Hotel Chellah — Hotel in arrondissement de Tanger-Medina طنجة المدينة

Hotel Chellah has been around for at least 50 years, and it has a pleasant, spacious garden where during the warmer summer months lunches are served by the large swimming pool.

The hotel may seem like a throwback to the 1960s or 1970s, but it does have modern conveniences you would expect such as plenty of hot water, comfortable beds and free breakfasts.

The WiFi works in the reception area but is not reliable in the rest of the hotel's floors and rooms, garden and pool areas. This problem should be fixed.

The Chellah used to cater to budget-minded English tourists but nowadays it has a mixed crowd from various other countries.

Sadly, the Chellah Beach Club Restaurant with its on-the-beach gardens where excellent lunches and dinners were served no longer exists. This is because the beachfront was completely sanitized and no more beach restaurants, bars, cabanas and discos remain.

What now exists is a plain unappealing city beach that no one goes to except near Malabata, and it is dangerous and almost impossible to cross a new six-lane highway to get to the beach since there is no stop light or safe crossing anywhere and you will not see one traffic policeman. Tourists have been killed and maimed by speeding cars while trying to cross the road (Avenue Mohammed VI or Corniche) to get to the beach or other businesses. The city planners do not think about safety of the people and tourists, only about nonstop autoroutes for speeding cars, even in residential areas.

The unlicensed guardians who collect a few dirhams to park your car, often directly on a torn up sidewalk, create a nightmare for pedestrians trying to squeeze through parked cars. They even park cars on the corners. In any other major city these cars would be towed away and police would issue a ticket and fine.

Hotel Chellah is conveniently located in downtown Tangier. It is a good alternative to higher priced hotels so you'll have more money to spend on eating out in restaurants and for buying souvenirs of your stay in Morocco.

This hotel is a good budget alternative to those who do not wish to stay at a cheap pension in the Medina or more...

I would not recommend this place. We arrived after a very long journey - and we were very keen to use the pool which was our main reason for booking this place. When we arrived, check in took a while, not the biggest deal but did have to wait a bit. We then got taken to a room, which wasn’t made up or ready, we put our bags in the room and sat on the balcony as it was being made up, then we realised the room was not what we had paid for (a Junior Suite), we were then taken to our correct room, however, this also was not made up. We were not checking in early - it was about 4:30pm when we arrived, having given our check in time prior. We were told to wait in reception. We were not offered any compensation. I went up to the desk and initially all they offered was to give us a twin room with two single beds (a downgrade??) after I asked they did give us 2 free drinks, but I think this should have been offered initially, not asked for. Finally, our room was ready. It was about 5:30/6pm by the time we finally got in our correct room, it was too cold to use the pool by this point plus we now had to get ready for dinner. The room itself was fine, the bed was comfy and it was clean, the bathroom was a bit annoying, the shower leaked and there was nowhere to hang our towels - not big things in itself but on top of everything that had happened a bit frustrating. The next morning, at about 8am, some cleaners came into our room waking us up, which we were not very happy about at all. Breakfast was okay, nothing spectacular but we were full afterwards. But, given everything that had happened, I would not stay here again. It was incredibly frustrating arriving after a long day, and not being taken to a ready, correct room (not giving us enough time to use the pool), and then being woken up the next morning early by some cleaners - and the standards of everything else didn’t make...

Our experience with the restaurant in particular was not pleasant. Rude and unprofessional staff who didn't keep their promises and were highly disorganized. We called 2 days prior to book a table for our whole family and explained that we wanted to celebrate dad's birthday and bring a cake, "no problem with that" - the said. However, when we were there, the restaurant was full and the lack of organization from the staff made it so difficult to be available. We had to wait for 20 to 30 minutes sometimes for a waiter to make a request.

After finally finishing our meal I called multiple waiters for the cake surprise, which we had already given them at arrival. They kept promising to bring it but didn't. My husband then had to go address the issue to the "head waiter" but the latter ignored him and didn't even give him a minute of his time.

Later on, I called the same "head waiter" and he responded with an unacceptable attitude blaming me for "giving him extra work" and for not remembering to whom I gave the cake.

By the time they "found" the cake - mind you there was only one other person celebrating their birthday- we were too tired and disappointed so we paid and left.

Having worked at foodservice, I understand the pressure of working such a demanding job. However, being rude and blaming your client for your mistake cannot be tolerated.

With organization and politeness, our experience might have been different and better with Chellah Restaurant. For now, I do not recommend and will...