Morocco Trip - Day 1

March 21st, 2016

Before we have to leave Spain we thought it would be great to visit Africa as it is so close to Spain.  Morocco was definitely our safest option in North Africa and we decided that Marrakech would be the best city to visit.  Prior to going, I did a lot of research online and found a good deal on hotel and flight through http://destinia.com/.

Vueling offers direct flights to Marrakech from Barcelona and the flight is only about 2.5 hours.  We left on Monday morning March 21st at 11am and arrived in Marrakech around 1pm.  We stayed at the Idrissides Hotel, only 10 minutes from the airport in the Hivernage area of Marrakech.   I booked a private shuttle from the airport to the hotel for 170 MAD (around 16€) just so that we would not have to haggle with taxi drivers upon arrival.  The shuttle driver was there waiting for us at the arrival gates so it was very handy.

Landing in Marrakech

As soon as we arrived at our hotel and tried to check-in, but the man at the reception desk saw that we had an all inclusive package, so told us to leave our luggage and go have lunch before checking-in because lunch was ending soon.  It was great to sit down and have a nice lunch before checking into the hotel.  We also booked a walking tour of the medina for the following morning.

View from the fourth floor in to the atrium

Check out the swan made out of a towel they leave on the hotel bed

In the afternoon it started raining, so we didn't feel like doing any outdoor sight-seeing.  One of the reasons I chose Idrissides Hotel was because it had an indoor pool and spa.  Ciara and I went down to check the indoor pool and found out that you actually had to pay to get in, and it wasn't cheap, about 8€ per person.  Of course this extra fee was not mentioned anywhere on the hotel's website.  But since we could not use the free outside pool, we decided to all go for a swim and enjoy the indoor pool.  We pretty much had the whole pool to ourselves and the hot tub too.

The tour guide from the hotel told us to go visit a shopping centre that was walking distance down the road because it had a big kids amusement centre.  It was still raining in the evening, so we walked to the shopping centre and it was quite impressive although all the kids rides and games were expensive, so we just looked around.

Lounging by the outdoor pool, which we never really got to use

 

The indoor pool

Enjoying the spa