Hotels in Morocco

Morocco caters primarily for a European summer market, which is enormous, and so it goes without saying that the market is rich, varied and colourful. To cater for the mass market some of the Spanish Costa del Sol mindset has spilled over into Morocco with tourist complexes on a grand scale appearing on the coast, and with something of an associated cottage industry in unlicensed and unregistered private homes offering accommodation that, if approached with due caution, need not necessarily be a bad option. Other, more salubrious choices in this sector might include the popular, upscale, Riads, or converted traditional courtyard houses that can also be country estates and colonial palaces. Kasbahs, or old citadels, are also popular accommodation conversions that offer an at times stark, but undeniably authentic style of local accommodation.

Hotels vary with locality and price, and of course the band name hotels in larger towns and cities enjoy international standards, but squeezed in between are a plethora of different standards and styles of hotel accommodation that can, at the very least, make for a varied journey. Cheap hotels are everywhere, with some well maintained and clean, and others with extremely questionable standards of hygiene.

Obviously the cheaper the hotel the more basic the services, but this need not be a bad thing, since although the downside might be shared bathrooms and ablutions, the upside might be a mattress on the roof terrace in the grand old tradition of Saharan homes. Others offer traditional Moroccan salons lined with cushions for a rather basic but undeniably traditional nights sleep.

A middle strata of reasonably priced and comfortably appointed hotels are usually of a high standard, as are the many maisons d’hôtes which are perhaps about as authentic an option that a midrange travel might regularly enjoy. These can spill over into the higher end, and top range private hotels certainly make a point of offering both luxury and a high degree of local style and ambience.

All in all there is no shortage of options, the last of which, although not precisely hotel accommodation, is the notion of rental apartments for the sake of a static family holiday at the coast. These can be found in other places, and would suit a group of friends travelling together to some of the other less obvious destinations such as the Atlas Mountains or the interior towns.