Riu Tikida Garden – Marrakech, Morocco

Riu Tikida Garden –  Marrakech, Morocco

The Riu Tikida Garden, a 4* hotel, sits at the southern end of the city’s Palmeraie region. The Palmeraie itself is home to the movers and shakers of Marrakech, calling the vast palm grove their home. Most of the luxury hotel complexes sit in this area.

A mere 20 minutes from the airport, you are transported to an oasis of calm amongst the hubub and bustle of the Medina.

You can read our review of another RIU hotel in Marrakech HERE

The Riu Tikida Garden is a compact complex with rooms in 3 major blocks, close to all the main amenities such as bars, restaurants and pool. We liked the proximity of everything on site as 45 degree heat doesn’t make you feel like walking a mile and a half from your room to go and get breakfast!

RIU Tikida Garden Hotel 2

The rooms are all modern with an abundance of both living space and usable storage space. The rooms come with their own mini fridge to keep your water chilled and hot drinking making facilities are available for a surcharge. Each room has its own private terrace or balcony making it a nice place to retreat to with an icy cold drink after a long day of exploring the Medina or topping up your tan.

RIU Tikida Garden Hotel

The pool restaurant terrace

The pool is the focal point of the hotel grounds and can become a little crowded with everyone vying for those all important front row seats. My tip is to find a bed in the back, the garden area is beautifully tended, it is a lot quieter and still a 2 second walk to the pool. You have a little more space around the beds and you’ll not get drenched from over enthusiastic aqua aerobics!

RIU Tikida Garden Hotel

The sunbeds in the gardens

RIU Tikida Garden Hotel 6

Speaking of aerobics, the entertainment staff at the Riu Tikida Garden work their behinds off. Morning, noon or night they are there with a huge smile on their face and a friendly hello. The hotel has it’s own kids club to take care of the little ones while the adults can join in with the pool games, the sports or even the more educational activities such as Tagine cooking displays and Arabic writing lessons. The nightly entertainment varies from so-bad-it-becomes-AMAZING variety show to the authentic African musicians and dancers that also perform.

RIU Tikida Garden Hotel

The Moroccan themed restaurant

If the entertainment isn’t your bag, there are 3 bars and 3 restaurants to choose from. The main restaurant serves a variety of dishes from traditional Moroccan to a more universally accepted chips! The hotel has a speciality Moroccan restaurant on site which is absolutely divine. From the impeccable service to the authentic food (Sheeps brains – yum?), it makes dining a much slower experience.

RIU Tikida Garden Hotel

RIU Tikida Garden Hotel 8

The main bar

The Riu Tikida Garden also has it’s own spa facilities, a nice perimeter walk through the gardens and the best bit – a free shuttle bus in to the New Town in Marrakech. From there it is a mere 20-30 minute wander in to the city walls and the history abound.

We have stayed at other RIU properties and other locations across Marrakech and we couldn’t fault the Tikida Garden. If we were really nitpicking, the pool is crowded – so what, do you really need to be 6″ away from the pool?

We travelled courtesy of Thomson Holidays to the Tikida Garden on an all inclusive package.

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