner if you're feeling lazy. Authentic stuff, but the menu doesn't vary from day to day. Big potential of getting bored. Price reasonable, with discounts for residents
- Tour service - Ask at the reception desk for the well
plugged tours. You can do 1, 2, 3, or 4 day tours to see places around Marrakech including gorgeous waterfalls, camel riding, desert camping, and seeing the largest sand dunes in the world. You can go for quite reasonable prices the more people go.
- Rooftop - with table and chairs so you can just sit and sun yourself, or have a meal up there. Quite pleasant if you've got one of the rooftop rooms.
- Internet cafe - downstairs at a good reasonable price. Can't comment on the connection speeds as never used them. But seemed popular enough


Extra things I'd recommend taking to this hotel
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1) A pair of flip flops for the room
2) A spare towel
3) Toilet roll
4) A 2 pin to 3 pin adapter for all your electrical bits

Thanks for reading... will post an op on Marrakech itself soon.
EazyDude

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