Kasbah Hotel Xaluca Maadid - Erfoud, Morocco

Arriving in Erfoud in the evening, we headed straight for our hotel, Kasbah Hotel Xaluca Maadid. The posh boutique hotel is located at Route Arfoud à Errachidia km 5, Errachidia B.P. 205, Morocco, which is located just outside Erfoud (also spelled Arfoud). The entrance to the hotel includes the typical kasbah wall and gate style entrance. This hotel is geared toward tourists. They go out of their way to immerse visitors in a bit of local culture, to include live performances and traditional garments. The hotel almost has a circus feel with the arrival of guests.

There hotel has a resort style layout with a reception building leading to a central courtyard surrounded by several other buildings. The courtyard has a large pool area with the dining facility to the right, billeting beyond the pool and a bar and spa to the left. An indoor swimming pool, hot tub and fitness facilities are to the left, a bit beyond the guest rooms. The hotel offers an oasis atmosphere that really set the tone for our visit to the desert. The room was, in one word, amazing. It captured the essence and atmosphere of Morocco. The room was luxurious. My explanation can only really be captured with photos. The proverbial thousand words.

To appreciate this room, you have to appreciate the details. The large sink and countertop are both made of fossilized stone. The fossils, estimated to be 500 million years old, are embedded in the sink and countertop. The large fossils in the countertop are even contoured to show the full shape of the fossil (as you can see if you look back two photos at the side view of the sink area).

This is a large hotel. However, it only has 144 rooms. The rooms are spacious and the hotel grounds are a bit spread out. The dining room is large enough to accommodate several large groups at the same time. Dinner and breakfast was included with out stay. They are served buffet style in the large dining facility. Drinks (other than coffee and juice) are not included, so expect to pay extra for water, soda or beer. Below are some photos of the dining facility.

The pool area in the middle of the hotel grounds has a lush, tropical feel. It is also kind of odd, with carpets laid out throughout the outdoor area and into the exposed areas of the guest rooms as well. It gives the area an opulent feel, but also seems a bit out-of-place. I can't imagine what it costs to maintain/replace those rugs. Enjoy some more photos of the common areas of the hotel.

Off the hotel lobby is a small gift shop. Hotel gift shops are often way overpriced. I found this hotel gift shop to be very reasonable. As cheap as a gift shop one might find in the medina. The gift shop has a variety of scarves, postcards, fossils and more. The fossils are mined at a nearby quarry and are reasonably priced just about everywhere in this part of Morocco. If you wait to purchase fossils elsewhere, you are going to pay more. As I found out. I purchased several fossilized gifts while I was in Erfoud, but wanted to buy a few more when we got to Marrakesh. The price difference was more than double. I ended up purchasing several postcards at the gift shop as they were the cheapest I found in Morocco. For an upscale hotel, that is saying a lot.

The staff at the Kasbah Hotel Xaluca Maadid were friendly and helpful. In the dining room, they ensured you had a drink with your meal, if needed. The front desk staff were friendly. The cultural performers seemed to genuinely enjoy interacting with guests. Overall, the hotel has great customer service to go along with the luxurious atmosphere. One might guess this hotel would run hundreds of dollars per night. We booked as part of a tour, so we didn't pay specifically for any of our hotels. It was a package deal. But according to Hotels.com, among others, this hotel is less than one hundred dollars per night. That would be money well spent.

If I were booking my own hotels for a trip to Morocco, this is definitely the hotel I would book near Erfoud. While I can't say that about all of the hotels we stayed at in Morocco, this one stands apart. It was our favorite hotel. If only the wifi worked in the guest rooms (something we experienced at all the hotels in Morocco), this would have been flawless. The wifi is a minor point. Overall, this hotel delivered in every area a guest could expect.

All photos are my own. They may be reproduced with prior permission.

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