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Riad Hadika Maria: Traveler Reviews

3.0 of 5
40 derb Zemrane | Hart Soura - Médina, Marrakech 40000, Morocco
Hotel amenities
Riad Hadika Maria
Ranked #652 of 976 Marrakech B&B and Inns
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80 reviews from our community

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Northallerton
Senior Reviewer
7 reviews 7 reviews
6 hotel reviews
Reviews in 7 cities Reviews in 7 cities
3 helpful votes 3 helpful votes
“Horrible”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed April 27, 2012

Horrible experience, after walking a terrible , scary area of Marrakech for around an hour we had to pay a guy to show us where it was ( before arguing about payment, we gave him 40 dihrams), there was no answer after knocking for 20 minutes so he took us back to wait nervously in his street stall while he made a phone call. We went back there again to wait another 20 minutes for her to turn up ( after paying an extra 20 dihrams) She then searched for 10 minutes to find our reservation. After finding our room we were to scared to head out and find dinner so we stayed in hungry, exhausted and scared until the next morning. Never ever go here. Also the arguments in French around the courtyard in the morning by the staff weren't helpful. On the other hand the Riad is very nice and relaxing inside.

  • Stayed April 2012, traveled as a couple
    • 3 of 5 stars Value
    • 1 of 5 stars Location
    • 3 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 4 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 5 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
Was this review helpful? Yes 1
Ask Tim M about Riad Hadika Maria
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Cardiff, United Kingdom
Senior Reviewer
6 reviews 6 reviews
4 hotel reviews
Reviews in 6 cities Reviews in 6 cities
11 helpful votes 11 helpful votes
“Basic Accomodation Amidst a Dangerous Maze”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed March 13, 2012

My partner and I have just returned from a five-day trip to Morocco, the first two-nights of which were spent in the Riad Hadika Maria.

To start with the positives, the rooms are relatively clean, and the rooftop terrace is a relaxing place to have breakfast. The breakfast itself is adequate - croissant, crepe, coffee, jam and honey. When I stayed there was wi-fi access with no PIN required; not sure if this was actually there for residents' use though, so I wouldn't rely on it.

Now on to the negatives.

Firstly, there is no hot water. I showered in ice cold water and my partner didn't wash at all. She is quite fragrant, fortunately.

Secondly, none of the doors have locks on the outside. There is a sliding bolt on the inside so you can lock the door whilst you sleep, but you cannot lock the door when you leave for the day unless you have had the foresight to take your own padlock. I did ask the owner if I could borrow a padlock but it never materialised. Consequently we had to take all our valuables with us when wandering around the medina, which only added to our anxiety.

Thirdly, the pool is too small to swim in - not really a massive negative, but I thought I'd mention it in case a keen swimmer chose this place on the basis of the pool.

Finally, and this is a much bigger negative than it may sound (were it not for this factor I would have given it a "3") this place is almost impossible to find. It is located in the middle of 6,000 virtually identical, featureless alleyways with hardly any signposts or landmarks. It is, quite literally, a maze. It took us 2-3 hours of desperate wandering to find our way home each time. The alleys are teeming with quite threatening young men who will pester you and follow you relentlessly in an effort to profit from your misfortune. At first, we naively accepted help from a man who seemed genuinely eager to help us find our way. It ended up quite ugly though when he started demanding (quite a lot of) money and rejecting what I tried to give him (which was all I had at that point). You have to very quickly develop a stern, no-nonsense demeanour and bark "NO THANKS", or "LA CHOUKRAN" several times a minute in order to fend off the constant assaults from moneygrabbing locals.


The owners will provide you with a basic hand-drawn map to help you find your way home, but it is pretty useless. I am quite well-travelled and usually unfazed by being pestered, but the intensity and aggression of the harassment in this area was something else. Me and my partner were left quite exhausted by the time we did manage to get home each time. At one point she became really upset as it looked like we would either be out all night or have to enlist the help of a dodgy teenager who would most likely rip us off and/or threaten us.

It baffles me how a place can sell itself as a tourist destination and yet be this un-user-friendly. A few signposts, some decent maps, some street names, the odd policeman, anything would help make this place less of a nightmare. Yes, it might sound cool to "lose yourself in a labyrinth of patchouli-scented souks amidst a multitude of Berber arts and crafts" but really it's not like that. It's more like endless, desperate gauntlet-running between thousands of unctuous predators bent on abusing you. I am convinced I now know what hell feels like. It is unfortunate that the Riad Hadika Maria is situated right in the middle of all this, as otherwise it is a passable place to stay.

All in all, our stay in Riad Hadika Maria left us with a very bad impression of Marrakech, and we were glad to escape. Not that Agadir was much better - just easier to navigate home amidst the obnoxious salesmen.

Room Tip: We stayed in the Sherazade, which has a bath with a shower head that you can use if you squat and ho...
See more room tips
  • Stayed March 2012, traveled as a couple
    • 2 of 5 stars Value
    • 1 of 5 stars Location
    • 5 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 3 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 4 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 2 of 5 stars Service
Was this review helpful? Yes 2
Ask plappyflugilips about Riad Hadika Maria
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

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Senior Reviewer
7 reviews 7 reviews
4 hotel reviews
Reviews in 6 cities Reviews in 6 cities
4 helpful votes 4 helpful votes
“The trouble it takes to find this place is not worth it...”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed March 3, 2012

I feel bad for giving a bad review but when it comes down to value and safety, there are many other riads to go for. Here's my take when I went Feb 2012.

