After we finished touring Aït Benhaddou (Read: Our Journey towards Sahara Desert- First stop: Aït Benhaddou) we drove another few hours and end our night at Skoura. Our accommodation for the night was a boutique hotel called Espace Kasbah Amridil– 300 year old Kasbah! It was actually the filming location for a classic film called “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” back in 1944! Even though I have never seen the movie before, but I was very familiar with the tale from Arabian nights.
The owner helped us to wrap the scarves around our head.
Since we spent too much time at Aït Benhaddou, we only arrived at Kasbah Amridil right before sunset. The Kasbah was spilt into two sections, one section for the hotel and the other part for tourism. As we were the guests of the hotel, we were able to go into the Kasbah free of charge. However it was getting a bit dark and that section of Kasbah didn’t have lights, so we saved the walk for next morning. He also wrapped head scarves around our head to show us his hospitality. We immediately looked like Asian Moroccans blended in with the background (Read: What to wear in Morocco? A Guide for Female Travellers).
The Kasbah has been beautifully restored as you can see with the detailed carvings.
We were very impressed about how the young couple left city lifestyle to look after the family Kasbah. Spent so much effort to turn into a tourist attraction as well as high quality accommodation. Initially I was expecting Himalayan tea house standard, where you can only charge your electronics in a common area, however each room is an en-suite and equip with electricity cables. There were even Wi-Fi within the premises.
The room was very clean and spacious.
Despite everything is very modern here, you do need to tell the owner when you will take a shower, so he will send out a staff to boil the water for you. The water was quite hot with good pressure. The full price of the room is only US$55 which I thought was quite worth it.
From the balcony it looked just a film set from Universal Studios.
Since we were in middle of no where, the hotel provided us food. The wife of the owner prepared us the best tagine we had in Morocco! Even invited us to their kitchen and explained to us how tagines were made. We were very lucky being the only guests in the premises since we felt like VIPs. It was a fun night chatting away and learning about each other. The food in desert region is very different to coastal cities. We have no touched seafood since Essaouira, I guess it is a long way from the sea (Read more: Essaouira: Our Seafood Heaven in Morocco).
The most authentic tagine to date.
We had a very good sleep that night. The bed was comfortable and the room was clean. There were no television in room, which gave us a break from the technologies (although having a smart phone doesn’t help). The whole place was quiet and tranquil.
Some selfies using the self-timer on our camera on the balcony.
In the morning, we went and visited the Kasbah Amridil before breakfast. The owner opened the side door for us and let us in while he and his wife prepared the breakfast. It was a fun morning stroll while we explored the place at our own pace.
This cat must be one of the owner in this kasbah in its past life!
Even though it is a lot smaller than Aït Benhaddou, you can still tell this Kasbah was from a rich family with horse stables and well down stairs and multiple rooms at the top. Unfortunately due to high in maintenance most of the Kasbahs around the area had been abandoned.
The well on ground floor. Could imagine how rich this family used to be.
One of our favourite encounter in this Kasbah was the cat that kept following us! Morocco is nick-named “Kingdom of Cats” as there are way more cats and dogs, the locals would also feed and caress them as they were their own pet. This cat stopped at each location with us and doesn’t mind us taking photos of her. I read several reviews on Trip Advisor it seemed like people also found the cat very interesting.
York having fun role playing and the cat came along…
The best cat we have met to date!
Overall we loved our stay at Espace Kasbah Amridil. If you are on your way towards Sahara Desert and is staying at Skoura. Don’t miss this adorable place.
Espace Kasbah Amridil
A coté de la kasbah d’Amridil, ouled Yagoub, Skoura. 45502 – Sud Marocain.
Tel: +212 (0) 524 85 22 79
E.mail : kasbah_amridil@yahoo.com
Website: www.espaceamridil.com
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