I'm sure that the above superlative is taken by many with a grain of skepticism, however, I truly have not stayed in a better place. We are Relais & Chateaux 5C members, and the price points and luxury promised are not new territory for us, and this establishment truly rises above many great places and experiences we have had.
If you are researching this place, and wondering about the price and relative cost to other places in Morocco, yes it looks costly, but after staying there for 4 nights (including 1 at their desert encampment) I would say that the value you get for your money, in the time and attention of the staff, the quality of the food, the service, etc., regardless of how you feel going in, you will likely feel much better about the cost leaving.
Getting to Dar Ahlam is a bit of a challenge - we were unique in Moroccan travelers as we were driving ourself in a rental car, and in order to reach Dar Ahlam, it meant calling them from the Ziz gas station in Skoura, and then following the Dar Ahlam truck through a dusty narrow gravel road, through a river bed, eventually to their parking area. From here, a representative guides you through some dark passage ways revealing a truly magical hotel environment once your eyes adjust.
You are greeted by the manager, Fabienne, who, during your stay is continually making sure things are going well, and addressing any needs you might have. He explains, that in the hotel, there are no set meal times, no set menu, and that during your stay you will never eat in the same location twice (at least for lunch and dinner, breakfast is not as staged as the other meals). All meals are included, all alcohol, beer, cocktails, etc. (except French wines and Champagne - and I had no problem with the Moroccan 'Medallion' wines offered). There are snacks available regularly throughout the day in the living room of the place - that also serves as the meeting point when you are ready for a meal. You head to the living room, and you are asked if you are ready for lunch/dinner, etc and they show you to your table.
The living room area, and the porch outside facing the pool have pretty good Wi-Fi access, with the actual pool loungers being a stretch (1 bar). Elsewhere in the property, you are supposed to be disconnected from technology anyhow, as rooms do not come with Clocks, radios, TV's etc.
Our room was on the second floor of the Kasbah structure, and had a bedroom, living room, and large bathroom, with separate tub and shower, two sinks, and nice products. Additionally, the candles, especially the scented ones are very unique and pleasing to us. We also had a pair of patio lounge chairs on a open air private terrace off of our bedroom.
Included in the stay is your first set of spa services, for which we took advantage of a couples massage. Unlike most of traditional Morocco, this establishment is run by the French and the ownership group in Paris exerts a fairly strong control from what we saw. The massages, and other services (Hammam/Scrub) were performed by women for both me and my wife, which for me, made it a much more enjoyable experience (than the man on man experience that tradition would dictacte elsewhere). We also enjoyed the Hammam scrub whiel there, although sitting on the stool while getting doused with ladle after ladle of water, was eerily reminiscent of the scene in Casino Royale, with 007. The scrub was very enjoyable, with mint tea and cookies served afterwards, although, my wife had a skin reaction to what we suspect was the black clay.
There is a gift store with many eclectic items in the Spa 'riad', somewhat expensively priced by Moroccan standards, although it seemed the pool/beach bags were almost a necessity for most other guests we saw there.
The meals here were the best we had in Morocco, and the chef and his crew relied on produce sourced from the gardent on the premises, as well as one off-site, so they had control of the ingredients. While there is no menu, they make sure to establish your dislikes/allergies at the introductory meeting to make sure you don't go hungry. The dinners usually alternated from Moroccan to continental in food style from night to night, and even the Moroccan food was a breath of fresh air from the tajine fatigue that sets in fairly quickly for most Moroccan travelers. It was always fresh produce, and the finest ingredients. It is truly a mark of distinction that I would trade every other meal I had in Morocco for any of the 4 dinners we had during our stay.
Dinners were always an event.. Local musicians from a two piece Oud and Gimlly performer to a 30 person berber tribal musical group that played a happy hour prelude for guests, that led up to a traditional Berber Lamb roast, where the Lamb was cooked in a covered earthen pit in the garden area. The dinner locations were always special, with tons of candles/lanterns. In general, Dar Ahlam uses a ton of candles, and whether you are eating in the courtyard near a fire pit, or under tents on pillows elsewhere on the property, it was always exciting and special to see where you were going to eat. When you see the staff setting up different dining locations around the property during the day and the attention to detail in making each setting something special for just one couple, it's really unbelievable, and one reason why I see such high value.
The trip to the Sahara was unbelievable as well - though be prepared - it's a long day in the car, and while the scenery and picnic lunch are wonderful, a sandstorm delayed us a little, and there was some question as to whether we should continue on, as the desert may have zero visibility. We continued on, and after an 8 hour travel day, still had enough visibility and light to have fun on the dunes, although, the lantern lit path to a dining table on the top of the dunes was postponed until breakfast, the candle lit dinner in a nearby dining tent, with the wind howling outside was still pretty special, and a cloudless morning for sunset really made us not question our decision to stay despite the conditions the night before. It's still about a 4-5 hour drive back (more if you have your driver stop in Tazneczt (sp?) for carpet shopping) but you are back in time for another spectacular lunch.
The staff went over the top with a wonderful kitchen tour by the Chef the next day (we had purchased a set of cookbooks from the hotel with recipes used during our stay) and the Chef was kind enough to sign them and give us a wonderful tour, and great amount of insight into the food process at Dar Ahlam. The Chef truly cares about his profession and being from the local village of Skoura, is committed to excellence at the property. You can sense the air of professionalism and leadership in the interactions he has with both guests and his staff.
As we readied to make our way north to Marrakech, they gave us a picnic lunch in a lunch basket as we we left which made for a great roadside lunch on the way up the Tizi-n-Tichka pass.
I would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone, and my only suggestion would be to figure out how long you want to stay at Dar Ahlam, and then add a day or two.. You'll not want to leave.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