Pros:
Abdullah the guy working there is really nice. Doesn't speak a lick of English, so brush up on your French or charades skills

Cons:
So hard to find and I mean really hard to find. Problem with that is, if you arrive at night the taxi will drop you off about 3-5 minutes walk away. This part of the medina is difficult to navigate through even in day time and even more difficult if this is your first time to Marrakech. after getting lost and often down dark and scary alleys, I had no choice but to get help from one of the locals which was a huge mistake because they act all friendly to you (generally Moroccans are very nice) and when I tried to negotiate the cost up front they told me no problem, it's okay. Of course, after I was brought to the riad these kids (both around late teens) asked for 200d each (aka ~40 euros). You can imagine the shock. after some discussions they threaten to slash my face and made other threats if I didn't pay 400d. In the end we settled on 150d total (aka 12 euros) but that just left a bad taste in my mouth for my first experience of marrakech. if you think about it, that 12 euros could have upgraded me to a much nicer riad and I wouldn't have had to endure the threats and lost an hour of my time. so lesson learned there is sometimes trying to save some money isn't worth it especially if your life is threatened.

other cons: no toiletries, no wi-fi, no service.

the only reason why i'm not giving it a 1 star is because of Abdullah. after my run in with the punks, Abdullah did walk with me through the medina to get food and water. And the next day he guided me to Jemma El Fna at 7:30am to meet my Sahara tour which was really nice of him.

But like I said, it wasn't worth risking my life to save a few euros. And I felt as a staff he could have protected the interest of his guests. He was just standing there quietly the whole time while I negotiated my way out of a jam.

In case you don't believe me and you still decide to check in to this riad, just know if a kid name Moustafa comes up to you, you better walk the other way.

  • Stayed February 2012, traveled solo
    • 1 of 5 stars Value
    • 1 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 1 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
Was this review helpful? Yes 3
Ask Bayou4444 about Riad Hadika Maria
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Palau, Italy
Senior Contributor
35 reviews 35 reviews
35 hotel reviews
Reviews in 32 cities Reviews in 32 cities
18 helpful votes 18 helpful votes
“Good but really hard to find!”
4 of 5 stars Reviewed December 1, 2011 via mobile

It's nice Riad, with a little swimming pool in the garden.
Nice rooms, mine was at the ground level, relax area and a terrace where breakfast is served. Free wifi.

Overall it's a good Riad but it takes about 15-20 min walking to get the main square jama el fna.
To get to the square you have to walk through the very narrow streets of Medina and it can be easy to get lost!! Same problem to find the Riad. Any possibility by ourself first times!!!! So, if you want a place to sleep easy to find, go close to the main square. If you want to know an area of the Medina and see al the suk area, staying in a real morocco's Riad, that's the right place.
Riad area was safe, at night as well.

  • Stayed December 2011
    • 4 of 5 stars Value
    • 4 of 5 stars Location
    • 4 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 4 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 3 of 5 stars Service
Was this review helpful? Yes 2
Ask robert71 about Riad Hadika Maria
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Turku, Finland
Senior Reviewer
7 reviews 7 reviews
7 hotel reviews
Reviews in 6 cities Reviews in 6 cities
18 helpful votes 18 helpful votes
“Situated in a terrible place”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed December 1, 2011

We were staying one night in this poor hotel. It's situated outside of bazaar area. You need to walk loooong way very small roads to reach the hotel. Taxi can't drive those small streets so you need to walk. We broke one wheel from our bag while walking those long bumpy streets. This hotel suits well for backpack travellers but don't go there if you have luggage on wheels.

There is no restaurants nearby. The small streets are like labyrinth with bad lightning. I would advice you to stay indoors when dark comes. We almost got robbed by drug addicts on those streets. It's not safe place at all.

Our room (suite) was quite ok, nicely decorated, but it had unbelievable cold floors and no possibility to lock the door even. Also there was around 5-10 cm holes around the door... so all heated air was escaping from the room. This hotel is situated in very tall stone houses close each others, so rooms are very cold (feels like in some cold cold cold castle).

NEVER AGAIN in this rat hole. Im glad we survived alive from there!

  • Stayed November 2011, traveled as a couple
    • 1 of 5 stars Value
    • 1 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 3 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 3 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
Was this review helpful? Yes 2
Ask Emsku01 about Riad Hadika Maria
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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Additional Information about Riad Hadika Maria

Also Known As:
Riad Hadika Maria Hotel
Riad Hadika Maria Hotel Marrakech
Address: 40 derb Zemrane | Hart Soura - Médina, Marrakech 40000, Morocco
Region: Morocco > Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz Region > Marrakech
Amenities:
Free Breakfast Free High-Speed Internet Restaurant Suites Swimming Pool
Hotel Style:
Ranked #652 of 976 B&Bs / Inns in Marrakech
Price Range: $
Hotel Class:3 star (3*)
Official Description (provided by the hotel):
The riad Hadika Maria has 8 rooms around two patios, the one with fountain, the other one with swimming pool. The charm of this riad is characterized by its decoration traditional Moroccan and its numerous trees and plants.Situated in a family and quiet street of the Medina, you will be woken by the birdsong in the morning!!! The Moroccan traditional breakfasts are served on terraces brightened up for winter periods or at the cool at the edge of the swimming pool for warmer periods.The riad has a service snack bar at any time but you can also taste earthenware cooking pots and others couscous, made by Halima our cooker who fetches fresh products to the market every morning. The meals in private can be served to the lounge in front of the fireplace. You will find on the spot a service of shuttle airport or station, a massage room, an office of excursion, board games or coloured pencils for the children and books. ... more   less 
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