Marina Bay Hotel — Hotel in arrondissement de Tanger-Medina طنجة المدينة

Very noisy and not well isolated rooms. You can hear everything in the hallways. I recommend always choosing the pool side vs the (more expensive) sea view. At the sea view side you can hear all the traffic. Very busy street and when its windy its even more noisy.

We originally paid for the pool side but was upgraded to sea view. We gladly accepted. But we ended up switching from the sea aside to pool side because of that noise and problem with the shower (water went everywhere).

There were no problem with switching rooms but they did not hold up their deal. We were going on a day trip and we were told by a (very sweet) man at the counter to pack our stuff, and leave it in our room. Then room service would move it to our new room and it would be ready when we came back. We were told to just ask for our new room number at the counter when we returned. We did. Nobody knew anything and we had to explain everything again to multiple people. Very annoying after a long day...

Eventually we spoke to the manager who fixed it and we got a new room on the poolside. More quiet but maybe turn the fountain at night time? The tv in the new room was not a smart tv and when we made the manager aware of this she quickly sent somebody to set up the tv from our old room (which worked very well).

Another day when we came back to our room, our key card was not in place keeping the power on. We would never remove it. We had alot in the fridge.... We got a new key card at the counter without issues but where did it go? It disappeared after roomservice.

Other notes:

Very wierd that there is a window from the room into the bathroom so you can see the shower and toilet... We put some pillows over it (see picture). The thing holding the toiletpaper were very loosely put in the wall in both rooms. Alot of other damage (see pictures).

Room service: Good pizzas (only made at night time). Burger bun was burned.

Brunch: There was alot of cake and night time food for our liking. But that may be a cultural thing. Staff could not tell me if anything was lactose free, i dont think they know what that is.

Remember to be careful especially with the salad and peeled fruit if you have a sensitive stomach like me and come from far away (because this food is probably washed with tap water). After getting a bad stomach from the fruit i went with the slogan "If you cannot boil it, cook it, or peel it, then forget it". The reason for this advice is that traveling to a new place, it is easy to get sick from the food as your immune system isn’t used to the pathogens that might exist in the new environment, whereas someone living there would’ve developed resistance.

Location was very good and we felt safe in the hotel.

Even though there was alot of issues with our stay the staff solved it with a smile and they were ln general very sweet. I do wish we would have gotten a roomservice or brunch meal for free after all...

Since the 1950s, this hotel on Avenue Mohammed VI in Tangier, Morocco was for decades the Hotel Rif (later the name was changed to Rif & Spa), but after a several months period of major interior renovation, the hotel reopened on June 5, 2019 with a new name: Marina Bay Hotel. This is because the hotel directly faces the modernized and somewhat sterile beachfront and the Tanja Marina Bay for boats and yachts.

I visited the hotel earlier to talk to a polite English-speaking employee in the spacious and modern reception area. I told her I was reviewing the hotel for Google Maps and questioned the only sign on the exterior of the building to the right of the revolving front door with X-ray machine. This was confusing as the sign currently reads Marina Bay and under that it says Grand Socco Tanger. For accuracy this is deceptive because the hotel is no where near the area called the Grand Socco. Personally, the black and white photo next to the exterior sign looks a bit tacky and really is not necessary.

I miss the old 1950s decor of the original lobby. The receptionist told me the restaurant was not yet open for dinner. I presume the bar is still there off the small pool and garden in the back of the hotel. I have not yet seen any rooms or suites but from photos I have viewed taken after the extensive interior renovation they look fine, with the hallways redone also.

I was pleased to see a large photograph of the long-time Tangier resident writer and composer Paul Bowles, and the suitcase to the left, hanging on a wall in the reception area. He was a close friend and neighbor of mine for 15 years, and through his writings he attracted many people to visit Morocco and Tangier.

It is a shame that the city of Tangier refuses to install some stop lights on Avenue Mohammed VI to make it safe for people to cross to the beach. For more than 50 years, there was a wonderful long promenade directly in front of the hotel, with park benches and dozens of majestic palm trees that were a gift to Tangier from Spain. Sadly, the promenade and trees were bulldozed and removed for the autoroute. The street name was originally Avenue d’Espagne but is now Avenue Mohammed VI.

Unfortunately, the new six-lane autoroute from the Port of Tanger Ville to Malabata does not have one stoplight for miles, and there is no traffic policeman to help either. It is very poor planning by the city and extremely dangerous for anyone to try to cross over. Any elderly person would give up since who wants to get killed by the constant flow of speeding cars? Indeed, in June 2019, a family of Moroccan tourists were killed instantly by a speeding motorist on this road while attempting to cross to the beach.

Will the city please put in half a dozen stop lights and put speed limit signs on this...

A Delightfully Sleepless Stay in Tangier

I had the pleasure of staying at this gem of a hotel right on Tangier’s main strip — a city that clearly missed the memo about bedtime. By day, the streets are relatively calm, as if the city is taking a collective nap. But come nightfall? It transforms into a caffeine-fueled carnival where people, cars, and scooters seem to operate on pure espresso, even at 3 a.m.

Location-wise, this hotel is pure gold. Craving a crepe at 3 a.m.? Done. Pizza at 3 a.m.? Done. Need to exchange currency at 3 a.m.? Also done. Kebab? Salad? Honestly, I suspect if I’d asked for a live camel at 3 a.m., someone would have at least tried to make it happen.

The staff here are pure hospitality ninjas — warm, attentive, and somehow able to anticipate your needs before you do. The breakfast buffet is as lovely as it is dangerous to your waistline, and the rooms are fantastic, stocked with everything you could need short of a personal butler (though if you asked, they might arrange that too).

The hotel has a fun movie theme, with murals and photographs of Hollywood legends — James Bond fans will feel right at home. The pool is generously sized, with a satisfyingly deep “deep end” and a little alcove surrounded by greenery that feels like the set of a tropical spy rendezvous.

In short: great rooms, great staff, prime location, and very fair prices. If I return to Tangier (and I suspect I will), this is where I’m checking in — preferably sometime before 3 a.m., though the city might not...