Skip this Place
- October 20, 2008
- Rated 1 of 5 by
markskinner from sydney, Australia
We have just returned from 3 amazing weeks in Morocco where the locals and the owners of the riads we stayed at, were friendly and charming - except for the Riad al Bartal.
The greeting was distinctly formal and the owner spoke not a word to us the whole time. In all other riads the owners would assist you, ask how your day had been and give useful advice. Not there! Physically, the central courtyard is permanently covered with a rather cheap plastic cover and so no light ever gets in. It was very very quiet and a bit tomb like and overall not all that clean – one wonders if the proprietors had recently visited the bathroom in our suite?
Some of the staff tried but there were different faces every day (unlike better riads) and so there was no one you could easily ask for help. But it was really the lack of hospitality that stuck out.
My feeling was that if you were not French you were not noticed – the only time in Morocco I got that feeling.
Not really sure who it might suit - it’s too expensive for a backpacker looking for a night up scale and (as we discovered) there are other more attractive and welcoming places in Fez for those prepared to pay the price. I would skip this place.