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Lost in translation in Marrakech

 The Pullman experience

First week of our trip to Morocco was devoted to stress relief, relaxation, sleeping, unwinding and all good things. Thus we booked The Pullman Marrakech Palmeraie resort & Spa for 7 nights. Pullman is a chain of resorts and belongs to Accor hotels and resorts. So it's French. Upon arriving to the hotel and going through security control that included walking through a metal detector (you only had to do this once) we realized our English speaking skills weren't going to be much of use here. We were lost in translation already at the reception.

At the reception we were offered to have a glass of water and relax while they took care of the check-in but no water arrived and the sofa we sat on was dirty - just like the front desk clerk's suite. We didn't receive any information about the resort, opening hours of the shop or the spa, things to do or where to get food after 12 hours of traveling when it's not dinner time yet. I'm not sure if this was due to language barrier. Eventually we got the room key and were driven to our room in a golf cart which still makes me feel luxurious (you can laugh, it's okay ;-)

Room

The room was nice - but COLD. It was clear it had not been in use for while. It took few hours for the room to be warm after we turned the central heating on. I know this is just a detail but they could have turned the heating on before we arrived at late afternoon. Nevertheless I liked the room. Rooms at the resort are situated in small villas of 4-5 rooms each. The standard double room wasn't very large but the bed had a firm mattress which I like and the bathroom was modern with a rain shower. All the rooms here come also with a terrace. Ours was facing the entrance so we didn't get sun shining to ours. Thus the resort facing rooms are better.




Food

This was the first time we were at an all inclusive resort. However the resort also sold bed&breakfast packages and we had booked that. This was a good decision I feel because I could have not eaten the same food everyday - the breakfast was already worst enough as every morning they had the same items on the buffet. The only difference was that on the third morning they shifted the omelet, juice and mint tea station outside. It was still very cold in the mornings so I have no idea why they did this. The breakfast was okay, there just wasn't any changes to it during the whole week. We had dinner twice in the resort during the week. First was Christmas eve. They had two options: buffet or seated dinner. We chose the seated dinner in the Lebanese fine dining restaurant. It was a six course dinner and most of the dishes were delicious, especially the wish.

The second night we ate at the buffet restaurant (same where we had breakfast everyday). We got lucky because it was Moroccon night and they had a great variety of tagines and all things Moroccan. I enjoyed the dinner but again I wonder why they had to place the tagines and other main courses outside when it was very cold.



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