Hotel Sbai Palace

The people and the property made this one of my new favorite hotels. It's in a great spot just outside town, near the dunes. We liked it so much that we came back after a night in the desert. The hotel is beautiful, clean, and comfortable. Our room had a huge heating and cooling unit as well as a fireplace, and the staff lit a fire for us. The beds were comfortable, the shower worked great, and we could see stars by the pool at night. The WiFi also worked seamlessly. They handled our whole trip from Marrakesh through Ouarzazate and M’Hamid to Erg Chigaga for a reasonable price. They were flexible about every change we needed and never pressured us. When a sandstorm came, we moved our camel ride and night in the luxury tents to another day. We then added an extra night at Hotel Sbai because we liked it so much. They made all of this easy. The food wasn't fancy, but we could tell them what we wanted and when we wanted dinner, and they made it happen. The fruit platter for dessert was delicious. Breakfast was a typical buffet, which I don't love, but they made eggs to order and the fresh-squeezed orange juice was the best. They took good care of us and tried to meet my food requests. I have uncommon food allergies, and when a misunderstanding in Arabic meant one dish wasn't right, they made me something new. The chicken tagine was a little more cooked than I prefer, but it was fresh and tasted like chicken. I think Morocco generally cooks chicken beyond American standards, but I suppose that makes it safe. We also hired a private 4x4 driver, Ayobe, who was wonderful and even drove all the way to Marrakech to pick us up. Highly recommend!

There was covered parking, a bar for evening drinks, good breakfast, and guided desert tours. We didn't use the pool. The WiFi wasn't working at first, but apparently an outage had affected the whole area. It is close to the desert, after all. We booked a desert trip at 1 p.m., then were told at 10:55 that we'd be setting off around 11. That made things more rushed than necessary, though the people were patient. We were grouped with another tourist party, which seemed fair enough.

The people were so friendly, the staff were wonderful, and the atmosphere was unforgettable. Experiencing the Sahara, with the desert, music, and stars, brought everything full circle. One of the best trips I've had, absolutely fantastic and highly recommendable!

The lodge and grounds are beautiful, and the people were very nice, but the place unfortunately wasn't for us. The loud music from 6 to 9 p.m. was hard to enjoy. We asked if they could turn it down, and they did, but only for five minutes before it got loud again. Dinner was dry, bland, and short on flavor, and it was probably the most expensive meal we had in two weeks. The activities they offered weren't clear about what was included and seemed extremely expensive compared with nearby options, so we had to cancel them. If those things don't matter to you, go for it.