TUI BLUE Medina Gardens — Hotel in Marrakesh Prefecture

This was a really nice hotel during a really nice stay in Marrakesh.

ROOM: We arrived independent of any TUI trip and were greeted with a drink while we checked in. The room I had was spacious and nice, with working (but slightly loud) air conditioning to keep the room cool. There was a fridge in the room and water is delivered daily during their rounds.

The shower was very nice with choice of a rain shower or normal shower head. Rooms are cleaned daily and new towels given, but the towels tended to appear later in the day AFTER the room was cleaned.

Our room had a jacuzzi and this was a nice addition, but due to the pool/grounds it wasn't used much. It was also the "road" side of the hotel, so there's a bit of street noise. If you have one of the rooms with a jacuzzi facing the grounds it's probably much nicer.

GROUNDS: The grounds themselves are really nice, and you really don't feel like you're in the middle of a bustling city at all. The main pool is nice, but secure your sunbed nice and early, it's very popular, as is the relaxation pool.

There are a lot of sunbeds on the grass patches in the grounds, and these are well used. Two table tennis tables also compliment the grounds which also include a tortoise garden.

There are several day beds dotted around the grounds, including three by the pool. These work out at about £45 for the day with full service. You get a bottle delivered to you (red,white,sparkling) and a fruit snack. Lunch is delivered to you from the snack bar, too. The beds are comfy and they're worth a go for one day, but you do have everything to have if you're by the pool and won't feel like you've missed out on too much if you don't do it.

GYM: The on site gym has two running machines, some spin bikes and a plethora of weights. The gym is cleaned at 8am daily which seemed like an odd time as it was at capacity some days and isn't the biggest. Ensure you turn the air con machines on in there, it gets WARM!

BARS: The pool bar is the main one you'll use during the day and this is fine. As with all bars spirits are freepour. The frozen daquiri was a favourite, but most drinks are catered for outside. Please beware of what they use, if they're out of one spirit, they tended to just replace it with another (used gin instead of rum, for example).

Please also be careful of the pool bar for coke/pepsi. They only have pump machines in the main bar, so use bottles for coke/lemonade etc at the Pool Bar. If they're out of Coke Zero, for example, many a time they simply used their full-sugar Pepsi as a substitute without saying. This was frustrating, as I'd asked for Coke Zero specifically.

ACTIVITIES: Most nights the activities were fun. Bingo, live singer, DJ/Music night, live band, pool party and Moroccan night were all fun, but the energy of these very much depended on the people you're with. Bingo, for example, was very sedate one week, but much better with a different cohort of people the next week.

Pool activities are a lot of fun to either watch or take part in, especially the volleyball and other competitions. Rubber archery, darts are also great ways to enjoy an hour or so. Props to Chloe, Ellie and G for their work for all of these nights/activities. They helped to make the week.

SERVICE: There was a lot of help when needed, from securing a late checkout to trying to get the TV channel changed in the bar. No complaints there. Bar staff gave preferential treatment to anyone who had tipped them (naturally) and there was only one occasion when I felt this difference. However, on the whole they were exemplary!

It'd be good if there was a shop on site, and it was a bit disappointing that there were no proper 'snacky snacks' such as crisps as part of the snack selection you can get at the bar in the afternoon. These are minor points though

Overall we really, really enjoyed the stay and it's definitely somewhere I'd recommend to someone looking for an easy, relaxing and warm holiday destination.

More about food and drink in the food...

Spent a week here at the end of December at Medina Gardens.

The service provided is good. Staff are friendly, attentive and generally helpful, especially in the main restaurant. I did mention to the staff well in advance that this would be a honeymoon-type stay and unfortunately, they weren't very accommodating. This was quite a shame. Other hotels often make guests feel special as they go above and beyond, but sadly we didn't feel that here. However, Salahuddine was one of the most friendly, as well as Abdusamiah.

The location is the best part imo. Most of the main parts of the city are walkable - old souk is 10 mins, newer city is 10 mins, YSL museum is 30 mins. The hotel don't help with getting a taxi but you can just haul one from the main road outside (make sure to negotiate; they will try to rip you off) or use Careem (hit and miss). I believe there is parking at the hotel but not 100% sure.

The rooms are okay. Spacious and cleaned every day to an average standard. The design is pretty basic but it's comfortable. HVAC system was a bit tricky to use also. Mini fridge in every room was helpful but not stocked on arrival (just three apples and two water bottles on the desk).

Food is good-ish for an all-inclusive. It's certainly not the best (TUI Scheherazade in Tunisia was much better) but the breakfast was good enough. Dinner was much more hit and miss depending on the themed night. Culinarium, the a la carte restaurant, served incredible food (once only per stay). The food served there for lunch (called Snack Bar, no limit) was much better than the restaurant food for lunch, though choice is much more limited. Overall, food isn't a bad option here but you may find yourself wanting to try other places in Marrakech, despite this being all-inclusive. Chef Said and Hazena (I think her name was) both very friendly.

