Hotel Details
Dar Azawad
| Region: | Beyond Atlas to the Desert |
| Location: | Zagora |
| Season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accomodation Type | Low | Mid | High | |
| Standard Rooms |
Double or twin beds (can take extra beds) en-suite facilities, heating and air-conditioning
|
n/a | 120-140 € | n/a |
| Suites |
Double bed with two sofa-beds (sitting area), en-suite facilities, air-conditioning
|
n/a | 190-380 € | n/a |
| Please note: All prices are per room per night | ||||
Check Availability
Facilities
Swimming pool
Air-conditioning
Spa on site
Sunbathing area
Internet connection
Disabled friendly
Vegetarian food
Smoking
Child-friendly
Bar and drinks
In-house restaurant
OtherDescription
Dar Azawad is located to the south of Zagora, on the edge of the Sahara desert, its rural location providing an ideal setting for travellers wishing to explore Morocco’s largest sand dunes by jeep or camel.
The hotel has a varied choice of guestrooms ranging from camel-hair tented mud huts, standard rooms with double or twin beds to three spacious suites, arranged between palm-trees and flower gardens. In all Azawad’s accommodation, rooms are decorated in a nomadic style. The tented huts are brightly furnished and provide an authentically back-to-basics stay (communal washroom and no air-conditioning). On the other hand, the standard rooms and particularly the suites are decorated in a more indulgent manner whilst still conveying its rural setting. Both standard and suites allow greater space and benefit from Western comforts such as air-conditioning and en-suite facilities with showers, fashioned in Moroccan Tadlekt lime tiling.
With his French training and experience working in Saudi hotels, the restaurant’s head chef is able to rustle up imaginative, high quality breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Whilst breakfast and dinner are included in the price, lunch is available upon demand and is usually a light dish. The restaurant can cater for vegetarians and guests with dietary requests and meals are either served inside Dar Azawad’s ample and romantically lit restaurant, or outside in the poolside pavilions.
The pool is of a good size for guests wishing to swim or relax in. Around the pool sun-beds allow guests to sunbathe, whilst seating under trellis structures provides shade. Dar Azawad also provides a sitting room with various books and magazines, which guests are welcome to use.
With a ten minute walk away guests can find a ksar, a fortified mud hamlet. As well as its indisputable authenticity, the small folk museum offers a history of the area. Guests may also take camel rides towards the smaller sand dunes and surrounding hamlets. Souks in M'hamid, Zagora and Tagounite are accessible via a short drive and offer a range of Moroccan hand-made craft products. It is may also be of interest to guests that Dar Azawad includes a small boutique, selling traditional fabrics, rugs and wood carvings. If guests wish to explore deeper into the desert for the larger sand dunes, Dar Azawad can arrange a jeep and driver for an overnight excursion.
Where is it?
If travelling from Marrakech by hire-car, Dar Azawad is a 7-8 hour journey in total along the Nationale N9 to Zagora (320km) and a further 70km to the desert town of M'hamid. A shorter journey involves flying into Ouarzazate airport and driving the 4 hour journey (220km) to M'hamid. Detailed directions are available upon booking.
Travel Times
| Airport | 4 hours from Ouarzazate |
| City | 10 minute walk to M'hamid village |
| Beach | n/a |
Other useful information
Dar Azawad offers the full range of desert activities including quad-biking, camel trekking and 4x4 excursions (single or multi-day). Full details are available upon enquiry.
For guests looking for a deeper experience of the desert, the htoel offer a range of overnight desert camps such as the 'bivouac les hommes bleus', 'bivouac saharan dreams' and the luxurious 'biviouac le sand'. Prices and details of activities are available upon enquiry.
All transportation to and from Marrakech, Ouarzazate and Zagora can be arranged by the hotel.
The hotel scores are aggregated individual user scores which have been audited as authentic and accurate through due enquiry by Morocco Gateway.
Morocco Gateway reserves the right to exclude any reviews submitted by users which cannot be validated as authentic and accurate. Equally we will resist any request from any hotel to delist any negative review.
| Condition of rooms and the hotel | 7.7 | Food and drink | 7.3 | |
| Overall cleanliness | 7.7 | Relaxation | 8.3 | |
| Pool and facilities | 7.7 | Value for money | 7.0 | |
| Quality of staff | 8.3 | Overall rating | 7.7 | |
| out of 10 | out of 10 | |||
User Reviews on Dar Azawad
Below you'll find reviews written by our users, that have stayed in this hotel. The reviews are vetted and verified by us and may have been summarised by our editor to give you a meaningful summary.
The Editor's Summary
The hotel has been described in a positive light by recent guests. The rooms have been called “perfectly clean” and the staff “incredibly friendly” in their welcoming of young children. Azawad provides all meals in their restaurant and guests have been “impressed with the cuisine”. Azawad has helped recent guests to plan local activities and book excursions. Although in one case the excursion was a “disappointment”, others have been encouraging such as the local “camel rides”. 
Despite its rural situation the hotel is gorgeous. The rooms, restaurant were perfectly clean and the service was brilliant. Though the food was not exciting, we ate well here and would recommend it – you haven’t got much of a choice anyway! Our stay was going really well until we decided to take up the offer of a desert trip. We felt the hotel offered good value for money, and to be honest, the excursion- driver, car and camp were a disappointment. It seemed over-price and although it didn’t ruin the trip, I would advise using a different company than Azawad’s. Overall though, we had a great time here.
| Condition of rooms and the hotel | 7.0 | Food and drink | 6.0 | |
| Overall cleanliness | 8.0 | Relaxation | 8.0 | |
| Pool and facilities | 8.0 | Value for money | 7.0 | |
| Quality of staff | 8.0 | Overall rating | 7.4 | |
| out of 10 | out of 10 | |||
My husband, daughter and I stayed here in spring for three nights. My husband and I had experienced city-life in morocco before, staying in Marrakesh a few years previously so we wanted something entirely different this time. We were concerned our daughter (11) would find the location of the hotel too quiet, or worse, the hotel wouldn’t suit her but the staff were incredibly friendly. As well as the pool, the resident donkey was a bonus for her! Azawad helped us arrange a few local trips which kept us all entertained too. I’d encourage potential guests to take a camel ride and check out those sand-dunes!
| Condition of rooms and the hotel | 8.0 | Food and drink | 7.0 | |
| Overall cleanliness | 8.0 | Relaxation | 8.0 | |
| Pool and facilities | 8.0 | Value for money | 7.0 | |
| Quality of staff | 9.0 | Overall rating | 7.9 | |
| out of 10 | out of 10 | |||
We thought this hotel was spot on. We enjoyed the room we booked and felt looked after by the staff. As we only had a couple of days we decided not to take an excursion but stayed close-ish to the hotel. We were impressed with the cuisine Azawad served up night after night and the breakfasts, which were a joy to wake up to. I think I definitely left with an extra few pounds! Generally a great place to stay to get away from it all, I highly recommend it.
| Condition of rooms and the hotel | 8.0 | Food and drink | 9.0 | |
| Overall cleanliness | 7.0 | Relaxation | 9.0 | |
| Pool and facilities | 7.0 | Value for money | 7.0 | |
| Quality of staff | 8.0 | Overall rating | 7.9 | |
| out of 10 | out of 10 | |||
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