The palmaraie Village,

Bad points:

- We were given a room 15mins from receception, long to walk to and from very cold in the evenings....not close to pools or overlooking much.

- reception staff, useless and not really interested in us....if you spoke morroccan or french you will be ok, the English such as ourselves struggled and seemed to be treated differently.

- It was too far out and we felt isolated being stuck in the village, they would offer a shuttle to the hotel...which is MUCH better but again getting back from there a struggle as the shuttle turns up when it feels like it.

- The reception staff are rude and can be seen to moan about you if you question them, which is annoying as they are useless.

Good points:

- Property is nice if you hire a car

- If you speak several languages not just english you can get a better service.

- The older porters at reception are really helpful, the younger ones only if given a tip.

- Some of the shuttle drivers will speak to you

To sum up, go here if you have patience, time and can tolerate poor service....speak another lanuage if you are English and do not expect much and you wont be disappointed. Expect to travel out to have fun and really see marrekech, do not just stay in the village as you will be driven crazy by day 3. We enjoyed the country but will rethink the accomodation next visit, the locals staying here have fun but this is a english poor mans paradise!.

went to this resort because it looks so beautiful in the pictures, it truly is that nice.
Unfortunatly I learnt a really important lesson in hotel selection, looks are not everything.

We were literally trapped there, 9 kilometres from the city with the only option of very expensive restaurants (£15 for a kids pizza). The grounds are massive and you need a shuttle bus to get to reception (40 min wait each time). Nearest shop is 30 min walk away.
No facilities except swiming pool.

Dirty rooms, unclean beds, maid service only every 3 days, they tried to charge me to do it more frequently.

I always go self catering but expect a basic standard of service when I check in, I did not get it. They even tried to charge me £10 for fresh towels, £15 to unblock the sink, which was blocked on my arrival and which I reported immediately, they charged me for a 3 bedroom but gave me a 2 bedroom, saying the front room was the 3rd bedroom (very dishonest and misleading). This place likes to charge for everything they can, this is unfortunate because they don't even disguise the fact that they just don't care. Taxis £18 to city and back each day, extortion because they know you are in the middle of nowhere so have no options.

I should have believed the other reviewers and unusually low scores and avoided this place. This place has way too many 'Terrible' and 'Poor' ratings to sensibly ignore... I agree, this is a HOTEL TO AVOID!

We stayed in an apartment in Palmeraie Villages, about a couple of miles away from the main Palmeraie golf hotel. You can use all the facilities at the hotel but it is a shuttle bus away, that’s where it all goes wrong.

About Marrakech, its classed as a year round location and the weather was good when we went at end of Oct, only one rainy day out of seven.

The apartment itself was great, very nice quality with beautiful fixtures and fittings. A/C throughout and tv in bedroom but only French and German channels available! No DVD player either so kids had no tv for a week!!! Also even though the kitchen was nice with all new appliances there was no toaster or microwave in a family apartment.

The Palmeraie Villages is a medium size gated development where half the properties are apartments and the other half Villas with pools. There are very few facilities on site, there are some nice pools and that’s about it. The pools are also FREEZING cold. There was only one place to eat and the prices were very high. A small bottle of beer was £5 and £15 for a small (very average quality) kids pizza. We had to eat there as the only other option was to get the shuttle but to the main hotel. Not much fun waiting 40 mins at the pick up point then up to an hour to get back.

To buy food and toiletries you had to take the shuttle bus again as its about a mile away to a small mini mart.

The prices at the restaurants in main Palmeraie Golf hotel were bordering on the ridiculous. Don’t know how you can get away with charging such high prices for average quality food. There are 5 restaurants, an Italian, Indian, Moroccan and a couple of trendy (even more expensive) places to eat. The prices were more expensive that a decent restaurant in central London!!

We did go into Marrakech a few times but its not for the faint of heart. The taxies are ancient and the drivers terrible, the kids were sacred stiff. Our driver was good but there are vans, busses, cars and motorbikes coming at you from all angles. Morocco itself was ok, its exactly what you expect it to be and has been ruined by tourism. There were so many tourists even though it is low season, it was so busy, loads of Americans and everybody touting for your business. The touristy restaurants were they advice you to go also charge high prices, we walked in looked at menu and left. Went around the corner and found a small family run restaurant and had a great meal.

Overall I was not impressed by the Palmeraie resorts or Morocco and don’t think I will be going back any time soon.

Lovely room. Liked the big pool. Didn't like the wasps round the pool. Nice touch with the bottle of wine with the evening. Spirits very weak quality. Would we return. Yes