They had a few non-alcoholic options but only about four. They should really consider expanding this. Badr was one of the best, very friendly man at the bar who would always be keen to make us a mocktail.

The hotel grounds/garden were quite beautiful. There is a large garden with an abundance of loungers spread amongst the property. Lots of beautiful trees and plants. All of the cabanas were for hire only, which was a shame, but the loungers were good enough. It was incredibly quiet, especially considering the location. There is only one heated pool (supposedly at 26c) but it was way too cold for December. It should really be much warmer, especially in winter. There are two stations away from the main building; one near the heated pool (at the back of the property) and one much closer to the main building. The former is just a fridge of water, Coke, Miranda etc attached to the towel station. They should really consider making this a bar or some sort. No food is served outside of the restaurants/meal hours except for one station that served crepes/sandwiches (not every day).

Gym was pretty good actually. Good size with lots of equipment. Floor on top was a studio for classes I assume. Spa was reasonably priced (around £45 for around an hour) but no male staff, which was a shame. They also tend to cut the massage short a little (pay for 50 mins but only get 40 mins). Staff very friendly and very good though. We went two or three times during our stay and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Entertainment was mixed. Generally good but often a bit limited. The tea making class was more a tea tasting class. The cooking class was also more of a tasting class (only two people actually made the food). The quiz/bingo was only for the people in the lobby bar, which seats not more than 40 people. I appreciate it was winter so the animation team/services would be quite limited. Also a shame that the escape room was an extra charge.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay. I don't think I'd stay here again but I don't regret our stay either. All inclusive adult only resorts are few in Marrakech but I feel TUI can offer a much better product here with not...

Firstly we had a really good week! The restaurants are amazing you can always get a drink from somewhere and the hotel staff were incredible. Our cleaner always greeted us in the morning and she was the nicest person ever. Mustafa behind the pool bar was amazing, he would always serve your drink with a smile. The rep Chloe was so nice she was encouraging people to engage with activities and she was a right laugh. We had a jacuzzi room, however unfortunately our jacuzzi did not heat up but hotel staff were more than happy to refill our jacuzzi with hot water whenever we asked which was fantastic.

We booked a quad bike excursion through TUI which was AMAZING. The reps were really good at booking and organising!

WARNING TO OTHER GUESTS: Keep your wits about you when using the spa!!!!

Unfortunately we booked for the spa on the last day of our trip and this is why I am giving this hotel a lower rating. Me and my husband and another couple we Vacationed with booked a couples treatment in the blue spa. The hammam treatment and massage we received were very nice. However during our massage two men came into our room whilst me and my husband were naked only covered in a small towel and see through disposable pants. The therapists did not tell us these men were coming into the room!!. Luckily my husband looked up and saw these men however one of the therapist tried to push him back down and told him to relax so that he didn’t see these men. Absolutely unacceptable liz

The woman who was at spa reception (who also entered the room when she shouldn’t have) told my husband that this was a hotel maintenance man and a spa maintenance man. During this time I was asleep and had no idea these people were in our treatment room. We were booked for the jacuzzi after the massage and my husband told me what happened so we ended our treatments early.

I confronted the receptionist about what happened in the room with the men entering whilst I was naked. She said that it was only one man and it was ok because “he didn’t see anything” and they were in there to put hot water into the jacuzzi. I said to her that we should have been told that anyone else was going to enter the room and I did not consent. She said all she could do was apologise and offer me a free facial! This was absolutely unacceptable. Not only did she lie to me she still wanted us to pay after being violated. It doesn’t matter if it was 1 man or 5 men there should have been NO MEN in that treatment room whilst I was naked and unaware. Disgusting. The spa receptionist had no respect for me, my husband, my body, my religion or my consent.

We called the hotel manager which we were told was not available till an hour later so we waited. During this time the spa receptionist continued to discuss the event with her colleagues, very loudly, and then berated the therapists in front of us even tho it was her fault and she LIED. The receptionist then lied to the hotel manager (probably to cover her own back) who said they could only offer us 50% off as they didn’t want this to happen to other clients, but they thought it was ok that this happened to us. The manager then stated 50% off was the best they could do as the actual manager will be back in another hour. So we were lied to again about when the hotel manager would be available… terrible. On a positive note the manager that handled us was very professional and I felt she was put into a tough situation as the spa receptionist had lied to her before we had a chance to tell her what happened.

As we were leaving that day we decided to take the 50% off and take it up with TUI when we got back. My husband then spoke to a TUI rep within the hotel about the situation who then agreed with us that this was unacceptable and we shouldn’t pay. Thank you to her for actually seeing sense about how outrageous that was.

My advice to the hotel is believe your customers, and beware of that spa receptionist. It was a terrible end to an...