Kasbah Hôtel Ziz Palace Rissani — Hotel in caïdat d'Er-Rissani

I would strongly recommend the Ziz Palace Hotel if you are staying in Rissani or even if you are planning a desert excursion near Merzouga. Although staying at the Ziz Palace would mean an extra 30 minutes of travel on the way to the desert, the superior hospitality that you would experience at the Ziz Palace makes up for a slightly longer time on the road. The owner of the hotel and the staff really did go out of their way to assist us and make us feel welcome. We got to the hotel early in the morning after our overnight bus from Meknes arrived an hour ahead of schedule, but the night frontdesk staff were ready for us and allowed us to check into our room early. When they discovered that the hot water in one section of the hotel wasn't working, hotel management transferred us to another room (which happened to be larger than the one we booked) with hot water even before we reported the issue. A special thanks goes to Mohammed, at the front desk, who was an excellent translator and guide and helped us arrange a customised tour of the ksour (fortified towns) in the area of Rissani and also assisted us with our onward travel to Merzouga. Finally, I would highly recommend that all guests at the Ziz Palace visit the ksour around town. The owner of the Ziz Palace is a local man whose parents lived in two of the walled towns around Rissani, and visiting the ksour in the company of someone with roots in the area made the experience extra special.||||The Ziz Palace is built and decorated to look like a ksar, but with a number of modern amenities (including a pool), spacious, atmospherically-lit rooms, comfortable common areas and a restaurant that is handy after a day of exploring. Finally, extra points for having good wifi in all areas of the hotel. The hotel is located a 15 to 20 minute walk from the...

Overall not very happy with the 2 night stay. Room was of a good size but could have been cleaner. Staff were very friendly and helpful. The food from the restaurant was particularly disappointing, with small portions and no real choice. The chicken tagine on the first night was simply chicken and olives nothing else was offered, no vegetables or rice/ pasta / couscous. There was no dessert offered not even a yogurt! |Dinner the second night, apparently the chef was sick so all they could offer was a cheese or plain omelette, again no dessert. |All in all out of our seven nights so far in Morocco this was the most expensive hotel that we had stayed in, despite this it was the worse option that we had chosen, we departed feeling very disappointed...

As my own pictures suggest, the pool area at this hotel looks great and effort has gone into that and the immediate entryway, which is very grand.

Beyond that, this hotel was oddly dead when we visited in November, which made it a poor choice for the price: the evening restaurant and poolside bar were shut. (I'd recommend Cafe Restaurant Amraoui down the road if you find yourself similarly stuck for dinner at short notice.)

Parking is barely off the street, so I couldn't recommend this as a secure option. It also took us a while to flag someone down to get breakfast. The morning staff were lovely once they knew we were there, mind, and I'd suggest pacing yourself with breakfast, which was huge and arrived in waves —...