Marrakech La Palmeraie Morocco

We were somewhat anxious as our previous Christmas holidays at Club Med Samoens (see my previous ) were somewhat of a nightmare and our last stay in the Riad part was also not that good.

FYI, The Riad is part of the Luxury Collection of Club Med but the rest of the village is a standard Club Med village.

Is it worth to stay at the Riad? Our answer is yes.
The rooms (as the rest of the Riad) have received a make-over and remain spacious and are brighter than before. They have all you need, dispose of a nice terrace or garden and everything is functioning properly. This being said, I would not qualify them as luxuruous. Try also to get a room which is located somewhat away from the rest of the village (numbers 40 and 50) so you avoid the noise at night from the rest of the village (please note that as in all muslim countries you will have noise from the minarets early in the morning but that applies for the whole of Marrakech).

The food is the biggest change in the Riad. Although you can go and eat in the main restaurant of the village, you can also have breakfast and lunch in the Riad and it is so much better than it used to be a few years ago. The Riad now has its own chefs (thank you so much Debi and El Mehdi) and that shows in the quality of the food and snacks as proven by the fact that most of the Riad residents stay and eat in the Riad which was not the case in the past. In principle, for dinner you need to go to the main restaurant but a few times a week the kitchen organizes special evenings with a number of bites which also allows you to stay in the Riad.

In general the staff at the Riad (thanks Rachid for the milk and the hot water for the tea) is also much more friendly and efficient than they used to be. For example, in the past tea time was always late and just had a few cookies, now everything is ready at 4.00 pm and you have a huge variety of healthy and ‘less healthy’ snacks.

A good thing is also that the pool of the Riad is now heated which was not the case in the past and which meant that I had to bring my wetsuit to be able to swim.
It should be noted that the public in the Riad is somewhat of an older public of golfers; which means that if you are looking for noise and partying you better opt for the standard village part.

One final but important note. It is clear that all of these improvements could not have taken place without the presence and management of the new head of the Riad. I forgot to ask his name but he is present day and night and clearly has control over his staff. You can also ask him anything and will do his utmost to get it done (according to us that was the big difference with Samoens where the head of the chalets clearly had no clue of what was expected from her)

Is it heaven on earth then? Here I might get into a touchy subject. Club Med has introduced some time ago the Luxury Collection which are basically their 5star resorts. Some of these resorts are Luxury resorts only (e.g Cefalu where we stayed in the summer of 2024 and which was perfect) and some of them are part of a ‘normal’ Club Med village (e.g. Samoens and Marrakech) which means that for part of your meals and activities you need to go to the village. For the activities it does not make a difference. Marrakech has a decent fitness room, good tennis courts, a nice golfing practice, a nice spa,… But we feel that there is a difference in the food. We felt that the food in the main restaurant of Samoens and Marrakech is not up to the level of the food in, for instance, Cefalu which makes sense as not everyone is paying the same price. One other downside in Marrakech is the fact that in the main restaurant a huge number of tables are reserved. It is clear that this is due to the fact that people pay tips to the staff of the restaurant to get these tables reserved because when I asked in the Riad to get a table reserved, they told me that was not possible. This means that in some cases you have to wait for a table to be freed up. In the end we gave up and did not respect the reservation sign on the table which lead to some discussions with the waiters but when we told them to get the restaurant manager, by miracle there was no more issue. We also heard the same complaint from other people in the Riad.
One final recommendation, the horse back riding. Our sons are experienced riders but they confirmed that the rides that are being organized in the desert next to the Village are absolutely worth the money.

Overall if you want peace and quitness in an actual oasis, get treated in a nice way the Riad is a recommendation, just try to get as much of your meals also in the Riad.

Yussef knows how to put some great atmosphere and the GO team was very active and all friendly .

Coming there with kids is heaven on earth for the kids and parents alike!

The atmosphere doing the crazy signs in the evening was amazing .

A few comments and suggestions however :

• It is Less fun when you travel as a single , so please continue to have the Monday evening “single cocktail “ which I was told exists but didn’t take place this time .
  Let people know in advance that it exists!
  🔥You should really have the SINGLE cocktail in ALL your clubs around the world 🔥

Some of us who are old members of club med with grown up kids still enjoy going to club med for the fun ambiance and dancing!!

Most club meds seem to be focused on kids and families nowadays, but I cannot imagine that singles don’t go there anymore ?
They do but they are just lost in the crowd . Help them to connect to other singles as each week you know exactly who is coming .

• A pity that I didn’t know that the el Kebir Marocan restaurant could be reserved prior to arrival for dinners as when I arrived on December 28th every night was already fully booked .
  Maybe you should think of having a bigger Marocan dinner area .
  If I didn’t know Marrakech and the wonderful restaurants there , I would have been highly frustrated.

• Regarding the excursions offered , I don’t know why , I only received the full list on January 4th , a day prior to my departure! It would have been nice to receive this ahead of time /
  “prior” to leaving the UK ( even if there was an excursion desk) ; as there was some good tips in there esp for singles wanting to share which I never knew).

• Yussef chief of the village is tres sympa but was not seen enough . The GOs were almost unseen during meals not mixing enough with the GMS. Would have been nice to mix .

• Last Christmas December 24th, 2023, there was more atmosphere with people dancing till 5 am at palacha bar dance floor compared to this year ‘s 31st in the theater .
  The crazy signs were fun but I don’t recall any countdown and it was not as festive as I thought it would be ( even if the hats , the masks , the lights were all great ideas ).

• The food was good and the work going into the 31st of December night buffet was “magnificent”: Bravo to the cuisine / kitchen people! Amazing Patissier and others .

I was surprised that the chef de village didn’t present the kitchen team once a week as they used to doing in the past ? They also need recognition for sure .

Booked a day pass including use of the pool/lunch. Lovely clean heated pool with plenty of free loungers to soak up the December sun and very prompt service from the waiters. Hotel itself is an impressive boutique take on classical Marrakech style.

All staff members of this CM are amazing. After the holiday, we asked our son if he enjoyed it. He said it was the GOs who made his holiday special.

The food in general, is amazing. The place is well looked after and activities are well organised.

Yassine, Clara, Shai, Thomas and Matilde from kids club did an amazing job looking after and entertaining the children.

We would also like to thank Karim from archery, Faustine from gym, Fouad from restaurant who made our son a fresh pizza on our arrival day at 10.30pm and Mustapha who made fresh juice out of easy peelers for our little one.

Yuesef, Abdahacke and Nrbel from Le Ranch gave amazing horse riding lessons.

Thank you everyone

Wow what can we say… from beginning to end this was an amazing experience. First time visitors to a Club Med resort and will highly recommend it, for single, couples, families, young and old. From the time we stepped out of the shuttle to a friendly welcoming to Marrakech music and refreshing drink and explanation of our stay to our sad goodbye at the end of our holiday. The staff were amazing, friendly & professional at each and every encounter. We loved the way the staff interacted at meal times with you individually. A delicious and exceptional dinner at the El Kebir restaurant with special thanks to our waiter Hassan who was so professional and attentive to our every need. This is a must for people who enjoy sport activities, there is plentiful of every possible sport. Not to mention the fun evening entertainment by the one and only Club Med staff. The shuttle service to Le Madina on the hour daily was a win. It was very impressive to see the diversity of nationalities of the staff working at the resort. Our room was kept clean and well equipped daily and cared for my Fatima, thank you so much. Highly recommend this option for an amazing holiday to Marrakech.